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The History Channel - Encyclopedia Category: History and Culture > History Date & country: 02/12/2007, UK Words: 25833

Sun worship
Ancient practice of paying homage to the Sun for its power over life and death. The megalithic religions seem to have centred upon the Sun, which was worshipped throughout the Middle East. In the...

Sun Yat-sen
Wade-Giles transliteration of Sun Zhong Shan. ...

Sun Zhong Shan (or Sun Yat-sen)
(1867-1925) Chinese revolutionary leader. He founded the Hsin Chung Hui (`New China Party`) in 1894, one of the political groups that merged to form the Kuomintang (Guomindang, nationalist party) in 1912...

Sundanese
The second-largest ethnic group in the Republic of Indonesia. There are more than 20 million speakers of Sundanese, a member of the western branch of the Austronesian family. Like their...

Sunday
First day of the week; in Christianity, Sunday is a holy day, set aside for worship in commemoration of Jesus' resurrection. In predominantly Christian societies banks, offices, and many shops are...

Sunday school
Christian education movement founded in 1780 by Robert Raikes (1735-1811). Raikes set up a school in Gloucester to teach working children the elements of Christianity and basic literacy and...

Sunday Telegraph, The
British Sunday newspaper, founded in 1961 under the same ownership as the Daily Telegraph, but with a largely different editorial staff. Its circulation in 1998 was over 800,000. ...

Sunday Times, The
British Sunday newspaper, founded in 1822. The paper is noted for the quality of its literary, dramatic, and musical criticism, as well as for its articles on world affairs, politics, art, economics...

Sunday trading
Buying and selling on Sunday; this was banned in the UK by the Shops Act 1950, but the ban may have been in breach of Article 30 of the Treaty of Rome as amounting to an unlawful restraint on the...

Sunday, Billy
(1862-1935) US Protestant evangelist. His fabulously successful career as an evangelist began in 1896. A flamboyant fundamentalist, his denunciations of science, alcohol, and political liberalism attracted an...

Sung dynasty
Chinese imperial family 960-1279; see Song dynasty. ...

Sunna
Muslim code of practice; a body of traditional law based on the sayings, actions, and guidance of the prophet Muhammad, as detailed in the Hadith and the Sirah (a biography of the prophet's life)....

Sunni
Member of the larger of the two main sects of Islam, with about 680 million adherents. Sunni Muslims...

Sunningdale Agreement
Pact of December 1973 between the UK and Irish governments, together with the Northern Ireland executive, drawn up in Sunningdale, England. The agreement included provisions for a power-sharing...

Sununu, John H(enry)
(1939) US engineer and Republican governor., He formed J H S Engineering Co. 1965-82, and taught at Tufts 1966-82. As governor of New Hampshire 1983-89, he opposed taxes, recruited new businesses,...

Sunzi
(lived c. 500 BC) Chinese military strategist and general. Sunzi is reputed to be the author of the Chinese classic work The Art of War (Ping Fa), the earliest known treatise on war and military science. In analysing...

Suomussalmi, Battle of
Victory of the Finnish army over Soviet invaders in the Winter War December 1939 in northeastern Finland. The battle lasted three weeks in temperatures as low as âˆ`40°C. Although greatly...

Superman
The first comic-strip superhero, created 1938 in the USA by writer Jerome Siegel and artist Joseph ...

Supermarine
British aircraft company famous for the Supermarine Spitfire fighter aircraft of World War II. ...

superpower
State that through disproportionate military or economic strength can dominate smaller nations. The term was used to describe the USA and the USSR from the end of World War II, when they emerged as...

superrealism
Art that is extremely similar in visual appearance to the subject. Superrealism was very popular in the USA during the 1970s with artists such as Duane Hanson. In painting, images are often direct,...

superstition
Popular belief, concerned with (usually) bad luck, often about the evil consequences of apparently trivial actions. Superstitions may arise in cultures where there is or has been a strong ritual...

Suppes, Patrick
(1922) US philosopher and educator. He joined the Stanford University faculty in 1950; in 1959 he became director of Stanford's Institute for Mathematical Studies in...

supplementary benefit
In Britain, former name (1966-88) for income support; weekly social security payments by the state to those with low incomes. The payments were called national assistance 1948-66 in Britain and...

supply
In economics, the production of goods or services for a market in anticipation of an expected demand. The level...

supply and demand
One of the fundamental approaches to economics, which examines and compares the supply of a good with its demand (usually in the form of a graph of supply and demand curves plotted against price)....

supply curve
Diagrammatic illustration of the relationship between the price of the good and the quantity that producers will supply at that price. It is said to be upward-sloping because...

supply tank
Armoured vehicle used during World War I to carry ammunition, rations, water, and similar vital necessities to forward troops during an attack. Usually a battle tank without guns, but the British...

supply-side economics
School of economic thought advocating government policies that allow market forces to operate freely, such as privatization, cuts in public spending and income tax, reductions in trade-union...

Supremacy, Acts of
Two UK acts of Parliament 1534 and 1559, which established Henry VIII and Elizabeth I respectively as head of the English church in place of the pope. ...

suprematism
Russian abstract art movement launched in St Petersburg in 1915 by Kasimir Malevich, who was virtually its only member. It was the most radical abstract art movement up to this date; suprematist...

Supreme Court
Highest US judicial tribunal, composed since 1869 of a chief justice and eight associate justices. Appointments are made for life by the president, with the advice and consent of the Senate, and...

sura
A subdivision or chapter of the Islamic scripture the Koran (or Qur'an). In total there are 114 suwar in the Koran, divided further into 6,666 verses. Sura Fatiha, a prayer asking Allah for...

Surcouf, Robert
(1773-1827) French corsair. He joined the French merchant navy in 1789 and set up base in Port Louis, Mauritius, from which he raided enemy commerce in the Indian Ocean. He secured numerous captures from...

Sûreté
The criminal investigation department of the French police. ...

surface survey
The examination of the surface of the earth for archaeological sites. Surveys can be carried out unsystematically, involving field walking in areas where the archaeologists feel sites will be found,...

surgery
Branch of medicine concerned with the treatment of disease, abnormality, or injury by operation. Traditionally it has been performed by means of cutting instruments, but today a number of...

Suriname
Country on the north coast of South America, bounded west by French Guiana, south by Brazil, east by Guyana, and north by the Atlantic Ocean. Government The 1987 constitution provides for a...

Surratt, Mary Eugenia
(1817-1865) US alleged assassination conspirators. John Wilkes Booth allegedly plotted the assassination of President Lincoln at her boarding house in Washington, DC; her young son John Harrison, Jr...

surrealism
Movement in art, literature, and film that developed out of Dada around 1922. Led by AndréBreton, who produced the Surrealist Manifesto (1924), the surrealists were inspired by the thoughts and...

surrender and regrant
In Irish history, term used to summarize the Tudor diplomatic process whereby Gaelic lords were to be assimilated into English political and social culture without significant loss of power or...

Surrender of Breda, The
Painting by the Spanish artist Diego Velázquez 1634-35 (Prado, Madrid). It was painted for the Buen Retiro Palace, Madrid, as one of a series of `victory pictures`. It shows the surrender...

Surtees, R(obert) S(mith)
(1805-1864) English novelist. He created Jorrocks, a sporting grocer, and in 1838 published Jorrocks's Jaunts and Jollities. He excels in the satirical observation of characters and situations from rural...

Survival International
Organization formed in 1969 to support tribal peoples and their right to decide their own future, and to help them protect their lands, environment, and way of life. It operates in more than 60...

Susa
Ancient city that stood on the site of modern Sh?shtar, at the foot of the Zagros mountains in Iran. In the Bible it was referred to as Shushan (`city of lilies`). It was the capital of the...

Susano-Wo
In Japanese mythology, god of the winds and the sea, son of Izanagi, and bro ...

Susquehannock
Member of an American Indian people who lived on Chesapeake Bay and along the Susquehanna River in Pennsylvania, Maryland, and New York by the 1600s. They spoke an Iroquoian dialect, similar to that...

Sutcliff, Rosemary
(1920-1992) English historical novelist. She wrote for both adults and children, and her books include The Eagle of the Ninth (1954), Tristan and Iseult (1971), and The Road to Camlann (1981). Her settings...

Sutcliffe, Peter
(1946) British murderer of at least 13 women, mostly prostitutes, in northern England between 1975 and 1981. He was known as `the Yorkshire Ripper`. He was given a life sentence with a recommended...

Sutherland, Edwin Hardin
(1883-1950) US sociologist and criminologist. His textbook, Criminology (1924), became a standard. It set out the multiple factors known to be associated with crime and criminality and argued that criminal...

Sutherland, George
(1862-1942) English-born US Supreme Court justice who went to the USA at age two. A Republican, he served in the US House of Representatives for Utah; 1901-03, and the Senate 1905-17. President Harding...

Sutherland, Graham Vivian
(1903-1980) English painter, graphic artist, and designer. He was active mainly in France from the 1940s. A leading figure of the neo-Romantic movement (1935-55), which revived the spirit of 19th-century...

suttee
Hindu custom whereby a widow committed suicide by joining her husband's funeral pyre, often under public and family pressure. Banned in the 17th century by the Mogul emperors, the custom continued...

Sutter, John Augustus
(1803-1880) Swiss colonist of California who went to the USA in 1834 and by 1839 had made his way to Mexican California. Following the discovery of gold on his property, gold-seekers and squatters took over...

Sutterman (or Sustermans), Justus
(1597-1681) Flemish painter of religious and historical subjects. He worked in Florence as court painter to the Medici grand dukes of Tuscany, and later in Rome, Genoa, Modena, Parma, and Piacenza. He also...

Sutton Hoo
Archaeological site in Suffolk, England, where in 1939 a Saxon ship burial was excavated. It may be the funeral monument of Raedwald, King of the East Angles, who died about 624 or 625. The...

Suvla Bay
Bay in Gallipoli, west of the Dardanelles; scene of fierce fighting between Turkish and British and Commonwealth troops during World War I. Four British divisions were landed here 6 August 1915 to...

Suvorov, Aleksandr Vasilyevich
(1729-1800) Russian field marshal, victorious against the Turks 1787-91, the Poles 1794, and the French army in Italy 1798-99 in the Revolutionary Wars. ...

Suzman, Helen Gavronsky
(1917) South African politician and human-rights activist. A university lecturer concerned about the inhumanity of the apartheid system, she joined the white opposition to the ruling National Party and...

Suzuki, D(aisetz) T(eitaro)
(1870-1966) Japanese scholar and follower of Zen Buddhism. His books in English first introduced Zen thought to the general public in the West. His works include Essays in Zen Buddhism 1927 (second series 1933)...

Suzuki, Harunobu
(1725-1770) Japanese artist. He was a leading exponent of ukiyo-e and one of the first printmakers to use colour effectively. His work displays a sure sense of composition and line and features domestic...

Sverdlov, Yakov Mikhailovich
(1885-1919) Russian politician. He joined the Russian Social Democratic Workers' party in 1901, and worked from 1902-17, as a professional revolutionary in the Bolshevik organizations, always strictly...

Sverdrup, Otto
(1855-1930) Norwegian explorer. He joined Fridtjof Nansen's expedition of 1888, which crossed the Greenland ice cap. In 1893 Nansen offered him command of the Fram, and...

Sverre
(1151-1202) King of Norway. He was a native of the Faeroe Islands. Sverre was proclaimed king in 1177, having been adopted as leader by the Birkebeinar. He was a military genius, and having defeated Magnus (who...

Svetambara
(`white-clad`) sect of Jain monks (see Jainism) who wear white loincloths, as opposed to the Digambaras sect, which believes that total nudity is correct for the Jain monk. ...

Svevo, Italo
(1861-1928) Italian novelist, encouraged by James Joyce. His work includes As a Man Grows Older (1898) and his comic masterpiece Confessions of Zeno (1923), one of the first novels to be...

Swabia
Historic region of southwestern Germany, an independent duchy in the Middle Ages. It includes Augsburg and Ulm and forms part of the Länder (states) of Baden-Württemberg, Bavaria, and Hessen. ...

Swadeshi movement
In India, a boycott of foreign-made goods orchestrated by Indian nationalists in response to the partition of Bengal 1905. Huge bonfires of imported cloth, especially Lancashire cotton, were lit...

Swahili
Language belonging to the Bantu branch of the Niger-Congo family, widely used in east and central Africa. Swahili originated on the East African coast as a lingua franca used among traders, and...

Swallows and Amazons
The first of a series of novels for children by English author Arthur Ransome, published in the UK from 1930-47. The novels describe the adventures of children on holiday, set in the English Lake...

swami
Title of respect for a Hindu teacher. ...

Swan, John William David
(1935) Bermudian centre-right politician, prime minister 1982-95. Leader of the liberal-conservative United Bermuda Party (UBP), he replaced David Gibbons as prime minister in 1982, and oversaw the...

Swann, Donald (Ibrahim)
(1923-1994) British composer, pianist, and entertainer. With his lyricist partner Michael Flanders, he created a series of witty revues 1956-67 with `Drop of a Hat`...

Swann, Thomas
(1809-1883) US businessman, governor, and representative. He owned a successful railroad business. He served as Union Party governor of Maryland 1866-69, supporting Reconstruction, but also worked to restore...

Swanscombe
Town in Kent, southeast England, between Dartford and Gravesend; population (2001) 6,400. There are chalk and cement works. In 1935 the `Swanscombe skull`, belonging to an early human, was...

Swanson, Claude (Augustus)
(1862-1939) US Republican representative. He represented Virginia in the US House of Representatives 1893-1905, where he championed free rural postal service. As governor of Virginia 1905-10, he advanced...

Swanton, John Reed
(1873-1958) US anthropologist and folklorist. He pioneered ethnohistorical research techniques while working for the Bureau of American Ethnology 1900-44. He published prolifically; among his most important...

SWAPO
Organization formed 1959 in South West Africa (now Namibia) to oppose South African rule. SWAPO guerrillas, led...

swastika
Cross in which the bars are extended at right angles in the same clockwise or anticlockwise direction. Its origin is uncertain, but it appears frequently as an ancient good luck and religious symbol...

Swayne, Noah Haynes
(1804-1884) US Supreme Court justice. He was practising law privately when President Lincoln nominated him to the US Supreme Court where he served eering department at Iowa State University in Ames in 1921. He...

Swazi
Member of the majority Bantu group of people in Swaziland. The Swazi are primarily engaged in cultivating and raising livestock, but many work in industries in South Africa. The Swazi language...

Swazi kingdom
South African kingdom, established by Sobhuza I (died 1839), and named after his successor Mswati (ruled 1840-68), who did much to unify the country. The kingdom was established by Sobhuza as a...

Swaziland
Country in southeast Africa, bounded east by Mozambique and southeast, south, west, and north by South Africa. Government Swaziland is a monarchy within the Commonwealth. Under the 1978...

Sweatt v. Painter
US Supreme Court decision of 1950 dealing with racial discrimination in publicly funded schools. Herman Sweatt, a black prospective law student, filed the suit against administrators of the...

Sweden
Country in northern Europe, bounded west by Norway, northeast by Finland and the Gulf of Bothnia, southeast by the Baltic Sea, and southwest by the Kattegat strait. Government Sweden is a...

Swedenborg, Emanuel
(1688-1772) Swedish mystic and scientist. In Divine Love and Wisdom (1763), he concluded that the Last Judgement had taken place in 1757, and that the New Church, of which he was the prophet, had now been...

Swedish architecture
Style of building in Sweden. Medieval The Romanesque cathedrals of Uppsala (brick) and Lund (stone) are from the 11th century. Gothic churches include Riddarholms church in Stockholm and the...

Swedish art
Painting and sculpture of Sweden. Although the main movements in European art have successively taken hold in Sweden, artists have repeatedly returned to a national tradition. 500 BC-11th century...

sweetness and light
Phrase popularized by the English writer Matthew Arnold in Culture and Anarchy 1869, where he advocated a combination of intellectual curiosity with beauty and grace. It was borrowed from Jonathan...

Sweetser, Arthur
(1888-1968) US diplomat. He was the USA's unofficial ambassador to the League of Nations 1919-39. He was deputy director of the Office of War Information 1942-45 and chairman of the United Nations...

Sweyn I
King of Denmark from about 986, nicknamed `Forkbeard`. He raided England, finally conquered it in 1013 to 1014, and styled himself king, but his early death led to the...

Sweynheym, Conrad
(died 1477) German cleric, who with Arnold Pannartz introduced the printing press into Italy. They set up their press in the Benedictine monastery at Subiaco, near...

Swift, Graham
(1949) English novelist. His first two novels, The Sweet-Shop Owner (1980) and Shuttlecock (1981), earned him a reputation as one of the most promising English novelists of his generation. He won wide...

Swift, Gustavus Franklin
(1839-1903) US meat packer. He revolutionized the meatpacking industry by shipping east dressed beef instead of live steer, from 1877. He later independently hired an engineer to invent a refrigerator car for...

Swift, Jonathan
(1667-1745) Irish satirist and Anglican cleric. His best-known work is Gulliver's Travels (1726), an allegory (symbolic story with meaning beyond its literal sense) describing travel to lands inhabited by...

Swift, Zephaniah
(1759-1823) American jurist and representative (1793-97). He opposed slavery and sat on the Connecticut Superior Court (1801-19), falling into disfavour after participating in the Hartford Convention (1814)...

Swinburne, Algernon Charles
(1837-1909) English poet. He attracted attention with the choruses of his Greek-style tragedy Atalanta in Calydon (1865), but he and Rossetti were attacked in 1871 as leaders of `the fleshly school of...

Swindells, Robert
(1939) English novelist. Swindells has written around 30 novels for children and young adults, one of his most widely read being Brother in the Land (1985). Favourite...

Swindler, Mary Hamilton
(1884-1967) US classical archaeologist. An authority on Crete and the Aegean world, she became a professor of classical archaeology in 1931. The first woman editor of the American Journal of Archaeology...

Swing Riots
Uprising of farm workers in southern and eastern England 1830-31. The riots were caused by a combination of factors, including social dislocation caused by the agrarian revolution, enclosure, the...