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

Talmadge, Edwards
(1747-1821) American glove manufacturer of English origin. He started his own tannery in Johnstown, New York, in 1783 and taught leather tanning to glovemakers. This began the glove and mitten industry in the...

Talmadge, Eugene
(1884-1946) US Democrat governor (1933-37, 1941-43, 1946). A states rights governor (1933-37), he attacked individuals and agencies opposed to him, and, with Huey Long, he led Southern opposition to...

Talmadge, Herman Eugene
(1913-2002) US Democrat governor and senator. A lawyer, he served as Georgia's governor 1947-55, increasing funding for schools, highways, and hospitals. In the Senate 1957-81, he opposed civil-rights...

Talman, William
(1650-1719) English architect. He was a contemporary of Christopher Wren, to whom he is often compared, although Wren's output was significantly more accomplished and prolific. Influenced by French and Italian...

Talmud
The two most important works of post-biblical Jewish literature. The Babylonian (Bavli) Talmud, compiled around AD 600, and the Jerusalem (Yerushalmi) Talmud, compiled around AD 500, provide a...

Talysh
Iranian-speaking people living on the southwest shore of the Caspian Sea, in Russia, Azerbaijan, and Iran. They are mostly cattle breeders and Sunni Muslims. In Azerbaijan most of the Talysh are...

Tamar
In the Old Testament, the sister of Absalom. She was raped by her half-brother Amnon, who was then killed by Absalom. ...

Tamayo, Rufino
(1899-1991) Mexican painter and printmaker. His work, nurtured by both European modernism and pre-Columbian indigenous art, demonstrates a clear break with the rhetoric and pictoralism of the preceding...

Tambo, Oliver
(1917-1993) South African nationalist politician, in exile 1960-90, president of the African National Congress (ANC) 1977-91. Because of poor health, he was given the honorary post of national chair in July...

Tamil
The majority ethnic group living in the Indian state of Tamil Nadu (formerly Madras). Tamils also live in southern India, northern Sri Lanka, Malaysia, Singapore, and South Africa, totalling 35-55...

Tamil Hinduism
Traditional form of Hinduism found in southern India, particularly in Tamil Nadu, where the invasions and political upheavals of northern India had little influence. The important centres of Tamil...

Tamil Tigers
Tamil separatist guerrilla movement based in northen Sri Lanka with a stronghold in the Jaffna peninsula. It was formed by Velupillai Prabhakaran in 1975. The movement's civil war against the...

Taming of the Shrew, The
Comedy by William Shakespeare, first performed 1593-94. Bianca, who has many suitors, must not marry until her elder sister Katherina (the shrew) has done so. Petruchio agrees to woo Katherina so...

Tammany
(c. 1625-c. 1701) Delaware chief. According to legend, he welcomed William Penn...

Tammany Hall
Democratic Party organization in New York. It originated in 1789 as the Society of St Tammany, named after the building in which they met. It was dominant from 1800 until the 1930s and gained a...

Tammuz
In Sumerian mythology, a vegetation god representing the decay and growth of natural life; he died at midsummer and was rescued from the underworld the following spring by his lover Ishtar. His cult...

Tamworth Manifesto
Sir Robert Peel's election address 1834 to his constituents in Tamworth. It was adopted as a blueprint for Tory party philosophy, and is often considered to mark the point at which the Tory party...

Tan Malaka, Ibrahim Datuk
(1894-1949) Indonesian Communist leader. In 1927 he organized the Indonesian Republic Party in an attempt to gain independence from the Netherlands. In 1946 he was involved in a failed coup attempt for which he...

Tan, Amy
(1952) US writer. Her first novel, The Joy Luck Club (1989), told the story of four Chinese immigrant mothers and their American daughters, and was an international best-seller. She was also the...

Tanabata
Festival celebrated annually on 7 July, introduced to Japan from China in the 8th century. It is dedicated to Altair and Vega, two stars in the constellations Aquila and Lyra respectively, separated...

Tanagra
Ancient city in Boeotia, central Greece. Sparta defeated Athens there 457 BC. Terracotta statuettes called tanagras were excavated in 1874. ...

Tanaka, Kakuei
(1918-1993) Japanese conservative politician, leader of the dominant Liberal Democratic Party (LDP) and prime minister 1972-74. In 1976 he was charged with corruption and resigned from the LDP but remained a...

Tandy, James Napper
(1740-1803) Irish patriot who became the first secretary of the Society of United Irishmen. He established an armed force on the pattern of the Paris National Guard, but his movement failed and he was obliged...

Tanenbaum, Marc H
(1925-1992) US rabbi and publicist. An ordained rabbi, he became national director of the department of inter-religious affairs for the American Jewish Committee in 1961. He spent much of his life as a...

Tang dynasty
The greatest of China's imperial dynasties, which ruled from 618 to 907. Founded by the Sui official Li Yuan (566-635), it extended Chinese authority into central Asia, Tibet, Korea, and Annam,...

Tanganyika African National Union
Moderate socialist national party organized by Tanzanian politician Julius Nyerere in the...

Tangaroa
Polynesian sky and Sun god, creator of of the world and its beings. ...

Tange, Kenzo
(1913-2005) Japanese modernist architect. His works include the National Gymnasium, Tokyo, for the 1964 Olympics, with its vast catenary steel roof; the 70-storey City Hall, Tokyo (1991), Japan's tallest...

tangentopoli
Popular name for mani puliti, a series of Italian anti-corruption investigations begun in 1992. ...

Tangu
Member of a Mongolian people living in parts of northeastern Tibet and Kansu, China. Traditionally nomadic, they controlled the trade routes between central Asia and the West, and established the...

Tanguay, Eva
(1878-1947) Canadian actor. A whirlwind of energy on stage, she delighted in shocking audiences with outrageous costumes and lyrics. Her signature song was `I Don't Care` from The Chaperones (1903). Tanguay...

Tanguy, Yves
(1900-1955) French painter. He lived in the USA from 1939. A leading surrealist, he created dreamlike desert landscapes peopled by metallic, semi-abstract forms casting long shadows. Self-taught, Tanguy was...

tanha
In Buddhism, clinging or grasping desire that gives rise to suffering. It is the second of the Four Noble Truths. ...

Tanizaki, Jun-ichiro
(1886-1965) Japanese novelist. His works include a version of Murasaki's The Tale of Genji (1939-41), The Makioka Sisters in three volumes (1943-48), and The Key (1956). ...

tank
Armoured fighting vehicle that runs on tracks and is fitted with weapons systems capable of defeating other tanks and destroying life and property. The term was originally a code name for the first...

tank destroyer
Self-propelled anti-tank gun developed during World War II; they fell out of use in post-war years when tanks were designed to mount more powerful guns. They generally resembled a tank but...

Tannenbaum, Frank
(1893-1969) US historian of central European origin. During his long career as a Latin American historian at Columbia University (1935-61), he originated (1945) and for 25 years directed Columbia's famous...

Tannenberg, Battle of
In World War I, victory of German forces led by field marshal Paul von Hindenburg over Russian forces under General Aleksander Samsonov in August 1914 at a village in East Prussia (now Grunwald,...

Tannenberg, Battle of
Victory of a combined Polish and Lithuanian army over the Knights of the Teutonic Order in 1410, at Tannenberg, a village in northern Poland (now Grunwald). The battle broke the Knights' hold over...

Tanner, Beatrice Stella
Unmarried name of actor Mrs Patrick Campbell. ...

Tannhäuser
13th-century German Minnesinger and crusader, identified with a legendary knight who is the subject of a 16th-century ballad, the Tannhäuserlied. In the ballad, Tannhäuser is seduced by the...

Tantalus
In Greek mythology, a king of Lydia, son of Zeus, and father of Pelops and Niobe. He offended the gods by divulg ...

Tantrism
Forms of Hinduism and Buddhism that emphasize the division of the universe into male and female forces which maintain its unity by their interaction. Tantric Hinduism is associated with magical and...

Tanumafili II, Susuga Malietoa
(1913-2007) Samoan head of state, constitutional monarch 1962-2007. On independence, on 1 January 1962, he became joint head of state and in April 1963, when the other joint monarch, Tupua Tamasese Mea'ole,...

Tanzania
Country in east Africa, bounded to the north by Uganda and Kenya; south by Mozambique, Malawi, and Zambia; west by the Democratic Republic of Congo (formerly Zaire), Burundi, and Rwanda; and east by...

Tao Te Ching
The most influential Taoist book, reputedly written down in one night by the 6th-century BC sage Lao Zi as he left China for the West, although it appears in fact to date from the 3rd century BC....

Taoiseach
Irish title for the prime minister of the Republic of Ireland. The Taoiseach has broadly similar powers to the UK prime minister. ...

Taoism
Chinese philosophical system, traditionally founded by the Chinese philosopher Lao Zi in the 6th century BC. He is also attributed authorship of the scriptures, Tao Te Ching, although these were...

Taperinha
Archaeological site on the Amazon River, east of Santarem, Brazil. Its discovery in 1991 provided evidence that an ancient New World civilization, predating Mexican and Andean cultures, existed...

tapestry
Ornamental textile into which a pattern or pictorial scene has been handwoven. The foundation of a tapestry is known as the warp, and is usually made of linen or wool. The tapestry design is formed...

tapestry, Renaissance
During the Renaissance most European requirements for tapestry were met by workshops in France and Flanders, which had developed tapestry industries during the Middle Ages. In Italy, small...

Tappan, Henry (Philip)
(1805-1881) US university president and philosopher. He gained international recognition as a philosopher with his works on free will in the 1830s and 1840s. As president (1852-63) he helped develop the...

Taranis
In Celtic mythology, god of the sky and thunder. His emblems are lightning and the wheel, and he is linked by the Roman writer Lucan to two other Gallic gods, Esus and Teutates, and connected by him...

Tarbell, Edmund (Charles)
(1862-1938) US painter. He was a member of the Ten (1898), largely an Impressionist group, and his paintings, such as In the Orchard (1891), have recently been re-evaluated and praised. Tarbell was born in...

Tarbell, Ida (Minerva)
(1857-1944) US journalist and historian, whose exposés of corruption in high places made her one of the most prominent `muckrakers` in the USA. She was an editor and contributor to McClure's Magazine...

Tarentum
Ancient name for the southeastern Italian port of Taranto. ...

target market
Specific segment of a market selected for its relevance to a particular product. Marketing efforts are then directed at that market. For example, a fizzy drink might be marketed at children between...

tariff
Tax or duty placed on goods when they are imported into a country or trading bloc (such as the European Union) from outside. The aim of tariffs is to reduce imports by...

Tariff Reform League
In UK history, organization set up in 1903 as a vehicle for the ideas of the Liberal politician Joseph Chamberlain on protective tariffs. It aimed to unify the British Empire by promoting imperial...

Tarkington, (Newton) Booth
(1869-1946) US novelist. His novels for young people, which include Penrod (1914), are classics. He was among the best-selling authors of the early 20th century with works such as Monsieur Beaucaire (1900)...

Tarleton, Richard
(died 1588) Elizabethan theatrical clown. He was the most celebrated clown of his time. A member of the Queen's Men theatre company from 1583, he was renowned for the jig, a doggerel song- ...

Tarnopol, Battle of
In World War I, Austro-German victory over the Russians July 1917 at a town in Polish Galicia (now Ternopol, Ukraine) about 110 km/70 mi southeast of Lemberg (Lviv, Ukraine); one of the first...

tarot cards
Fortune-telling aid consisting of 78 cards: the 56 minor arcana in four suits (resembling playing cards) and the major arcana, 22 cards with densely symbolic illustrations that have links with...

Tarpeia
In Roman mythology, the daughter of Spurius Tarpeius, Roman commander during the war that followed the rape of the Sabine women. Tarpeia betrayed Rome to the Sabines, who crushed her to death with...

Tarquinius Superbus
(lived 6th century BC) Last king of Rome 534-509 BC. He abolished certain rights of Romans, and made the city powerful. According to legend, he was deposed when his son Sextus raped Lucretia. ...

Tarr, Ralph (Stockman)
(1864-1912) US geologist and geographer. He organized the Cornell Greenland Expedition that travelled with Robert Peary (1896) and led the National Geographic Society's expeditions to Alaska (1909, 1911), later...

Tarraco
Ancient name for the northeastern Spanish port of Tarragona. ...

Tarshish
City mentioned in the Old Testament, probably the Phoenician settlement of Tartessus in Spain. ...

Tarski, Alfred
(1901-1983) US mathematical logician of Polish origin. A member of the National Academy of Science, he discovered interconnections between logic, algebra, set theory, and measure theory. He also brought clarity...

tartan
Woollen cloth woven in specific chequered patterns individual to Scottish clans, with stripes of different widths and colours crisscrossing on a coloured background; it is used in making skirts,...

Tartan Tax
Term dubbed by the former Conservative Scottish Secretary Michael Forsyth to describe the Scottish Parliament's tax-varying powers which were approved by a majority of voters in Scotland in a...

Tartar
Variant spelling of Tatar, member of a Turkic people now living mainly in the autonomous region of Tatarstan, Russia. ...

Tartarus
In Greek mythology, a part of Hades, the underworld, where the wicked were punished. According to Homer it was a place of punishment reserved for the rebel Titans, as far below Hades as heaven was...

Tartuffe
Comedy by Molière (1664). A religious hypocrite,...

Tarzan
Fictitious hero inhabiting the African rainforest, created by US writer Edgar Rice Burroughs in Tarzan of the Apes (1914), with numerous sequels. Tarzan and his partner Jane have featured in films,...

Tasaday
An indigenous people of the rainforests of Mindanao in the Philippines, contacted in the 1960s. Some anthropologists doubt their claim to leading a hunter-gatherer way of life. ...

Tashlin, Frank
(1913-1972) US film director and cartoonist. He worked as an animator for Warner Brothers' Merrie Melodies and Looney Tunes during the 1930s, started the syndicated comic strip Van Boring in 1934, and then...

Tashmetum
In Babylonian and Assyrian mythology, wife of the god Nabu. ...

TASM
Abbreviation for tactical air-to-surface missile, missile with a range of under 500 km/300 mi and a nuclear warhead. TASMs are being developed independently by the USA and France to replace the...

Tasman, Abel Janszoon
(1603-1659) Dutch navigator. In 1642, he was the first European to see Tasmania. He also made the first European sightings of New Zealand, Tonga, and the Fiji Islands. He called Tasmania Van Diemen's Land in...

TASS
Acronym for Telegrafnoye Agentstvo Sovyetskovo Soyuza, international news agency of the former Soviet Union. In January 1992 the creation of a replacement body, the Russian Information Telegraph...

Tasso, Torquato
(1544-1595) Italian poet. He was the author of the romantic epic poem of the First Crusade Gerusalemme liberata/Jerusalem Delivered completed by 1575 and first published in 1581, which he revised as Gerusalemme...

Tassoni, Alessandro
(1565-1635) Italian poet. His principal works are the burlesque epic La Secchia Rapita/The Rape of the Bucket 1622, and the prose works Considerazioni sopra il Petrarca/Observations on Petrarch's Poems 1609 (an...

Tatar
Member of a Turkic people, the descendants of the mixed Mongol and Turkic followers of Genghis Khan. The Tatars now live mainly in the Russian autonomous republic of Tatarstan, western Siberia,...

Tatchell, Peter
(1952) Australian-born peace activist and lesbian and gay rights campaigner. Following his move to London in 1971, he joined the Gay Liberation Front and the Troops Out Movement, opposing the presence of...

Tate Gallery
Art gallery in London, housing British art from the late 16th century and international art from 1810. Endowed by the sugar merchant Henry Tate (1819-1899), it was opened in 1897. A Liverpool...

Tate, (John Orley) Allen
(1899-1979) US man of letters. He is best remembered for measured, classical poems like his well-known `Ode to the Confederate Dead`. The winner of the Bollingen poetry prize in 1956, he was also a...

Tate, Henry
(1819-1899) English merchant and art patron who founded the Tate Gallery in London. A sugar merchant, Tate patented machinery for making sugar cubes. His firm of Henry Tate & Sons later became Tate & Lyle. He...

Tatian
Assyrian-born Christian apologist and writer. Learned in Greek, he was converted to Christianity in Rome, and became a disciple of Justin Martyr. He wrote a number of works, of which The Discourse...

Tatius, Achilles
Greek writer; see Achilles Tatius. ...

Tatlin, Vladimir (Yevgrapovich)
(1885-1953) Russian artist. He was a cofounder of constructivism. After encountering cubism in Paris in 1913, he evolved his first constructivist works, using such materials as glass, metal, plaster, and wood...

tatting
Lacework in cotton, made since medieval times by knotting and looping a single thread with a small shuttle. ...

Tattnal, Josiah
(1795-1871) US naval officer. While serving in the US Navy (1812-61) he compromised American neutrality by assisting a hard-pressed British squadron in its attack on a Chinese fort in 1859. He explained...

Tatton Park
House in Cheshire, England, 5 km/3 mi north of Knutsford. Originally built in the 17th century, Tatton Park was rebuilt from 1780 to 1813 by Samuel (1737-1807)and Lewis William Wyatt...

Taube
German military aircraft of World War I. At the outbreak of war it was the principal aircraft of the German Army and performed useful service as a scout, notably in the detection of Russian...

Taufa'ahau Tupou IV
(1918-2006) King of Tonga 1965-2006. On succeeding to the throne after his mother's death, he assumed the designation King Taufa'ahau Tupou IV and shared power with his brother, Prince Fatafehi Tu'ipelehake...

tauhid
In Islam, the central belief in the `oneness of God`; also that God is the supreme creator and power behind the universe. Muslims believe that God is eternal, has no beginning, and is the...

Tauler, Johann
(c. 1300-1361) German Dominican friar and mystic. He came under the pietistic influence of Meister Eckhart of Cologne, and showed the devotional fervour of the `Rhine mystics` at its purest and most perfect. A...

Tausen, Hans
(1495-1561) Danish religious reformer. Playing a leading role in the Reformation in Denmark, he became known as the `Danish Luther`. He established the first Lu ...

Taussig, Joseph (Knefler)
(1877-1947) US naval officer. Wounded during service in China's Boxer Rebellion, he commanded destroyers in World War I. Between 1920 and 1936 he served mainly at the Naval College or in staff positions, and...