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

Thompson, James D(avid)
(1920-1973) US sociologist. He climaxed a long academic career in sociology and business administration teaching at Vanderbilt University (1968-73). He specialized in social organization and organizational...

Thompson, James R
(1936) US governor and lawyer. A Northwestern assistant law professor (1964-69), he became US attorney (1971-75), prosecuting corrupt public officials. As Republican governor of Illinois (1977-87),...

Thompson, Jerome B
(1814-1866) US painter. He began as a sign painter, moved to New York City (1835), and became a portrait painter. After travel in England (1852), he settled in New Jersey and painted rural genre scenes, as in...

Thompson, Jim
(1906-1977) US writer. A prolific author, he was critically neglected until after his death, when he acquired a cult status for his books' powerful and original use of pulp, `hard-boiled` genres, which he...

Thompson, John Taliaferro
(1860-1940) US general and weapons designer. He invented the Thompson sub-machine gun 1920, which became famous as the `Tommy gun`. Thompson joined the artillery 1882, transferred to the Ordnance...

Thompson, Llewellyn E, Jr
(1904-1972) US diplomat and Kremlinologist. An expert on Eastern European and Soviet affairs, he helped to negotiate the Austrian State Treaty (1952-55). As ambassador to the Soviet Union (1957-62,...

Thompson, Mark
(1957) English broadcasting executive. He worked for the BBC 1979-2002, served as chief executive of Channel 4 2002-04, and returned to the BBC as director-general in 2004. He edited several news...

Thompson, Samuel
(1769-1843) US holistic physician. With minimal formal education, he developed a theory of disease and a curative process (relying on such plants as lobelia and cayenne pepper) which he patented in 1813 and...

Thompson, Smith
(1768-1843) US Supreme Court justice. He served the New York legislature (1800-02) and the state supreme court (1802-18). President Monroe named him secretary of the navy (1818-23) and to the US Supreme...

Thompson, Stith
(1885-1976) US folklorist. At Indiana University (1921-55) he created a pre-eminent centre for folklore studies. He established folklore as an academic discipline and founded the Folklore Institutes of...

Thompson, Tommy G
(1941) US Republican politician, health and human services secretary from 2001. As governor of Wisconsin for the previous 14 years, he introduced innovative welfare reforms, including expanding access to...

Thompson, Waddy
(1798-1868) US Whig representative and public official. He was a member of the South Carolina legislature (1826-30) who sought to nullify federal influence over his state. In Congress (1835-41) he opposed...

Thoms, William John
(1803-1885) English antiquary and writer. He founded 1849, and for some years edited, the journal Notes and Queries, which increased information circulating about antiquarianism. Thoms introduced the word...

Thomsen, Christian (Jürgensen)
(1788-1865) Danish archaeologist. He proposed 1816-19 the Three Age System of classification of prehistoric cultures on the basis of the materials used in making weapons and tools: Stone Age, Bronze Age, and...

Thomsen, Grímur
(1820-1896) Icelandic poet. Many of his subjects are taken from the sagas, as, for example, in his series of poems Búarímur. His satire Ã? Glæsisvóllum and his translations of classical Greek dramatists are...

Thomson of Fleet, Roy Herbert
(1894-1976) Canadian-born British newspaper proprietor. He left school at 14 and was successively clerk, salesman, farmer, and book- keeper. In 1929 he established a small, successful local radio station....

Thomson, Alexander
(1817-1875) Scottish architect. He moved away from the restrictions of orthodox classicism to experiment with new techniques and materials. He spent all his professional life in Glasgow, where his prolific...

Thomson, J(ohn) Edgar
(1808-1874) US engineer and railroad president. In 1847 he joined the newly incorporated Pennsylvania Railroad to locate the tracks through the Allegheny Mountains, a feat that opened a route from Philadelphia...

Thomson, James
(1834-1882) Scottish poet. He is remembered for his despairing poem `The City of Dreadful Night` 1874. He also wrote as `BV` (Bysshe Vanolis). ...

Thoor Ballylee
16th-century castellated tower house near Gort, County Galway, Republic of Ireland. It was owned by the poet W B Yeats from 1915 and was his matrimonial home from 1917. The Yeats had extensive...

Thor
In Norse and Teutonic mythology, the god of thunder (his hammer), represented as a man of enormous strength defending humanity against demons and the frost giants. He was the son of Odin...

Thorbergur Thórdarson
(1889-1974) Icelandic writer. His early essays were coloured by his study of Eastern mysticism, but later ones reflected his enthusiasm for socialism. He also published autobiographical works and poetry. ...

Thórdarson Sighvatr
(c. 995-c. 1045) Icelandic court poet. One of the most gifted exponents of skaldic poetry, he was the poet of Olaf II Haraldsson of Norway throughout most of his reign from 1015 until the king's fall 1030....

Thordárson Sturla
(1214-1284) Icelandic historian and poet. He was the author of one version of Landnámabók, the greater part of Sturlunga Saga, and other sagas. Several of his poems have been preserved. He was a nephew of the...

Thorez, Maurice
(1900-1964) French communist politician. As leader of the French Communist Party (PCF) 1930-64, Thorez took it into the Popular Front alliance in the 1930s and was one of France's first three communists...

Thorlaksson, Gudbrandur
(1542-1627) Icelandic prelate and translator of the Bible. In 1584 he published the first complete Icelandic edition of the Bible. He was bishop of the North for 56 years, and established the Lutheran...

Thornburg, Richard (Lewis)
(1932) US Republican governor, lawyer, and cabinet member. As governor of Pennsylvania (1975-87), he oversaw evacuation and cleanup after the Three Mile Island nuclear disaster, blocking efforts to...

Thorndike, (Agnes) Sybil
(1882-1976) English actor. George Bernard Shaw wrote St Joan for her. The Thorndike Theatre (1969), in Leatherhead, Surrey, England, is named after her. She was created a DBE in 1931. ...

Thorndike, Israel
(1755-1832) American sailor and merchant. He went to sea at an early age and commanded a privateer during the American Revolution. He became active in the early China trade and was elected to the Massachusetts...

Thorndike, Lynn
(1882-1965) US historian. He came to international prominence when he began publishing the first of what proved to be his eight-volume masterwork, A History of Magic and Experimental Science (1923-58), in...

Thornhill, James
(1676-1734) English painter. Styling himself on Italian baroque artists, he painted a number of large, decorative commissions. They included designs for the interior of the dome of St Paul's Cathedral, London,...

Thornthwaite, Charles (Warren)
(1899-1963) US climatologist and geographer. In 1946 he established the Laboratory of Climatology with Seabrook Farms, New Jersey, where he made important contributions to his field. Thornthwaite was born in...

Thornton, Tex
(1913-1981) US conglomerate organizer. After developing the armed forces' first statistical management control system during World War II, he led the `Whiz Kids` team that modernized Ford's management...

Thorpe, (John) Jeremy
(1929) British Liberal politician, leader of the Liberal Party 1967-76. From a family of MPs, Thorpe first trained as a barrister, then became a Liberal MP in 1959 and party leader in 1967. A flamboyant...

Thoth
In Egyptian mythology, the god of wisdom, learning, and magic. Inventor of hieroglyphic writing, he...

Thou, de, Jacques Augusta
(1553-1617) French historian. Born in Paris, he helped to draft the Edict of Nantes (1598). He wrote Historia sui temporis 1604-08. ...

Thousand and One Nights
Collection of Oriental tales, also known as the Arabian Nights. ...

thousand days
Period of office of John F Kennedy from 20 January 1961 to his assassination on 22 November 1963. ...

thousand-bomber raid
In World War II, massive air raid on the German city of Cologne, 31 May 1942. Some 898 RAF bombers actually arrived over Cologne and dropped 1,455 tons of bombs, starting 1200 fires; 18,440...

Thrace
Ancient region of the Balkans, southeastern Europe, formed by parts of modern Greece and Bulgaria. It was held successively by the Greeks, Persians, Macedonians, and Romans. The heart of the ancient...

Thrale, Hester Lynch
Name before her second marriage of Hester Lynch Piozzi, a friend of the English lexicographer Samuel Johnson. ...

Three Age System
The division of prehistory into the Stone Age, Bronze Age, and Iron Age, first proposed by the Danish archaeologist Christian Thomsen 1816-19. Subsequently, the Stone Age was subdivided into the...

Three Kingdoms
Period in Chinese history from 220 to 581, an era of disruptive, intermittent warfare between three powers. Sometimes the term is used to cover only the period 220 to 280 following the end of the...

Three Musketeers, The
Historical romance by Alexandre Dumas père, published in France in 1844. D'Artagnan, a poor gentleman, joins forces with three of King Louis XIII's musketeers, Athos, Porthos, and Aramis, in a...

Three Refuges
Another term for the Three Treasures of Buddhism. ...

Three Treasures
In Buddhism, the Buddha, the Sangha (monastic orders), and the dharma (religious teachings). To be or to become a Buddhist, the adherent will `go for refuge` in the Three Treasures - that is,...

Three Universal Truths
In Buddhism, the three signs of existence:anicca (impermanence), anatta (impersonality or no self), and dukkha (suffering). ...

three-day week
In the UK, the policy adopted by Prime Minister Edward Heath in January 1974 to combat an economic crisis and coal miners' strike. A shortage of electrical power led to the allocation of energy to...

Throckmorton Plot
Plot in 1583 to put Mary Queen of Scots on the English throne in place of Elizabeth I. The plot involved the invasion of England by English Catholic exiles in Spain, led by the Frenchman Henri, duc...

throwing
In ceramics, the operation of shaping clay on a potter's wheel, a revolving head (disc) onto which a lump of wet clay is `thrown` and then shaped manually. The potter's wheel was invented by the...

Thubron, Colin Gerald Dryden
(1939) English travel writer and novelist. He is noted for his lyrical prose. Among his travel books are Mirror to Damascus (1967), The Hills of Adonis: A...

Thucydides
(c. 455 BC-c. 400 BC) Athenian historian. He was briefly a general during the Peloponnesian War with Sparta, but as a result of his failure to save Amphipolis from the Spartan general Brasidas, he was banished from...

thug
Originally a member of a Hindu sect who strangled travellers as sacrifices to Kali, the goddess of destruction. The sect was suppressed in about 1830. ...

Thule
Greek and Roman name for the most northerly land known, originally used by the explorer Pytheas to refer to land he discovered six days after leaving the northern coast of Britain. It has been...

Thumb, Tom
US celebrity dwarf; see General Tom Thumb Stratton. ...

Thunderbird
Legendary bird of the North American Indians, the creator of storms. It is said to produce thunder by flapping its wings and lightning by opening and closing its eyes. As carved on totem poles, the...

thunderbolt
In mythology, a destructive bolt or dart (lightning) used as a weapon during a battle between the gods (a thunderstorm), or aimed at humans. The Greek god Zeus wielded thunderbolts, and the concept...

Thurber, James Grover
(1894-1961) US humorist. His short stories, written mainly for the New Yorker magazine, include `The Secret Life of Walter Mitty` (1932). His doodle drawings include fanciful impressions of dogs. Born in...

Thurloe, John
(1616-1668) English politician and prominent ally of Oliver Cromwell. As secretary of the Council of State (1652-60), he handled all the principal civil business of government, both foreign and domestic. He...

Thurlow, Edward, 1st Baron Thurlow
(1732-1806) English lawyer and Tory politician. He occupied high legal posts in government, as solicitor-general and attorney-general in the administration of Lord North (1770-82). As lord chancellor...

Thurmond, J(ames) Strom
(1902-2003) US governor and senator, a Democrat. He served as governor of South Carolina 1947-51. Although relatively progressive, especially in matters of education, he was staunchly opposed to the...

Thurow, Lester (Carl)
(1938) US economist. He gained wide exposure in both the print and sound media. In The Zero-Sum Society (1980) he argued that the USA was losing ground against its economic competitors. He taught at the...

Thwing, Charles (Franklin)
(1853-1937) US college president. As president of Western Reserve University, Cleveland (1890-1921), he orchestrated great expansion, inaugurating new graduate schools, extension studies, and adult education....

Thye, Edward John
(1896-1969) US Republican governor and senator. Elected lieutenant governor in 1943, he became governor (1943-45) when Harold Stassen left to serve in the navy and was elected for a full term (1945-47). He...

Thyestes
In Greek mythology, the son of Pelops and brother of Atreus. His rivalry with Atreus for the kingship of Mycenae was continued by their sons, Aegisthus and Agamemnon. ...

Thünen, Johann Heinrich von
(1785-1850) German economist and geographer who believed that the success of a state depends on the well-being of its farmers. His book The Isolated State 1820, a pioneering study of land use, includes the...

Thynne
Family name of the marquesses of Bath, seated at Longleat in Wiltshire, England. ...

thyrsus
In Greek mythology, a staff carried by worshippers of the god Dionysus, formed from a stick wound around with the ivy sacred to the god, and crowned with a pine cone. ...

Tiahuanaco
Site of a city in Bolivia 24 km/15 mi south of Lake Titicaca in the Andes. It gave its name to the 8th-14th-century civilizations found in Peru and Bolivia that preceded the Inca. The Tiahuanco...

Tiamat
In the mythology and religion of Mesopotamia, the primordial salt-water goddess whose death at the hands of Marduk gives rise to the creation of the world. ...

Tiananmen Square
Paved open space in central Beijing (Peking), China, the largest public square in the world (area 0.4 sq km/0.14 sq mi). On 3-4 June 1989 more than 1,000 unarmed protesters were killed by...

Tianjin, Treaty of
Agreement (1858) between China and Western powers, signed at the end of the Second Opium (Arrow) War. It was one of the unequal treaties forced on China by the West. A further ten treaty ports,...

tiara
Triple crown worn by the pope, or a semicircular headdress worn by women on formal occasions. The papal triple crown is a symbol of sovereign power (not sacred like the mitre), a high cap of gold...

Tibbles, Susette La Flesche
(1854-1903) Omaha reformer, author, and illustrator. The Ponca Indians were forcibly removed from their lands in 1877; in the national protest that followed, Susette La Flesche travelled to the East as...

Tiberias
City in northeastern Israel, on the western shore of Lake Tiberias, 205 m/640 ft below sea level; population (1995 est) 40,100. Industries include fishing, agriculture, and tourism. One of the few...

Tiberius
(42 BC-AD 37) Roman emperor, the stepson, adopted son, and successor of Augustus from AD 14. He was a cautious ruler whose reign was marred by the heavy incident of trials for treason or conspiracy. Tiberius fell...

Tibet
Autonomous region of southwestern China; area 1,221,600 sq km/471,700 sq mi; population (2000 est) 2,620,000 (many Chinese have settled in Tibet; 2 million Tibetans live in China outside Tibet). The...

Tibetan
A Mongolian people inhabiting Tibet who practise a form of Mahayana Buddhism, introduced in the 7th century. Since China's Cultural Revolution 1966-68, refugee communities have formed in India...

Tibullus, Albius
(c. 48-c. 19 BC) Roman elegiac poet, a friend of the poets Horace and Ovid. Two books of poems, addressed to his patron Valerius Messalla Corvinus, are extant. His pastoral poems were known...

Ticknor, William Davis
(1810-1864) US publisher. In 1832 he founded the Boston firm that, with the able partnership of James Fields, became one of the most dist ...

tie-dyeing
Process of colouring fabric in which thread is tied around sections of the fabric (usually cotton) to form areas that will resist dye, into which the fabric is then dipped. The process can be...

Tieck, (Johann) Ludwig
(1773-1853) German Romantic poet and collector of folk tales. He dramatized some of the tales, such as `Puss in Boots`. ...

Tiffany, Louis Comfort
(1848-1933) US artist and glassmaker. He was the son of Charles Louis Tiffany, who founded Tiffany and Company, the New York City jewellers. He produced stained-glass windows, iridescent...

Tigellinus, Ofonius
(died 69) Roman politician and favourite of the emperor Nero. He held office as praetorian prefect, indulging the emperor's worst vices and tyrannizing the Roman populace between AD 62 and 68. The historian...

Tiger
German heavy tank of World War II. Designed to meet an army demand for a `breakthrough` tank, the Tiger went into production 1942. It had an 88 mm gun, torsion-bar suspension with wide tracks,...

Tigré
A people of northern Ethiopia. The Tigré language is spoken by about 2.5 million people; it belongs to the southeastern Semitic branch of the Afro-Asiatic (Hamito-Semitic) family. Tigrinya is a...

Tihuanaco
Alternative spelling of Tiahuanaco, an ancient Bolivian city. ...

Tikhonov, Nikolai Aleksandrovich
(1905-1997) Soviet politician. He was a close associate of President Brezhnev, joining the Politburo 1979, and was prime minister (chair of the Council of Ministers) 1980-85. In April 1989 he was removed from...

Tilak, Bal Gangadhar
(1856-1920) Indian nationalist politician and philosopher who was the leading campaigner for full independence before Gandhi. Tilak gathered popular support by linking political action with an appeal to Hindu...

Tilden, Samuel Jones
(1814-1886) US politician. A Democrat, he was governor of New York 1874-76, elected on a reform ticket. He received the Democratic presidential nomination 1876, and although he received a plurality of popular...

Tilghman, Tench
(1744-1786) American soldier. A Philadelphia merchant, he abandoned his business interests in 1776 to become a volunteer aide on George Washington's staff. Washington recognized Tilghman's contributions when he...

Tilghman, William
(1756-1827) American jurist. Trustee of the University of Pennsylvania (1802-27) and president of the American Philosophical Society (1824-27), he is credited with trying to apply more objective equity to...

Tilghman, William (Matthew)
(1854-1924) US lawyer. An outstanding lawman in Kansas and Oklahoma (1877-1914), he also supervised the production of a motion picture, The Passing of the Oklahoma Outlaws. He came out of retirement during...

Tillett, Ben(jamin)
(1860-1943) English trade union leader and politician. He became general secretary of the powerful Dockers' Union, and was a principal organizer of national strikes that hit Britain's docks in 1889 and 1911. He...

Tilley, Vesta
(1864-1952) English music hall performer who was famous for her male impersonations. Her best-known creation was `Burlington Bertie`, an elegant tramp. She retired at the height of...

Tillich, Paul Johannes
(1886-1965) Prussian-born US theologian, best remembered for his Systematic Theology (1951-63). Tillich received his PhD from the University of Breslau 1911. Ordained a pastor in the Evangelical Lutheran...

Tillman, (Benjamin Ryan)
(1847-1918) US farmer, governor, and Democrat senator. Once elected governor of South Carolina (1890-94), he took over South Carolina politics and government. Although a populist-progressive in some matters...

Tillotson, John Robert
(1630-1694) English churchman, archbishop of Canterbury 1691-94. He was originally a Presbyterian, but was ordained a Anglian priest in 1660, and accepted the 1662 Act of Uniformity. A staunch...

Tilsit, Treaty of
Peace treaty between Russia and France (under Napoleon I) 7 July 1807; also a treaty between Prussia and France 9 July 1807. The treaties were signed in the eastern Prussian town of Tilsit, which...

Tilson, John (Quillin)
(1866-1958) US Republican representative. He challenged the Republican Party's candidate for Connecticut and was elected to the US House of Representatives (1909-11, 1915-31). Republican majority leader...