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

Tonty, Henri de
(1650-1704) French explorer of America. Between 1683 and 1700, based mainly in Illinois, he was effectively commander of France's possessions and settlements in the Mississippi Valley. In 1678 he went with...

Tony award
Annual award by the League of New York Theaters to dramatists, performers, and technicians in Broadway plays. It is named after the US actor and producer Antoinette Perry (1888-1946). ...

Tooke, John Horne
(1736-1812) British politician who established a Constitutional Society for parliamentary reform 1771. He was elected a member of Parliament 1801. ...

Toombs, Robert
(1810-1885) US politician. When the Confederacy was formed and Jefferson Davis became its president 1861, Toombs was appointed secretary of state. When the question of attacking Fort Sumter was discussed, he...

Toorop, Jan Theodoor
(1858-1928) Dutch painter. The leading Dutch exponent of Symbolism, Toorop is known for paintings, posters, stained glass, and illustrations. His flowing linear style shows the influence of art nouveau and...

top-up fees
Method of funding higher education in England through students paying towards their university tuition fees, via loans recovered later from their salaries. The plan was agreed, by a narrow marg ...

tope
Tumulus found in India and Southeast Asia; a Buddhist monument usually built over a relic of Buddha or his disciples. Topes date from 400-300 BC including ones at Sanchi,...

Topelius, Zacharias
(1818-1898) Finnish novelist and poet, who wrote in Swedish. In a series of historical novels, collectively known as Fältskärns berättelser/The Field Surgeon's Stories 1859-67, he set...

topiary
Clipping of trees and shrubs into ornamental shapes, originated by the Romans in the 1st century and revived in the 16th-17th centuries in formal European and American gardens. ...

Toplady, Augustus Montague
(1740-1778) British Anglican priest, the author of the hymn `Rock of Ages` 1775. ...

Torah
In Judaism, the first five books of the Tenakh, or Hebrew Bible (Christian Old Testament): Genesis, Exodus, Leviticus, Numbers, and Deuteronomy. It contains a traditional history of...

Tordesillas, Treaty of
Agreement reached in 1494 when Castile and Portugal divided the uncharted world between themselves. An imaginary line was drawn 370 leagues west of the Azores and the Cape Verde Islands, with...

Torgau
Historic town and river port on the west bank of the Elbe, in Leipzig county, Saxony, Germany; population (2005 est) 18,700. There is a food-processing industry. In 1760, during the Seven Years'...

Torgau, Battle of
During the Seven Years' War, Austrian defeat by Prussians under Frederick the Great 3 November 1760, outside Torgau, a German town on the banks of the Elbe River; the victory gave Frederick command...

Tormé, Mel(vin Howard)
(1925-1999) US vocalist, composer, and author. The epitome of Cool School jazz singers, he toured as a headlining concert performer and recorded a string of hit records throughout the 1950s. His first song,...

torpedo
Self-propelled underwater missile, invented 1866 by English engineer Robert Whitehead. Modern torpedoes are homing missiles; some resemble mines in that...

torque
Prehistoric neck-ring ornament usually made of gold. They are found during the Bronze and Iron Age periods in Britain, Ireland, and northwestern Europe, particularly in Celtic cultures, where they...

Torquemada, Tomás de
(1420-1498) Spanish Dominican monk, confessor to Queen Isabella I. In 1483 he revived the Inquisition on her behalf, and at least 2,000 `heretics` were burned; Torquemada also expelled the Jews from Spain...

Torrens title
In Australia, system by which title to land is established by the official registration of changes in ownership to that land. The government maintains a register recording a description of...

Torres Vedras
Town in Santarem district, western Portugal, on the Atlantic coast 40 km/25 mi north of Lisbon; population (1991) 13,300. It is the centre of a wine-producing region. The fortifications known as...

Torres-García, Joaquin
(1874-1949) Uruguayan artist. In Paris from 1926, he was influenced by Mondrian and o ...

Torres, Luis Vaez de
(lived 17th century) Spanish navigator who, in 1605, sailed with an expedition under the command of Pedro Fernandez de Quiros in search of the supposed southland (Terra Australis Incognito). His navigation through the...

Torrigiano, Pietro
(1472-1528) Florentine sculptor, employed by Henry VIII of England. He learnt his craft in the Medici gardens from Bertoldo di Giovanni. For a while, he changed career becoming a soldier in Cesare Borgia's...

Torrijos Herrera, Omar
(1929-1981) Panamanian soldier and political leader, dictator 1968-78. In 1972 he was declared `maximum leader` for a six-year term by an elected assembly, which granted him full civil and military...

Torstensson, Lennart
(1603-1651) Swedish soldier who served under king Gustavus Adolphus in the Thirty Years' War, and then became commander-in-chief of Swedish forces in 1641. His greatest victory was at the second battle of...

tort
In law, a wrongful act for which someone can be sued for damages in a civil court. It includes such acts as libel, trespass, injury done to someone (whether intentionally or by negligence), and...

torture
Infliction of bodily pain to extort evidence or confession. In the 20th century torture is widely (though, in most countries, unofficially) used. The human-rights organization Tory democracy
Concept attributed to the 19th-century British Conservative Party, and to the campaign of Lord Randolph Churchill against Stafford Northcote in the early 1880s. The slogan was not backed up by any...

Tory Party
The forerunner of the British Conservative Party from about 1680 to 1830. It was the party of the squire and parson, as opposed to the Whigs (which was supported by the trading classes and...

Tostig
Anglo-Saxon ruler, the son of Earl Godwin and brother of total cost
The sum of all the costs of producing a given level of output. For example, if it costs £200 million to produce 50,000 cars, then £200 million is the total cost. Total cost is equal to...

total history
Interpretation of history favoured by a group of French historians known as the Annales school. ...

totalitarianism
Government control of all activities within a country, openly political or otherwise, as in fascist or communist dictatorships. Examples of totalitarian regimes are Italy under Benito Mussolini...

totemism
The belief in individual or clan kinship with an animal, plant, or object. This totem is sacred to those concerned, and they are forbidden to eat or desecrate it; marriage within the clan is usually...

Totenkopfverbände
The `death's head` units of the Nazi SS organization. Originally used to guard concentration camps after 1935, they became an elite fighting division attached to the Waffen-SS...

Totila
(died 522) King of the Ostrogoths, who warred with the Byzantine emperor Justinian for Italy, and was killed by General Narses at the battle of Taginae 552 in the Apennines. ...

Tottenham Three
Three men - Mark Braithwaite, Engin Raghip, and Winston Silcott - who were victims of a miscarriage of justice and spent six years in prison convicted of murdering PC Keith Blakelock during...

Toulet, Paul-Jean
(1867-1920) French writer. He published a number of novels, including Le Mariage de Don Quichotte/Don Quixote's Marriage 1902, and Mon amie Nane/My Friend Nane 1905. Toulet's short stories Béhanzigue and a...

Toulon, Battle of
During the French Revolutionary Wars, British defeat at the hands of the French revolutionary army under General Dugomier August 1793. The monarchist city authorities had welcomed a small British...

Toulon, Battle of
During the War of the Austrian Succession, British naval defeat at the hands of a combined French and Spanish fleet 21 February 1744 off Toulon, a French port in the Mediterranean. The British...

Toungoo dynasty
(lived 16th-18th centuries) Burmese family of rulers 1539-1752 that reunified the country (now Myanmar) after the collapse of Pagan. The dynasty...

Touré, (Ahmed) Sékou
(1922-1984) Guinean trade union leader and politician, long-serving first president of the Republic of Guinea 1961-84. In 1958, de Gaulle wished France to retain its west African colonies as...

Toure, Amadou Toumany
(1948) Malian army officer, head of state and leader of the National Reconciliation Council 1991-92. From 1993 he was the director of the Interstate Group for the Eradication of Guinea Worm. ...

Tourgée, Albion (Winegar)
(1838-1905) US writer, judge, and editor. He was elected judge of North Carolina's superior court (1868-74). As an ardent supporter of the Reconstruction policies and a foe of the Ku Klux Klan, he was...

tourism
Travel and visiting places for pleasure, often involving sightseeing and staying in overnight accommodation. Regarded as an industry, tourism can increase the wealth and job opportunities in an...

tournament
In medieval England, martial competition between knights. Until the accession of the Stuarts to the English throne, chivalric contests were a feature of court life. Jousting and hand-to-hand...

Tourneur, Cyril
(1575-1626) English dramatist. Little is known about his life, and his reputation depends on The Atheist's Tragedy (1611), a startling and bitter example of the revenge tragedy. The Revenger's Tragedy (1607),...

Tout, Thomas Frederick
(1855-1929) English historian, professor of history at Manchester University 1890-1925. He specialized in studying the administrative history of medieval England, and his works on the subject include The...

Tower of London
Fortress on the bank of the River Thames to the east of the City of London, England. William (I) the Conqueror established a camp here immediately after his coronation in 1066, and in 1078 Gundulf...

Tower, John Goodwin
(1925-1991) US Republican politician, a senator for Texas 1961-83. Despite having been a paid arms-industry consultant, he was selected in 1989 by President Bush to serve as defence secretary, but the...

Towers, John (Henry)
(1885-1955) US naval aviator. After commanding the carriers Langley and Saratoga, he became chief of the Bureau of Aeronautics in 1939. He served in senior staff positions during World War II; this naval...

Towle, Charlotte Helen
(1896-1966) US social work educator. At the University of Chicago, as a professor at the School of Social Service Administration (1932-62), she was a pioneer in establishing the psycho ...

town and gown
Term describing the relationship between a university and the town in which it is situated. The presence of a university has often created local conflict. Early British universities originated in...

town planning
The design of buildings or groups of buildings in a physical and social context, concentrating on the relationship between various buildings and their environment, as well as on their uses. Response...

town, medieval
During the Middle Ages, towns in England developed as centres of trade, and as administrative centres. In 1066 there were only about six English towns with more than 4,000 inhabitants; even London's...

Towne, Francis
(1740-1816) English watercolourist. Italy and Switzerland, which he visited 1780, and the English Lake District, visited 1786, inspired his principal works. The Source of the Arveiron (Victoria and Albert...

Townsend, Francis E(verett)
(1867-1960) US physician and social reformer. Almost destitute as a result of ill health, he conceived of his old-age revolving pension plan for the elderly; its essential feature was that every American over...

Townsend, Sue (Susan)
(1946) English humorous novelist and playwright. She is the author of the best-selling The Secret Diary of Adrian Mole, aged 133/4 (1982; adapted for the stage in 1985) and later sequels. Other novels...

Townshend Acts
Legislation passed by the British Parliament in 1767 that enforced billeting of troops, levied taxes, and imposed tighter regulations on trade in...

Townshend, Charles
(1725-1767) British politician, chancellor of the Exchequer 1766-67. The Townshend Acts, designed to assert Britain's traditional authority over its colonies, resulted in widespread resistance. Among other...

Townshend, Charles
(1674-1738) English politician and agriculturalist. He was secretary of state under George I from 1714 to 1717, when he was dismissed for opposing the king's foreign policy; and from 1721 to 1730, after which...

Townshend, Charles Vere Ferrers
(1861-1924) British soldier. He served with the Royal Marines in India, where he came to prominence by his defence of Chitral 1893, before returning to Africa. His loss of Kut-al-Imara during World War I...

township
In South Africa, an urban settlement designated for non-white residents by the apartheid government 1948-94. Townships such as Soweto (South Western Township), Johannesburg, a pre-existing...

Towse, Beachcroft
(1864-1948) English soldier and president of the National Institute for the Blind. In a gallant military action during the Second Boer War (1899-1902), he earned the Victoria Cross but lost his sight....

Toynbee, Arnold
(1852-1883) English economic historian who coined the term `industrial revolution` in his `Lectures on the Industrial Revolution`, published in 1884. Toynbee Hall, an education settlement in the east...

Toynbee, Arnold Joseph
(1889-1975) English historian whose A Study of History 1934-61 was an attempt to discover the laws governing the rise and fall of civilizations. He was the nephew of the economic historian Arnold Toynbee. ...

Toyotomi, Hideyoshi
(1537-1598) Japanese warlord, one of the three military leaders who unified Japan in the 16th century (Momoyama period). Successful military campaigns and alliances gave him control of central and southwestern...

Tozzer, Alfred (Marston)
(1877-1954) US anthropologist. Tozzer's most important works on the Maya include Maya Grammar (1921) and Chichén Itzá and its Center of Sacrifice (1957), a major synthesis of American prehistory. Born in...

trace element analysis
The study (e.g. by neutron activation analysis or X-ray fluorescence) of elements that occur naturally in minor amounts in minerals in soil and sediment. Trace elements can be identified by...

tracery
In architecture, a type of ornamental stonework applied to windows during the Gothic period. At first it took the form of `plate` tracery, in which a thin panel of stone or wood was inserted...

trackway
Prehistoric and pre-Roman route or way in England. Their principal purpose was the conveyance of goods. Most run roughly in a straight line, using such landmarks as...

Tractarianism
Another name for the Oxford Movement, 19th-century movement for Catholic revival within the Church of England. ...

Tracy, Benjamin F(ranklin)
(1830-1915) US public official. He became a brevet brigadier general in the Civil War and was a US attorney for New York (1866-73). As secretary of the navy (1889-93) he instituted administrative reforms...

trade
Exchange of commodities between groups, individuals, or countries. Direct trade is usually known as barter, whereas indirect trade is carried out through a medium such as money. In the 17th and 18th...

trade cycle
Another term for business cycle. ...

trade description
Description of the characteristics of goods, including their quality, quantity, and fitness for the purpose for which they are required. Under the Trade Descriptions Acts 1968 and 1972, making a...

trade union
Organization of workers that exists to promote and defend the interests of its members, to achieve improved working conditions, and to undertake collective bargaining (negotiating on behalf of its...

trade unionism, international
Worldwide cooperation between unions. In 1973 a European Trade Union Confederation was established, with a membership of 29 million, and there is an International Labour Organization, established in...

trade, medieval
In the Middle Ages, a large amount of international trade was carried on in Europe, despite the many barriers presented by bad communications, robbers and pirates, political boundaries, currency...

Trades Union Congress
Voluntary organization of trade unions, founded in the UK in 1868, in which delegates of affiliated unions meet annually to consider matters affecting their members. In 1997 there were 67 affiliated...

trading account
In a set of accounts, the account which deals with turnover (the value of sales) and the cost of new stock purchased. The trading account enables a business organization to calculate gross profit,...

trading standards department
Local authority department responsible for enforcing consumer legislation. Trading standards departments are responsible for checking garages to ensure that, under...

tradition
The passing down of a body of established practices, customs, and beliefs from one generation to the next. The term was originally applied by early Christian theologians to those central beliefs...

traditional economy
Economy based on subsistence agriculture where small family groups or tribes produce nearly all of what they need themselves. There is therefore very little trade, and barter rather than money is...

Trafalgar, Battle of
During the Napoleonic Wars, victory of the British fleet, commanded by Admiral Horatio Nelson, over a combined French and Spanish fleet on 21 October 1805. Nelson was mortally wounded during the...

tragedy
In the theatre, a play dealing with a serious theme, traditionally one in which a character meets disaster as a result either of personal failings or circumstances beyond his or her control....

tragicomedy
Drama that contains scenes or features of both tragedy and comedy. English dramatist Shakespeare's tragicomedies, such as The Winter's Tale (1610-11), reach a tragic climax but then lighten to a...

Traherne, Thomas
(c. 1637-1674) English Christian mystic, religious poet, and essayist. His lyric poetry was not published until 1903, and his prose Centuries of Meditations until 1908. ...

Trail of Tears
Route traversed by 16,000 Cherokee in 1838 from their ancestral lands in North Carolina, Georgia, Tennessee, and Alabama to Indian Territory under the Indian Removal Act of 1830. Held initially in...

Train, Arthur C(heney)
(1875-1945) US lawyer and author. His well-loved character, Ephraim Tutt, appeared as lawyer-hero in over eighty stories (1919-45); the fictional Yankee Lawyer: The Autobiography of Ephraim Tutt (1943)...

trainbands
In English history, a civil militia first formed in 1573 by Elizabeth I to meet the possibility of invasion. Trainbands were used by Charles I against the Scots in 1639, but their lack of training...

Traini, Francesco
(lived first half of the 14th century) Italian painter. His style is related to that of the early Sienese School. A fresco in the Campo Santo (cemetery), Pisa, The Triumph of Death (destroyed in World War II), has...

Training Agency
UK government-sponsored organization responsible for retraining of unemployed workers. Founded as the Manpower Services Commission in 1974, the organization has operated such schemes as the...

Trajan
(AD 52-117) Roman emperor from AD 98. He conquered Dacia (Romania) in 101-07 and much of Parthia in 113-17, bringing the empire to its greatest extent. Born in Seville, Spain, he was adopted as heir by the...

Trakl, Georg
(1887-1914) Austrian poet. His work is characterized by opaque metaphorical language and a unique use of colour symbolism; for example, in `Der Herbst des Einsamen/The Solitary Man's Autumn` and...

transcendental meditation
Technique of focusing the mind, based in part on Hindu meditation. Meditators are given a mantra (a special word or phrase) to repeat over and over in the mind; such meditation is believed to...

transcendentalism
Philosophy inaugurated in the 18th century by the German philosopher Immanuel Kant. As opposed to metaphysics in the traditional sense, transcendental philosophy is concerned with the conditions of...

Transcontinental Railroad
US railway constructed 1861-69 by the Union Pacific Railroad building westwards from Omaha, Kansas, on the eastern edge of the Great Plains, and the Central Pacific Railroad building eastwards...

transenna
In architecture, a pierced marble slab or lattice in an Early Christian church. ...

transept
In church architecture, that part of a cruciform church which lies across, or in a direction at right angles to, the main axis. ...