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

Bavadra, Timoci
(1934-1989) Fijian centre-left politician, prime minister in 1987. A Melanesian chief from the main island of Viti Levu, Bavadra formed the left-of-centre Fijian Labour Party (FLP) in 1985, which...

Bawa, Geoffrey
(1919-2003) Sri Lankan architect. His buildings are a contemporary interpretation of vernacular traditions, and include houses, hotels, and gardens. His first major commission came in 1979, with...

Bawden, Nina Mary
(1925) English writer. Her novels, which focus on the lives of the middle classes, include Who Calls the Tune (1953), Circles of Deceit (1987), and Family Money (1991). Among her books for children are The...

Bax, Ernest Belfort
(1854-1926) English journalist and political writer who, together with William Morris, founded the...

Baxendale, Leo
(1930) English strip cartoonist. From 1953 he freelanced strips to the Beano comic, beginning with `Little Plum` and `Minnie the Minx`, the female counterpart to `Dennis the Menace`. A large...

Baxter, James Keir
(1926-1972) New Zealand critic and poet. Together with Louis Johnson, he founded and edited the magazine Numbers 1954-60. His criticism was collected in The Fire and the Anvil (1955), The Man on the Horse...

Baxter, Richard
(1615-1691) English cleric. During the English Civil War he was a chaplain in the Parliamentary army, and after the Restoration became a royal chaplain. Baxter was driven out of the church by the Act of...

Bay, Michel de
Alternative name for Michael Baius. ...

Bayard, James Asheton, Jr
(1799-1880) US senator. Son of a prominent US senator, Bayard began his political career as a Democrat, but became a Republican in 1857. He returned to the Democrats after Abraham Lincoln's assassination. ...

Bayard, James Asheton, Sr
(1767-1815) US representative/senator. Elected to the House of Representatives in 1797, Bayard became a senator in 1804. He was a signatory of the Treaty of Ghent, ending the War of 1812. ...

Bayer, Mahmud Jelâl
(1884-1986) Turkish politician, president 1950-60. With Adnan Menderes, he founded the Democrat Party in 1945 and, following the party's victory in the 1950 election, was elected as Turkey's first civilian...

Bayeu, Francisco
(1734-1795) Spanish painter. He worked under the neoclassical painter Anton Mengs in Madrid and was a prolific decorator of religious and secular buildings. He also produced tapestry designs. He was Francisco...

Bayeux Tapestry
Linen hanging made about 1067-70 that gives a vivid pictorial record of the invasion of England by William I (the Conqueror) in 1066. It is an embroidery rather than a true tapestry, sewn with...

Bayle, Pierre
(1647-1706) French critic and philosopher. In Dictionnaire historique et critique/Historical and Critical Dictionary (1696), he wrote learned and highly sceptical articles attacking almost all the contemporary...

Baylis, Lilian Mary
(1874-1937) English theatre manager. She was responsible for re-opening Sadler's Wells Theatre, London, in 1931. From 1934 Sadler's Wells specialized in productions of opera and ballet: the resultant...

bayonet
Short sword attached to the muzzle of a firearm. The bayonet was placed inside the barrel of the muzzleloading muskets of the late 17th century. The sock or ring bayonet, invented in 1700, allowed a...

Bazaine, Achille François
(1811-1888) Marshal of France. From being a private soldier in 1831 he rose to command the French troops in Mexico 1862-67 and was made a marshal in 1864. In the Franco-Prussian War Bazaine allowed himself...

Bazalgette, Joseph William
(1819-1890) British civil engineer who, as chief engineer to the London Board of Works, designed London's sewer system, a total of 155 km/83 mi of sewers, covering an area of 256 sq km/100 sq mi. It was...

Bazargan, Mehdi
(1907-1995) Iranian politician, prime minister in 1979. In 1977 he cofounded the Human Rights Association and in February 1979, following the overthrow of the government of Shapour Bakhtiar, he became Iran's...

Bazelon, David (Lionel)
(1909-1993) US judge. Bazelon became chief judge of the US Court of Appeals in 1962. He earned a reputation as a strong civil-rights advocate, and issued landmark rulings that expanded the scope of the...

Baziotes, William
(1912-1963) US painter. Baziotes was one of the founders of the Federation of Modern Painters and Sculptors (1940). His calligraphic approach to painting can be seen in such works as Moon Forms (1947), and...

bazooka
US 2.36 in calibre rocket launcher fired from the shoulder. A lightweight tube with simple sights, it fires a fin-stabilized rocket containing a shaped charge warhead. The weapon's name came from...

BBC
Abbreviation for British Broadcasting Corporation. ...

BBFC
Abbreviation for the British Board of Film Classification. ...

BE
First British military aircraft, developed 1911-12 by Geoffrey de Havilland and F M Green at the Royal Aircraft Factory, Farnborough. As the improved BE 2, it w ...

Beach, Moses Yale
(1800-1868) US publisher and inventor. Beach's inventions include rag-cutting machinery that esaed the process of paper-making. He bought the New York Sun in 1838 and was its editor until 1848. ...

Beach, Rex Ellingwood
(1877-1949) US novelist. His Alaskan adventure novels include Pardners (1905), The Spoilers (1906), The Silver Horde (1909), and The Iron Trail (1913). ...

Beach, Sylvia Woodbridge
(1887-1962) US bookseller and publisher. In 1919 Woodbridge established the Shakespeare and Company bookshop in Paris, which became an avant-garde publishing house and mecca for American expatriates. In 1922...

Beachy Head, Battle of
English naval defeat in the Channel 30 June 1690 by a French force sailing to London in support of a proposed Jacobite rebellion. The English army at the time under William of Orange was almost...

Beaconsfield
Title taken by Benjamin Disraeli, prime minister of Britain in 1868 and 1874-80. ...

beadle
British official whose function has had many variations. In Saxon England, the beadle called householders to the moot (an assembly of freemen). After the Norman Conquest the beadle was an officer...

Beadle, Erastus Flavel
(1821-1894) US publisher. He was a co-publisher of cheap and popular dime novels, bringing literature to the masses and fostering the myth of the US frontier. ...

Beadle, Jeremy
(1948) English television entertainer who presented humorous excerpts from viewers' home videos on the peak-time show You've Been Framed (1990-97). Other television shows include Beadle's About (1987),...

beak-head moulding
In Norman architecture, a grotesque ornament resembling a row of animals' heads, with birds' beaks closed on a roll-moulding around the doorway of a church. ...

Beaker people
Prehistoric people thought to have been of Iberian origin, who spread out over Europe from the 3rd millennium BC. They were skilled in metalworking, and are associated with distinctive earthenware...

Beal, Gifford (Reynolds)
(1879-1956) US painter. A pupil of William Merritt Chase, he lived in New York and Massachusetts, and painted city and marine scenes, as in The Albany Boat (1915), and Freight Yards (1920). ...

Beale, Edward Fitzgerald
(1822-1893) US explorer and naval officer. Beale was an Indian agent and the surveyor general for California and Nevada. He made six transcontinental journeys, and later served as...

Beale, Mary
(1632-1699) English portrait painter. A professional artist at the time of her marriage in 1651, little is known of her work before about 1670, although her husb ...

Bean, `Judge` Roy
(c. 1825-1903) US frontier figure. Bean gained national attention in 1898 for staging a boxing match on a sandbar in the middle of the Rio Grande to avoid the boxing ban in Texas. In 882 he established himself as...

bear
In business, trader in financial market who believes the market is going to fall. Such negative sentiments are said to be bearish. A bear is the opposite of a bull. In a bear market, prices fall and...

Beard, (Daniel Carter) `Uncle Dan`
(1850-1941) US illustrator and youth leader. Beard established two organizations for boys - the Sons of Daniel Boone in 1905 and the Boy Pioneers of America in 1909 - that were precursors of the Boy Scouts....

Beard, Charles Austin
(1874-1948) US historian and a leader of the Progressive movement, active in promoting political and social reform. As a chief exponent of critical economic history, he published An Economic Interpretation of...

Bearden, Romare
(1914-1988) US painter, printmaker, and collage artist. A leading African-American artist and Social Realist, Bearden is considered to be one of the most distinguished collage artists of the 20th century. His...

Beardon, Romare (Howard)
(c. 1912-c. 1988) US painter and collagist. A major American artists, Beardon worked in a variety of media. A set and costume designer for the Alvin Ailey Ballet Company, he founded the Spiral Group to promote...

Beardsley, Aubrey Vincent
(1872-1898) English illustrator and leading member of the Aesthetic Movement. His meticulously executed black-and-white drawings show the influence of Japanese prints and French rococo, and also display the...

Beast, Great
Biblical reference in the Book of Revelation to an evil creature `whose number is six hundred and three score six`, and with whom Aleister Crowley identified. The number 666 is hence regarded as...

Beat Generation
US social and literary movement of the 1950s and early 1960s. Members of the Beat Generation, called beatniks, responded to the conformist materialism of the period by adopting lifestyles derived...

beatification
In the Catholic Church, the first step towards canonization. Persons who have been beatified can be prayed to, and the title `Blessed` can be put before their names. ...

Beatitudes
In the New Testament, the sayings of Jesus reported in Matthew 5:3-11 and Luke 6:20-22, describing the spiritual qualities of character that should characterize those influenced by the kingdom...

Beaton, David
(1494-1546) Scottish Catholic cleric and politician. He became a cardinal in 1538 and archbishop of St Andrews in 1539. He held diplomatic posts under James V and was chancellor under...

Beatrix, (Wilhelmina Armgard)
(1938) Queen of the Netherlands. The eldest daughter of Queen Juliana, she succeeded to the throne on her mother's abdication in 1980. In 1966 she married West German diplomat Claus von Amsberg, who was...

Beattie, James
(1735-1803) Scottish poet and philosopher. His `Essay on Truth` 1770, written to disprove the empiricism of philosopher David Hume, was praised by the lexicographer Samuel Johnson in his zeal for...

Beattie, John Hugh Marshall
(1915-1990) British anthropologist whose work on cross-cultural analysis influenced researchers in other fields, particularly philosophy. His book Other Cultures: Aims, Methods and Achievements in Social...

Beatty, David
(1871-1936) British admiral in World War I. He commanded the cruiser squadron 1912-16 and bore the brunt of the Battle of Jutland in 1916. In 1916 he became commander of the fleet, and in 1918 received the...

Beau, Louis Victor
(1895-1986) US aviator. An air service veteran of the Western Front in World War I, he commanded the Mediterranean Air Transport Service during World War II. After the war, he became national commander of the...

Beauclerk
Family name of the dukes of St Albans, descended from King Charles II by his mistress Nell Gwyn. ...

Beaufort, Henry
(1375-1447) English politician and cleric. As chancellor of England, he supported his half-brother Henry IV and made enormous personal loans to Henry V to finance war against France. As a guardian of Henry VI...

Beaufort, Margaret
(1443-1509) English noble. She was the granddaughter of John of Gaunt, Duke of Lancaster. In 1455 she married Edmund Tudor, Earl of Richmond, and their son became Henry VII of England. Her father was John...

Beauharnais, Alexandre, Vicomte de
(1760-1794) French liberal aristocrat and general who served in the American Revolution and became a member of the National Convention in the early days of the French Revolution. He was the first husband of...

Beauharnois, Charles
(1670-1749) French governor general of Canada 1726-47. His task was to maintain the then French colony of New France against English designs, and to encourage French immigration. Trying to promote Canadian...

Beaumont-Hamel
French village in the département of Somme, 10 km/6 mi north of Albert. Under German occupation during World War I, it resisted capture by the British during the Battle of the Somme July 1916....

Beaumont, Agnes
(1652-1720) English religious autobiographer. She became a friend of the writer John Bunyan after joining his congregation at Gamlingay in 1672. Forbidden by her father to attend a meeting in 1674, she defied...

Beaumont, Francis
(1584-1616) English dramatist and poet. From about 1606 to 1613 he collaborated with John Fletcher. Their joint plays include the tragicomedies Philaster (1610), A King and No King (c. 1611), and The Maid's...

Beaumont, George Howland
(1753-1827) English patron of art and amateur artist. The friend and supporter of many painters (in particular the landscape painter John Constable), he donated many pictures to the National Gallery 1826, an...

Beauregard, Pierre Gustave Toutant
(1818-1893) US military leader and Confederate general. Opening fire on Fort Sumter, South Carolina, he started the American Civil War in 1861. His military successes were clouded by his conflicts with...

beauty
The property of, or combination of qualities in, objects or people giving rise to pleasure or delight. The branch of philosophy that deals with beauty is aesthetics. There are various philosophical...

Beauty and the Beast
European folk tale. A traveller receives mysterious overnight hospitality in a woodland palace, meeting the benevolent owner, a hideous creature, the following morning. The Beast, furious at the...

Beaux Arts, Ecole des
Influential art school in Paris, established 1795 to replace the pre-revolutionary Royal Academy; from 1819, architectural training was provided. Through its teaching and awards and commissions,...

Beaux, Cecilia
(1855-1942) US painter. A portrait painter influenced by the work of Thomas Eakins, his sensitive academic work - such as Dorothea and Francesca- remains popular. ...

Beaver Dams, Battle of
Battle fought in southern Ontario, Canada, between Iroquois warriors and British troops against invading US troops on 24 June 1813, during the War of 1812. Iroquois warriors allied with the British...

Beazley, John Davidson
(1885-1970) British classical archaeologist. He transformed the study of ancient Greek vase-paintings, showing that by analysing the style of the paintings it was possible to isolate the work of individual...

Bebel, (Ferdinand) August
(1840-1913) German socialist. In 1869, with Wilhelm Liebknecht, he was a founding member of the Verband deutsche Arbeitervereine (League of German Workers' Clubs), and became its leading speaker in the...

Beccadelli, Antonio
(1394-1471) Italian poet. He came to fame in 1425 when he published his collection of Latin poems Hermaphroditus. Containing poets that explicitly avowed homosexual love, the book was condemned by the Church...

Beccafumi, Domenico
(c. 1486-1551) Italian painter and mosaicist. He became the leading exponent of Mannerism in Siena, his intense religious scenes crowded with slender, contorted figures and bathed in an eerie light. Among his...

Beccaria, Antonio
(c. 1400-1474) Italian humanist translator. He travelled to England and was appointed secretary to Humphrey, Duke of Gloucester, in about 1438. He translated works by Plut ...

Becher, Johannes R
(1891-1958) German expressionist poet. His revolutionary antiwar sentiments were embodied in his exuberant early verse, which includes Verfall und Triumph/Decline and Triumph (1911-14) and An Europa/To Europe...

Bechuanaland
Former name (to 1966) of Botswana. ...

Beck, Józef
(1894-1944) Polish soldier and politician, foreign minister of Poland 1932-39. He served in Józef Pi&lsla;sudski's Polish Legion against...

Becker gun
German aircraft gun of World War I. It was an automatic weapon firing a small high explosive shell (19 mm calibre) at about 300 rounds per minute. Some were fitted into Gotha bombers, while about...

Becker, Gary (Stanley)
(1930) US economist. He was awarded the Nobel Prize for Economics in 1992 for his work on a comprehensive economic theory of all aspects of human behaviour. His work in this field began with a 1956 paper...

Beckett, Margaret
(1943) British Labour politician, secretary of state for foreign and commonwealth affairs from 2006. She became president of the Board of Trade and secretary of state for trade and industry when the Labour...

Beckett, Samuel Barclay
(1906-1989) Irish dramatist, novelist, and poet, who wrote in both French and English. He won international acclaim for his work, which includes the play En attendant Godot- first performed in Paris in 1952,...

Beckford, William (Thomas)
(1759-1844) English writer and eccentric. At 21 he inherited the family fortune. He wrote, originally in French, Vathek 1787, a fantastic Arabian Nights tale. Although frequently abroad (he wrote perceptively...

Beckmann, Max
(1884-1950) German expressionist painter and graphic artist. He was influenced both by medieval art and by the Neue Sachlichkeit movement and after World War I his art concentrated on themes of cruelty in human...

Beckwourth, Jim
(1798-1867) US pioneer and mountain man who discovered a lower pass, now known as Beckwourth's Pass, through the Sierra Nevada Mountains to California's Sacramento Valley in 1850. Beckwourth participated in the...

Becque, Henry
(1837-1899) French dramatist. His naturalistic plays, in particular Les Corbeaux/The Vultures 1882 and La Parisienne/Woman of Paris 1885, are bitter and sometimes cruel portrayals of contemporary society. Other...

Bective Abbey
Cistercian foundation (1146) near Kells, County Meath, Ireland, now a house and ruins dating from 13th to 15th centuries. ...

Beda Fomm, Battle of
In World War II, catastrophic Italian defeat at the hands of the British during the North African Campaign 7 February 1941. The battle took place just outside Beda Fomm, a small town about 190...

Beddoes, Thomas Lovell
(1803-1849) English poet and dramatist. His unfinished revenge drama Death's Jest Book, begun 1825 and frequently revised, was published 1850. Many of his lyrical poems, such as `If there were dreams to...

Bede
(c. 673-735) English theologian and historian, known as the Venerable Bede. Active in Durham and Northumbria, he wrote many scientific, theological, and historical works. His Historia Ecclesiastica Gentis...

bedel
Alternative spelling of beadle. ...

Bedell Smith, Walter
(1895-1961) US general; Eisenhower's staff officer for much of World War II. Among his many achievements was the negotiation of the Italian surrender 1943 and the surrender of German forces in northwestern...

Bedell, William
(1571-1642) English cleric, bishop of Kilmore and Ardagh in Ireland from 1629. In his earlier career, he was chaplain to the diplomat Henry Wotton during his service in Venice. Bedell took holy orders and was...

Bedivere
In British legend, one of King Arthur's closest companions, and the last knight of the Round Table. He carried Arthur's body to the barge which was to take him to Avalon after the last battle, and...

Bedjaoui, Mohamed
(1929) Algerian lawyer and diplomat. He chaired and co-chaired several United Nations commissions (co-president of the UN Commission of Enquiry to Iran in 1980, vice-president of the UN Council for...

Bedny, Demian
(1883-1945) Soviet poet and propagandist. He was a member of the Bolshevik party from 1912. His simple verses, in the form of pithy slogans and satirical attacks on class enemies, were very popular during the...

Bedouin
Member of any of the nomadic, Arabic-speaking peoples occupying the desert regions of Arabia and North Africa. Originating in Arabia, they spread to Syria and Mesopotamia, and later...

Bee, Barnard (Elliott)
(1824-1861) US Confederate soldier. At the first Battle of Bull Run he inadvertently originated the nickname `Stonewall` for General T J Jackson. Mortally wounded, Bee survived the battle by one day. ...

Bee, St
(or St Begh or St Bega) Irish princess and religious leader. She was initiated into holy orders by her fellow countryman St Aidan, the first bishop of Lindisfarne, and founded the nunnery of St Bees in Cumberland. ...

Beebe, Lucius (Morris)
(1902-1966) US journalist and author. Beebe worked as a journalist, notably for the New York Herald Tribune (1929-50), chronicling Manhattan's high society. He wrote several books on railways and the American...