Copy of `The History Channel - Encyclopedia`

The wordlist doesn't exist anymore, or, the website doesn't exist anymore. On this page you can find a copy of the original information. The information may have been taken offline because it is outdated.

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

Walras, (Marie Esprit) Léon
(1834-1910) French economist and co-discoverer, with English economist William Jevons and Austrian economist Karl Menger, of marginal utility economics. Jevons's Theory of Political Economy (1871) was not...

Walser, Martin
(1927) German dramatist and novelist. Harsh and uncompromising in his social criticism, he concentrates on the newly rich German middle classes in such novels as Ehen in...

Walser, Robert
(1878-1956) Swiss writer. He wrote three novels: the family saga Geschwister Tanner 1907, the more realistic but comic Der Gehulfe 1908, and Jakob von Gunten 1909, in the form of a diary kept by a young boy at...

Walsh, James A(nthony)
(1867-1936) US Catholic prelate. Ordained in 1892, he cofounded the Catholic Mission Bureau in 1906 to support foreign missions and, with Father Thomas Price, won approval for a seminary for missionaries in...

Walsh, Lawrence E(dward)
(1912) Canadian-born US lawyer. He was district judge of New York (1954-57), US deputy attorney general (1957-60), and deputy head of the US delegation on Vietnam in Paris, France (1969). He was a...

Walsh, Maurice
(1879-1964) Irish novelist. Born near Listowel, County Kerry, Walsh was educated in Ireland before working in the Scottish Highlands in the Customs and Excise service. His stories are mostly historical romances...

Walsh, William Joseph
(1841-1921) Irish Catholic archbishop of Dublin from 1885. His independent mind was shown by his misgivings (privately expressed) on the papal condemnation of the Land League's `Plan of Campaign` (1888) to...

Walsingham
Village in Norfolk, England, 8 km/5 mi north of Fakenham; population (2001) 864. There are ruins of an Augustinian priory founded in 1153, which was a centre of pilgrimage until its destruction...

Walsingham, Francis
(c. 1530-1590) English politician and principal secretary of state to Elizabeth I from 1573 until his death. A staunch Puritan, he advocated a strong anti-Spanish foreign policy and controlled an efficient...

Walsingham, Thomas
(died c.1422) English monk and historian. His writings are the principal sources of historical knowledge of the late 14th and early 15th centuries (covering the reigns of Richard II, Henry IV, and Henry V). Works...

Walter, Francis (Eugene)
(1894-1963) US politician. A lawyer before going to the US House of Representatives as a Democrat serving Pennsylvania (1933-65), he came to prominence when, as chairman of the Subcommittee on Immigration, he...

Walter, Hubert
(died 1205) Archbishop of Canterbury 1193-1205. As justiciar (chief political and legal officer) 1193-98, he ruled England during Richard I's absence and introduced the offices of coroner and...

Walter, Lucy
(c. 1630-1658) Mistress of Charles II, whom she met while a Royalist refugee in The Hague, Netherlands, in 1648; the Duke of Monmouth was their son. ...

Walter, Thomas U(stick)
(1804-1887) US architect. After designing mostly Greek Revival buildings in Philadelphia, he became famous for designing the US Capitol wings and dome (1851-65). He was a founder and president (1876-87) of...

Walters, Alan Arthur
(1926) British economist and government adviser 1981-89. He became economics adviser to Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher, but his publicly stated differences with the policies of her chancellor Nigel...

Walters, William Thompson
(1820-1894) US businessman and art collector. By 1883 he was involved in the coordination of railroads ranging from Washington, DC, south to Florida and west to St Louis, Missouri, a project carried on by his...

Walther von der Vogelweide
(c. 1170-1230) German poet. The greatest of the Minnesingers, his songs dealt mainly with courtly love. Of noble birth, he lived in his youth at the Austrian ducal court in Vienna, adopting a wandering life after...

Walton, John C
(1881-1949) US politician. An engineer, he served as Oklahoma City's commissioner of Public Works (1917-19) and mayor (1919-23). As Democratic governor in 1923, he used martial law to stop Ku Klux Klan...

Wampanoag
Member of an American Indian people who lived between Narragansett Bay and Cape Cod on the Atlantic coast (Rhode Island, Massachusetts, Martha's Vineyard, and Nantucket Island) in the 1600s. An...

wampum
Cylindrical beads ground from sea shells of white and purple, woven into articles of personal adornment and also used as money by American Indians of the northeastern woodlands. Wampum was also used...

Wan Li
(1916-1996) Chinese communist politician. Wan was made party leader in Anhui province in 1977 and successfully instituted a programme of market-centred economic reforms that attracted the attention of the new...

Wanamaker, John
(1838-1922) US retailer who developed the modern department store. He established his own firm, John Wanamaker and Company, 1869. Renting an abandoned railroad depot 1876, he merchandised goods in distinct...

Wandering Jew
In medieval legend, a Jew named Ahasuerus, said to have insulted Jesus on his way to Calvary and to have been condemned to wander the world until the Second Coming. ...

Wang Dan
(1968) Chinese pro-democracy activist, imprisoned 1989-93 and 1995-98 for his role in the 1989 pro-democracy campaign. He emerged in mid-April 1989 as one of the young leaders of the student...

Wang Hongwen
(1935-1992) Chinese communist politician, member of the ultra-leftist Gang of Four, who played a leading role in the destabilizing Cultural Revolution 1966-69, launched against so-called `bourgeois...

Wang Jingwei (or Wang Ching-wei)
(1883-1944) Chinese politician. In 1927, after the death of Sun Zhong Shan (Sun Yat-sen), he was appointed head of the new Guomindang (nationalist party) government at Wuhan, and between May and December 1931...

Wang, Zhen
(1908-1993) Chinese communist political leader. He was a veteran of the Long March and vice president of the Chinese Communist Party's (CPP) Central Advisory Committee from 1988. A hardline Marxist, he strongly...

Wangunk
Member of an American Indian people who lived on either side of the Connecticut River, Connecticut (now the cities of Portland and Middleton). They spoke an Algonquian dialect. The Wangunk occupied...

Wansdyke
Anglo-Saxon defensive earthwork in England, probably built in the 5th century as a defence against continental invaders. It runs for from Bristol to Wiltshire, and may have had a wooden wall or...

want
In economics, the desire of consumers for material goods and services. Wants are argued to be infinite, meaning that consumers can never be satisfied with their existing standard of living but would...

wapentake
Subdivision of a county in the Danelaw, corresponding to the hundred in counties outside the Danelaw. ...

Wappinger
Member of an American Indian people who inhabited the northeast Atlantic coast and Hudson River Valley (from New York City to Poughkeepsie, New York, and parts of Connecticut) by the 1600s. An...

war
Act of force, usually on behalf of the state, intended to compel a declared enemy to obey the will of the other. The aim is to render the opponent incapable of further resistance by destroying its...

War and Peace
Novel by Leo Tolstoy, published 1863-69. It chronicles the lives of three noble families in Russia during the Napoleonic Wars and is notable for its complex characters and optimistic tone. ...

War between the States
Another (usually Southern) name for the American Civil War. ...

war communism
Series of economic policies used by the communist Bolshevik government during the Russian civil war (1918-21), a conflict with the Tsarist White armies. Although nationalization of banks and...

war crime
Offence (such as murder of a civilian or a prisoner of war) that contravenes the internationally accepted laws governing the conduct of wars, particularly the Hague...

War of 1812
War between the USA and Britain caused by British interference with US shipping trade as part of Britain's economic warfare against Napoleonic France. A treaty signed in Ghent, Belgium, in December...

War Office
Former British government department controlling military affairs. The Board of Ordnance, which existed in the 14th century, was absorbed into the War Department after the Crimean War and the whole...

War Office Press Bureau
UK civil service organization set up under the Defence of the Realm Act (DORA) in August 1914 to carry out the censorship of war information during World War I. The bureau was headed by Conservative...

war on terror
US-led international campaign against terrorist organizations, declared in response to the terrorist attacks on New York City and Washington, DC, on 11 September 2001 that killed around 3,000...

War Powers Act
Legislation passed in 1973 restricting the US president's powers to deploy US forces abroad for combat without prior Congressional approval. The president is required to report to both Houses of...

War Propaganda Bureau
UK civil service organization set up in 1914 to promote British government propaganda during World War I. Established under the leadership of Liberal member of Parliament Charles Masterman, its work...

Warbeck, Perkin
(c. 1474-1499) Flemish pretender to the English throne. Claiming to be Richard, brother of Edward V, he led a rising against Henry VII in 1497, and was hanged after attempting to escape from the Tower of London. ...

Warburg, Edward M(ortimer) M(orris)
(1908-1992) US arts patron. In 1928, as an undergraduate at Harvard University, he cofounded the Harvard Society for Contemporary Art, which rented rooms to exhibit paintings by Klee, O'Keeffe, and Matisse,...

Warburton, William
(1698-1779) English Anglican churchman and editor. He was a friend of the writer Alexander Pope, who made Warburton his literary executor, and he published an edition of Pope's works in 1751. After being...

ward
Electoral division of a parliamentary seat or of a district council in an urban area. ...

ward of court
In the UK, a child whose guardian is the High Court. Any person may, by issuing proceedings, make the High Court guardian of any child within its jurisdiction. No important step in the child's life...

Ward Price, George
(1886-1961) English journalist who made his name covering the First Balkan War (1912-13) and various theatres of conflict in World War I. He continued working as an official war correspondent during World War...

Ward,
(1843-1913) US retailer who pioneered the mass marketing of clothing and personal items through the mails. Serving the needs of farm families in remote rural areas, he constantly expanded his catalogue from its...

Ward, Arch (Burdette)
(1896-1955) US journalist. As a sportswriter and editor for the Chicago Tribune (1925-51), he created the annual baseball All-Star game as a promotion for the 1933 World's Fair in Chicago. In 1934 he also...

Ward, Artemus
US humorist. See Browne, Charles Farrar. ...

Ward, Frederick Townsend
(1831-1862) US soldier of fortune. Sent to sea at the age of 15 as punishment by his father, he soon became a mercenary, serving with William Walker in Mexico, with Garibaldi in Italy, and with...

Ward, John Quincy Adams
(1830-1910) US sculptor. Unlike many of his contemporaries, he largely rejected European influences in his aim to develop a truly American idiom. His work is distinguished by a bold realism. His sculptures...

Ward, Joseph
(1838-1889) US minister and educator. Known as the `Father of Congregationalism` in Dakota Territory, he founded Yankton Academy in 1872 (Yankton College from 1881), the first college in the upper...

Ward, Joseph George
(1856-1930) Australian-born New Zealand Liberal politician, prime minister of New Zealand 1906-12 and 1928-30. In his various posts, he was noted for introducing welfare reforms, for example the provision...

Ward, Leslie
(1851-1922) English caricaturist. He became famous as `Spy`, the caricaturist for Vanity Fair from 1873 to 1909. Among his most characteristic drawings were those of lawyers. His Forty Years of Spy was...

Ward, Maisie
(1889-1975) English religious publisher and author. She was cofounder, with her husband, of the Catholic publishing company, Sheed & Ward. An author in her own writer, her own works include a biography of G K...

Ward, Monte
(1860-1925) US baseball player and lawyer. A pitcher and infielder for 17 years (1878-94), mostly with the New York Giants, he led an unsuccessful effort to repeal baseball's reserve clause, which bound a...

Ward, Mrs Humphry
(1851-1920) Australian-born English novelist whose works enjoyed great poularity in late Victorian and Edwardian society. She wrote didactic novels such as Robert Elsmere (1888), a study of religious doubt...

Ward, Nathaniel
(c 1578-1652) English Protestant religious leader. He practised law and entered the Anglican ministry in 1618. He served a London parish from 1624-33, but was dismissed for nonconformism, after which he...

Ward, Stephen
(1913-1963) English painter and osteopath. The patron of London prostitute Christine Keeler, he was at the centre of the Profumo scandal in 1963. He introduced Keeler, the mistress of a Soviet naval attaché,...

Ward, William George
(1812-1882) English theologian and philosopher, who was ordained as a priest in the Church of England but soon converted to Roman Catholicism. His work Ideal of a Christian...

Warde, Frederic
(1894-1939) US typographer. Influenced by European craftsmen on his travels abroad, he produced classically attractive works for Princeton University Press and the Limited Editions Club, as well as under his...

Wardens of the Marches
Officials responsible for the security of the Anglo-Scottish border from the 14th century. They were appointed separately in England and Scotland for the East, West, and Middle Marches. Usually...

wardmote
Annual court or meeting held in each ward of the City of London under the presidency of the alderman. Its powers, which formerly extended to matters including the watch and the police are now merely...

wardrobe
Financial department of the British royal household, originally a secure place for royal robes and other valuable items. As the Exchequer became a formal department of state, monarchs needed to...

wardship and marriage
In British history, the right of the crown to supervise minors who were tenants-in-chief. Since those who held land of the crown did so as long as they performed military service, the king was...

Ware, Chris
(1967) US comic-book artist. His graphic novel Jimmy Corrigan: The Smartest Kid on Earth was widely acclaimed and won the 2001 Guardian First Book Award, the first graphic novel to do so. His work has...

Ware, William R(obert)
(1832-1915) US educator and architect. He founded and directed architectural programs at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (1865-81) and Columbia University (1881-1903). He practised architecture...

Warham, William
(c.1456-1532) English cleric, archbishop of Canterbury 1504-32, and lord chancellor 1504-15. He enjoyed the confidence of Henry VII and remained as chief royal adviser under Henry VIII until supplanted by...

Warhol, Andy
(1928-1987) US artist and film-maker. Known as the `Pope of Pop`, Warhol was a leader of the pop art movement. He achieved renown in 1962 when he exhibited works based on popular objects, images, and...

warlord
In China, any of the provincial leaders who took advantage of central government weakness, after the death of the first president of republican China in 1912, to organize their own private armies...

Warmoth, Henry Clay
(1842-1931) US politician. A self-taught lawyer, he fought for the Union with the Missouri Volunteers (1862-65). He moved to New Orleans, Louisiana, in 1865, where he specialized in military and government...

Warner, Charles Dudley
(1829-1900) US writer. He practised law in Chicago until 1860 before moving to Hartford, Connecticut, to work as an editor for the Evening Press (which merged with the Hartford Courant in 1867). He travelled to...

Warner, Jack
(1895-1981) English actor who played the part of the reliable neighbourhood bobby George Dixon in the British Broadcasting Corporation (BBC) drama Dixon of Dock Green for 21 years from 1955. The character of...

Warner, John W(illiam)
(1927) US senator and cabinet officer. He served in the US Navy (1944-46) and Marines (1949-52), and then worked for the department of justice (1954-60). He was under- ...

Warner, Marina Sarah
(1946) English literary critic and writer. Following acclaim as Young Writer of the Year in 1969, she has won numerous awards, and in 1994 delivered the Reith Lectures, a series entitled Six Myths of Our...

Warner, Rex Ernest
(1905-1986) English novelist. His later novels, such as The Young Caesar and Imperial Caesar (1958-60), are based on classical themes, but he is better remembered today for his earlier works, such as The...

Warner, Susan Bogert
(1819-1885) US novelist. She wrote under the name Elizabeth Wetherell. Her emotional novel The Wide, Wide World 1850 was followed by Queechy 1852 and several similar stories of gentle piety. ...

Warner, W(illiam) Lloyd
(1898-1970) US anthropologist and sociologist. His doctoral dissertation, A Black Civilization (1937, revised several times theeafter), was a major work on aboriginal tribal kinship systems. Warner applied...

Warnock, (Helen) Mary
(1924) English philosopher and educationist. She has contributed to or chaired important committees of inquiry into special education (1974-78), environmental pollution (1979-84), animal experiments...

Warren, Earl
(1891-1974) US jurist and chief justice of the US Supreme Court 1953-69. He served as governor of California 1943-53. As chief justice, he presided over a moderately liberal court, taking a stand against...

Warren, Joseph
(1741-1775) American colonial physician and revolutionary leader. Opposing British colonial rule in Massachusetts, he sent Paul Revere and William Dawes to warn the countryside of the approach of the British...

Warren, Mercy Otis
(1728-1814) US historian and poet. In addition to publishing poetry and plays, she published historical works including Observations on the New Constitution (1788) and History of the Rise, Progress, and...

Warren, Robert Penn
(1905-1989) US poet and novelist. He is the only author to have received a Pulitzer Prize for both prose and poetry. His work explored the moral problems of the South. His most important novel, All the King's...

Warsaw ghetto
Area in the centre of Warsaw established by the Nazis in 1940 into which some 433,000 Jews were crowded. In September 1940 non-Jews were ordered to leave a predominantly Jewish area in central...

Warsaw Pact
Military defensive alliance 1955-91 between the USSR and East European communist states, originally established as a response to the admission of West Germany into NATO. Its military structures...

Warsaw rising
In World War II, uprising against German occupation of Warsaw August-October 1944 organized by the Polish Home Army. The rebellion was brutally quashed when anticipated Soviet help for the rebels...

warship
Fighting ship armed and crewed for war. The supremacy of the battleship at the beginning of the 20th century was rivalled during World War I by the development of submarine attack, and was rendered...

Warton, Joseph
(1722-1800) English poet and critic. His two volumes of Odes (1744-46) and `Essay on the Writings and Genius of Pope` (1756-82) marked an `anti-classical` reaction and gave an impulse to the...

Warton, Thomas Wain
(1728-1790) English critic. His reputation was established with Observations on Spenser's Faerie Queene (1754). He was professor of poetry at Oxford 1757-67 and published the first History of English Poetry...

Warwick Castle
Castle in England, on the River Avon, 32 km/20 mi southeast of Birmingham. The first defences were erected here in Saxon times, and a wooden castle with a ditch built around 1065-67 by the Earl of...

Washakie
(c 1804-1900) US Shoshone chief. He assisted early trappers, traders, and settlers, and fought with the USA in their wars with the Sioux and other tribes that had been traditional enemies of t ...

Washburn, Cadwallader Colden
(1818-1882) US land agent, industrialist, miller, and politician. In 1842 he opened a law office in Mineral Point, Wisconsin, and in 1844 he formed a partnership with Cyrus Wood ...

Washburn, Emory
(1800-1877) US legal scholar. He taught at Harvard Law School (1855-76), served on the Massachusetts House of Representatives (1826-27, 1838, 1876-77), and was governor of Massachusetts (1853-54). He...

Washburn, Sherwood L(arned)
(1911-2000) US physical anthropologist. A leading authority on primate and human evolution, he stressed the importance of field studies for modelling the behaviour of extinct hominids. He edited Social Life of...

Washburn, William (Drew)
(1831-1912) US politician. A Republican lawyer and US surveyor general in Minnesota, he served in the US House of Representatives (1879-85) and in the Senate (1889-95), working to improve the Mississippi...

Washington Conference
International diplomatic meeting 1921 to avert a naval arms race between the principal maritime powers - Britain, the USA, Japan, France, and Italy. China, the Netherlands, Portugal, and Belgium...

Washington, Booker T(aliaferro)
(1856-1915) US educationist, pioneer in higher education for black people in the South. He was the founder and first principal of Tuskegee Institute, Alabama, in 1881, originally a training college for blacks,...