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

Weights and Measures Act 1963
In Britain, act of Parliament which makes it illegal for businesses to give short weights or short measures to consumers. For example, it is illegal to sell a consumer half a pint of milk when it...

Weil, Simone
(1909-1943) French writer who became a practising Catholic after a mystical experience in 1938. Apart from essays, her works (advocating political passivity) were posthumously published, including Waiting for...

Weimar Republic
Constitutional republic in Germany from 1919 to 1933, which was crippled by the election of antidemocratic parties to the Weinberger, Caspar Willard
(1917-2006) US Republican politician. He served under presidents Nixon and Ford, and was Reagan's defence secretary 1981-87. In 1992 he was indicted for involvement in the Weinstein, Nathan Wallenstein
US writer; see Nathanael West. ...

Weir, J(ulian) Alden
(1852-1919) US painter. He was a founder in 1898 of the Ten, an Impressionist group. His paintings include Idle Hours (1888). In 1991 his property in Wilton/Ridgefield, Connecticut, was named a National...

Weiser, (Johann) Conrad
(1696-1760) American colonial public official in Berks County, Pennsylvania from 1729. Familiar with the language and customs of the local Iroquois Indians, he was frequently used as an official interpreter in...

Weisman, Frederick R
(1912-1994) US entrepreneur, art collector, and philanthropist. He moved to Los Angeles, California, in the 1930s, and entered the produce business, joining the giant food conglomerate Hunt Foods, and...

Weiss, Peter (Ulrich)
(1916-1982) German-born Swedish dramatist, novelist, and film producer. His first play, Marat/Sade 1964, achieved international success. It was followed by Die Ermittlung/The Investigation 1965, based on the...

Weisz, Victor
Real name of Hungarian cartoonist Vicky. ...

Weitzel, Godfrey
(1835-1884) US soldier. A West Point graduate of 1855, he constructed harbour defences and taught engineering at West Point. As a Union officer, he was in charge of various fortifications, including those at...

Weizmann, Chaim Azriel
(1874-1952) Zionist leader, the first president of Israel 1948-52. He conducted the negotiations leading up to the Balfour Declaration, by which the UK declared its support for...

Welbeck Abbey
House standing in a park of about 1200 ha/2964 acres, in Nottinghamshire, England, south of Worksop. It is the seat, though no longer the residence, of the Duke of Portland. It incorporates minor...

Welch, (Maurice) Denton
(1915-1948) English writer and artist. His works include the novel In Youth is Pleasure 1944 and the autobiographical A Voice Through a Cloud 1950. ...

Welch, James
(1940) US Blackfoot and Gros Ventre writer. His writing explored both the pride of heritage and the deep sense of loss experienced by many American Indians. His books include Winter in the Blood (1974),...

Welch, Joseph Nye
(1890-1960) US lawyer. In 1954, as special counsel for the army, he conducted a televised duel with Senator Joseph McCarthy in congressional hearings called to consider McCarthy's allegations that evidence of...

Welch, Robert Henry Winborne, Jr
(1899-1985) US anticommunist crusader and business executive. He founded the extreme conservative John Birch Society in 1958. A supporter of the losing Republican presidential candidate Barry Goldwater...

Weld, Theodore Dwight
(1803-1895) US abolitionist. He was an ardent opponent of slavery, and gave forceful lectures, trained workers for the American Anti-Slavery Society, and wrote...

Weldon, Fay
(1933) English novelist and dramatist. Her work deals with feminist themes, often in an ironic or comic manner. Novels include The Fat Woman's Joke (1967), Female Friends (1975), Remember Me (1976),...

Welensky, Roy
(1907-1991) Rhodesian politician. He was instrumental in the creation in 1953 of the Central African Federation, comprising Northern Rhodesia (now Zambia), Southern Rhodesia (now Zimbabwe), and Nyasaland (now...

welfare state
Political system under which the state (rather than the individual or the private sector) has responsibility for the welfare of its citizens, providing a guaranteed minimum standard of life, and...

welfare to work
Programme introduced by UK Labour Party to reduce unemployment, particularly among young people, by getting them off welfare into work. In January 1998, the Chancellor of the Exchequer, Gordon...

Wellek, René
(1903-1995) Austrian-born literary critic. His Theory of Literature (1949), coauthored with Austin Warren, became a manual of New Criticism. He subsequently wrote the monumental, seven-volume History of...

Welles, (Benjamin) Sumner
(1892-1961) US diplomat. Independently wealthy, he joined the Foreign Service in 1915. Specializing in Latin America, he supervised US withdrawal from the Dominican Republic (1922-25). In the state department...

Welles, Gideon
(1802-1878) US politician, one of the founders of the Republican Party 1854. Welles was appointed secretary of the navy by President Lincoln 1861 and in that position supervised the expansion of the Union naval...

Welles, Roger
(1862-1932) US naval officer and explorer. An 1884 graduate of the US Naval Academy, he served in three Arctic explorations and wrote English-Eskimo and Eskimo-English Vocabularies (1890). He explored the...

Wellesley
Family name of the dukes of Wellington, seated at Stratfield Saye in Berkshire, England. ...

Wellman, Walter
(1858-1934) US journalist, explorer, and aeronaut. He made two failed attempts to reach the North Pole in an airship in 1907 and 1909. In 1910 he was one of a crew of six who set off in another large airship to...

Wells Cathedral
Cathedral of the diocese of Bath and Wells, England. It was begun in the late 12th century, and the central parts of the building, the transepts, the east bays of nave, and the west bays of choirs...

Wells-Barnett, Ida Bell
(1862-1931) US civil rights advocate. In 1892, as part-owner and editor of a Memphis newspaper, she published articles denouncing the lynching of three acquaintances; warned to stay out of town, she went to...

Wells-Barnett, Ida Bell
(1862-1931) US journalist and political activist. She joined the staff of New York Age in 1891 and embarked on an anti-lynching campaign, lecturing widely throughout the USA and England and founding...

Wells, H(erbert) G(eorge)
(1866-1946) English writer. He was a pioneer of science fiction with such novels as The Time Machine (1895) and The War of the Worlds (1898) (describing a Martian invasion of Earth), which brought him...

Welsh
People of Wales; see also Celt. The term is thought to be derived from an old Germanic term for `foreigner`, and so linked to Walloon (Belgium) and Wallachian (Romania). It may also derive from...

Welsh Assembly
Devolved governmental body based in Cardiff; see National Assembly for Wales. ...

Welsh literature
The prose and poetry of Wales, written predominantly in Welsh but also, more recently, in English. Characteristic of Welsh poetry is the bardic system. In the 18th century the eisteddfod (literary...

Welsh radio
Broadcasting service based in Wales, producing programmes for Welsh and English speakers since 1935. Radio Cymru broadcasts in Welsh and Radio Wales in English. Wales received the first BBC radio...

Welsh, Irvine
(1959) Scottish novelist, best known as the author of Trainspotting (1993; filmed 1996). His works are characterized by an uncompromising treatment of controversial subjects. His other works include The...

Welsh, Matthew E
(1912-1995) US politician. A Democratic lawyer, he served in the Indiana house (1941-43), and senate (1955-59), becoming Democratic minority leader. As state governor (1961-65), he established the Indiana...

Weltpolitik
Term applied to German foreign policy after about 1890, which represented Emperor Wilhelm II's attempt to make Germany into a world power through an aggressive foreign policy on colonies and naval...

Welty, Eudora Alice
(1909-2001) US novelist and short-story writer. Her works reflect life in the American South and are notable for their creation of character and accurate rendition of local dialect. Her novels include Delta...

Wen Cheng-ming
(1470-1559) Chinese painter, poet, calligrapher, and scholar. He is one of the most famous representatives of the courtly art of the Ming dynasty and excelled in picturesque landscape. ...

Wen-ch'ang
Taoist god of literature, often linked with K'uei Hsing. He is usually represented seated, holding a sword. ...

Wenceslas, St
(c. 907-929) Duke of Bohemia. He attempted to Christianize his people and was murdered by his brother. He is patron saint of the Czech Republic and the `good King Wenceslas` of a popular carol....

Wenceslaus IV
(1361-1419) Holy Roman Emperor 1378-1400 and King of Bohemia 1378-1400 and 1404-19. He succeeded his father Charles IV, but proved an incompetent ruler, and in 1394 the Bohemian nobles rebelled and took...

Wends
Northwestern Slavonic peoples who settled east of the rivers Elbe and Saale in the 6th-8th centuries. By the 12th century most had been forcibly Christianized and absorbed by invading Germans; a...

Werboczy, Istvan
(c.1485-1541) Hungarian lawyer and politician. In the parliament (Diet) from 1505, he became chief justice in 1516 and, as a strong supporter of King John Zapolya, was made chancellor when the latter was...

Werewolf
Abortive Nazi resistance organization against the Allied invasion of Germany 1945. It only succeeded in attracting a few diehard Nazi fanatics and, with no broad support, collapsed when the Allies...

werewolf
In folk belief, a human being either turned into a wolf by a spell or having the ability to assume a wolf form. The symptoms of porphyria may have fostered the legends. Stories of such...

Werfel, Franz
(1890-1945) Austrian poet, dramatist, and novelist. He was a leading expressionist. His works include the poem `Der Weltfreund der Gerichtstag/The Day of Judgment` (1919); the plays Juarez und Maximilian...

wergild
In Anglo-Saxon and Germanic law during the Middle Ages, the compensation paid by a murderer to the relatives of the victim, its value dependent on the social rank of the deceased. It originated in...

Werner, Alice
(1859-1935) English linguist specializing in African languages. After studying the languages of Nyasaland (now Malawi) and Natal in South Africa 1893-99, she became professor of Zulu Languages at King's...

Wesak
Theravada Buddhist festival celebrating the Buddha's birth, enlightenment, and passing into nirvana, all of which happened on the same day in different years. It falls in April/May at the full...

Wescott, Glenway
(1901-1987) US writer. Independently wealthy, he began his writing career as a poet, going on to publish several short stories and novels, notably The Grandmot ...

Wesker, Arnold
(1932) English dramatist. A leading writer of kitchen-sink drama, his socialist beliefs were reflected in the successful trilogy Chicken Soup with Barley, Roots, and I'm Talking About Jerusalem...

Wesley, Charles
(1707-1788) English Methodist, brother of John Wesley and one of the original Methodists at Oxford. He became a principal preacher and theologian of the Wesleyan Methodists, and wrote some 6,500 hymns. ...

Wesley, Mary
(1912-2002) English novelist. Her novels are characterized by the ironic and detached treatment of her middle-class characters. She wrote children's books before turning to adult fiction (at the age of 70)...

Wesselman, Tom
(1931) US painter. A pop artist, he specialized in paintings of everyday objects, collages, and, from the 1960s, erotic themes, as in his continuing series, The Great American Nude. Wesselman was born in...

Wessex
Kingdom of the West Saxons in Britain, said to have been founded by Cerdic about AD 500, covering Hampshire, Dorset, Wiltshire, Somerset, Devon, and the former county of Berkshire. In 829 Egbert...

Wesson, Daniel Baird
(1825-1906) US gunsmith. After serving an apprenticeship with his brother, he engaged in the making of firearms. His long association with Horace Smith (1853-55, 1857-73) was profitable for both men; they...

West Bank
Area (5,879 sq km/2,270 sq mi) on the west bank of the River Jordan; population (1997 est) 1,873,500. Its main cities are Jenin, Tulkarm, and Nablus in...

West Indian
Inhabitant of or native to the West Indies, or person of West Indian descent. The West Indies are culturally heterogeneous; in addition to the indigenous Carib and Arawak Indians, there are peoples...

West Indies, Federation of the
Federal union 1958-62 comprising Antigua, Barbados, Dominica, Grenada, Jamaica, Montserrat, St Kitts and Nevis and Anguilla, St Lucia, St Vincent,...

West Kennet
Neolithic (New Stone Age) long barrow or burial mound near Silbury Hill, Wiltshire, England. The barrow, which appears to have followed a careful plan, is remarkably intact. The main entrance at the...

West Lothian question
Question asking how it could be right that a Scottish member of Parliament (MP) at Westminster after devolution...

West Pakistan
A province of Pakistan. ...

West Point
Former fort in New York State, on the Hudson River, 80 km/50 mi north of New York City, site of the US Military Academy (commonly referred to as West Point), established 1802. Women were admitted in...

West Wing, The
US television drama series 1999-2006. Broadcast by the National Broadcasting Company (NBC) network, it depicted the working lives of the US president (played by Martin Sheen and his top staff at...

West, American
Western frontier of the USA. Specifically the term refers to the period 1840-90, when the Pacific West and Great Plains to the west of the Mississippi were settled. This was the era of the West, Benjamin
(1738-1820) American neoclassical painter. A noted history painter, he was active in London from 1763 and enjoyed the patronage of George III for many years. The Death...

West, Cornel
(1953) US educator and philosopher. Educated at Harvard University and New York's Union Theological Seminary, he became a noted writer and speaker on what he called `prophetic pragmatism`, a philosophy...

West, Fred
(1943-1995) and Rosemary (1953) English couple accused of murdering 12 women and girls over a 16-year period. They were arrested in 1994, and their home in Gloucester, England, was excavated to reveal many bodies, including that...

West, Joseph
(died 1692) English-born American colonist. He was the agent and storekeeper for the new settlement at Albemarle Point, South Carolina. He became governor in 1671 and led the fledgling colony through a year...

West, Nathanael
(1903-1940) US writer. He is noted as an idiosyncratic black-humour parodist. His surrealist-influenced novels capture the absurdity and extremity of American life and the dark side of the American Dream....

West, Rebecca
(1892-1983) English journalist and novelist, an active feminist from 1911. Her novels, of which the semi-autobiographical The Fountain Overflows (1956) and The Birds Fall Down (1966) are regarded as the best,...

Westall, Robert
(1929-1993) English novelist. Many of his novels and stories share the setting of World War II; his first novel for young adults is The Machine Gunners (1975, Carnegie Medal), and its sequel is Fathom Five...

Western
Genre of popular fiction and film based on the landscape and settlement of the American West, with emphasis on the conquest of Indian territory. It developed in American dime novels and Western Front
Battle zone in World War I between Germany and its enemies France and Britain, extending as lines of trenches from Nieuport on the Belgian coast through Ypres, Arras, Albert, Soissons, and Rheims to...

Western Jin
In Chinese history, the period 265-316 when the Wei dynasty established its pre-eminence and united the country. The Western Jin falls in the Three Kingdoms era. ...

Western Rebellion
Peasant rising in Devon and Cornwall 1549, partly in response to sheep tax and inflationary pressures but mainly against Edward IV's reformation laws. The rebels besieged Exeter and captured...

Westheimer, Ruth
(1928) German-born US celebrity psychosexual therapist. With her radio show Sexually Speaking, first aired in 1980, she became one of the first of a series of popular media psychologists. Other media...

Westland affair
In UK politics, the events surrounding the takeover of the British Westland helicopter company 1985-86. There was much political acrimony in the cabinet and allegations of malpractice. The affair...

Westminster Abbey
Gothic church in central London, officially the Collegiate Church of St Peter. It was built from 1050 to 1745 and consecrated under Edward the Confessor in 1065. The west towers are by Nicholas...

Westminster Bridge
Bridge spanning the River Thames in central London, England, overlooking the House of Commons. Designed by Thomas Page between 1854 and 1862, it is a steel bridge 247 m/810 ft long. At its western...

Westminster Cathedral
Roman Catholic Metropolitan church in London, England. The site, part of what was once known as Tothill Fields, was acquired by Cardinal Manning. His successor, Cardinal Vaughan, supervised the...

Westminster Hall
Ancient building adjacent to the Houses of Parliament in central London, England. The hall, which formed part of the original Palace of Westminster, was built by William II in 1097-99 as the...

Westminster, Palace of
See parliament, houses of. ...

Westmoreland, William Childs
(1914-2005) US general who served as commander of US forces in Vietnam 1964-68. He was an aggressive advocate of expanded US military involvement there. Born in Spartanburg County, South Carolina, USA,...

Weston, Frank
(1871-1924) English cleric, a strong supporter of the Anglo-Catholic tradition in...

Westphalia
Independent medieval duchy, incorporated in Prussia by the Congress of Vienna in 1815, and made a province in 1816 with Münster as its capital. Since 1946 it has been part of the German Land...

Westphalia, Treaty of
Agreement in 1648 ending the Thirty Years' War. The peace marked...

Westport House
Classical early Georgian house and a seat of the Marquess of Sligo, at Westport, County Mayo, Republic of Ireland. It was designed by Richard Castle about 1730 using the existing fortified house,...

Westward expansion
In US history, the period of settlement 1800-50 when Americans pushed the frontier westwards in search of land and resources, economic opportunities, a better life, and, for some, religious...

wet
In UK politics, a derogatory term used to describe a moderate or left-wing supporter of the Conservative Party, especially those who opposed the monetary or other hardline policies of its former...

wetback
Derogatory term for an illegal immigrant from Mexico who lives and works in the USA. The name derives from the traditional mode of entry - by swimming or wading across the Rio Grande River. ...

Wetherell, Elizabeth
Pen-name of US novelist Susan Warner. ...

Wexford, Battle of
Assault on the southern garrison town of Wexford, County Wexford, by Oliver Cromwell's Puritan Parliamentary army in October 1649, during Wexler, Jerry
(1917) US record producer and popular music journalist. Between 1948 and 1951, he wrote a column for Billboard in which he reported on African-American popular music and coined the term...

Weyden, Rogier van der
(c. 1399-1464) Netherlandish artist. He was the official painter to the city of Brussels from 1436. He produced portraits and religious paintings like The Last Judgement (c. 1450; Hôtel-Dieu, Beaune) in a...

Weygand, Maxime
(1867-1965) French general. In World War I he was chief of staff to Marshal Foch and chief of the Allied general staff in 1918. In 1940, as French commander-in-chief, he advised surrender to Germany, and...

Weyman, Stanley John
(1855-1928) English novelist. His novels, nearly all historical, include A Gentleman of France 1893, Under the Red Robe 1894, The Red Cockade 1895, Chippinge 1906, and Queen's Folly 1925. ...