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

Wouk, Herman
(1915) US writer. He is best known for best-selling novels, such as The Caine Mutiny: A Novel of World War II (1951), Marjorie Morningstar (1955), and T ...

Wounded Knee
Site on the Oglala Sioux Reservation, South Dakota, USA, of a confrontation between the US Army and American Indians on 29 December 1890; the last `battle` of the Plains Wars. On 15 December the...

Wouters, Frans
(1612-1659) Flemish painter. He painted religious and allegorical subjects and especially landscapes with figures. He worked in Antwerp, where he was a pupil of Peter Paul Rubens, and also...

Wouwermans
Family of Dutch painters, based in Haarlem. The brothers Philips Wouwermans (1619-1668), Pieter Wouwermans (1623-1682), and Jan Wouwermans (1629-1666) all specialized in l ...

Woyrsch, Remus von
(1847-1925) German general. He joined the army 1866 and fought in the Franco-Prussian War 1870-71. In World War I, he was one of Hindenburg's staff during the first attacks on Russia 1914, and in 1915...

Wrangel, Karl Gustav
(1613-1676) Swedish army commander who played a leading role in the later campaigns of the Thirty Years' War (1618-48). In 1646 he succeeded Torstensson as commander-in-chief of...

Wren, Christopher
(1632-1723) English architect. His ingenious use of a refined and sober baroque style can be seen in his best-known work, St Paul's Cathedral, London (1675-1711), and in the many churches he built in London...

Wren, P(ercival) C(hristopher)
(1875-1941) English novelist. Drawing on his experiences in the French and Indian armies, he wrote adventure novels including Beau Geste (1924) dealing with the Foreign Legion. ...

Wright, (Philip) Quincy
(1890-1970) US legal scholar. Born in Medford, Massachusetts, he was educated at Lombard College and the University of Illinois, gaining his PhD in 1915. He then taught at Harvard (1916-19), the University of...

Wright, Arthur Frederick
(1913-1976) US historian. Born in Portland, Oregon, and with a PhD from Harvard, he taught at Stanford (1947-59) and Yale (1959-76) and was a leading Asia scholar of his generation. He focused on...

Wright, Charles A(lan)
(1927) US legal scholar. His major publications are Handbook of the Law of Federal Courts (1963) and Federal Practice and Procedure: Criminal (four vols. 1969). Born in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, he...

Wright, Elizur
(1804-1885) US abolitionist and insurance reformer. He fought for and won the enactment of insurance reforms that had wide impact on the US insurance industry, including those that required companies to...

Wright, Frances
(1795-1852) British abolitionist and social activist. She purchased 640 acres near Memphis, Tennessee, and set up a plantation, Nashoba, on which she intended to demonstrate a method for liberating slaves. Her...

Wright, Harold Bell
(1872-1944) US novelist. He wrote the somewhat moralizing but very popular novels The Shepherd of the Hills 1907 and The Winning of Barbara Worth 1911. ...

Wright, Jim
(1922) US Democrat representative. He served in the Texas legislature (1947-49) and was Democratic mayor of Weatherford, Texas (1950-54) before going to the US House of Representatives (1955-89). A...

Wright, John J(oseph)
(1909-1979) US Catholic prelate. Doctrinally conservative, he was a liberal on social issues and a strong promoter of ecumenism and of retreats for laypeople. Born in Boston, Massachusetts, he was ordained in...

Wright, Joseph
(1734-1797) English painter. He was known as Wright of Derby, from his birthplace. He painted portraits, landscapes, and groups performing scientific experiments. His work is often dramatically lit - by fire,...

Wright, Nicholas Thomas
(1948) English cleric and academic, and bishop of Durham from 2003. He is generally considered to represent the moderate evangelical wing of the Church. As a renowned Church of England author on the New...

Wright, Peter
(1916-1995) English intelligence agent. His book Spycatcher (1987), written after his retirement, caused an international stir when the British government tried unsuccessfully to block its publication anywhere...

Wright, Richard (Nathaniel)
(1908-1960) US writer and poet. He was regarded as an inspiration by black American writers such as James Baldwin. His Uncle Tom's Children (1938), a collection of four stories, was highly acclaimed. In 1937 he...

writ
In law, a document issued by a court requiring performance of certain actions. These include a writ of delivery (for the seizure of goods), writ of execution (enforcement of a judgement), writ of...

Writers to the Signet
Society of Scottish solicitors. Their predecessors were originally clerks in the secretary of state's office entrusted with the preparation of documents requiring the signet, or seal. Scottish...

Wu Zhao
(625-705) Chinese concubine and empress of the Tang dynasty (690-705). The only female sovereign in the history of China, she was concubine to the emperors Tai Zong and Gao Zong and appointed herself...

Wuchang
Former city in Hubei province, China; amalgamated with Wuhan. ...

wudu
Muslim practice of ablution (ceremonial washing) before salat (prayer), as a mark of respect for God and in preparation for worship. After niyyah (turning to God in mind), the hands, mouth,...

Wuerkaixi
(1968) Chinese dissident, one of the leading figures in the May-June 1989 pro-democracy movement that was crushed in Tiananmen Square, Beijing. He was a second-year student at Beijing Normal...

Wulfstan
(died 1023) Anglo-Saxon church leader and writer. He was bishop of London 996-1002, archbishop of York from 1002, and at the same time bishop of Worcester 1003-16. His literary reputation rests upon a...

Wulfstan, St
(c. 1009-1095) Anglo-Saxon cleric, bishop of Worcester from 1062. He supported William the Conqueror and so was the only Anglo-Saxon bishop allowed to retain his see. He helped compile the Domesday Book and...

Wurzburg
German early warning radar set, one of the first designs developed 1936. It went into service 1940 and became the standard German air defence warning equipment of World War II. ...

Wusita
Alternative name for a member of the American Indian Wichita people. ...

Wuthering Heights
Novel (1847) by Emily Brontë. The orphan Heathcliff is loved by Catherine, the daughter of his adopted father, Mr Earnshaw of Wuthering Heights. Ill-treated after Earnshaw's death, Heathcliff's...

Wyandot
Alternative name for a member of the American Indian Huron people. ...

Wyant, Alexander Helwig
(1836-1892) US painter. A landscape painter, he began in the style of the Hudson River School, but his study of John Constable and J M W Turner dur ...

Wyatt, James
(1746-1813) English architect. A contemporary of the Adam brothers, he designed in the Neo-Gothic style. His overenthusiastic `restorations` of medieval cathedrals (Durham, Hereford, Lichfield and...

Wyatt, Thomas
(c. 1503-1542) English courtier and poet. His poetry, like that of the Earl of Surrey, often experimented with verse forms associated with Italian poet Petrarch and so may be credited with introducing the sonnet...

Wyatt's Rebellion
Protestant uprising in Kent January-February 1554 led by Sir Thomas Wyatt, in protest against Mary I's proposed marriage to Philip II of Spain. He marched on London with about 3,000 men early...

Wycherley, William
(1640-c. 1716) English Restoration dramatist. His first comedy, Love in a Wood, won him court favour in 1671, and later bawdy works include The Country Wife (1675) and The Plain Dealer (1676). ...

Wycliffe (or Wyclif), John
(c. 1320-1384) English religious reformer. Allying himself with the party of John of Gaunt, which was opposed to ecclesiastical influence at court, he attacked abuses in the medieval church, maintaining that the...

Wycombe, West
Village in Buckinghamshire, now forming part of the borough of High Wycombe. Most of the village, which contains many 17th- and 18th-century buildings, belongs to the National Trust. The latter...

Wyeth, Andrew Newell
(1917) US painter. Among the most popular of contemporary US artists, he is one of the leading exponents of New Realism and considered one of the greatest American Scene painters. His portraits and...

Wyeth, N(ewel) C(onvers)
(1882-1944) US artist. He was the foremost US illustrator of his time as well as an accomplished muralist. He illustrated over 20 children's classics, including Treasure Island, The Adventures of Tom Sawyer,...

Wyeth, Nathaniel (Jarvis)
(1802-1856) US trader and explorer. Born in Cambridge, Massachusetts, he was active in the ice business of Frederic Tudor. A follower of Hall Kelley, he attempted to settle a commercial and agricultural colony...

Wylie, Elinor Hoyt
(1885-1928) US novelist and poet. Her poems, which combine fantasy with fine craftsmanship, appear in Nets to Catch the Wind 1921 and several other volumes. The Orphan Angel 1926 is a novel about the English...

Wylie, Philip Gordon
(1902-1971) US novelist. He produced the controversial work A Generation of Vipers 1942, a book of essays which criticized US civilization and popularized the word `momism` for sentimentalized motherhood....

Wynants, Jan
(1625-1682) Dutch landscape painter, active in Amsterdam. His paintings of sandy lanes and undulating countryside were influenced by Jacob van Ruisdael's early work and usually had the addition of figures and...

Wyndham, Charles
(1837-1919) English actor and theatre manager. In 1879 he took over the Criterion Theatre, Charing Cross Road, London, and in 1899 opened Wyndham's Theatre. He is said to have acted best in such plays as Thomas...

Wyndham, John
(1903-1969) English science fiction writer. He wrote The Day of the Triffids (1951), describing the invasion of Earth by a strange plant mutation;The Chrysalids (1955); and The Midwich Cuckoos (1957). A...

Wyntoun, Andrew of
(c. 1350-1420) Scottish chronicler. He was prior of the monastery of St Serf on Loch Leven from about 1395 and wrote The Orygynale Cronykil of Scotland about 1420, a metrical record from the creation of the world...

Wyspianski, Stanislaw
(1868-1907) Polish dramatist, painter, and poet. He harboured a vision of the theatre as a place where all the arts might coalesce to produce a grand symbolic event. The November 1830 rising in Poland against...

Wyss, Johann David
(1743-1818) Swiss author. He is remembered for the children's classic Swiss Family Robinson (1812-13). The novel was completed and edited by his son, Johann Rudolf Wyss. ...

Wyss, Johann Rudolf
(1781-1830) Swiss writer. He was the son of Johann David Wyss and completed and edited his father's novel Swiss Family Robinson 1812-13. He was also the author of the Swiss national anthem, `Rufst du, mein...

Wyszynski, Stepan
(1901-1981) Polish Roman Catholic churchman, archbishop of Gniezno and Warsaw and Primate of Poland from 1948 until his death. He was appointed a cardinal in 1952, but before he could take up his office, he was...

Wythe, George
(1726-1806) US judge and law educator. He was the first professor of law in the USA (1779-90), at the College of William and Mary, teaching John Marshall, James Monroe, Henry Clay, and others who would become...

Xanthos
Ancient site of Lycia, in southern Asia Minor, part of present-day Turkey. Xanthos was rediscovered by English archaeologist Charles Fellows 1838. The ruins, dating from the 5th century BC,...

Xavier, St Francis
(1506-1552) Spanish Jesuit missionary. He went to the Portuguese colonies in the East Indies, arriving at Goa in 1542. He was in Japan 1549-51, establishing a Christian mission that lasted for 100 years. He...

Xenophanes
(lived c. 570-c. 470 BC) Greek poet and philosopher. He attacked the immoral and humanlike gods depicted by the poet Homer, holding that there is only one deity, `in no way like men in body or in thought`. He speculated...

Xenophon
(c. 430-c. 350 BC) Greek soldier and writer who was a disciple of Socrates (described in Xenophon's Symposium). He joined the Persian prince Cyrus the Younger against his brother Artaxerxes II in 401 BC, and after the...

Xerxes I
(c. 519-465 BC) Achaemenid king of Persia 486-465 BC, the son and successor of Darius (I) the Great. He suppressed Babylonian revolts in 484 and 482, t ...

Xhosa
Member of a Bantu people of South Africa, living mainly in the Eastern Cape province. Traditionally, the Xhosa were farmers and cattle herders, cattle having great social and religious importance to...

Xi'an Incident
Kidnapping of the Chinese generalissimo and politician Jiang Jie Shi (Chiang Kai-shek) in Xi'an on 12 December 1936, by one of his own generals, to force his cooperation with the communists...

Xia dynasty (or Hsia dynasty)
China's first legendary ruling family, c. 2200-c. 1500 BC, reputedly founded by the model emperor Yu the Great. He is believed to have controlled floods by constructing dykes. Archaeological...

Ximénes de Cisneros, Francisco
(1436-1517) Spanish churchman, politician, and scholar. He was an energetic church reformer, seeking a return to more austere standards of Christian life, and he encouraged the conversion of the Moors of...

Xingjian, Gao
(1940) Chinese-born French novelist, dramatist, and artist. Gao Xingjian's writings reflect his views as a political activist and supporter of human rights. His work combines Zen philosophy with a modern...

Xinhua
Official Chinese news agency. ...

Xiongnu
Nomadic confederacy, possibly of Turkish origin, that fought against the Chinese states in the 3rd century BC. Their power began in Mongolia in about 200 BC, but they were forced back to the Gobi...

Xisuthros
Alternative name for Ziusudra, Sumerian hero of the Flood story. ...

xylyl bromide
Chemical weapon of World War I; a lachrymatory (tear) gas, first used by the Germans at Bolimov 31 January 1915 under the name T-Stoff. It was highly effective and relatively non-lethal, but was...

XYZ Affair
In American history, an incident 1797-98 in which the French as represented by foreign minister Talleyrand were accused of demand ...

yad
In Judaism, an ornate silver pointer used to follow the text in the Torah scrolls during a reading in synagogue. The Torah is handwritten on parchment, and human touch would eventually erase the...

Yad Vashem
Memorial in Jerusalem, Israel to those who died in the Holocaust, or Shoah, under the German Nazi regime 1933-45, and to those who saved lives, whether they were Jews or Gentiles (non-Jews)....

Yadin, Yigael
(1917-1984) Israeli archaeologist. He directed excavations at Hazor, Megiddo, Masada, and other sites in Israel, and led the exploration of the Judaean desert caves. His work on the Dead Sea Scrolls is of...

Yahweh
Alternative spelling of Jehovah or Jahweh -`The Lord` or `God` of Israel. This spelling derives from the Greek transliteration of the name of God. ...

Yahya Khan, Agha Muhammad
(1917-1980) Pakistani president 1969-71. His mishandling of the Bangladesh separatist issue led to civil war and he was forced to resign. Yahya Khan fought with the British army in the Middle East during...

Yakama
Member of an American Indian people who lived along the Columbia River valley on the Great Columbia Plateau, Washington. They speak a Penutian-Sahaptin language, and are closely related to the Nez...

Yakima
Former name for a member of the American Indian Yakama people. ...

Yako
Member of a people living in the Cross River State of southeastern Nigeria. They grow yams and forest crops. The Yako live in large villages divided into wards composed of several patrilineal clans,...

Yakobson, Sergius O
(1901-1979) Russian foreign affairs specialist and author. Born in Moscow, Russia, he emigrated to the USA to escape the onslaught of World War II. He was a Russian affairs specialist for the Library of...

yakshi
In Indian mythology, a female goddess associated with the fertility of the earth, love, and beauty. Yakshis probably originated with the early Dravidians but have subsequently been absorbed into the...

Yakut
Member of the most numerous of the peoples of northern Russia. They live in the basin of the Lena River and adjacent areas of eastern Siberia. They are sedentary; most are stockbreeders, hunters,...

yakuza
Japanese gangster. Organized crime in Japan is highly structured, and the various syndicates between them employed some 110,000 people 1989, with a turnover of an estimated 1.5 trillion yen. The...

Yale School
Group of literary critics, based at Yale University, Connecticut, USA, who applied the deconstructionist approach of group member Jacques Derrida to literary theory. They tried to show the...

Yalta Conference
Strategic conference held 4-11 February 1945 in Yalta (a Soviet holiday resort in the Crimea) by the main Allied leaders in World War II. At this, the second of three key meetings between the...

Yalu River, Battle of
During the Russo-Japanese War, Russian defeat by the Japanese 1 May 1904 in the vicinity of Antung (now Dandong), Manchuria. The Yalu River formed the border with Korea, and a 40,000-strong...

Yalu River, Battle of
In the first Sino-Japanese War, Chinese naval defeat by a Japanese fleet 17 September 1894 at the mouth of the Yalu River, the border between Korea and Manchuria. This was the first large-scale...

Yama
In Hindu mythology, god and judge of the dead. Believed to be the first person ever to die, he is portrayed in images riding on a black buffalo. ...

Yamagata, Aritomo
(1838-1922) Japanese soldier, politician, and prime minister 1889-91 and 1898-1900. As war minister in 1873 and chief of the imperial general staff in 1878, he was largely responsible for the modernization...

Yamamoto, Gombei
(1852-1933) Japanese admiral and politician. As prime minister 1913-14, he began Japanese expansion into China and initiated political reforms. He became premier again 1923 but resigned the following year. ...

Yamamoto, Isoroku
(1884-1943) Japanese admiral in World War II. Long convinced that Japan would eventually fight the USA he began planning the attack on Pearl Harbor early 1940. After the raid he was quick to appreciate the...

Yamani, Ahmad Zaki al-
(1930) Saudi Arabian politician, oil minister 1962-86. An exemplar of a new generation of young, Western-trained technocrats who came to serve the ruling al-Saud family, al-Yamani rose to...

Yamasee
Member of an American Indian people who inhabited Georgia before migrating to South Carolina in the late 17th century. Their language belonged to the Muskogean family. Predominantly maize-farmers,...

Yamashita, Tomoyuki
(1885-1946) Japanese general in World War II. He commanded the 25th Army in the invasion of Malaya and Yamato
Japanese battleship class of World War II, consisting of the Yamato and the Musashi. Designed to be bigger and more powerful than any other warship in the world, they displaced 64,170 tons, had a...

Yamato
Ancient name of Japan and particularly the province of western Honshu where Japanese civilization began and where the early capitals were located; also the clan from which all emperors of Japan are...

Yanamamo
A semi-nomadic Native South American people, numbering approximately 22,000 (9,500 in northern Brazil and the rest in Venezuela), where most continue to follow their traditional way of life. The...

Yanayev, Gennady
(1937) Soviet communist politician, vice-president of the USSR 1990-91. He led the August 1991 anti-Gorbachev attempted coup, after which he was arrested and charged with treason. He was released in...

Yancey, William Lowndes
(1814-1863) US representative and diplomat. He is largely credited with shaping southern public opinion to favour secession. Born in Ogeechee, Georgia, he was a leading Alabama lawyer who resigned after an...

Yang Shangkun
(1907-1998) Chinese communist politician. He held a senior position in the Central Committee of the Communist Party of China (CCP) 1956-66 but was demoted dur ...

Yangshao
Site of a Neolithic culture in Henan, in the Huang He (Yellow River) region of northern China. Discovered in the 1920s, the culture dates from the 4th-3rd millennia BC. Polished stone axes and...

Yankee
Colloquial (often disparaging) term for an American. Outside the USA the term is applied to any American. During the American Civil War, the term was applied by Southerners to any Northerner or...

Yankton
Dialect of the American Indian Siouan-Nakota language. ...