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

Yao
A people living in southern China, North Vietnam, northern Laos, Thailand, and Myanmar (Burma), and numbering about 4 million (1984). The Yao language may belong to either the Sino-Tibetan or the...

Yao Wenyuan
(1931-2005) Chinese communist politician, member of the ultra-leftist Gang of Four. Yao joined with other members of the Gang to overthrow, in January 1967, the moderate Shanghai Chinese Communist Party (CCP)...

Yao Yilin
(191-1994) Chinese communist politician. During the 1960s he served as commerce minister, but was purged in 1967, during the `anti-bourgeois` Cultural Revolution of 1966-69, having been branded a...

Yaqui
Member of an American Indian people living near the Yaqui River in Sonora, Mexico; many migrated into Arizona from 1887 to escape political persecution. Their language belongs to the Cahitan branch...

yarmulke
Skullcap worn by Jewish men. ...

yarn
Thread produced by drawing and twisting together fibres or filaments. There are two main categories of yarn: single, continuous filament yarn and spun yarn. Continuous filament yarn is made when two...

Yarwood, Mike
(1941) English impressionist who enjoyed high ratings on British television in the 1970s. ...

yashmak
Traditional Muslim face veil, worn by devout Muslim women in the presence of men. ...

Yavlinsky, Grigory Alekseevich
(1952) Ukrainian-born politician; leader of the Russian political party Yabloko. An economist, he became an economics minister in one of Yeltsin's governments when Russia was still part of the USSR but...

Yawer, Ghazi al-
(1958) Iraqi ethnic leader and president of the interim Iraqi government from 2004. A US-educated moderate Sunni Muslim and former exile, he became president after former Iraqi foreign minister Adnan...

Übermensch
In the writings of the German philosopher Friedrich Nietzsche, the ideal to which humans should aspire, set out...

Ydígoras Fuentes, Miguel
(1895-1982) Guatemalan politician, president 1958-63. He promoted reform but encountered conservative opposition, while falling coffee prices resulted in social disorder to which Ydígoras responded by...

Yeager, Chuck
(1923) US aviator and test pilot. Yeager was the first man to break the sound barrier and was involved in numerous aviation projects. He held various air force command assignments 1954-62 and was vice...

Yeats, Jack Butler
(1871-1957) Irish painter and illustrator. His spirited portrayals of Irish life and landscape are painted in a colourful and highly individualistic style, with vigorously worked paint, as in Back from the...

Yedo
Former name of Tokyo, Japan, until 1868. ...

Yellow Book, The
Illustrated literary and artistic quarterly in the UK to which the artists Aubrey Beardsley and Walter Sickert, and the writers Max Beerbohm and Henry James contributed. It was published in London,...

Yellow Emperor
Mythical Chinese ruler said to have had 25 sons who were the ancestors of the Chinese people. Culture and civilization are said to have developed during his reign (including the first use of boats,...

yellow press
Exaggerated, distorted, or false information printed to boost a newspaper's circulation. The technique was first used in 1895 by two rival US publications: Joseph Pulitzer's The World and William...

Yeltsin, Boris Nikolayevich
(1931-2007) Russian politician, president of the Russian Soviet Federative Socialist Republic (RSFSR) 1990-91, and president of the newly independent Russian Federation 1991-99. He directed the Federation's...

Yemen
Country in southwest Asia, bounded north by Saudi Arabia, east by Oman, south by the Gulf of Aden, and west by the Red Sea. Government The 1991 constitution, as subsequently amended, provides for a...

yen
The standard currency of Japan. ...

Yen Wang
In Chinese mythology, first god of the underworld and judge of the dead, presiding over the system of punishment and reincarnation. ...

Yeo, Tim
(1945) British Conservative politician. Situated on the party's social-liberal wing, he became MP for South Suffolk in 1983. He was parliamentary private secretary to Douglas ...

yeoman
In England, a small landowner who farmed his own fields - a system that formed a bridge between the break-up of feudalism and the agrarian revolution of the 18th-19th centuries. ...

Yeomanry
English volunteer cavalry organized 1794, and incorporated into volunteer regiments which became first the Territorial Force 1908 and then the Territorial Army 1922. ...

Yeomen of the Guard
English military corps, popularly known as Beefeaters, the sovereign's bodyguard since the corps was founded by Henry VII in 1485. Its duties are now purely ceremonial. There are Yeomen warders at...

Yerby, Frank (Garvin)
(1916-1991) US writer. He first gained recognition for his short stories about racial injustice, but he turned to writing best-selling romantic adventure novels, such as The Foxes of Harrow (1946). Born in...

Yermak (or Ermak)
(died 1584) Cossack military leader (ataman; Ukrainian hetman) who began the Russian conquest of Siberia under Ivan (IV) the Terrible. In 1581-84, while in the service of the rich merchant Anika Stroganov, he...

Yesenin, Sergei Aleksandrovich
Alternative form of Esenin, Russian poet. ...

yeshiva
Jewish college of religion; in Orthodox Judaism, a day school providing religious and secular instruction. On average, college students will attend yeshiva for five years, studying...

yeti
Name given by the Sherpas of east Nepal to an unidentified animal of the Himalayas, also known as the abominable snowman. The creature reputedly inhabits the deserts of scree at an altitude of about...

Yevele, Henry
(died 1400) English architect, appointed master mason to Edward III about 1357 and continued under Richard II and Henry IV. He designed the naves of Westminster Abbey (begun 1375) and Westminster Hall...

Yevonde, Madame
(1893-1975) English photographer. Following an apprenticeship 1911-14, she set up her own photographic studio and became a successful society and advertising photographer after 1918. She is noted for her...

Yevtushenko, Yevgeny Aleksandrovich
(1933) Russian poet. He aroused controversy with his anti-Stalinist `Stalin's Heirs` (1956), published with Khrushchev's support, and `Babi Yar` (1961), which attacked Russian as well as Nazi...

Yezhov, Nikolai Ivanovich
(1895-1939) Soviet politician and party functionary. As head of the NKVD (the Soviet secret police) 1936-38, he was a major figure in Stalin's ruthless purges of the Communist Party. The bloody suppression of...

Yezidi
Islamic sect originating as disciples of the Sufi saint Sheikh Adi ibn Musafir (12th century). The beliefs of its adherents mingle folk traditions with Islam, also incorporating features of Judaism...

Yezierska, Anzia
(c. 1885-1970) US writer. She wrote short stories, notably Hungry Hearts (1920), and on the basis of that publication moved from New York to California, where her collection was made into a silent movie. Born in...

Yggdrasil
In Norse mythology, the world tree, a sacred ash which spanned heaven and hell. It was evergreen and tended by the Norns, goddesses of past, present, and future. Yggdrasil had three roots with a...

YHA
Abbreviation for Youth Hostels Association. ...

YHVH
In Hebrew texts, the written form of the unutterable sacred name of God, given as Yahweh or Jehovah in the Hebrew Bible (Old Testament). The vowels are removed to make the...

Yi
Member of a people living in the mountainous regions of southwestern China, northern Vietnam, Laos, Thailand, and Myanmar, totalling about 5.5 million (1987).The Yi are farmers, producing both crops...

Yi, Sun-sin
(1545-1598) Korean admiral and national hero who defeated Japanese attempts to invade the country in the late 16th century. His mastery of tactics and use of iron armour on his ships won him a series of...

yield
In finance, the annual percentage return from an investment; on ordinary shares it is the dividend expressed as a percentage. ...

Yilmaz, A Mesut
(1947) Turkish politician, prime minister in 1991, 1996, and from 1997. He rose to power through a number of ministerial posts 1986-1990 and became leader of the right-of-centre Motherland Party...

Yima
In Persian mythology, a legendary king whose life was saved from floods by Ahura Mazda. On Mazda's command, Yima built himself an underground fortress into which he took perfect specimens of every...

yin and yang
The passive (characterized as feminine, negative, intuitive) and active (characterized as masculine, positive, intellectual) principles of nature. Their interaction is believed to maintain...

Yin dynasty
Another name for the Chinese Shang dynasty. ...

Yippie
In the USA, a member of the Youth International Party (YIP), led by Abbie Hoffman and Jerry Rubin, who mocked the US political process during the 1960s. ...

Ymir
In Norse mythology, the first living being, a giant who grew from melting frost; father of the Jotuns, a race of evil giants. He was nurtured by four streams of milk from the cow Audhumla, mother of...

yoga
Hindu philosophical system attributed to Patanjali, who lived about 150 BC at Gonda, Uttar Pradesh, India. He preached mystical union with a personal deity through the practice of self-hypnosis...

Yolen, Jane (Hyatt)
(1939) US writer, poet, and editor. She was known as a tireless lecturer, teacher, editor, and promoter of imaginative writing for children. Born in New York, New York, after graduat ...

Yom Kippur
Jewish high holy day, or `day of awe`, held on the tenth day of Tishri (September-October), the first month of the Jewish year. It is a day of fasting, penitence, and cleansing from sin,...

Yom Kippur War
The surprise attack on Israel in October 1973 by Egypt and Syria; see Arab-Israeli Wars;Israel, the Fourth Arab-Israeli War; and Egypt, the Fourth Arab-Israeli War. It is named after the...

Yonge, Charlotte M(ary)
(1823-1901) English novelist. Her books deal mainly with family life, and are influenced by the High Church philosophy of the Oxford Movement. She is chiefly remembered as the author of The...

yoni
In Hinduism, an image of the female genitalia as an object of worship, a manifestation of Sakti; the male equivalent is the lingam. ...

York
English dynasty founded by Richard, Duke of York (1411-60). He claimed the throne through his descent from Lionel, Duke of Clarence (1338-68), third son of Edward III, whereas the reigning...

York Minster
Cathedral in York, England. It is the cathedral and metropolitan church of St Peter, and one of the most famous of Europe's Gothic buildings. The first church on this site dated from the 7th...

York, Alvin Cullum `Sergeant`
(1887-1964) US war hero. Although a conscientious objector, York was drafted as a private in the 82nd Infantry Division in World War I and promoted to the rank of sergeant. At the Battle of the Argonne Forest 8...

York, archbishop of
Metropolitan (archbishop with authority over bishops) of the northern province of the Anglican Church in England, hence primate of England. The...

York, Duke of
Title often borne by younger sons of British sovereigns, for example George V, George VI, and Prince Andrew from 1986. ...

York, Susannah
(1941) English actor. One of the quintessential faces of the 1960s, she made her film debut in Tunes of Glory (1960), followed by more than 50 pictures, including The Killing of Sister George (1968) and...

Yorke, Peter (Christopher)
(1864-1925) US Catholic priest, journalist, and activist. Born in Galway, Ireland, he was ordained in Baltimore in 1887 after study in Ireland and the USA. He was chancellor of the San Francisco archdiocese...

Yorke, Rosenberg & Mardall
English architectural practice founded 1944 by F R S Yorke (1906-1962), Eugene Rosenberg (1907-1990), and Cyrill Mardall (1909); now known as YRM. The group's undiluted modernist style was...

Yorktown, Battle of
Decisive British defeat in the American Revolution September-October 1781 at Yorktown, Virginia, 105 km/65 mi southeast of Richmond. The British commander Lord Cornwallis had withdrawn into...

Yoruba
The majority ethnic group living in southwestern Nigeria; there is a Yoruba minority in eastern Benin. They number approximately 20 million in all, and...

Yoshida, Shigeru
(1878-1967) Japanese diplomat and conservative Liberal politician who served as prime minister for most of the period 1946-54, including much of the US occupation 1945-52. Under Yoshida, Japan signed the...

Young England
Group of Cambridge-educated English aristocrats, newly elected to Parliament in 1841, who shared a distaste for the growth of democracy and manufacturing industry in contemporary England, and who...

Young Ireland
Irish romantic nationalist organization, centred on a group of young idealists associated with the Nation newspaper from 1844. They sought to create a non-sectarian spirit in an independent...

Young Italy
Italian nationalist organization founded in 1831 by Giuseppe Mazzini while in exile in Marseille. The movement, which was immediately popular, was followed the next year by Young Germany, Young...

young offender institution
In the UK, place of detention for lawbreakers under 17 (juveniles) and 17-21 (young adults). The period of detention depends on the seriousness of the offence and on the age and sex of the...

Young Plan
Scheme devised by US entrepreneur Owen D Young to reschedule German payments of war reparations 1929. ...

Young Pretender
Nickname of Charles Edward Stuart, claimant to the Scottish and English thrones. ...

Young Turk
Member of a reformist movement of young army officers in the Ottoman Empire founded 1889. The movement was instrumental in the constitutional changes of 1908 and the abdication of Sultan Abd...

Young, Ammi B(urnham)
(1798-1874) US architect. Born in Lebanon, New Hampshire, he designed the Vermont State House, Montpelier in 1832, and the Customs House, Boston, Massachusetts (1837-47). As...

Young, Andrew (Jackson), Jr
(1932) US civil rights activist, protestant minister, and public official. He was an exponent of moderation and reform within the black American community. Born in New Orleans, Louisiana, as a minister he...

Young, Andrew John
(1885-1971) Scottish poet. He wrote many nature poems and poems of religious reflection. His first book of verse, Songs of Night 1910, was published privately. He reached a public with his seventh, Winter...

Young, David Ivor
(1932) British Conservative politician, chair of the Manpower Services Commission (MSC) 1982-84, secretary for employment from 1985, trade and industry secretary 1987-89, when he retired from politics...

Young, E(mily) H(ilda)
(1880-1949) English novelist. Her works are social satires set mainly in a fictionalized Bristol. They include Miss Mole 1930, A Corn of Wheat 1910, The Vicar's Daughter 1928, and Chatterton Square 1947. The...

Young, Edward
(1683-1765) English poet and dramatist. A country cleric for much of his life, he wrote his principal work Night Thoughts on Life, Death and Immortality from 1742-46, a meditation mourning the death of his...

Young, Ewing
(died 1841) US pioneer and trapper. Born in eastern Tennessee, he trapped in New Mexico before travelling throughout California (1832-34). With Hall Kelley, he went to Oregon in 1834. He became a leader in...

Young, Francis Brett
(1884-1954) English novelist and poet. His novels include Portrait of Clare 1927, My Brother Jonathan 1928, and The Man About the House 1942. Poems 1916-18 appeared 1919 and The Island, a long poem about...

Young, George Malcolm
(1882-1959) English historian whose works include Victorian England, 1936, and Today and Yesterday, 1948. He was particularly noted for his biographies, such as Life of Gibbon, 1932 (on the 18th-century...

Young, M(erwin) Crawford
(1931) US political scientist. He specialized in politics and development in developing countries, particularly Africa. Born in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, and with a Harvard PhD, he spent his academic...

Young, Owen D
(1874-1962) US lawyer, businessman, and public official. An international diplomat, Young helped devise the Dawes Plan (1923-24) to ease the World War I debt payments crippling Germany. He chaired the 1929...

Young, Stark
(1881-1963) US drama critic and novelist. He was regarded as one of the first serious US critics of current theatre, his best work collected in Immortal Shadows (1949). Born in Como, Mississippi, he gave up his...

Yount, George (Concepcion)
(1794-1865) US pioneer and trapper. Born in Dowden Creek, North Carolina, he trapped along the Arizona rivers before going to California with William Wolfskill (1830-31). He became a Mexican citizen in 1835...

Yourcenar, Marguerite
(1903-1987) French writer. She first gained recognition as a novelist in France in the 1930s with books such as La Nouvelle Euridyce/The New Euridyce (1931). Her evocation of past eras and characters,...

Youssoufi, Abderrahmane
(1924) Moroccan politician; prime minister 1998-2002. He joined the Parti de l'Istiqlal (PI) in 1944 and participated in the formation of the left-wing National Union of Popular Forces in 1959 (renamed...

Youth Hostels Association
Registered charity founded in Britain in 1930 to promote knowledge and care of the countryside by providing cheap overnight accommodation for young people on active holidays (such as walking or...

YouTube
Online video sharing company. Founded in 2005, it was purchased by Google for $1.65 billion the following year. A range of content includes basic home movies and video blogs, music videos, film...

Ypres, 1st Earl of
Title of Sir John French, British field marshal. ...

Ypres, Battles of
In World War I, three major battles 1914-17 between German and Allied forces near Ypres, a Belgian town in western Flanders, 40 km/25 mi south of Ostend. Nei ...

Ypsilantis
Noble Greek family that rose to power in Constantinople during the 18th and 19th centuries, and who became leaders of the cause of Greek nationalism. They were one of a small elite of 11 Greek...

Ysa
Alternative name for a member of the American Indian Catawba people. ...

Yser, Battle of the
World War I battle between Allied and German forces 15-31 October 1914; the final engagement of the Allied `race to the sea`. This battle saw the successful defence of the River Yser from...

Ysuk-Köl
Salt lake in northeastern Kyrgyzstan, in the Terskey Alatau mountain range 1,608 m/5,276 ft above sea-level. With an area of some 6,236-6,330 sq km/c. 2,450 sq mi, Ysuk-Köl is the world's...

Yuan dynasty
Mongol rulers of China 1279-1368 after ...

Yuanmingyuan
Palace outside Beijing, China, begun in the 18th century by Emperor Kangxi, but mostly built 1747-59 by his grandson Qianlong. The palace was burned down by Lord Elgin October 1860 as revenge for...

Yudenich, Nikolai Nikolaevich
(1862-1933) Russian general. He saw service in the Russo-Japanese war 1904-05 and in World War I. He defeated the Turkish offensive in the Caucasus led by ...

Yugoslav literature
Prose and poetry from the region historically known as Yugoslavia. There are different languages and cultural traditions, of which the most important are Serbian, Croatian, Slovene, and (more...