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

bunyip
Imaginary water-dwelling creature of Aboriginal legend in eastern Australia, said to haunt rushy creeks and swamps. It is said to make loud booming noises and to eat humans, principally women and...

Buonconsiglio, Giovanni
(died c. 1536) Italian painter of the School of Vicenza, influenced by Bartolommeo Montagna. He worked both in Vicenza and in Venice, where he decorated a number of churches in association...

Bupalus
Greek sculptor. Working in Chios with his brother Athenis, he marked the transition from archaic to classical sculpture. Bupalus carved a figure of Tyche (Fortune) and also the Graces for the temple...

Burbage, Richard
(c. 1567-1619) English actor. He is thought to have been Shakespeare's original Hamlet, Othello, and Lear. He also appeared in first productions of works by Ben Jonson, Thomas Kyd, and John Webster. His father...

Burchiello, Domenico
(c. 1404-1449) Italian poet. His poems, mostly sonnets of the burlesque type and often licentious, had great contemporary popularity. Opposed to the Medici, he was forced...

Burckhardt, Jacob Christoph
(1818-1897) Swiss art historian, one of the founders of cultural history as a discipline. His The Civilization of the Renaissance in Italy (1860), intended as part of a study of world cultural history,...

Burckhardt, Johann Ludwig
(1784-1817) Swiss explorer sponsored 1806 by an English African Association to explore Africa. He discovered the ancient city of burden of proof
In court proceedings, the duty of a party to produce sufficient evidence to prove that his case is true. In English and US law a higher standard of proof is required in criminal cases (beyond all...

Burdett, Allen Mitchell, Jr
(1921-1980) US pilot. He helped test newly developed air mobility tactics as commander of the aviation group of the 1st Cavalry Division in Vietnam 1965-66. He subsequently directed the Army Aviation School...

Bureau of Indian Affairs
Bureau within the US Department of the Interior responsible for administering federal programmes for recognized American Indian ethnic groups, and for promoting American Indian self-determination....

Burger, Warren Earl
(1907-1995) US jurist, chief justice of the US Supreme Court 1969-86. Appointed to the court by President Richard Nixon because of his conservative views, Burger showed himself to be pragmatic and liberal on...

Burgers, Thomas François
(1834-1881) South African president of Transvaal. He was a native of Cape Colony and minister of the Dutch Reformed Church. He was elected president by the Boers in 1872, during one...

Burges, William
(1827-1881) English Gothic Revival architect and designer. His style is characterized by sumptuous interiors with carving, painting, and gilding. His chief works are St Finbarr's Ca ...

Burgess, Anthony
(1917-1993) English novelist, critic, and composer. A prolific and versatile writer, Burgess wrote about 60 books as well as screenplays, television scripts, and reviews. His work includes A Clockwork Orange...

Burgess, Frank Gelett
(1866-1951) US humorous writer. He published collections of poems, stories, and sketches, including Goops and How to be Them (1900);Are You a Bromide? 1897, a satire on platitudes; and Burgess Unabridged...

Burgess, Guy Francis de Moncy
(1911-1963) British spy, a diplomat recruited in the 1930s by the USSR as an agent. He was linked with Kim Philby, Donald Maclean (1913-1983),...

Burgess, John William
(1844-1931) US historian. In 1873 he was appointed professor of political science at Amherst College, Massachusetts, and later moved to New York as professor of political science and constitutional law at...

Burgess, Melvin
(1954) English author. His often controversial books for children and teenagers have received wide critical acclaim, including Junk (1996) which focuses on homelessness and heroin addiction and won the...

Burgess, Thornton W (Waldo)
(1874-1965) US writer. He published 54 books of stories for children, based on the bedtime stories he told to his son. The first two were Old Mother West Wind (1910) and Mother West Wind's Children (1911). Many...

burgh
Archaic form of borough. ...

burgh
Former unit of Scottish local government, referring to a town enjoying a degree of self-government. Burghs were abolished in 1975; the terms burgh and royal burgh once gave mercantile privilege...

burgher
Term used from the 11th century to describe citizens of burghs who were freemen of a burgh and had the right to participate in its government. They usually had to possess a house within the burgh. ...

Burghley House
House in Cambridgeshire, England, near Stamford, Lincolnshire. Built between 1556 and 1587 by William Cecil, first Lord Burghley, it is now the seat of his descendants, the Marquesses of Exeter....

Burgkmair, Hans
(1473-1531) German painter and wood engraver. His woodcuts - nearly 700 in all - are remarkable both for their dramatic strength and for their faithful presentation of contemporary life. He worked for the...

burglary
Offence committed when a trespasser enters premises with the intention to steal, do damage to property, grievously harm any person, or rape a woman. Entry does not need to be forced, so, for...

Burgoyne, John
(1722-1792) British general and dramatist. He served in the American Revolution and surrendered in 1777 to the colonists at Saratoga, New York State, in one of the pivotal battles of the war. He wrote comedies,...

Burgundy
Ancient kingdom in the valleys of the rivers Rhône and Saône in eastern France and southwestern Germany, partly corresponding with modern-day Burgundy. Settled by the Teutonic Burgundi around AD...

Burke, Arleigh Albert
(1901-1996) US rear admiral. During World War II, he earned the nickname `31-knot Burke` from his aggressive patrolling policy in the South Pacific. His squadron covered the US landings at Bougainville in...

Burke, John
(1859-1937) US Democratic governor, federal official, and judge. He served in the North Dakota state senate 1893-95, was the governor of North Dakota 1907-12, and treasurer of the USA 1913-21. He served...

Burke, John
(1787-1848) First publisher, in 1826, of Burke's Peerage. ...

Burke, John J (Joseph)
(1875-1936) US religious leader. He helped to organize the bishops' group known as the National Catholic War Council during World War I. As general secretary (from 1919) of its successor, the National Catholic...

Burke, Kenneth
(1897-1993) US literary critic. His works on the psychology of literary criticism were so advanced that he was called `the critics' critic`. Among his publications are Permanence and Change (1935),...

Burke, Martha Jane
Real name of US heroine Calamity Jane. ...

Burke, Robert O'Hara
(1821-1861) Irish-born Australian explorer who in 1860-61 made the first south-north crossing of Australia (from Victoria to the Gulf of Carpentaria), with William Wills (1834-1861). Both died on the...

Burke, Thomas
(1886-1945) English novelist and descriptive writer, who became known as the supreme interpreter of London's East End and Chinatown. His works include Nights in Town (1915), Limehouse Nights (1916), The Real...

Burke, William
(1792-1829) Irish murderer. He and his partner William Hare, living in Edinburgh, sold the body of an old man, who had died from natural causes in their lodging house, to an anatomist as a subject for...

Burke's Peerage
Popular name of the Genealogical and Heraldic History of the Peerage, Baronetage, and Knightage of the United Kingdom, first issued by John Burke in 1826. The 107th edition was published in 2003. ...

Burkina Faso
Landlocked country in west Africa, bounded east by Niger, northwest and west by Mali, and south by Côte d'Ivoire, Ghana, Togo, and Benin. Government The 1991 constitution provides for a...

Burle Marx, Roberto
(1909-1994) Brazilian landscape architect. His work exploited the vivid colours of tropical plants to create spacious painterly landscapes of rhythmic abstract form. Exemplary are the Garden-Yacht Club,...

burlesque
In the 17th and 18th centuries, a form of satirical comedy parodying a particular play or dramatic genre. For example, John Gay's The Beggar's Opera (1728) is a burlesque of 18th-century opera,...

Burlingame, Anson
(1820-1870) US diplomat. He was a member of the House of Representatives 1855-60. His advocacy of Hungary's independence made the Austrians hostile to his appointment as minister at Vienna, and President...

Burlington Heights, Battle of
During the Anglo-American War of 1812, inconclusive engagement between British and American forces in the vicinity of Detroit 5 May 1813. A small British force under Col Proctor was attacking an...

Burlington House
House built by Richard Boyle, Earl of Burlington, on the north side of Piccadilly, London, 1665-68. It was remodelled and refaced for the 3rd Earl (the architect) by Colen Campbell in 1715-16....

Burma
Former name (to 1989) of Myanmar. ...

Burma Road
Transport route running from Lashio in Burma to Kunming, China. In World War II it was the only route available for the Allies to send military supplies to the Chinese Army, as the Chinese coastline...

Burma War
War 1942-45 during which Burma (now Myanmar) was occupied by Japan. Initially supported by Aung San's Burma National Army, the Japanese captured Rangoon and Mandalay 1942, forcing the withdrawal...

Burman
The largest ethnic group in Myanmar (formerly Burma). The Burmans, speakers of a Sino-Tibetan language, migrated from the hills of Tibet, settling in the areas around Mandalay...

Burnand, Francis Cowley
(1836-1917) English humorist. His popular burlesques included Black-eyed Susan (1866)...

Burne-Jones, Edward Coley
(1833-1898) English painter. In 1856 he was apprenticed to the Pre-Raphaelite painter and poet Dante Gabriel Rossetti, who remained a dominant influence. His paintings, inspired by legend and myth, were...

Burnes, Alexander
(1805-1841) Scottish soldier, linguist, diplomat, and traveller in Central Asia. Following journeys to Rajputana and Lajhore he led an expedition across the Hindu Kush to...

Burnet, Alastair
(1928) Scottish journalist and current affairs presenter who anchored News at Ten for Independent Television News (ITN) from 1967 to 1972. He held the position of editor on The Economist between 1965 and...

Burnet, Gilbert
(1643-1715) English historian and bishop, author of History of His Own Time 1723-34. His Whig views having brought him into disfavour, he retired to the Netherlands on the accession of James II and became the...

Burnet, Thomas
(1635-1715) English cleric. He was clerk of the closet to William III, but the clamour raised by his Archaeologia Philosophicae (1692), in which he treated the biblical account of creation as an allegory,...

Burnett, Frances Eliza Hodgson
(1849-1924) English writer. She emigrated with her family to the USA in 1865. Her novels for children include the rags-to-riches tale Little Lord Fauntleroy (1886) and The Secret Garden (1911), which has...

Burney, Charles
(1757-1817) English classical scholar. His valuable library was acquired by Parliament and deposited in the British Museum as the Burney Library. ...

Burney, Fanny (Frances)
(1752-1840) English novelist and diarist. She achieved success with Evelina, an epistolary novel published in 1778, became a member of Samuel Johnson's circle, and received a post at court from Queen Charlotte....

Burnham, (Linden) Forbes (Sampson)
(1923-1985) Guyanese Marxist-Leninist politician. He was prime minister from 1964 to 1980 in a coalition government, leading the country to independence in 1966 and declaring it the world's first cooperative...

Burnham, Daniel H (Hudson)
(1846-1912) US architect and city planner. In partnership with John Wellborn Root 1873-91, and later independently, Burnham helped establish the Chicago School with his seminal skyscraper designs. His...

Burnham, Frederick Russell
(1861-1947) US explorer and scout. After twenty years in the Southwest USA and Mexico, he went to Africa, working closely with British empire-builder Cecil Rhodes. He was chief of scouts in the field for the...

Burnham, James
(1905-1987) US philosopher who argued in The Managerial Revolution 1941 that world control is passing from politicians and capitalists to the new class of business executives, the managers. ...

burnish
In ceramics, the process of smoothing and polishing. A burnisher, a tool with a smooth, rounded stone or metal surface, is used to achieve the required degree of finish. ...

Burns, Anthony
(1834-1862) US fugitive slave who converted to the Baptist faith and became a Baptist`slave preacher`. He escaped from Virginia and reached Boston where he was soon arrested, identified, and returned to...

Burns, Arthur F
(1904-1987) Austrian-born US economist who emigrated to the USA in 1914. A leading expert on business cycles, he coauthored Measuring Business Cycles (1946) with W C Mitchell. He served as an economic adviser...

Burns, John Anthony
(1909-1975) US Democratic governor. He was Hawaii's last non-voting delegate to the US House of Representatives, lobbying for statehood in 1956. As governor of Hawaii 1963-75, he improved services for...

Burns, Robert
(1759-1796) Scottish poet. He used a form of Scots dialect at a time when it was not considered suitably `elevated` for literature. Burns's first volume, Poems, Chiefly in the Scottish Dialect, appeared in...

Burns, Terence
(1944) British economist. A monetarist, he was director of the London Business School for Economic Forecasting 1976-79, and chief economic adviser to the Thatcher government 1980-91. Knighted 1983. ...

Burns, William J (John)
(1861-1932) US detective. He joined the Secret Service (1889-1903) where he gained attention handling national investigations, and established the William J Burns Detective Agency in New York City (1909). He...

Burnside, Ambrose Everett
(1824-1881) US military leader and politician. Appointed brigadier general in the Union army soon after the outbreak of the Civil War 1861, he served briefly as commander of the Army of the Potomac, before...

Burr, Aaron
(1756-1836) US politician, Republican vice-president 1801-05. In 1804 he killed his political rival Alexander Hamilton in a duel. In 1807 Burr was tried and acquitted of treason charges, which implicated...

Burra, Edward John
(1905-1976) English painter. He was devoted to themes of city life, its bustle, humour, and grimy squalor. Characteristic are The Snack Bar (1930; Tate Gallery, London) and his watercolour scenes of Harlem, New...

Burren, the
Barren limestone plateau with caves and subterranean waterways in northwest County Clare, Republic of Ireland; it is the largest karstic limestone area in western Europe. Bounded to the west by the...

Burritt, Elihu
(1810-1879) US blacksmith and philanthropist. He embarked upon a lecture tour to various places in the USA and Europe on behalf of peace. In 1844 he founded a newspaper in Worcester, Massachusetts, the...

Burroughs, Bryson
(1869-1934) US painter and curator. He is remembered as a curator of painting at the Metropolitan Museum of Art 1909-34, where he discovered and acquired important works, such as Harvesters...

Burroughs, Edgar Rice
(1875-1950) US novelist. He wrote Tarzan of the Apes (1914; filmed 1918), the story of an aristocratic child lost in the jungle and reared by apes, and followed it with over 20 more books about the Tarzan...

Burroughs, John
(1837-1921) US nature writer. His prose works include Wake-Robin (1871);Birds and Poets (1877), in which a poetic spirit infuses the descriptions; and Locusts and Wild Honey (1879), in which he adopts a more...

Burroughs, William S(eward)
(1914-1997) US author. One of the most culturally influential post-war writers, his work is noted for its experimental methods, black humour, explicit homo-eroticism, and apocalyptic vision. In 1944 he met...

Burrows, Ronald Montagu
(1867-1920) English archaeologist. His excavations at Pylos, on the southwestern extremity of mainland Greece, and on the adjacent island of Sphakteria 1895-96, showed that the Athenian historian Thucydides'...

Burrows, William (Ward)
(1758-1805) US marine officer. A Revolutionary War veteran, he practiced law in Philadelphia during the 1790s and returned to service in July 1798 whenPresident Adams appointed him first commandant of the newly...

Burrus, Sextus Afranius
(died 63 BC) Roman born in Gaul, appointed praetorian prefect by the emperor Claudius AD 52. He was joint tutor to Nero with the philosopher and dramatist Lucius Annaeus Seneca. He helped to secure Nero's...

Burton, Decimus
(1800-1881) English architect. Befriended by John Nash, he later became a leading figure in the classical revival before he had even studied in Italy or Greece. Buildings by his enormous London practice...

Burton, Harold (Hitz)
(1888-1964) US senator, mayor, and Supreme Court justice. Active in Republican politics, he served three terms as mayor of Cleveland, Ohio 1935-40, before he was elected to the US Senate (Republican, Ohio;...

Burton, Phillip
(1926-1983) US representative, Ohio. An air force veteran, he was a lawyer in San Francisco (1956-64) before going to Congress (1965-83) where he led the Democratic reform group to remove old-time...

Burton, Richard Francis
(1821-1890) English explorer and translator (he knew 35 oriental languages). He travelled mainly in the Middle East and northeast Africa, often disguised as a Muslim. He made two attempts to find...

Burton, Robert
(1577-1640) English philosopher. He wrote an analysis of depression, Anatomy of Melancholy (1621), a compendium of information on the medical and religious opinions of the time, much...

Burton, Scott
(1939-1990) US sculptor and furniture designer. He was a free-lance art critic for Art News and participated in performance art during the 1970s. He is best known for...

Burton, Theodore (Elijah)
(1851-1929) US Republican representative and senator. He served in the US House of Representatives representing Ohio; 1889-91, 1895-1909, and 1921-28.He was in the Senate 1909-15 and 1928-29. He was...

Burundi
Country in east central Africa, bounded north by Rwanda, west by the Democratic Republic of Congo, southwest by Lake Tanganyika, and southeast and east by Tanzania. Government The 1992 constitution...

Buryats
A Mongolian people living near Lake Baikal closely related to the Mongols and Kalmyks. Their religious beliefs combine Buddhism and Shamanism. ...

Busaco, Battle of
In the Peninsular War, battle between English and Portuguese armies under the Duke of Wellington and the French under Marshal André Masséna 27 September 1810. Wellington bought the British a...

Busching, Anton Friedrich
(1724-1793) German geographer and theologian. One of the creators of modern geography, his Description of the Earth (1754-92), was the most complete and scientific work of its kind, and was translated into...

Buscot Park
National Trust estate of 1619 ha/3999 acres near Faringdon, Oxfordshire, managed by Lord Faringdon. It includes Buscot village and a late 18th-century Cotswold stone house containing the Faringdon...

Bush, Barbara
(1925) US first lady 1989-93. She married George Bush in 1945. She was actively involved in programs to increase literacy and was also honorary chairman of the Leukemia Society. Popular for her...

Bush, George Herbert Walker
(1924) 41st president of the USA 1989-93, a Republican. He was vice-president 1981-89 and director of the Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) 1976-81. The Bush presidency marked a turning point in...

Bush, George W(alker), Jr
(1946) 43rd president of the USA from 2001. Republican governor of Texas 1994-2000 and son of former US president George Bush, he was elected president after defeating Democrat Al Gore in a hotly...

bushido
Chivalric code of honour of the Japanese military caste, the samurai. Bushido means `the way of the warrior`; the code stresses simple living, self-discipline, and bravery. Bushido originated...

Bushmen
Former name for the Kung, San, and other hunting and gathering groups (for example, the Gikwe, Heikom, and Sekhoin) living in and around the Kalahari Desert in southern Africa. They number...

Bushnell, Horace
(1802-1876) US minister and theologian. One of his most influential works was Christian Nurture (1847). By the time of his death he had carved out a place as one of the most influential of American Protestant...

bushranger
Australian armed robber of the 19th century. The first bushrangers were escaped convicts. The last gang was led by Ned Kelly and his brother Dan in 1878-80. They form the subject of many...

bushwhacker
In the American Civil War, a pro-Confederacy guerrilla. Infamous for their ruthless methods, the bushwhackers attacked, murdered, and robbed Union supporters and destroyed their land and property....

Busia, Kofi
(1913-1978) Ghanaian politician and academic, prime minister 1969-72. He became a leader of the National Liberation Movement 1954-59, in opposition to Kwame ...