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

Durga Puja
Bengali Hindu festival commemorating the goddess Durga, known in other parts of India as the festival of Navaratri. ...

Durham Cathedral
Cathedral in the city of Durham, County Durham, northeastern England. A fine example of Durham Report
Report prepared by John Lambton, 1st Earl of Durham, as governor general of Canada in 1837. It proposed the union of Upper and Lower Canada and the introduction of responsible government. It is...

Durrell, Gerald (Malcolm)
(1925-1995) English naturalist, writer, and zoo curator. He became director of Jersey Zoological Park in 1958, and wrote 37 books, including the humorous memoir My Family and Other Animals (1956). He was the...

Durrell, Lawrence (George)
(1912-1990) English novelist and poet. He lived mainly in the eastern Mediterranean, the setting of his novels, including the Alexandria Quartet:Justine, Balthazar, Mountolive, and Clea (1957-60). He also...

Durrow, Book of
Late 7th- or early 8th-century illuminated gospel book, associated with the church at Durrow, County Offaly, Ireland. An early example of the illuminated insular (this refers to the script...

Durstine, Roy Sarles
(1886-1962) US advertising executive. With Bruce Barton and others he founded what became the major New York agency, BBDO, in 1918, where he pioneered radio and institutional advertising and became a leading...

Duruy, Victor
(1811-1894) French historian and politician. As a minister of public instruction 1863-69, he modernized school curricula and instituted secondary education for girls. His chief historical work is the Histoire...

Duse, Eleonora
(1858-1924) Italian actor. She was the mistress of the poet Gabriele D'Annunzio from 1897, as recorded in his novel Il fuoco/The Flame of Life. ...

Dussehra
In Hindu tradition, festival celebrating the defeat of the ten-headed demon Ravana by Rama, and the victory of good over evil. It is held the day after the festival of Navaratri (`nine...

Dustin, Hannah
(1657-c. 1736) American colonial heroine. In 1697, American Indian raiders captured her, along with her youngest child, and a nurse. She and a captive boy killed 10 of...

Dusun
Member of any of a group of peoples of northern Borneo. They speak a language of the Austronesian family. They grow both wet and dry rice. ...

Dutch art
Painting and sculpture of the Netherlands. The country became effectively independent, with approximately the boundaries it has today, in the early 17th century, although its independence was not...

Dutch barn
A type of barn common on modern farms. It is a tall, open-sided building most often used on farms for the storage of hay and straw. It is usually made of steel or concrete. Designed to allow...

Dutch literature
Literature of the Netherlands. 12th-15th centuries The earliest known poet to use the Dutch dialect was Hendrik (Heinrich) van Veldeke in the 12th century, but the finest example of early Gothic...

Dutch Reformed Church
The main Protestant church in the Netherlands. In theology it follows Calvinism and in government it resembles Presbyterianism. It was first organized during the revolt of the Low Countries against...

Dutch Republic
Name given to the United Provinces, a federation of states in the northern Netherlands 1579-1795. The Dutt, Ramesh Chandra
(1848-1909) Indian writer and civil servant. He wrote in English on the economic history of Bengal 1757-1900. Dutt published many novels in Bengali, including the first historical novels in the language, and...

Dutton, Edward Payson
(1831-1923) US publisher who founded the firm of E P Dutton and Company in Boston, Massachusetts in 1852. Dutton's collaborated with J M Dent of London to launch the popular `Everyman's Library` series of...

Dutton, Geoffrey
(1922-1998) Australian poet and critic. He was involved with the journal Angry Penguins, which published his poems `Night Flight` and `Sunrise` in 1944. He also helped found and edit the journals...

duty
Moral obligation experienced as a felt commandment of the moral law. Moral conflicts occur where a number of duties make apparently irreconcilable demands on us. The Stoics in ancient Greece and...

duty
A tax on a good. A customs duty is a tax on goods entering a country (a tax on imports). An excise duty is a type of indirect tax on goods consumed such as petrol, alcohol, or tobacco. ...

duty solicitor scheme
In English law, a system by which solicitors undertake to attend magistrates' courts on a rota basis to assist defendants who have no other legal representation. The scheme also provides a 24-hour...

duumviri
Alternative form of duoviri. ...

Duun, Olav
(1876-1939) Norwegian novelist. His main work is the novel cycle Juvikfolke/The People of Juvik (1918-23), which traces a country family through several generations, from a feudal pagan way of life to a more...

Duvalier, François
(1907-1971) Right-wing president of Haiti 1957-71. Known as Papa Doc, he ruled as a dictator, organizing the Tontons Macoutes (`bogeymen`) as a private security force to intimidate and assassinate...

Duvalier, Jean-Claude
(1951) Right-wing president of Haiti 1971-86. Known as Baby Doc, he succeeded his father François Duvalier, becoming, at the age of 19, the youngest president in the world. He continued to receive...

Duvall, Gabriel
(1752-1844) American Supreme Court justice. He served in the US House of Representatives. He was a judge on the Maryland Supreme Court and President Jefferson's comptroller of the treasury before President...

Duveneck, Frank
(1848-1919) US painter. His style is marked by broad brushstrokes, sombre brown backgrounds, and an energetic approach, as seen in Whistling Boy (1872). Beginning in 1900, he taught at the Cincinnati Art...

Duvernois, Henri
(1875-1937) French writer. He wrote numerous novels and short stories, depicting, with an irony softened by affection, the imperfect lives of ordinary people. His works include Crapotte (1908), Les Marchandes...

Dvina, Battles of the
In World War I, inconclusive series of engagements 1915-16 between German and Russian forces along the River Dvina, a natural barrier in front of the Latvian capital Riga. The first battle,...

Dwight, John Wilbur
(1859-1928) US representative. A lumberman and owner of Dwight Farm and Land Company, he served as majority and minority whip in the US House of Representatives as a Republican for New York, leaving to head the...

Dwight, Timothy
(1752-1817) US poet and clergyman. His poem America (1772) was followed by The Conquest of Canaan (1785), the first American epic;The Triumph of Infidelity (1788), an anonymous satire in heroic couplets; and...

Dworkin, Ronald
(1931) US jurist. A leading exponent of liberalism, he has consistently challenged the positivist notion of law - that a legal system is the sum of its rules - by stressing the importance of moral...

Dyak
Member of any of several peoples of Indonesian Borneo (Kalimantan) and Sarawak, including the Bahau of central and eastern Borneo, the Land Dyak of southwestern Borneo, who are shifting cultivators...

dybbuk
In Jewish folklore, the soul of a dead sinner which has entered the body of a living person. ...

Dyce, William
(1806-1864) Scottish artist. In subject and style - a highly detailed realism - he was a precursor of the Pre-Raphaelites. His best-known work is Pegwell Bay, Kent 1859-60 (Tate Gallery, London). Born...

Dyck, Anthony van
(1599-1641) Flemish painter. He was an assistant to Rubens from 1618 to 1620, then worked briefly in England at the court of James I before moving to Italy in 1622. In 1627 he returned to his native Antwerp,...

Dyer, Edward
(1543-1607) English poet and courtier. Edmund Spenser speaks highly of Dyer as a poet but only one of his songs is now generally remembered, `My mind to me a kingdom is`. Born at Sharpham Park, Somerset,...

Dyer, John
(1699-1758) Welsh poet, painter, and cleric. He was the author of three poems:Grongar Hill (1727), The Ruins of Rome (1740), and The Fleece (1757). The first...

Dyer, Mary
(died 1660) English-born American Quaker martyr. She became a Quaker and was arrested by Massachusetts colonists and warned to keep out of that colony because of her faith. She refused and was hanged. Her...

dyke
In archaeology, a linear earthwork consisting of a line of bank and ditch. Most dykes in Britain are products of the post-Roman period. They may be double or occasionally treble, and were designed...

Dymoke
English family of hereditary champions of the monarchy. Their representative formerly had to appear at coronation banquets and challenge all comers to dispute the sovereign's title. The challenge...

Dympna
(lived 7th century AD) Irish princess and martyr, the patron of the mentally ill. She is reputed to have been murdered by her pagan father in Gheel, Belgium, for rebuffing his incestuous advances. Her feast...

dynasty
A succession of rulers forming a coherent sequence, even if the rulers were not always related. Ancient was traditionally divided into 30 dynasties according to the system of Egyptian historian...

Dyrrachium
Under the Roman and Byzantine empires, name for the modern Albanian city of Durrës. ...

Dürrenmatt, Friedrich
(1921-1990) Swiss dramatist. He wrote grotesque and ironical tragicomedies, for example Der Besuch einer alten Dame/The Visit (1956) and Die Physiker/The Physicists (1962). His fascination...

Dyson, Will (William Henry)
(1880-1938) Australian cartoonist and graphic artist. He was a cartoonist for a number of Australian magazines before moving to London 1910, where he worked for several major newspapers, in particular the Daily...

Dzungarian Gates
Ancient route in central Asia on the border of Kazakhstan and Xinjiang Uygur region of China, 470 km/290 mi northwest of Urumqi. The route was used in the 13th century by the Mongol hordes on their...

Ea
God (or sometimes goddess) who appears in the religions of several ancient Middle Eastern peoples, such as the c and the Babylonians. As a leading deity in the principal Assyrio-Babylonian triad...

Eadmer of Canterbury
(c.1064-1124) English historian and monk. His works include a history of England 1060-1122, Historia Novorum in Anglia, and a biography of his friend and Arch ...

Eagle Hut, The
YMCA centre for US troops in London during World War I, opened 3 September 1917. The centre was staffed by over 800 voluntary workers and provided beds and meals for visiting troops as well as...

Eaker, Ira Clarence
(1898-1971) US air force general of World War II. He commanded the US 8th Air Force Bomber Command, based in the UK from the end of 1942, and drew up plans for the Allied Combined Bomber Offensive, prioritizing...

Eakins, Thomas
(1844-1916) US painter, a leading realist. His most memorable subjects are medical and sporting scenes, characterized by strong contrasts between light and shade, as in his controversial The Gross Clinic (1875;...

ealdorman
Anglo-Saxon official; the office was gradually replaced by the hereditary title of earl but was in part revived in the 19th century in the municipal office of alderman. Originally a nobleman...

EAM-ELAS
The largest Greek resistance movement in World War II. It was under communist control. Formed in September 1941; its military wing, Ethnikos Laikos Apeleftherotikos Stratos (ELAS), was founded in...

Eames
US designers. A husband-and-wife team, they worked together in California 1941-78. They created some of the most highly acclaimed furniture designs of the 20th century: a moulded plywood chair...

Eanes, António dos Santos Ramalho
(1935) Portuguese politician, president 1976-86. He helped plan the 1974 coup that ended the Caetano regime, and as army chief of staff put down a left-wing revolt in November 1975. ...

Earhart, Amelia
(1898-1937) US aviation pioneer and author, who in 1928 became the first woman to fly across the Atlantic. With copilot Frederick Noonan, she attempted a round-the-world flight in 1937. Somewhere over the...

earl
In the British peerage, the third title in order of rank, coming between marquess and viscount; it is the oldest of British titles, deriving from the Anglo-Saxon post of ealdorman. For some time...

Earl Marshal
In England, one of the great officers of state. The king's marshal early became one of the chief officers of state, and, under the Norman and Plantagenet kings, a judge in the Courts of Chivalry....

Earl, Ralph
(1751-1801) US historical and portrait painter. He was one of the self-taught and itinerant artists of the colonial and early republican periods. His battle scenes of Lexington, engraved by Amos Doolittle,...

Earle, John
(c. 1601-1665) English cleric and essayist. As a writer, he is chiefly remembered for his entertaining Microcosmographie, or A Piece of the World Discovered in Essays and Characters 1628. Born in York and educ ...

Early English
In architecture, the first of the three periods of the English Gothic style, late 12th century to late 13th century. It is characterized by tall, elongated windows (lancets) without mullions...

early warning
In war, advance notice of incoming attack, often associated with nuclear attack. There are early-warning radar systems in the UK (Early, Jubal Anderson
(1816-1894) American Confederate military leader. Although long a supporter of the Union, he joined the Confederate army at the outbreak of the American Civil War 1861. After the Battle of Bull Run 1862 he was...

earnings
Pay including basic pay plus any additional payments such as overtime pay or bonus payments. For example, if a worker is paid £150 for his or her basic week, £20 for overtime work, a...

Earp, Wyatt Berry Stapp
(1848-1929) US frontier law officer. With his brothers Virgil and Morgan, Doc Holliday, and the legendary Bat Masterson he was involved in the famous gunfight at the OK Corral in Tombstone, Arizona, on 26...

earth colour
In art, a pigment that is found in its natural state in the earth. Earth colours include yellow, brown, and red ochres, raw sienna (yellowish-brown), raw umber (dark yellowish-brown), and...

Earth Summit
International meetings aiming at drawing up measures for the environmental protection of the world. The first summit took place in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil, in June 1992. Treaties were made to combat...

earthenware
Pottery made of porous clay and fired at relatively low temperatures of up to 1,200°C/2,200°F. It does not vitrify but remains porous, so will continue to absorb fluids. Earthenware may be unglazed...

earthwork
In archaeology, any artificial bank or mound of earth with or without a ditch. Examples include barrows or burial mounds, henge monuments (circular...

Earthwork
An artwork which involves the manipulation of the natural environment and/or the use of natural materials, such as earth, stones, or wood, largely a phenomenon of the late 1960s and 1970s. Although...

easel
In art, an adjustable wooden or metal frame used to support a canvas or other artwork at an angled plane; easels are also used to hold blackboards, open books, and other items for display. ...

easement
In law, rights that a person may have over the land of another. A common example is a right of way; others are the right to bring water over another's land and the right to a...

East Africa Campaign
In World War I, joint British-South African campaign to take German colony of East Africa (later Tanganyika, now Tanzania) 1914-18. The campaign made little headway until General Jan Smuts took...

East African Community
Economic alliance established by Kenya, Tanzania, and Uganda in November 2000. It has the goal of forming a Customs Union by 2004, with no internal tariffs, common external tariffs, and free...

East German revolt
Rebellion by the workers against the communist policies of the German Democratic Republic (East Germany) 16-19 June 1953. It was sparked by food shortages in spring 1953 and a subsequent 10%...

East India Company (Dutch)
Trading monopoly of the 17th and 18th centuries; see Dutch East India Company. ...

East India Company (French)
French trading company; see French East India Company. ...

East India Company, British
Commercial company (1600-1858) that had a monopoly on trade between England and the Far East; see British East India Company. ...

East Pakistan
Former province of Pakistan, now Bangladesh. ...

East Prussia
Former easternmost province of Prussia,...

East Riddlesden Hall
17th-century manor house in Keighley, West Yorkshire, England, given to the National Trust in 1934. The grounds contain a medieval tithe barn which is generally considered to be one of the f ...

East Rudolf
Archaeological site on the east side of Lake Turkana in East Africa, where many fossil remains have been found of hominids (precursors of humans). Dated relatively accurately to 1-2 million years...

East Timor
Country in southeast Asia, on the island of Timor in the Malay Archipelago. Government The 2002 constitution was modelled on that of Portugal and provides for a democratic parliamentary political...

Easter
Spring feast of the Christian church, commemorating the resurrection of Jesus. It...

Easter Island
Chilean island in the south Pacific Ocean, part of the Polynesian group, about 3,500 km/2,200 mi west of Chile; area about 166 sq km/64 sq mi; population (1998 est) 2,000. The island consists of...

Easter Rising
In Irish history, a republican insurrection against the British government that began on Easter Monday, April 1916, in Dublin. The rising was organized...

Eastern Association
Association formed by the English counties of Norfolk, Suffolk, Essex, Cambridgeshire, Hertfordshire, Huntingdonshire, and Lincolnshire in 1642 and 1643 for their common defence in the Parliamentary...

Eastern Front
Battlefront between Russia and Germany/Austria-Hungary during World War I. In 1914 it was effectively the borders of eastern Prussia/Russia, Germany/Poland, Galicia/Poland, and Galicia/Russia. In...

Eastern Front
Battlefront between the USSR and Germany during World War II. Initially running along the line of the Polish eastern border agreed between Germany and the Soviet Union in the Eastern Orthodox Church
See Orthodox Church. ...

Eastern Peak Emperor
In Chinese religion, the god of the holy mountain T'ai Shan. He is in charge of the affairs of humans under the Jade Emperor and appeals are made to him in times of national distress. ...

Eastern Question
The international and diplomatic problems associated with the weakness and eventual collapse of the Ottoman Empire during the 18th and 19th centuries. Most international disputes arose over the...

Eastern Roman Empire
Alternative name for the Byzantine Empire 395-1453. ...

Eastern Solomons, Battle of the
World War II naval action between US and Japanese forces 23-24 August 1942 to the east of the Solomon Islands in the Pacific theatre. Although the battle itself was indecisive, the US object of...

Eastland Company
Company founded 1579 to challenge the Hanseatic League's control of trade with the Baltic. An amalgamation of several smaller English associations, it imported grain and naval supplies, especially...

Eastland, James Oliver
(1904-1986) US senator. He was elected as a Democrat for Mississippi (1943-78). A fervid anti-communist, he attacked alleged subversives in the Civil Rights movement, education, and...

Eastman, Joseph Bartlett
(1882-1944) US social reformer and public official. The `watchdog` secretary of Boston's Public Franchise League, he investigated municipal utilities. While serving on t ...