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

Edward VII
(1841-1910) King of Great Britain and Ireland from 1901. As Prince of Wales he was a prominent social figure, but his mother Queen Victoria considered him too frivolous to take part in political life. In 1860...

Edward VIII
(1894-1972) King of Great Britain and Northern Ireland January-December 1936, when he renounced the throne to marry Wallis Warfield Simpson (see abdication crisis). He was created Duke of Windsor and was...

Edward, Edward Antony Richard Louis
(1964) Prince of the UK, third son of Queen Elizabeth II. He is seventh in line to the throne. He married Sophie Rhys-Jones in 1999 and became the Earl of Wessex and Viscount Severn. They have a...

Edwards, Amelia Ann Blandford
(1831-1892) English novelist and Egyptologist. Her novels include My Brother's Wife (1855), Debenham's Vow (1869), and Lord Brackenbury (1880). A Thousand Miles up the Nile (1877), a travel...

Edwards, Jimmy
(1920-1988) English comedian. Distinguished by his huge handlebar moustache and a bluff and blustering characterization, he first drew popular acclaim as Pa Glum in the hit radio series Take It From Here...

Edwards, John Reid
(1953) US Democrat politician, vice-presidential candidate in 2004. A charismatic and populist campaigner, with particular appeal in the southern states and...

Edwards, Jonathan
(1703-1758) US theologian who took a Calvinist view of predestination and initiated a religious revival, the `Great Awakening`. His The Freedom of the Will (1754) (defending determinism) received renewed...

Edwards, Richard
(c. 1522-1566) English poet, composer, and dramatist. He was highly regarded for his comedies, madrigals, and interludes. A pupil of the musician, physician, and Greek scholar George Etheridge of Thame, he entered...

Edwards, Robert Walter Dudley
(1910-1988) Irish scholar, one of the founders of modern Irish historiography. Edwards was professor of modern Irish history at University College, Dublin 1945-79. His most important work was Church and State...

Edwin
(c. 585-633) King of Northumbria from 617. He captured and fortified Edinburgh, which was named after him, and was killed in battle with Penda of Mercia in 632. ...

Edwy
King of England, son of Edmund I. He succeeded his uncle Edred as king in 955 and drove Edred's chief adviser St Dunstan, then virtually ruler, into exile the same year. On the revolt in 957 of the...

EEC
Abbreviation for European Economic Community. ...

Eeckhout, Gerbrandt van den
(1621-1674) Dutch painter. One of Rembrandt's later pupils and most consistent followers, he painted religious subjects, genre scenes, and portraits. Rich colour and rhetorical use of gesture characterize his...

Eeden, Frederik Willem van
(1860-1932) Dutch poet and novelist. His greatest poetical work is a tragedy for reading, De Broeders/The Brothers (1894), and his novel Van de Koele Meren des Doods/The Deeps of Deliverance (1900) anticipated...

efficiency, economic
Production at lowest cost. Efficiency also relates to how resources are allocated. Resources are said to be allocated efficiently if business organizations are producing...

efficient cause
In Aristotle's philosophy, one of the four causes of things. The efficient cause of a man, according to Aristotle, is his father. The other three causes of a man are material...

egalitarianism
Belief that all citizens in a state should have equal rights and privileges. Interpretations of this can vary, from the notion of equality of opportunity to equality in material welfare and...

Egan, Pierce
(1772-1849) English sporting writer. He is principally remembered for his Life in London: or the Day and Night Scenes of Jerry Hawthorn, Esq, and his elegant friend, Corinthian Tom, accompanied by Bob Logic,...

Egan, William Allen
(1914-1984) US governor. He served in the territorial house of representatives as a Democrat, sponsoring Alaskan statehood. President of the constitutional convention, he drafted the state charter and lobbied...

Egas, Enrique de
(c. 1445-c. 1534) Spanish architect. He was cathedral architect at Toledo about 1498 before moving to Granada, where he designed the chapel royal (1506) and the cathedral (1521), although the latter was remodelled...

Egbert
(died 839) King of the West Saxons from 802, the son of Ealhmund, an under-king of Kent. By 829 he had united England for the first time under one king. ...

Egeria
In Roman mythology, the spirit of a stream just outside Rome; also of a stream at Aricia. She advised Numa Pompilius, the second king of Rome, on all matters. Egeria was worshipped by pregnant...

Egerton
Family name of dukes of Sutherland, seated at Mertoun, Roxburghshire, Scotland. ...

Egesta
Alternative form of Segesta, the ancient city in northwestern Sicily. ...

Eggan, Fred
(1906-1991) US anthropologist. After gaining his PhD from the University of Chicago, he taught there for many years, becoming a specialist in Hopi society. Among his published works is Social Organization of...

Eggleston, Edward
(1837-1902) US minister and novelist. He was a local-colour writer and a realist. His first and most successful novel was The Hoosier Schoolmaster (1871). Like his other works, it depicts the life and manners...

Egilsson, Sveinbjörn
(1791-1852) Icelandic scholar and poet. He compiled the first important dictionary to Skaldic poetry, Lexicon poeticum antiquae lingvae septentrionalis (1860), and translated Homer's Odyssey and Iliad from...

egoism
In ethics, the doctrine that we seek only our enlightened self-interest and that all our desires are self-referential. Notable ethical theorists who have held versions of egoism are Aristotle,...

Egypt
Country in northeast Africa, bounded to the north by the Mediterranean Sea, east by the Palestinian-controlled Gaza Strip, Israel, and the Red Sea, south by Sudan, and west by Libya. Government...

Egypt Exploration Fund
Society founded 1882 by Amelia Edwards in order to make surveys, explorations, and excavations at ancient sites in Egypt, and to publish the results. The society later became...

Egypt, ancient
Ancient civilization, based around the River Nile in Egypt, which emerged 5,000 years ago and reached its peak in the 16th century BC. Ancient Egypt was famed for its great power and wealth, due to...

Egyptian architecture, ancient
The dynastic period spanning the years 4000-30 BC saw the emergence of a distinctive Egyptian architecture, best represented in its tombs and temples. Monumental in style, these were built...

Egyptian art, ancient
The art of ancient Egypt falls into three main periods - the Old, Middle, and New Kingdoms - beginning about 3000 BC and spanning 2,000 years overall. During this time, despite some stylistic...

Egyptian medicine, ancient
Medicine of Egypt from around 3,000 BC to around 400 BC. One of the first settled societies, the Egyptians were known for their wealth, power, and advanced agricultural, engineering, and scientific...

Egyptian religion
System of ancient Egyptian beliefs and practices, originating in the worship of totemic animals, representing the ancestors of the clan, and later superimposed with the abstract theology of a...

Egyptology
The study of ancient Egypt. Interest in the subject was aroused by the Napoleonic expedition's discovery of the Rosetta Stone in 1799. Various excavations continued throughout the 19th century and...

Ehrlich, Paul
(1854-1915) German bacteriologist and immunologist who was awarded a Nobel Prize for Physiology or Medicine in 1908 with Ilya Mechnikov for their work on immunity. He produced the first cure for syphilis,...

Ehrlichman, John Daniel
(1925-1999) US politician and President Richard Nixon's chief domestic adviser 1969-73. Ehrlichmann was arrested and imprisoned for his part in the Watergate cover-up. He became a regular on the lecture...

Eichelberger, Robert L(awrence)
(1886-1961) US general, who was a commander of US forces in the Pacific, 1942-45. He was commandant of West Point Military Academy when...

Eichendorff, Joseph Freiherr von
(1788-1857) German Romantic poet and novelist. Among his finest poems are those expressing his longing for nature:Durch Feld und Buchenhallen, In einem kühlen Gründe, da geht ein Mühlenrad, and Wem Gott will...

Eichhorn, Hermann von
(1848-1918) German field marshal. As a general on the Eastern Front in World War I he captured Kovno (now Kaunas) August 1915 and Vilna the following month, resulting in his promotion to field marshal. He was...

Eichmann, (Karl) Adolf
(1906-1962) Austrian Nazi. As an SS official during Hitler's regime 1933-45, he was responsible for atrocities against Jews and others, including the implementation of genocide. He managed to escape at the...

Eid ul-Adha
Muslim festival that takes place during the hajj, or pilgrimage to Mecca, and commemorates the willingness of Ibrahim (Abraham) to sacrifice his son Ishmael at the command of Allah. ...

Eid ul-Fitr
Muslim festival celebrating the end of Ramadan, the month of sawm (fasting). ...

Eidlitz, Leopold
(1823-1908) Bohemian-born US architect. In New York after 1843, he designed churches, and public and commercial buildings. With his book, Nature and Function of Art (1881), and his functional and organic...

Eiffel, (Alexandre) Gustave
(1832-1923) French engineer who constructed the Eiffel Tower for the 1889 Paris Exhibition. The tower, made of iron, is 320 m/1,050 ft high and stands in the Champ de Mars, Paris. Sightseers may ride to the top...

Eight Immortals, the
In Chinese mythology, a group of unrelated figures who became immortal and were entitled to live in heaven and attend the banquets given by the Lady Wang, wife of the Jade Emperor. Lists of their...

Eight Saints, War of the
A war between Florence and the papacy over the secular power of the papacy in central Italy, fought 1375-78. The war ended in compromise, set out in the Peace of Tivoli, in 1378. The threat the...

eight-spoked wheel
Symbol of the Buddha's teaching, representing his sermons on the Eightfold Path. ...

Eighteenth Amendment
See Amendment, Eighteenth. ...

Eightfold Path
In Buddhism, the way to end attachment to desire (nirodha) can be found in the fourth of the Four Noble Truths of Buddhism: the path to the cessation of suffering. This is achieved by following the...

Eighth Amendment
See Amendment, Eighth. ...

Eighth Route Army
The Chinese Red Army, formed 1927 when the communists broke away from the Guomindang (nationalists) and established a separate government in Jiangxi in southeastern China. When Japan invaded China...

eighty-eight
In World War II, nickname for German 88 mm anti-aircraft guns, later used as anti-tank guns. Although the gun was first tried as an anti-tank weapon dur ...

Eikon Basilike
Work published immediately after the death of Charles I 1649. Being written in the first person, it was ascribed to Charles himself. It promoted Charles's piety and the image of his death as...

Eilithyia
In Greek mythology, ancient goddess of the pains of childbirth. She was identified at times with Artemis, Hera, and Aphrodite. ...

Eilshemius, Louis Michel
(1864-1941) US painter. Based in New York City, he travelled widely. His works, such as New York at Night (c. 1917), are surrealistic and haunting, showing the influence of Albert Pinkham Ryder. He was born...

Einaudi, Luigi
(1874-1961) Italian politician and economist; president of Italy 1948-55. As budget minister from 1947 he devised a rigorous deflationary policy of tight monetary control and high interest rates that...

Einem, Rothmaier Karl von
(1853-1934) German general. He was promoted to lieutenant-general and became Prussian minister of war 1903. He took command of an army corps 1910 and held various staff positions during World War I. He was...

Einhorn, David
(1809-1879) German-born US rabbi. He was minister to congregations in Baltimore, Philadelphia, and New York City. Active in the antislavery movement, he was the leading theologian...

Einsatzgruppen
German extermination squads of World War II. Einsatzgruppen were established as four special SS formations which followed up the invasion of the USSR 1941, charged with the extermination of Jews,...

Eire
Name of southern Ireland as prescribed in the 1937 Constitution. ...

Eisai (or Yosai)
(1141-1215) Japanese Buddhist monk who introduced Zen from China to Japan and founded the Rinzai school. He popularized...

Eiseley, Loren Corey
(1907-1977) US cultural anthropologist and writer. After gaining his PhD, he went into academia, becoming the curator of early man at the University of Pennsylvania's museum. His books include The Immense...

Eisenhower, Dwight David
(`Ike`) (1890-1969) 34th president of the USA 1953-60, a Republican. A general in World War II, he commanded the Allied forces in Italy in 1943, then the Allied invasion of Europe, and from October 1944 all the...

Eisenman, Peter
(1932) US architect. He came to prominence as a member of the New York Five group, along with Richard Meier and Michael Graves. His work draws on mathematics and philosophy, especially Deconstructionism....

Eisner, Will(iam Erwin)
(1917-2005) US cartoonist. In 1937, he created the action-adventure newspaper comic strips, The Three Brothers, K-51, and the successful Hawk of the Seas, a swashbuckling tale of buccaneers. His most...

eisteddfod
Traditional Welsh gathering lasting up to a week and dedicated to the encouragement of the bardic arts of music, poetry, and literature. The custom dates from pre-Christian times. Towns and rural...

Ekelöf, Gunnar
(1907-1968) Swedish poet. Thoroughly original, yet steeped in tradition, Ekelöf combines personal and historical experiences in his poetry. He makes a bold experiment in human consciousness of time in En...

Ekholm, Gordon Frederick
(1909-1987) US anthropologist and archaeologist. He was curator of anthropology at the American Museum of Natural History, where he oversaw the permanent installation of the Hall of Mexico and Central America....

Ekwensi, Cyprian
(1921) Nigerian writer of novels, short stories, children's books, and folktales about the Ibo people (who live...

El
In the religion of Phoenicia and Canaan, the god of creation, represented by the bull. ...

El Alamein
Site in the northern Egyptian desert of two battles in World War II; see Alamein, El, Battles of. ...

El Cid
Spanish soldier; see El Cid. ...

El Dorado
Fabled city of gold believed by the 16th-century Spanish and other Europeans to exist somewhere in the area of the Orinoco and Amazon rivers. The name is derived from the legend of a chief of a...

El Salvador
Country in Central America, bounded north and east by Honduras, south and southwest by the Pacific Ocean, and northwest by Guatemala. Government The 1983 constitution,...

Elam
Ancient region of the lower valley of Karkeh and Karun southwestern Iran, geographically an extension of the plain of southern Mesopotamia (now part of Iraq). Its capital, Susa,...

elasticity
In economics, the measure of response of one variable to changes in another. Such measures are used to test the effects of changes in prices and incomes on...

Elateia
Largest town in the ancient region of Phocis, central Greece. There was a temple of Asclepius, the god of healing, and another dedicated to Athena Cranea. The town was captured by Philip II of...

ElBaradei, Mohamed
(1942) Egyptian lawyer and diplomat. He became director general of the United Nations International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) in 1997. He and the IAEA jointly shared the 2005 Nobel Peace Prize for their...

Eldem, Sedad Hakki
(1908-1988) Turkish architect. His work was inspired by the spatial harmony and regular rhythms of the traditional Turkish house. These qualities are reinterpreted in modern forms with great sensitivity to...

elder
In the Presbyterian church, a lay member who assists the minister (or teaching elder) in running the church. ...

Eleanor of Aquitaine
(c. 1122-1204) Queen of France 1137-51 as wife of Louis VII, and of England from 1154 as wife of Henry II. Henry imprisoned her 1174-89 for supporting their sons, the future Richard I and King John, in revolt...

Eleanor of Castile
(c. 1245-1290) Queen of Edward I of England, the daughter of Ferdinand III of Castile. She married Prince Edward in 1254, and accompanied him on his crusade in 1270. She died at Harby, Nottinghamshire, and Edward...

Eleatic School
The view of the pre-Socratic philosophers Parmenides and his follower Zeno, who lived in Elea (a Greek colony in southern Italy) in the early 5th century BC. They taught that reality is single and...

election
Process of appointing a person to public office or a political party to government by voting. Elections were occasionally held in ancient Greek democracies; Roman tribunes were regularly elected. UK...

elector
Any of originally seven (later ten) princes of the Holy Roman Empire who had the prerogative of electing the emperor (in effect, the king of Germany). The electors were the archbishops of Mainz,...

electoral college
In the US government, the indirect system of voting for the president and vice-president. The people of each state officially vote not for the presidential candidate, but for a list of electors...

electoral system
See vote and proportional representation. ...

Electra
In Greek mythology, daughter of Agamemnon and Clytemnestra, and sister of Orestes and Iphigenia. Her hatred of her mother for murdering her father and the fulfillment of her revenge through Orestes,...

electrolysis
In archaeological conservation, a cleaning process, especially of material from underwater archaeology, involving immersing the object in a chemical solution...

electron spin resonance
In archaeology, a nondestructive dating method applicable to teeth, bone, heat-treated flint, ceramics, sediments, and stalagmitic concretions. It enables electrons, displaced by natural radiation...

electronic countermeasures
Jamming or otherwise rendering useless an opponent's radar, radio, television, or other forms of telecommunication. This is important in war (domination of the electronic spectrum was a major factor...

electronic tagging
See tagging, electronic. ...

elegy
In poetry, a piece of sorrowful and usually commemorative character; in music either a vocal setting of such a poem or an instrumental piece suggesting the mood awakened by it. ...

elegy
Ancient Greek poetic verse genre, originally combining a hexameter (line of poetry with six metrical feet) with a shorter line in a couplet. It was used by the Greeks for epigrams, short narratives,...

elemental spirits
Spirits supposed to reside in the four elements. Those of the air were the sylphs; those of the earth were pygmies or gnomes; those of fire were salamanders; and those of water...

elementarism
Art theory expounded by Theo van Doesburg of the De Stijl group of Dutch abstract artists in 1926. Elementarism expanded the limitations of neoplasticism set on artworks by Pieter Mondrian, a...

elements, the four
Earth, air, fire, and water. The Greek philosopher Empedocles believed that these four elements made up the fundamental components of all matter and that they were destroyed and renewed through the...

Elephantine
Island in the Nile opposite Aswan, forming Egypt's ancient southern frontier. It was the starting point for all south-bound expeditions and the principal place of worship of Khnum, a ram-headed...