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

Ezra
In the Old Testament, a Hebrew scribe who was allowed by Artaxerxes, king of Persia (probably Artaxerxes I, 464-423 BC), to lead his people back to Jerusalem from Babylon in 458 BC. He...

Ezzelino da Romano
(died 1259) Italian politician. He was a leader of the Ghibelline movement. His reputation for cruelty led to him being called `the tyrant` and he was depicted as a tyrant in Dante's `Inferno`. ...

Faber, Frederick William
(1814-1863) English hymn writer and Oratorian. At first a minister of the Church of England, he became a Roman Catholic priest 1845, under the influence of John Newman, and superior of the London branch of the...

Faber, Johann
(1478-1541) German Catholic theologian and diplomat. A close friend to Erasmus, Faber at first sympathized with those wishing to reform the Catholic Church, but later became a staunch supporter of the...

Fabergé, Peter Carl
(1846-1920) Russian goldsmith and jeweller. Among his masterpieces was a series of jewelled Easter eggs, the first of which was commissioned by Alexander III for the tsarina in 1884. His workshops in St...

Fabia gens
In ancient Rome, an old and distinguished patriciangens (a number of aristocratic families with the same name descending from a common ancestor). The Fabia gens, like several other patrician gentes,...

Fabian Society
UK socialist organization for research, discussion, and publication, founded in London in 1884. Its name is derived from the Roman commander Fabius Maximus, and refers to the evolutionary methods by...

Fabius Maximus
(c. 260-203 BC) Roman general, known as Cunctator or `Delayer` because of his cautious tactics against Hannibal 217-214 BC, when he continually harassed Hannibal's armies but never risked a set battle. ...

fable
Genre of story, in either verse or prose, in which animals or inanimate objects are given the mentality and speech of human beings to point out a moral. Fables are common in folklore and children's...

fabliau
Form of humorous verse tale composed mainly in northeastern France during the 13th century. About 150 fabliaux survive, varying in length from 18 to over 1,300 lines. Mostly anonymous, they were...

fabric
Textile that has been constructed by weaving, knitting, or felting. Fabrics are constructed from a wide range of different yarns and fibres ranging from natural fibre such as cotton, silk, linen,...

fabric paint
Paint designed specially for the decoration and colouring of fabric. Some fabric paints can be painted directly on fabric and some are transfer paints, which are painted on paper and then ironed on...

Fabricius, Hieronymus
(1537-1619) Italian anatomist and embryologist. From 1574 he made detailed studies of the veins and blood flow and discovered the existence of one-way valves that direct the blood towards the heart. He also...

Fabritius, Carel
(1622-1654) Dutch painter. He was a pupil of Rembrandt. His own style, lighter and with more precise detail than his master's, is evident for example in The Goldfinch 1654 (Mauritshuis, The Hague). He painted...

facade
In architecture, the front or principal face of a building. ...

facsimile
Exact copy or reproduction. The term is used particularly when referring to copies of artwork or printed material. The most common method of facsimile is the electronic transmission of images or...

factor of production
In economics, resource people use to produce goods and services. These include land, labour, and capital. Enterprise is also included by some academics. The factors of productions are combined in...

factoring
Lending money to a company on the security of money owed to that company; this is often done on the basis of collecting those debts. The lender is known as the factor. Factoring may also describe...

factory act
In Britain, an act of Parliament which governs conditions of work, hours of labour, safety, and sanitary provision in factories and workshops. In the 19th century legislation was progressively...

factory system
The basis of manufacturing in the modern world. In the factory system workers are employed at a place where they carry out specific tasks, which together result in a product. This is called the...

Fadden, Artie (Arthur William)
(1895-1973) Australian politician, leader of the Country Party 1941-58 and prime minister Aug-Oct 1941. After working as a cane-cutter and an accountant, he was elected to the Queensland parliament,...

Fadeev, Aleksandr Aleksandrovich
(1901-1956) Russian novelist. He wrote Razgrom/The Nineteen (1927) about Siberian Red guerrillas during the Civil War, and Molodaya Gvardiia/The Young Guard (1945). As general secretary of the Soviet Writers'...

Fadiman, Clifton Paul
(1904-1999) US editor and media personality. Following his appointment as book reviewer for the New Yorker 1933, Fadiman became moderator of the national radio program Information Please 1938-48. In 1944 he...

Faerie Queene, The
Epic poem by Edmund Spenser, published in 1590-96, dedicated to Elizabeth I. Drawing on the traditions of chivalry and courtly love, the poem was planned as an epic in 12 books, following the...

Faesi, Robert
(1883-1972) Swiss poet, novelist, and playwright. His tragedy Odysseus und Nausikaa 1911, the drama Opferspiel 1925, and comedies Die offenen Türen 1911 and Die Fassade 1918, are of a quality unusual in the...

Fagan, Mark Matthew
(1869-1955) US mayor. The Republican mayor of Jersey City (1902-08), he ran against the Democratic machine and supported progressive reform. He was named honorary mayor in 1913, but turned...

Faguet, Emile
(1841-1916) French literary critic. He was a professor at the Sorbonne from 1890 and the founder and editor of the Revue latine. Among his most important works are La Tragédie française au XVIe siècle 1883,...

Fahd
(1923-2005) King of Saudi Arabia 1982-2005. He encouraged the investment of the country's enormous oil wealth in infrastructure and new activities - such as petrochemical industries - in order to...

Faidit, Gaucelme
(c. 1160-c. 1215) Provençal troubadour. He was at first a jongleur, and travelled with his wife, Guilhelma Monja, to various European courts. In 1202 he accompanied Boniface III of Montserrat to the Fourth Crusade...

faience
Any glazed earthenware, using crushed quartz. Faience was used in ancient Egypt for amulets, tiles, and small statues, although the term itself derives from the Italian city of Faenza, famous for...

Fain, Agathon Jean François, Baron
(1778-1837) French historian and secretary to Napoleon I. As Napoleon's archivist and secretary, he accompanied him on all his campaigns. His writings on contemporary military and diplomatic events are...

Fair Deal
The policy of social improvement advocated 1945-48 by Harry S Truman, as president of the USA 1945-53. The Fair Deal proposals, first mooted in 1945 after the end of World War II, aimed to...

Fair Oaks, Battle of
US Civil War battle fought in 1862, with a victory for the Union. The Northern forces under George McClellan defeated the Confederates under Joseph E Johnston. Fair Oaks was a railway station in...

fair trade
A way of conducting international trade so that all parties involved receive fair payments. Fair trade schemes are designed to counteract unjust international trade systems, which often exploit...

Fair Trading, Office of
See Office of Fair Trading. ...

Fairbairn, Joyce
(1939) Canadian politician and literacy campaigner. She was appointed to the senate for Lethbridge, Alberta, in 1984 and, in 1993, was appointed to the cab ...

Fairbanks, Charles Warren
(1852-1918) US vice-president and attorney. A prominent attorney, specializing in railroad disputes, he became a senator in 1898, and vigorously supported President McKinley. He served as Theodore Roosevelt's...

Fairburn, Arthur Rex Dugard
(1904-1957) New Zealand poet and publicist. His sharply critical engagement with New Zealand life, art, and letters, stimulated by absence in England in the early 1930s, issued in a stream of pamphlets, satiric...

Fairey
British aircraft, mainly seaplanes used extensively by the Royal Navy in both world wars. The best known is the Swordfish, a biplane torpedo bomber affectionately known as the `Stringbag`...

Fairfax of Cameron, Ferdinando
(1584-1648) English general. He is mainly associated with the Civil War conflict in Yorkshire, where he commanded the Parliamentary forces, but he was defeated at Adwalton Moor. He was the son of Thomas...

Fairfax, Thomas
(1693-1781) British peer and landowner. He went to Virginia in 1735 to defend his proprietary rights to lands there. His claim was upheld and he immigrated permanently. He was justice...

Fairfax, Thomas
(1612-1671) English general, commander-in-chief of the Parliamentary army in the English Civil War. With Oliver Cromwell he formed the New Model Army and defeated Charles I at the Battle of Naseby. He...

Fairless, Michael
(1869-1901) English essayist. The Roadmender 1902, completed on her deathbed, was very popular in the early 20th century. The best known of her other books are The Gathering of Brother Hilarius 1901 and The...

fairs
In the middle ages, large scale gatherings combining trade with sideshows and other entertainment. Unlike markets which were usually weekly and local, fairs took place only once or twice a year and...

fairy
Supernatural being found in mythology and folklore around the world. Fairies are often represented as tiny, winged sprites, sometimes good, sometimes evil, who possess a mysterious power over human...

fairy tale
Genre of magical story, usually originating in folklore. Typically in European fairy tales, a poor, brave, and resourceful hero or heroine goes through testing adventures...

Faisal I
(1885-1933) King of Iraq from 1921. During his reign, which included the achievement of full independence in 1932, he sought to foster pan-Arabism and astutely maintained a balance between Iraqi nationalists...

Faisal Ibn Abd al-Aziz
(1905-1975) King of Saudi Arabia from 1964. Ruling without a prime minister, he instituted a successful programme of economic modernization, using Saudi Arabia's vast annual oil revenues, which grew from $334...

faith
In religion, trust and belief in God's provision; the `assurance of things hoped for, the conviction of things not seen` (St Paul). It can also mean a particular religion or set of beliefs. The...

Faithfull, Emily
(1835-1895) British philanthropist and writer. She was devoted to the improvement of the status, remuneration, and working conditions of women. Her publications include Change upon Change (1868) and Three...

fakir
Literally `one who is in need`, whether physical or spiritual, the term has come to denote need of and dependence on God, and so is used for a religious mendicant. It originally referred to a...

Falaise, treaty of
Treaty 1174 between King William I of Scotland and Henry II of England under which William became Henry's vassal. William had been captured at Alnwick during an invasion of England and was...

Falange
Also known as Falange Española. Former Spanish Fascist Party, founded in 1933 by José Antonio Primo de Rivera (1903-1936), son of military ruler Miguel Primo de Rivera. It was closely modelled...

Falasha
Member of a small community of black Jews originating in Ethiopia. They suffered discrimination there and, after being accorded Jewish status by Israel in 1975, began a gradual process of...

Falco, Gian
Pseudonym of Italian author Giovanni Papini. ...

Falcón, Juan Crisóstomo
(1820-1870) Venezuelan marshal and president 1863-68. Falcón's rule saw the beginnings of economic recovery after the chaos of the Federal Wars 1858-63. He travelled around the country putting down...

Falconer, Charles
(1951) British Labour politician, Lord Chancellor and secretary of state for constitutional affairs from June 2003. Falconer entered Tony Blair's Labour government in 1997 as solicitor general and was...

Falconer, Ion Keith
(1856-1887) Irish orientalist, missionary, and athlete. A brilliant scholar, Falconer was appointed professor of Arabic at Cambridge University at an early age, and went to Ar ...

Falconer, Robert Alexander
(1867-1943) Canadian clergyman and educationalist. Between 1907 and 1932 he was president of the University of Toronto. He was also president of the Royal Society of Canada, and president of...

Falconer, William
(1732-1769) Scottish poet. The Shipwreck 1762 was based on a personal experience off the coast of Greece. Despite the somewhat incongruous mixture of an artificial, elegant style with the breezy, technical...

Falconet, Etienne-Maurice
(1716-1791) French sculptor. His works range from baroque to gentle rococo in style. He directed sculptural modelling at the Sèvres porcelain factory 1757-66. His bronze equestrian statue Peter the Great in...

Falconetto, Giovanni Maria
(1468-1535) Italian architect and painter. Working chiefly around Padua, Falconetto designed a number of buildings based on classical forms, notably the loggia and odeon in Padua in 1524, which later became...

Falerii
One of the 12 chief cities of ancient Etruria (now Tuscany and part of Umbria), situated 50 km/30 mi north of Rome. Captured by the Roman general Camillus 394 BC, it revolted at the end of the first...

Falier, Marino
(1274-1355) Venetian nobleman. He was elected doge (1354) after many years as ambassador and naval commander. Turning against his fellow patricians, he plotted to overthrow the oligarchy, but the plot was...

Falk, Paul Ludwig Adalbert
(1827-1900) Prussian statesman. As Bismark's education minister, he gave the state direct control over ecclesiastical matters, particularly education, which led to...

Falkberget, Johan
(1879-1967) Norwegian novelist. He described the life of the miners and mountain farmers in the R&osla;ros district in numerous colourful and intense stories. His most important works are the historical novel...

Falkender, Marcia Matilda
(1932) English political worker, private and political secretary to Labour prime minister Harold Wilson from 1956. She was influential in the `kitchen cab ...

Falkenhausen, Alexander
(1878-1966) German general; military governor of Belgium and northern France 1940-44. He maintained strict control of his area though he deliberately ignored many Gestapo directives and did his best to make...

Falkirk, Battle of
Battle 22 July 1298 at Falkirk, 37 km/23 mi west of Edinburgh at which Edward I of England defeated the Scots. Sir William Wallace faced the English in open battle, but his cavalry fled and his...

Falkland Islands, Battle of the
In World War I, British naval victory (under Admiral Sir Frederick Sturdee) over German forces under Admiral Maximilian von Spee on 8 December 1914. Von Spee intended to bombard the Falklands in...

Falkland, Lucius Cary, 2nd Viscount
(c. 1610-1643) English soldier and politician. He was elected to the Long Parliament 1640 and tried hard to secure a compromise peace between Royalists and Parliamentarians. He was killed at the Battle of Newbury...

Falkland, Samuel
Pseudonym of Dutch author and dramatist Herman Heijermans. ...

Falklands War
War between Argentina and Britain over disputed sovereignty of the Falkland Islands initiated when Argentina invaded and occupied the islands on 2 April 1982. On the following day, the United...

Falkner, John Meade
(1858-1932) English novelist. Of his novels the most popular was Moonfleet, 1898; others are The Lost Stradivarius 1895 and The Nebuly Coat 1903. A keen walker, he also wrote h ...

Fall of Man, the
Myth that explains the existence of evil as the result of some primeval wrongdoing by humanity. It occurs independently in many cultures. The biblical version, recorded in the Old Testament (Genesis...

Fall, Albert
(1861-1944) US civil servant who was involved in the Teapot Dome Scandal in the 1920s, which exposed US president Harding's administration to allegations of corruption. As an official at the department of the...

fallacy
In philosophy, a type of mistake in reasoning or inference (deduction or conclusion drawn from what has been implied). In Aristotelian logic (syllogism) and in modern...

Fallada, Hans
(1893-1947) German writer. His novels depict in a realistic fashion the everyday problems of the ordinary person, as in Kleiner Mann, was nun?/Little Man, What Now? 1932. Both this and his Altes Herz geht auf...

fallout
Harmful radioactive material released into the atmosphere in the debris of a nuclear explosion (see nuclear warfare) and descending to the surface of the Earth. Such material can enter the food...

Falun Gong
Chinese religious sect, influenced by Buddhism and Taoism, founded in 1992 by Li Hongzhi, which claims 100 million members worldwide, including 80 million in China. Its followers seek spiritual...

Falwell, Jerry
(1933-2007) US Protestant evangelist. After founding a Baptist church, he launched an extremely popular television programme, The Old-Time Gospel Hour, and established Liberty Baptist College. His Moral...

familiar
Demon or spirit believed to be the attendant of a witch or sorcerer. The familiar usually takes the form of an animal, for example, a black cat. ...

Famous Five
Series of 21 stories for children by Enid Blyton, published in the UK from 1942 to 1963, which describe the adventures of the `Five` (four children and a dog) who spend their holidays together....

fan vaulting
In architecture, a method of vaulting employed in the Perpendicular style, so called on account of its resemblance to a fan. The ribs radiate from one point with the same curvature, and are...

Fancelli, Domenico di Alessandro
(1469-1519) Italian sculptor. Fancelli was one of the first sculptors to introduce the ideals of the Italian Renaissance into Spain. He executed most of his work at Carrara in Italy but frequently visited...

Fanfani, Amintore
(1908-1999) Italian right-wing politician. He was a Christian Democrat premier of Italy in 1954, 1958-59, and 1960-63. Subsequently he became foreign minister and was noted for his `European` policy....

Fang
West African people living in the rainforests of Cameroon, Equatorial Guinea, and northwestern Gabon, numbering about 2.5 million. The Fang language belongs to the Bantu branch...

Fang Lizhi
(1936) Chinese political dissident and astrophysicist. He advocated human rights and political pluralism and encouraged his students to campaign for democracy. After the Red Army massacred the student...

Fanon, Frantz Omar
(1925-1961) French political writer. His experiences in Algeria during the war for liberation in the 1950s led to the writing of Les Damnés de la terre/The Wretched of the Earth (1964), which calls for violent...

Fanshawe, Richard
(1608-1666) English diplomat and poet. He translated Giovanni Guarini'sIl pastor fido 1647 and Camoëns'sOs Lusiades 1655, and wrote some original verse. Fanshawe was born at Ware Park, Hertfordshire, and...

fantasy fiction
Genre of unrealistic fiction. The term has been loosely applied to a range of works and attempts to define it more precisely have not been successful. However, a feature shared by most fantasy...

Fanthorpe, U(rsula) A
(1929) English poet. Her first collection, Side Effects (1978), was highly praised as a strong and clear new voice in English poetry. Standing To (1982) was chosen as the Financial Times book of the year...

Fanti
Member of an Akan-speaking people of the coastal area of Ghana. Traditionally they are farmers and fishers. They inherit property and titles through the female line and membership in work and...

FAO
Abbreviation for Food and Agriculture Organization. ...

Farazdaq, al-
(c. 641-c. 728) Arabic poet. He and his rival Jarir were the most prominent poets of the Ummayad period, and their satirical poetry was a major feature of disputes between different tribal groups at that time. Most...

farce
Genre broad popular comedy drama involving stereotyped characters in which ordinary people become unwittingly trapped in complex and often improbable situations. The term `bedroom farce` relates...

Farel, Guillaume
(1489-1565) French religious reformer. A convert to Protestantism himself, his fervent preaching throughout France and Switzerland made many converts. Along with John ...

Fargo, William George
(1818-1881) US pioneer of long-distance transport. In 1844 he established with Henry Wells (1805-1878) and Daniel Dunning the first express company to carry freight west of Buffalo. Its success led to his...

Fargue, Léon-Paul
(1876-1947) French poet. His works include Poèmes 1905 and 1912, Pour la musique 1912, Banalité 1928, Epaisseurs 1928, and Sous la lampe 1929. Haute solitude 1941, Déjeuners de soleil 1942, and Méandres...

Faria e Sousa, Manuel de
(1590-1649) Portuguese writer. His life's work was a history of the Portuguese in all parts of the world. It was never completed, although several volumes appeared after his death:Europa Portuguesa (three...