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

footpath
A route for the use of pedestrians only. Most footpaths are short cuts created before the widespread use of cars. In rural areas footpaths were once essential and many became...

Foppa, Vincenzo
(c. 1427-1515) Italian painter, who worked mainly in Milan and nearby Pavia. He was their leading artist until the arrival of Leonardo da Vinci in the 1480s. His works include Crucifixion (1456, Bergamo), strongly...

Forain, Jean Louis
(1852-1931) French painter and graphic artist. He depicted the social life of his time in works that combine something of Honoré Daumier's satirical view with the observation of Edgar Degas. ...

Foraker, Joseph Benson
(1846-1917) US senator and governor. An American Civil War hero, he was a lawyer and judge in Ohio. A Republican, he was elected governor of Ohio and then US Senator. Accused of accepting money from Standard...

Forbes-Robertson, Johnston
(1853-1937) English actor. He acted with Ellen Terry, the Bancrofts, John Hare, Henry Irving, and Mrs Patrick Campbell. Among his Shakespearean roles were Hamlet, Othello, Shylock, Leontes, and Macbeth. As a...

Forbes, Archibald
(1838-1900) British journalist. Forbes was Daily News war correspondent throughout the 1870s. He covered the Franco-Prussian War, the Afghanistan campaign, and the Zulu War. His books include Memories and...

Forbes, Duncan
(1685-1747) Scottish politician and jurist. Forbes was active in putting down the Scottish rebellion of 1715. He became lord advocate in 1725, and in 1737 lord president of the Court of Session. ...

Forbes, George William
(1869-1947) New Zealand centre-right politician, prime minister 1930-35. He was Liberal Party whip from 1912 and leader between 1925-28. He became leader again, when it had become the United Party, in...

Forbes, Malcolm Steve Stevenson, Jr
(1947) US publishing executive. Since the death of his father in 1990, Forbes has been president and CEO of Forbes Inc., and editor-in-chief of Forbes magazine, which has become synonymous with its...

Forbes, Malcolm Stevenson
(1919-1990) US publisher. He became editor and publisher of Forbes, the business magazine founded by his father. Circulation and profits soared, making him a multimillionaire. He...

Forbes, Robert Bennet
(1804-1889) US merchant and author. As head of a merchant company and owner of several ships, he supported innovations in marine safety and ship design that included the first iron-hulled tugboat. He wrote...

Forbin, Claude, comte de
(1656-1733) French naval commander. Forbin fought courageously at at Messina (1675), in the Antilles (1680), and in Algeria (1682-83). He became admiral to the king of Siam in 1686. ...

force majeure
In politics, the use of force rather than the seeking of a political or diplomatic solution to a problem. By this principle, a government could end a strike by sending in troops, instead of...

forced loans
In Britain, the right of the Crown to demand money from its subjects without seeking the approval of parliament, especially in times of war. These were technically loans to be repaid and guaranteed...

Ford, Anna
(1943) English broadcaster who has been one of British television's leading newsreaders since the late 1970s. She presented BBC 1's One O'clock News 1999-2006. Other programmes include Man Alive (1976),...

Ford, Betty
(1918) US first lady. She married Gerald Ford in 1948. She endorsed the Equal Rights Amendment and women's right to abortion. Following her own problems with alcohol and drugs, she helped establish The...

Ford, Edward Onslow
(1852-1901) English sculptor. Among his works are portraits of the politician William Gladstone 1883, the actor Henry Irving (as Hamlet) 1883, General Gordon 1890, and the scientist Thomas Huxley 1900. ...

Ford, Ford Madox
(1873-1939) English author. He wrote more than 80 books, the best known of which are the novels The Good Soldier (1915) and Tietjen's Saga (1924-28). As the first editor of the English Review from 1908 to...

Ford, Gerald R(udolph)
(1913-2006) 38th president of the USA 1974-77, a Republican. He was elected to the House of Representatives in 1948, was nominated to the vice-presidency by Richard Nixon in 1973 on the resignation of Spiro...

Ford, Henry
(1863-1947) US car manufacturer. He built his first car in 1896 and founded the Ford Motor Company in 1903 with 11 investors. Ford held 25.5% of the stock, and it was three years before he took a controlling...

Ford, James Alfred
(1911-1968) US archaeologist. Curator of North American archaeology at the American Museum of Natural History, he was a specialist in American prehistoric culture. He did fieldwork in Alaska, the lower...

Ford, John
(c. 1586-c. 1640) English poet and dramatist. His play 'Tis Pity She's a Whore (performed in about 1626, printed in 1633) is a study of incestuous passion between brother and sister. His other plays include The...

Ford, Richard
(1944) US novelist. A leading exponent of `dirty realism`, Ford's novels and stories often describe the bleak lives of lonely and damaged people who are constantly on the move - for Ford, a central...

Ford, Wendell H
(1924) US senator and governor. Kentucky's Democratic governor (1971-74), he was elected to the US Senate in 1974. There he staunchly defended the interests of the tobacco industry. He was elected...

Fordney, Joseph Warren
(1853-1932) US representative. A lumberman and alderman before going to the US House of Representatives as a Republican for Michigan (1899-1923), he chaired the Committee on Ways and Means. Born in Hartford...

Fordun, John of
(died c. 1384) Scottish chronicler. John of Fordun is said to have been a secular and chantry priest in Aberdeen. He is reputed to have travelled on foot throughout Britain and Ireland in search of material for...

foreclosure
In law, the transfer of title of a mortgaged property from the mortgagor (borrower, usually a home owner) to the mortgagee (loaner, for example a bank) if the mortgagor is in breach of the mortgage...

foreign exchange
System by which the money of one country can be converted into the money of another; US dollars, French francs, and Spanish pesetas are all foreign currencies into which a holder of pounds sterling...

Foreign Legion
Volunteer corps of foreigners within a country's army. The French Légion Etrangère, founded in 1831, is one of a number of such forces. Enlisted volunteers are of any nationality (about half are...

foreign relations
A country's dealings with other countries. Specialized diplomatic bodies first appeared in Europe during the 18th century. After 1818 diplomatic agents were divided into:ambassadors, papal legates,...

Foreman, Percy
(1902-1988) US lawyer. He became one of the USA's best known trial lawyers. Notorious for high fees and courtroom theatricals, he lost only 53 of the 1,500 death-penalty cases he fought. His most famous...

Forepaugh, Adam
(1831-1890) US showman. A horse trader who became circus owner by default in 1862, his thriving business drew crowds with the great clown Dan Rice, and rivalled the circus of P T Barnum. He...

foreshortening
In painting and drawing, the application of perspective to a single object or figure to create the illusion of projection or depth. It mimics the shortened appearance of a form when it is not...

forest laws
In England, draconian legislation, enacted mainly during the century following the Norman Conquest, which prohibited common or agricultural use of land deemed to be royal hunting grounds and placed...

Forester, C(ecil) S(cott)
(1899-1966) English novelist. He is best known for a series of historical novels set in the Napoleonic era that, beginning with The Happy Return (1937), cover the career - from midshipman to admiral - of...

forfeiture
In England, confiscation of an outlaw's property, usually divided between the crown and the criminal's lord. In cases of treason all property went to the crown, but in most cases the criminal's land...

forgery
The making of a false document, painting, or object with deliberate intention to deceive or defraud. The most common forgeries involve financial instruments such as cheques or credit-card...

forgiveness
In the Christian church, one of the central values of the Christian faith. Christians believe that when Jesus forgave those who crucified him while dying on the cross (Luke 23:34), he demonstrated...

form
In art, a three-dimensional shape or object, and one of the formal art elements. The form of a subject can be recreated using contour lines, shading, cross-hatching, and highlights. If a drawing...

form
In logic, the form of a proposition is the kind or species to which it belongs, such as the universal (`All x are y`) or the negative (`No x are y`). Logical form is contrasted with the...

form
In Greek and medieval European philosophy, that which makes a thing what it is. For Plato, a Form was an immaterial, independent object, which could not be perceived...

Formby, George
(1904-1961) English comedian. He established a stage and screen reputation as an apparently simple Lancashire working lad, and sang such songs as `Mr Wu` and `Cleaning Windows`, accompanying himself on...

Formigny, Battle of
Battle fought on 15 April 1450 near the coast of Normandy, France, during the Hundred Years' War, in which Clermont's French forces defeated the English forces of Thomas Kyriell. The latter was...

Formosa
Former name for Taiwan. ...

Fornes, Maria Irene
(1930) Cuban-born US playwright and director. Success came with Fefu and Her Friends (1977), which brings a feminist perspective to female friendship and women's roles in a patriarchal society. She won...

Forrest, Edwin
(1806-1872) US stage actor. He made a successful New York debut as Iago in Othello (1826). His rivalry with actor William Macready led to riots in New York, and 30 people were killed during a fight between the...

Forrest, John
(1847-1918) Australian explorer and politician. He crossed Western Australia from west to east in 1870, when he went along the south coast route, and in 1874, when he crossed much further north, exploring the...

Forrestal, James Vincent
(1892-1949) US Democratic politician. As undersecretary from 1940 and secretary of the navy from 1944, he organized its war effort, accompanying the US landings on the Japanese island Iwo Jima. He was the first...

Forrester, Alfred Henry
(1804-1872) English writer and illustrator. He worked under the pseudonym of Alfred Crowquill, contributed drawings to Punch, and wrote and illustrated more than 20 humorous books, burlesques,...

Forster, E(dward) M(organ)
(1879-1970) English novelist, short-story writer, and critic. He was concerned with the interplay of personality and the conflict between convention and instinct. His novels include A Room with a View (1908),...

Forster, Margaret
(1938) English novelist and biographer. Her Georgy Girl (1965; filmed 1966) encapsulated the mood of 1960s London; later novels include Have the Men Had Enough? (1989) on the tragedy of Alzheimer's...

Forster, William Edward
(1818-1886) British Liberal reformer. In Gladstone's government 1868-74 he was vice-president of the council, and secured the passing of the Education Act 1870 and the Ballot Act 1872. He was chief...

Forsyth, Bruce
(1928) English comedian and entertainer. In 1958 he became host of TV's variety show, Sunday Night at the London Palladium, which he compered for four years. He went on to present The Generation Game...

Forsyth, Frederick
(1938) English thriller writer. His books include The Day of the Jackal (1970), about an attempted assassination of French president Charles de Gaulle, The Odessa File (1972), about a reporter's attempts...

Forsyth, P(eter) T(aylor)
(1848-1921) British theologian. A Congregationalist minister, Forsyth's writings include The Cruciality of the Cross (1909). He wrote his most important works after he became principal of Hackney College,...

Fort Donelson, Battle of
In the American Civil War, capture by Union forces under General Ulysses S Grant 15 February 1862 of two vital Confederate strongpoints: Fort Henry, on the Tennessee River, and Fort Donelson, on the...

Fort McHenry
Fort in Baltimore, Maryland, that successfully defended the city from a British attack on 13-14 September 1814, during the ...

Fort Sumter
Fort in Charleston Harbor, South Carolina, USA, 6.5 km/4 mi southeast of Charleston. The first shots of the US Civil War were fired here on 12 April 1861, after its commander had refused the call to...

Fort Ticonderoga
Fort in New York State, USA, near Lake Champlain. It was the site of battles between the British and the French 1758-59, and was captured from the British on 10 May 1775 by Benedict Arnold and...

Fortas, Abe
(1910-1982) US Supreme Court justice. He was an unofficial adviser to Lyndon Johnson, who appointed him to the US Supreme Court in 1965. Revelations of corruption led to his resignation - making him the first...

Fortescue-Brickdale, (Mary) Eleanor
(1872-1945) English painter and illustrator. She designed posters for the government during World War I, after which her stained glass window designs were in great demand. Her paintings include The Forerunner...

Fortescue, John
(c. 1394-c. 1476) English lawyer. Fortescue was a favourite of Henry VI, serving three times as governor of Lincoln's Inn and, from 1442, as chief justice at King's Bench. At Edward IV's accession he was accused of...

Fortuna
In Roman mythology, the goddess of chance and good fortune. Originally an Italian fertility goddess, she was later identified with the Greek Tyche, personific ...

Fortunatus
Hero of a popular European story describing the adventures of Fortunatus and his sons, who have an inexhaustible purse of money and a magic wishing cap. The moral is that worldly prosperity does not...

Fortune, Timothy Thomas
(1956-1928) US journalist, editor, and civil rights activist. He worked on a succession of newspapers, mostly concerned with protecting and advancing the rights of black Americans. He founded the...

Forty-Five, the
Jacobite rebellion of 1745, led by Prince Charles Edward Stuart. With his army of Highlanders `Bonnie Prince Charlie` occupied Edinburgh and advanced into England as far as Derby, but then...

forum
In an ancient Roman town, the meeting place and market, like the Greek agora. In Rome the Forum Romanum contained the Senate House, the public speaking platform, covered halls for trading, temples...

Forum Appii
Ancient Roman post station on the Appian Way. According to the Roman poet Horace, it was the usual stopping point after a day's journey from Rome. The stretch of the Appian Way that ran through the...

Foscari, Francesco
(c. 1372-1457) Doge of Venice (1423-57). As doge, Foscari waged war against many of the Italian princes, finally conquering them and achieving the Peace of Lodi in 1454. Byron's `The Two Foscari` and Verdi's...

Foscolo, Ugo
(1778-1827) Italian author. An intensely patriotic Venetian, he fought with the French against the invading Austrians. Disillusionment with Napoleon inspired his popular novel Le Ultime lettere di Jacopo...

Fosdick, Henry Emerson
(1878-1969) US Protestant religious leader. As pastor of an interdenominational church, he was the acknowledged spokesperson for modern liberal Christianity. He wrote, lectured,...

Foss Way
Roman road running from Axmouth, Devon, to Lincoln, via Ilchester, Bath, and Cirencester. The road was probably constructed c.AD 47, when it marked the northern limit of Roman expansion and together...

Foss, Joseph (Jacob)
(1915-2003) US marine aviator and governor. He led the marine Fighting Squadron 121 -`Joe's Flying Circus`- on Guadalcanal Island during heavy fighting there in 1942, shooting down 26 Japanese aircraft....

Fosse Way
Roman military road in England, from Lincoln in the north to Exeter, Devon, on the south coast. It intersected the Roman Watling Street at a point known as the `centre of England`, and...

Foster, Abigail Kelley
US abolitionist; see Abby Kelley. ...

Foster, Norman Robert
(1935) English architect of the high-tech school. His works in England include the Willis Faber & Dumas insurance offices, Ipswich (1975); the Sainsbury Centre for the Visual Arts, Norwich (1977);...

Foster, William Zebulon
(1881-1961) US Communist leader. Secretary of the American Communist Party, he was the party's presidential candidate three times. He was indicted with 11 others on charges of advocating the overthrow of the US...

Fothergill, John
(1712-1780) British physician. Fothergill helped to found a school for Quaker children at Ackworth and assisted Howard in his efforts at prison reform. He wrote the first authoritative account of diphtheria and...

Fotheringay Castle
Castle in Northamptonshire, England, on the River Nene, 14 km/9 mi southwest of Peterborough. Built in the reign of William the Conqueror and later enlarged, it was the birthplace of Richard III,...

Foucault, Michel Paul
(1926-1984) French philosopher who argued that human knowledge and subjectivity are dependent upon specific institutions and practices, and that they change through history. In particular, he was concerned to...

Fouché, Joseph, Duke of Otranto
(1759-1820) French politician. He was elected to the National Convention (the post-Revolutionary legislature), and organized the conspiracy that overthrew the
Foulois, Benjamin Delahauf
(1879-1967) US soldier and aviator. He learned to fly with the Signal Corps and was assistant chief of the American Expeditionary Force's air service in France in 1917. As chief of the Army Air Corps, he was...

Fountains Abbey
Cistercian abbey in North Yorkshire, England, situated 13 km/8 mi north of Harrogate. Celebrated as the greatest monument to English monasticism and its architecture, it was founded about 1132, and...

Fouquet (or Foucquet), Jean
(c. 1420-c. 1481) French painter, illuminator, and miniaturist. The leading portraitist of his day, he became court painter to Charles VIII in 1448 and to Louis XI in 1475. Several of his religious works, such as his...

Fouquet, Nicolas
(1615-1680) French politician, a rival to Louis XIV's minister J-B Colbert. Fouquet became procureur général of the Paris parlement in 1650 and superintendent of finance in 1651, responsible for raising...

Four Freedoms, the
Four kinds of liberty essential to human dignity as defined by President Franklin D Roosevelt in his State of the Union message to Congress of 6 January 1941:...

Four Noble Truths
In Buddhism, the central teaching of the Buddha, comprising of four basic concepts. Firstly, there is the reality of suffering (Pali dukkha). In the Four Noble Truths, dukkha also carries the...

Fourdrinier
English paper-makers and inventors. With the assistance of Bryan Donkin, in 1801 the brothers first patented an improved design of a paper-making machine capable...

Fourteen Points
The terms proposed by President Wilson of the USA in his address to Congress of 8 January 1918, as a basis for the settlement of World War I. The creation of the League of Nations was...

Fourteenth Amendment
See Amendment, Fourteenth. ...

Fourth Amendment
See Amendment, Fourth. ...

fourth estate
Another name for the press. The term was coined by the British politician Edmund Burke in analogy with the traditional three estates. ...

fourth Gospel
Another term for the Gospel of St John. ...

Fourth of July
In the USA, the anniversary of the day in 1776 when the Declaration of Independence was adopted by the Continental Congress. It is a public holiday, officially called Independence Day, commemorating...

Fourth Party
In Britain, group of radical Tory activists within the Conservative Party 1880-85. Led by Lord Randolph Churchill, they campaigned for `Tory democracy`: reform within the Conservative Party...

Fourth Republic
The French constitutional regime that was established between 1944 and 1946 and lasted until 4 October 1958: from liberation after Nazi occupation during World War II to the introduction of a new...

Fowler, (Peter) Norman
(1938) British Conservative politician, chair of the party 1992-94. He was a junior minister in the Heath government, transport secretary in the first Thatcher administration in 1979, social services...

Fowler, Gerald (Gerry)
(1935-1993) British politician and academic. A Labour MP 1966-79, he campaigned for equal access for all to higher education. The loss of his parliamentary seat 1970 allowed him to experience as an academic...

Fowler, John
(1817-1898) British civil engineer. Fowler helped to design the London Metropolitan Railway and the Forth railway bridge. A railway consultant since 1844, he built the extension to the London Metropolitan and...

Fowles, John Robert
(1926-2005) English writer. His novels, often concerned with illusion and reality and with the creative process, include The Collector (1963), The Magus (1965), The French Lieutenant's Woman (1969) (filmed in...