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

futures trading
Buying and selling futures. The notional value of the futures contracts traded annually worldwide is $140,000 billion (1994). The volume of crude oil futures and options traded on the New York...

Futurism
Avant-garde art movement founded in 1909 that celebrated the dynamism of the modern world. It was chiefly an Italian movement and was mainly expressed in painting, but it also embraced other arts,...

Fyffe, Will
(1885-1947) Scottish music-hall comedian. He is remembered for his vivid character sketches and for his song `I Belong to Glasgow`. ...

Führer (or Fuehrer)
Title adopted by Adolf Hitler as leader of the Nazi Party. ...

Fyleman, Rose
(1877-1957) English poet. Her light, tuneful poems for children were very popular. Typical collections are Fairies and Chimneys 1918, The Rainbow Cat 1922, Gay Go Up 1929, Runabout Rhymes 1941, and Nursery...

fylgja
In Norse mythology, the guardian spirit of a family or an individual, which may be seen in visions. ...

Fylingdales
Site in the North Yorkshire Moors National Park, England, of an early-warning radar station, linked with similar stations in Greenland and Alaska, to give a four-minute...

fyrd
Anglo-Saxon local militia in Britain. All freemen were obliged to defend their shire but, by the 11th century, a distinction was drawn between the great...

Ga
Member of a people living in the coastal area of Ghana, near Accra. They are farmers, with trading organized by the women. ...

Gaba Tepe Landing
In World War I, unsuccessful Australian operation at Gallipoli April-August 1915. On 24 April the Anzac corps landed at `Z Beach`, about 3 km/2 mi north of Gaba Tepe, a strategic hill held by...

gabai
In Judaism, a person who helps to organize the running of a synagogue service; one or more gabai may be involved. Duties include welcoming visitors, ensuring that everyone has a siddur (prayer...

gabelle
In French history, term that originally referred to a tax on various items but came to be used exclusively for a tax on salt, first levied by Philip the Fair in 1286 and abolished 1790. ...

Gabii
Ancient town in the Italian region of Latium, about 20 km/12 mi from Rome. Although it had been an important place, it had declined to insignificance by the reign of the emperor Augustus (31 BC-AD...

Gabinius, Aulus
(died 48/47 BC) Roman general and provincial governor. As tribune 67 BC he proposed a law (the Lex Gabinia) which gave Pompey wide-ranging command against the Mediterranean pirates. As consul 58 BC, Gabinius...

Gabo, Naum
(1890-1977) Russian-born US abstract sculptor. One of the leading exponents of constructivism, he was one of the first artists to make kinetic sculpture. In later...

Gabon
Country in central Africa, bounded north by Cameroon, east and south by the Congo, west by the Atlantic Ocean, and northwest by Equatorial Guinea. Government The 1991 constitution provides for a...

Gaboriau, Emile
(1835-1873) French writer. He became known as an author of detective novels when his story L'Affaire Lerouge was published 1866 in the newspaper Le Pays. He also wrote Le crime d'Orcival, Monsieur Lecoq, Les...

Gabriel
In the New Testament, the archangel who foretold the birth of John the Baptist to Zacharias and of Jesus to the Virgin Mary. He is also mentioned in the Old Testament in the book of Daniel. In...

Gadamer, Hans-Georg
(1900-2002) German hermeneutic philosopher. In Truth and Method 1960, he argued that `understanding` is fundamental to human existence, and that all understanding takes place within a tradition. The...

Gadara
Ancient town in Syria, southeast of the Sea of Galilee. It was a member of the Decapolis, a defensive league of ten cities. Its hot sulphur springs still exist. It is now in ruins. Originally a...

Gaddafi
Alternative form of Khaddhafi, Libyan leader. ...

Gaddis, William
(1922-1998) US novelist. He was a distinctive and satirical stylist of non-psychological work, often written on a vast, perplexing scale. His first novel, The Recognitions (1955), explores the idea of forgery...

Gadsden Purchase
In US history, the purchase of approximately 77,700 sq km/30,000 sq mi in what is now New Mexico and Arizona by the USA in 1853. The land was bought from Mexico for $10 million in a treaty,...

Gadsden, Christopher
(1724-1805) US Revolutionary leader, who called for colonial unity in response to the Stamp Act (1765). He became the leader of the radical faction in South Carolina politics, and served as a delegate to the...

Gadsden, James
(1788-1858) US military leader and diplomat. In 1823 he was appointed by President Monroe to supervise the forced resettlement of the North American Seminole people to southern Florida and participated in the...

Gaelic League
Irish organization founded in 1893 to promote the use of the Irish language. Established by a Protestant academic, Douglas Hyde, a Catholic intellectual, Eoin MacNeill, and a Catholic priest, Fr...

Gaetulia
Name given by ancient Latin writers to the region of North Africa immediately south of Numidia and Mauretania. The country was inhabited by a Libyan people who are probably the ancestors of the...

gag rule
A legislative device, adopted by the US House of Representatives from May 1836 to December 1844, prohibiting discussion or debate of antislavery petitions. During this eight-year period, the...

Gagauz
Member of a people of whom 153,000 (90%) live in southern Moldova. Orthodox Christians, they have always been distinct from the Turks, although their language is related. Their origin is unclear,...

Gage, Thomas
(1721-1787) English general, son of the 1st Viscount Gage. He served in the Seven Years' War and in Edward Braddock's ill-fated American expedition to fight against the French in 1755. In 1760 he was...

Gaia
In Greek mythology, the goddess of the Earth. She sprang from primordial Chaos and herself produced Uranus, by whom she was the mother of the Cyclopes and Titans. ...

Gaidar, Yegor Timurovich
(1956) Russian politician and economist. He served as first deputy prime minister in charge of the economy, then early in 1992 was made acting prime minister - a title that was never confirmed because of...

Gaiety Theatre
Former London theatre, 1864-1939, in the Strand, Aldwych. It was originally a music hall, with chorus dancers known as the Gaiety Girls, and later it held musical comedy performances. The theatre,...

Gaine, Hugh
(1726-1807) Irish-born US journalist. He founded the New-York Mercury in 1752. The paper wavered in its politics before the American Revolution. When the British occupied New York City, Gaine at first...

Gaines, Ernest J(ames)
(1933) US writer. His simple fictional accounts of the struggles of Southern blacks are influenced by the oral traditions of rural Louisiana, and include The Autobiography of Miss Jane Pittman (1971) and A...

Gainsborough, Thomas
(1727-1788) English landscape and portrait painter. In 1760 he settled in Bath, where his elegant and subtly characterized society portraits brought great success. In 1774 he went to London, becoming one of the...

Gairdner, James
(1828-1912) Scottish historian. He edited a considerable number of historical works, and contributed much to modern historical literature; his publications on the early Tudor period are still considered...

Gairy, Eric Matthew
(1922-1997) Grenadian centre-left politician, chief minister 1957-62 and prime minister 1967-79. Initially a champion of the rural poor, he founded the Grenada United Labour Party (GULP) in 1950. He...

Gaitskell, Hugh (Todd Naylor)
(1906-1963) British Labour Party leader from 1955. In 1950 he became minister of economic affairs, and then chancellor of the Exchequer until October 1951. As party leader, he tried to reconcile internal...

Gaius
(lived 2nd century AD) Roman jurist. Gaius is one of the principal sources of our knowledge of Roman law, but little is known about his life. His book, the Institutes survives and formed the basis of the Institutes of the...

Galahad
In Arthurian legend, one of the knights of the Round Table. His virtue allowed him to succeed in the quest for the Holy Grail, and he died in ecstasy, having seen its mystery. He was the son of...

Galán, Luis Carlos
(died 1990) Colombian liberal politician and prospective presidential candidate in the 1990 elections. He was vehemently outspoken about the drug cartels and mafia, and supported the government campaign,...

Galatea
In Greek mythology, a sea nymph who loved a Sicilian shepherd by the name of Acis. When he was killed by his rival, the Cyclops Polyphemus, Galatea transformed her lover's blood into the River Acis....

Galatia
Ancient province of Asia Minor. It was occupied in the 3rd century BC by the Gauls, and became a Roman province 25 BC. ...

Galatians
Epistle in the New Testament to the churches in Galatia; attributed to St Paul. ...

Galba, Servius Sulpicius
(5 BC-AD 69) Roman emperor for a few months in AD 68-69. This became known as `the year of the four emperors`, of whom he was the first. Galba became praetor AD 20 and consul AD 33. He had a distinguished...

Galbraith, John Kenneth
(1908-2006) Canadian-born US economist. Considered a renegade by many of this peers, he criticized mainstream neo-classical economics, for example in his bestsellers American Capitalism: The Concept of...

Galbraith, Vivian Hunter
(1889-1976) British historian. His publications include Roger Wendover and Matthew Paris (1944), Historical Research in Medieval England (1951), The Making of Domesday Book (1961), The Historian at Work (1962),...

Galczynski, Konstanty Ildefons
(1905-1953) Polish poet. Anarchistic and challenging, his absurd sense of humour was supplanted in later years by more serious, reflective poetry. Among his works are Koniec świata/The End of the World 1929,...

Gale, George Stafford
(1927-1990) British journalist and broadcaster. He worked for the Manchester Guardian, Daily Mirror, Daily Express, and, towards the end of his life, D ...

Gale, Humphrey Middleton
(1890-1971) British general. After serving in World War I, he remained in the Army and at the outbreak of World War II went to France with the British Expeditionary Force 1939. He then served in a variety of...

Gale, Richard Nelson
(1896-1981) British general. In World War II, he raised and trained the 1st Parachute Brigade and during the D-Day landings led the small force which dropped ahead of the main invasion to capture the Orne...

Gale, Thomas
(c.1636-1702) English antiquary, professor of Greek at Cambridge 1666, fellow of the Royal Society 1677, and dean of York 1697. He is noted for his editions of a large series of English chronicles published...

Galen
(c. 129-c. 200) Greek physician and anatomist whose ideas dominated Western medicine for almost 1,500 years. Central to his thinking were the threefold circulation of the blood and the theory of humours (blood,...

Galen, Clemens August
(1878-1946) German prelate. In 1933 he became bishop of Münster, and as a leader of the Roman Catholic Church was an outspoken critic of Nazism, especially during World War II. He was made cardinal in March...

Galgacus
(lived 1st century AD) Caledonian chieftain who organized the bitter resistance offered about AD 85 to the Roman invaders under Gnaeus Julius Agricola. He was finally defeated at the Battle of Mons Graupius, Scotland, in...

Galicia
Region of central Europe, extending from the northern slopes of the Carpathian Mountains to the Romanian border. Once part of the Austrian Empire, it was included in Poland after World War I and...

galilee
In architecture, a term for a porch or chapel attached to a church. They were used sometimes as the area reserved for penitents, sometimes for corpses prior to burial, and at other times as the...

Galilee
Region of northern Israel (once a Roman province in Palestine) that includes Nazareth and Tiberias, frequently mentioned in the Gospels of the New Testament. ...

Gall
(c. 1840-1894) American Sioux Indian leader. He became a noted warrior of the Hunkpapa Sioux and a protégé of Chief Sitting Bull. Gall accompanied Sitting Bull to Montana 1876 and led the encirclement and...

Gall, St
(c. 550-645) Irish monk. He was a disciple of St Columban, whom he followed to Europe. After Columban's exile from France, Gall settled in Switzerland, of which he is considered one of the apostles and where his...

Galla
Member of a Cushitic people inhabiting southern Ethiopia and northwestern Kenya. Galla is a Hamito-Semitic (Afro-Asiatic) language, and is spoken by about 12 million people. Most are sedentary...

Gallait, Louis
(1810-1887) Belgian painter. He was a leading figure in the revival of historical painting in Belgium. The huge Abdication of Charles V is his best-known work. ...

Galland, Adolf
(1912-1996) German air ace of World War II. He served in the Spanish Civil War 1936-39 and then the Polish and French campaigns 1939 and the Battle of Britain 1940. By June 1941 he had claimed 70 enemy...

Gallant, Mavis
(1922) Canadian short-story writer and novelist, based in Paris. A regular contributor to the New Yorker magazine, she has published novels and collections of short fiction, notably The Pegnitz Junction...

Gallarus Oratory
Church on the Dingle peninsula, County Kerry, Republic of Ireland. It dates from the 7th century AD, but is perfectly preserved. Built throughout of unmortared stone, it is still watertight after...

Gallas, Matthias
(1584-1647) Austrian general, distinguished in the Thirty Years' War. He fought under the German general Wallenstein, then intrigued against him and after the latter's assassination succeeded to his command in...

Gallatin,
(1761-1849) Swiss-born US political leader and diplomat. He served in the US House of Representatives 1795-1801 and was secretary of the treasury 1801-13 during the administrations of Thomas Jefferson and...

Gallé, Emile
(1846-1904) French art nouveau glassmaker. He produced glass in sinuous forms or rounded, solid-looking shapes almost as heavy as stone, typically decorated with flowers or leaves in colour on colour. After...

Gallego, Fernando
(died 1507) Spanish painter working in Castile in the late 15th century. He painted in oils in the Flemish manner then dominant in Spain, recalling Rogier van der Weyden in particular. His Christ in Majesty is...

Gallegos Freire, Rómulo
(1884-1969) Venezuelan politician and writer. He was Venezuela's first democratically elected president in 1948 before being overthrown and exiled by a military coup the same year. He was also a professor of...

Gallic Wars
Series of military campaigns 58-51 BC in which Julius Caesar, as proconsul of Gaul, annexed Transalpine Gaul (the territory that formed the geographical basis of modern-day France). His final...

Gallican Confession
French Calvinist confession of faith drawn up at the first national synod of Protestants in Paris in 1559. The synod, called out of fear of persecution by Henry II, lasted four days and confessed...

Gallico, Paul (William)
(1897-1976) US author. Originally a sports columnist, he began writing fiction 1936. His many books include The Snow Goose 1941. ...

Gallieni, Joseph Simon
(1849-1916) French general, nicknamed `The Saviour of Paris` from his plans for the defence of the city as military governor in World War I. He brought the city's fortifications to a state of readiness and...

Gallier, James, Sr
(1798-1866) Irish architect and builder. Born in Ravensdale, County Louth, Ireland, he emigrated to New Orleans, Louisiana, in 1834, making a major contribution to the city's architecture with his Greek Revival...

Gallinger, Jacob H(arold)
(1837-1918) Canadian-born US politician. A Republican representative of the state of New Hampshire, he served in the US House of Representatives (1885-89) and in the US Senate (1891-1918), where he...

Gallio, Junius Annaeus
(lived 1st century AD) Roman governor of Achaea (central and southern Greece) AD 53. He dismissed a charge of heresy brought by the Jews of Corinth against St Paul. In his day the Romans still regarded the Christians as...

Gallipoli
Port in European Turkey, giving its name to the peninsula (ancient name Chersonesus) on which it stands. In World War I, at the instigation of Winston Churchill, an unsuccessful attempt was made...

Galloway, Joseph
(c. 1731-1803) American lawyer who fought on the British side in the American Revolution. As a member of the Pennsylvania Assembly 1756-76, he opposed proprietary government and advocated the elevation of...

Gallup, George Horace
(1901-1984) US journalist and statistician, who founded in 1935 the American Institute of Public Opinion and devised the Gallup Poll, in which public opinion is sampled by questioning a number of representative...

Gallus, Gaius Vibius Trebonianus
(c.AD 205-253) Roman emperor from 251. He is said to have been implicated in the defeat and death of the emperor Decius, whom he succeeded. After his accession, he negotiated peace with the Goths, conceding them a...

Gallwitz, Max Karl Wilhelm von
(1852-1937) German general. Gallwitz was attached to the General Staff 1883-85 and was appointed inspector general of field artillery 1911. In World War I, he served with Hindenburg on the Eastern Front and...

Galsworthy, John
(1867-1933) English novelist and dramatist. His work examines the social issues of the Victorian period. He wrote The Forsyte Saga (1906-22) and its sequel, the novels collectively entitled A Modern Comedy...

Galt, John
(1779-1839) Scottish novelist. He was the author of Annals of the Parish (1821), in which he portrays the life of a Lowlands village, using the local dialect. An effective interpreter of Scottish rural and...

Galtieri, Leopoldo Fortunato
(1926-2003) Argentine general and president 1981-82. A leading member from 1979 of the ruling right-wing military junta and commander of the army, Galtieri became president in December 1981. Under his...

Galvão, Antonio
(c. 1490-1557) Portuguese historian. Galvão was the first major historian to marshal a comprehensive knowledge of the voyages of all the leading Renaissance explorers, regardless of nationality. His works...

Gálvez, Juan Manuel
(born 1887) Honduran National Party politician, president 1949-54. A member of the right-wing National Party, he was elected in 1948 to succeed the dictator Tiburcio Carías Andino as president, assuming...

Gama, Vasco da
(c. 1469-1524) Portuguese navigator. He commanded an expedition in 1497 to discover the route to India around the Cape of Good Hope (in modern South Africa). On Christmas Day 1497 he reached land, which he named...

Gamaliel
(died AD 52) Palestinian rabbi, the grandson of Hillel,...

Gamarra, Augustín
(1786-1841) Peruvian president 1829-33 and from 1839. His first period of rule saw chaos, and he went into exile, but was re-elected president 1839. He died during an attempted invasion of Bolivia. Gamarra...

Gambari, Ibrahim Agboola
(1944) Nigerian diplomat and political scientist, the country's permanent representative to the United Nations (UN) from 1985. He was director general of the Nigerian Institute of International Affairs...

Gambetta, Léon Michel
(1838-1882) French politician, organizer of resistance during the Franco-Prussian War, and founder in 1871 of the Third Republic. In 1881-82 he was prime minister for a few weeks. ...

Gambia, The
Country in west Africa, bounded north, east, and south by Senegal and west by the Atlantic Ocean. Government The Gambia is an independent republic within the Commonwealth. Its constitution dates...

Gambrinus
Mythical Flemish king, a patron of brewers. ...

game laws
In Britain, legislation from 1671 to 1831 restricting the taking of game to those of high social status. `Game` itself was defined by the Games Act 1831 as hares, pheasants, partridges, grouse,...

game theory
Group of mathematical theories, developed in 1944 by German-born US mathematician Oscar Morgenstern and Hungarian-born US mathematician John Von Neumann, that seeks to abstract from invented...

gamekeeper
Person employed to rear and preserve game birds for shooting. Gamekeepers are also responsible for much of the organization of shooting parties. It is the gamekeeper's task to rear the birds...

Gamelin, Maurice Gustave
(1872-1958) French commander-in-chief of the Allied armies in France at the outset of World War II 1939. Replaced by Maxime Weygand after the German breakthrough at Sedan 1940, he was tried by the Vichy...

Gamsakhurdia, Zviad
(1939-1993) Georgian politician, president 1990-92. He was a fervent nationalist and an active anticommunist. After nationalist success in parliamentary elections w ...