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

George of Podebrad
(1420-1471) King of Bohemia. In 1452 he became regent for Ladislas Posthumus, and was elected his successor in 1458. He was excommunicated by Pope Pius II in 1463 and by Pope Paul II in 1466 for failing to lead...

George V
(1865-1936) King of Great Britain and Northern Ireland from 1910, when he succeeded his father Edward VII. He was the second son, and became heir in 1892 on the death of his elder brother Albert, Duke of...

George V
(1819-1878) King of Hanover (1851-66), only son of Ernest Augustus, King of Hanover and Duke of Cumberland, and cousin of Queen Victoria. His illiberal views made him extremely unpopular, and when in 1866...

George VI
(1895-1952) King of Great Britain and Northern Ireland from 1936, when he succeeded after the abdication of his brother Edward VIII, who had succeeded their father George V. Created Duke of York in 1920, he...

George, Harold Huston
(1892-1942) US aviator. A World War I `ace`, he commanded US air mail stations during the 1930s, and in 1941 took command of US air forces in the Philippines, where he directed the air defence of Manila,...

George, Harold Lee
(1893-1986) US aviator. A test pilot and instructor in the early era of flight, he directed the US Army Air Transport Command during World War II. His responsibilities included delivering troops to all the...

George, Henry
(1839-1897) US economist. His Progress and Poverty 1879 suggested a `single tax` on land, to replace all other taxes on earnings and savings. He hoped such a land tax would abolish poverty, by ending...

George, James Zachariah
(1826-1897) US soldier, jurist, and politician, who served in the US Senate as a representative of Mississippi (1881-97), and was the only Democrat to share in the framing of the Sherman Anti-Trust Law...

George, St
(died c. 303) Patron saint of England. The story of St George rescuing a woman by slaying a dragon, evidently derived from the Greek Perseus legend, first appears in the 6th century. The cult of St George was...

George, Stefan
(1868-1933) German poet. His early poetry was inspired by French Symbolism, but his concept of himself as regenerating the German spirit first appears in Des Teppich des Lebens/The Tapestry of Life 1899, and...

George, Walter F(ranklin)
(1878-1957) US lawyer, judge, and politician, who served in the US Senate as a Democrat representative for the state of Georgia (1922-57). Although opposed to many of President Franklin D Roosevelt's domestic...

Georgetown, Declaration of
Call, at a conference in Guyana of non-aligned countries 1972, for a multipolar system to replace the two world power blocs, and for the Mediterranean Sea and Indian Ocean to be neutral. ...

georgette
Thin woven silk fabric, often of crepe yarn or construction. ...

Georgia
Country in the Caucasus of southeastern Europe, bounded north by Russia, east by Azerbaijan, south by Armenia and Turkey, and west by the Black Sea. Government Under the 1995 constitution, as...

Georgian
The people of a number of related groups which make up the largest ethnic group in Georgia and the surrounding area. There are 3-4 million speakers of Georgian, a member of the South Caucasian...

Georgian
Period of English architecture, furniture making, and decorative art between 1714 and 1830. The architecture is mainly classical in style, although external details and interiors were often rich in...

Gephardt, Richard Andrew
(1941) US politician. A lawyer and Democratic alderman in his home town of St Louis, Missouri, he went to the US House of Representatives in 1977. Gephardt sought to protect US jobs by championing...

Gerald of Wales
English name of Giraldus Cambrensis, medieval Welsh bishop and historian. ...

Geraldine
Term applied to the Anglo-Irish Fitzgerald dynasty in the medieval and early modern eras. ...

Gérard, François Pascal
(1770-1837) French painter. He was a successful portrait painter both in the Napoleonic period and during the Restoration, painting about 300 portraits of celebrities, including those of Napoleon, the...

Gerasa
Ancient city 90 km/56 mi from Jerusalem. It is among the mountains of Gilead, about 32 km/20 mi east of Jordan. It was one of the ten cities of the ancient league Decapolis. Gerasa was a bishop's...

Gerhaert van Leyden, Nicolaus
(c. 1430-1473) Netherlands sculptor. He worked mostly in Germany and brought a new degree of naturalism to German sculpture. His best-known works are a sandstone crucifix (1467) in Baden-Baden parish church,...

Gerhard, Hubert
(c. 1545-1620) Netherlands sculptor. Trained in Italy, he imported to northern Europe the so-called Mannerist style of sculpture. He worked for several important patrons, including the Fugger banking family in...

Gerhardt, Paul
(1607-1676) German Lutheran clergyman and one of the greatest hymn-writers of German Protestantism. His most celebrated hymns include `Befiehl du deine Wege`, 1656 (Wesley's `Commit thou all thy...

German
The native people or inhabitants of Germany, or a person of German descent, as well as their culture and language. In eastern Germany the Sorbs (or Wends) comprise a minority population who speak a...

German architecture
The architecture of Germany which, in its early history and development, takes in that of Austria and the former Czechoslovakia. Little evidence remains...

German art
Painting and sculpture in the Germanic north of Europe from the 8th century AD to the present. This includes Germany, Austria, and Switzerland. The Gothic style is represented by a wealth of...

German expansion
Aggressive territorial expansion of Germany during the 1930s before the outbreak of World War II. ...

German literature
The literature of Germany. The earliest written records date from the late 8th century and consist of glosses and translations from Latin of religious...

German Spring Offensive
Germany's final offensive on the Western Front during World War I. By early 1918, German forces outnumbered the Allies on the Western Front. Germany staged three separate offensives, which...

German unification
The events leading up to the establishment of the German Empire in 1871. In 1815, at the end of the Napoleonic wars,...

Germanicus Caesar
(15 BC-AD 19) Roman general. He was the adopted son of the emperor Tiberius and married...

Germanus of Auxerre, St
(c. 378-448) French cleric. He became an ascetic when he was elected bishop of Auxerre in 418. As bishop, he visited Britain in 430 and 447 to campaign against the teaching of the theologian Pelagius. Germanus...

Germanus of Constantinople, St
(c. 634-733) Patriarch of Constantinople, transferred from Cyzicus in 715. He defended the practice of the Church against the Emperor Leo and the iconoclasts with the encouragement of Pope Gregory II. He was...

Germany
Country in central Europe, bounded north by the North and Baltic Seas and Denmark, east by Poland and the Czech Republic, south by Austria and Switzerl ...

Germany, Cold War
Following World War II, disagreement among the wartime Allies over the future of Germany became one of the first flashpoints of the Cold War. On the one hand the USSR sought to weaken Germany in...

Germany, East
Country 1949-90, formed from the Soviet zone of occupation in the partition of Germany following World War II. East Germany became a sovereign state in 1954, and was reunified with West Germany in...

Geronimo
(1829-1909) Chief of the Chiricahua Apache Indians and war leader. From 1875 to 1885, he fought US federal troops, as well as settlers encroaching on tribal reservations in the Southwest, especially in...

Gerry, Elbridge
(1744-1814) American politician. As governor of Massachusetts 1810-12, he enacted a law that divided the state into new senatorial districts, which gave an unfair advantage to the party in power. From this...

gerrymander
In politics, to rearrange constituency boundaries to give an unfair advantage to the ruling party. The term derives from US politician Elbridge Gerry (1744-1814), who in 1812, while governor of...

Gerson, Jean le Charlier de
(1363-1429) French theologian. He was leader of the concilliar movement, which argued for the supremacy of church councils over popes, and denounced John Huss at the Council of Constance in 1415. His...

Gersonides
(1288-1344) French-born Jewish philosopher and astrologer who argued that reason and the Torah are not in contradiction. His major work Sefer Milhamot Ha-Shem/The War of the Lord (1329) is a synthesis of...

Gerstenberg, Heinrich Wilhelm von
(1737-1823) German poet and critic. His chief works are Briefe über Merkwürdigkeiten der Literatur/Letters on Literary Landmarks 1766-70 (essays on literature) and the tragedy Ugolino 1768, one of the main...

Gertler, Mark
(1891-1939) English painter. He was a pacifist and a noncombatant during World War I, and his best-known work, Merry-Go-Round (1916; Tate Gallery, London), is often seen as an expressive symbol of...

Gertrude, St
(c. 1256-1302) German Benedictine nun and mystical writer. Her mystical writings did much to promote devotion to the Sacred Heart of Jesus. Patron of the West Indies, her feast day is on 16 November, having been...

Gervase of Canterbury
(c. 1145-1210) English chronicler, monk of Christ Church, Canterbury. Gervase lived through the most momentous years in the history of Christ Church, those witnessing the murder of Thomas àBecket in 1170 and the...

Gesell, Gerhard (Alden)
(1910-1993) US judge. In 1971 he famously ruled that The Washington Post had a First Amendment right to publish the leaked government documents known as...

gesso
In painting and gilding, an absorbent white ground made of a mixture of plaster and size (a gluey mixture). Gesso was used as a preparatory base for panels and canvases,...

Gesta Romanorum
Title given to a collection of short, didactic Latin stories for the use of preachers. It was made, probably about 1300 (first printed about 1473), by an English Franciscan from Latin and Greek...

Gestapo
(Contraction of Geheime Staatspolizei) Nazi Germany's secret police, formed in 1933, and under the direction of Heinrich Gestido, Oscar Daniel
(1901-1967) Uruguayan politician and president 1966. He took over the presidential office at a time of major economic decline and political corruption. Gestido's untimely death shortly after his election as...

gestural painting
Alternative term for action painting. ...

gesture
Motion of the face, body, or limbs, used to express emotion or illustrate or enforce something that is said. It is also the art of using such movements for rhetorical or dramatic purposes. ...

Getae
Ancient people of Thrace. They occupied the right bank of the Danube near its mouth, but moved north of the river about 340 BC. Alexander the Great, before his expedition to Asia, invaded their new...

Gettysburg
Site of one of the decisive battles of the American Gettysburg Address
During the American Civil War, speech delivered by US president Abraham Lincoln on 19 November 1863 at the battle site of Gettysburg, in which he reiterated the principles of freedom, equality, and...

Geulincx, Arnold
(c. 1625-1669) Belgian philosopher. He formed the theory of occasionalism, according to which God synchronizes body and mind, like two clocks that act together but have no influence on each other. Occasionalism...

Geyl, Pieter
(1887-1966) Dutch historian awarded international recognition for his services to history. He was made CBE in 1959. Geyl was educated at Leiden...

Ghana
Country in West Africa, bounded north by Burkina Faso, east by Togo, south by the Gulf of Guinea, and west by Côte d'Ivoire. Government Ghana has a limited presidential political system. The 1992...

Ghana, ancient
Trading empire that flourished in northwestern Africa between the 5th and 13th centuries. Founded by the Soninke people, the Ghana Empire was based, like the Mali Empire that superseded it, on the...

Ghannouchi, Rachid
(1941) Tunisian politician. He founded the Mouvement de la Tendance Islamiste in 1979 (renamed Ennahda in 1989), which was never legalized as a political party. Arrested and sentenced to life impris ...

ghat
In Hinduism, broad steps leading down to one of the sacred rivers. Some of these, known as `burning ghats`, are used for cremation. ...

Ghazzali, al-
(1058-1111) Muslim philosopher and Sufi (Muslim mystic). He was responsible for easing the conflict between the Sufi and the Ulema, a body of Muslim religious and legal scholars. Initially, he believed that...

Ghelderode, Michel de
(1898-1962) Belgian dramatist. His plays are mainly on religious subjects, though they contain grotesque violence and eroticism and suggest comparison with the Theatre of the Absurd. Among them are La Mort du...

Ghibelline
In medieval Germany and Italy, a supporter of the emperor and member of a rival party to the Guelphs (see Guelph and Ghibelline). ...

Ghiberti, Lorenzo
(1378-1455) Italian sculptor and goldsmith. In 1402 he won the commission for a pair of gilded bronze doors for the baptistry of Florence's cathedral. He produced a second pair 1425-52, the Gates of Paradise,...

Ghil, René
(1862-1925) French Symbolist poet. His poems were published in Légendes d'âmes et de sang 1885 and Euvre 1889-1912. He also published critical and theoretical works, including Le Traité du verbe 1886, De...

Ghilzais
Member of an ethnic group of people living in eastern Afghanistan, related to the Pathans. They speak an Indo-European language. ...

Ghirlandaio, Domenico
(c. 1449-1494) Italian fresco painter. He was the head of a large and prosperous workshop in Florence. His fresco cycle (1486-90) in Sta Maria Novella, Florence, includes portraits of many Florentines and much...

Ghormley, Robert Lee
(1883-1953) US admiral. He became US Commander South Pacific 1942 and was ordered to organize the capture of Tulagi and Guadalcanal. He complained there was not enough time for adequate preparation and although...

ghost
The spectre of a person who has died and who is believed to haunt places at certain times. Ghosts are often described as being indifferent to human presence, though a few are vengeful. Many faiths...

Ghost Dance
American Indian religious revivalist movement that spread through the Plains Indians and other ethnic groups in the 1890s. In January 1889, a Paiute Indian named Wovoka had a vision that the old...

ghost marriage
Social institution whereby if a man dies without heirs, a wife is `married` to his name by his brother. She bears children (by the brother, with whom she lives) who are legally those of the dead...

GI
Abbreviation for government issue, hence (in the USA) a common soldier. ...

Giacometti, Alberto
(1901-1966) Swiss sculptor and painter. In the 1940s, he developed a highly original style, creating thin, rough-textured single figures in bronze. These emaciated figures have often been seen as an...

Giambologna
(1529-1608) Flemish-born sculptor. He was active mainly in Florence and Bologna. In 1583 he completed his public commission for the Loggia dei Lanzi in Florence, The Rape...

Giannone, Pietro
(1676-1748) Italian historian whose attack on the Roman Catholic Church, Storia civile del regno di Napoli1723, led to his banishment. Giannone studied law and practised as a barrister at Naples. He retired to...

giant
In many mythologies and folklore, a person of extraordinary size, often characterized as stupid and aggressive. In Greek mythology the giants grew from the spilled blood of Uranus and rebelled...

Giap, Vo Nguyen
(1910) Vietnamese military leader and communist politician. When Ho Chi Minh formed the Vietminh in 1941 in China, Giap organized the army that returned to Indochina in 1944 to fight the Japanese and...

Gib, Adam
(1714-1788) Scottish cleric who was the only Edinburgh minister who strongly upheld the Protestant succession (1745). He led the minority in the Anti-Burgher Synod of 1747, and in later years his fame as a...

Gibberd, Frederick Ernest
(1908-1984) English architect and town planner. He was a pioneer of the Modern Movement in England. His works include the new towns of Harlow, England, and Santa Teresa, Venezuela; the Catholic Cathedral,...

gibbeting
The practice of exhibiting the bodies of executed felons in chains at public crossroads to deter others. Highwaymen, smugglers and rioters were most often punished in this way. The practice was at...

Gibbings, Robert
(1889-1958) Irish travel writer and artist. He illustrated his travel books with his own wood engravings. After Blue Angels and White Whales 1938, he wrote the successful Sweet Thames Run Softly 1940 and Lovely...

Gibbon, Edward
(1737-1794) English historian. He wrote one major work, arranged in three parts, The History of the Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire (1776-88), a continuous narrative from the 2nd century AD to the fall...

Gibbons v. Ogden
US Supreme Court case of 1824 that established the federal government's authority over the states in the regulation of interstate commerce. The decision, involving steamboat operation between New...

Gibbons, Grinling
(1648-1720) Dutch woodcarver who settled in England around 1667. He produced delicately carved wooden panels (largely of birds, flowers, and fruit) for St Paul's Cathedral, London, and for many large English...

Gibbons, James
(1834-1921) US Catholic prelate. In 1877 he was named archbishop of Baltimore, Maryland, becoming a cardinal in 1886. For several crucial decades he was the preeminent leader of American Catholicism. He...

Gibbons, Stella (Dorothea)
(1902-1989) English journalist and novelist. Her Cold Comfort Farm (1932) is a classic parody of the regional novel, in particular the works of Mary Webb. She followed this with a series...

Gibbs, Sir Philip Hamilton
(1877-1962) British journalist who was literary editor successively of the Daily Mail, Daily Chronicle, and Tribune. As special correspondent he worked with the allied forces in the First World War, and was...

Gibraltar, siege of
During the American Revolution, an unsuccessful Franco-Spanish blockade of the British-held fortress of Gibraltar June 1779-February 1783. The siege inflicted great hardship: few supply ships...

Gibson, Charles
(1920-1985) US historian. His groundbreaking ethnohistorical studies of the colonial period greatly broadened the scope of Latin American historical studies. His books include The Colonial Period in Latin...

Gibson, Charles Dana
(1867-1944) US illustrator. His portrayal of an idealized type of American young woman became widely known as the `Gibson Girl` in the 1910s. ...

Gibson, Guy Penrose
(1918-1944) English bomber pilot of World War II. He became famous as leader of the `dambuster raids` 16-17 May 1943; he formed 617 squadron specifically to bomb...

Gibson, John
(1790-1866) Welsh sculptor. He was one of the leading neoclassicists of the 19th century. Most of his subjects were taken from classical mythology, such as Proserpine and Sappho and Psyche. Among his many...

Gibson, Paris
(1830-1920) US pioneer and politician. He moved to Montana in 1879 and raised the first large flock of sheep there. He planned the city of Great Falls and was deeply connected with the waterpower, coal mining,...

Gibson, Wilfrid Wilson
(1878-1962) English poet. Most of his poems, notably the 17 dramatic pieces which make up Daily Bread 1910 and the work Livelihood 1917, present the normal toiling life of people in the modern industrial world....

Gibson, William
(1948) US writer. His debut novel Neuromancer (1984) is credited with inventing the concept of virtual reality and establishing the cyberpunk genre; it won the Hugo and Nebula...

Gide, André (Paul Guillaume)
(1869-1951) French novelist. His work is largely autobiographical and concerned with the conflict between desire and conventional morality. It includes Les Nourritures terrestres/Fruits of the Earth (1897),...

Gideon
In the Old Testament, one of the Judges of Israel, who led a small band of Israelite warriors which succeeded in routing an invading Midianite army of overwhelming number in...

Gideon Force
In World War II, guerrilla force raised by Maj-Gen Orde Wingate late 1940 for operations behind Italian lines in Ethiopia. It consisted of a small cadre of British officers and NCOs, 800 Sudanese...