charles

listen to the pronunciation of charles
English - English
A male given name

spoke the way the English do, funny, you know? His name was Roger, I think. Or Nigel. Something like that. / How about Charles? / Charles? Well, yes, it could have been.Charles does sound English, doesn't it? Their prince is named Charles, isn't he?.

A patronymic surname
{i} male first name
French physicist and uathor of Charles's law which anticipated Gay-Lussac's law (1746-1823)
the eldest son of Elizabeth II and heir to the English throne (born in 1948)
a river in eastern Massachusetts that empties into Boston Harbor and that separates Cambridge from Boston
given name, male
He defended his country for 18 years in the Second Northern War, gradually taking increased responsibility for planning and executing armed operations. He launched a disastrous invasion of Russia (1707-09) that resulted in the collapse of the Swedish armies and the loss of Sweden's status as a great power. Ruling early in the Enlightenment, he promoted significant domestic reforms. He was killed during an invasion of Norway. Swedish Karl born Nov. 8, 1622, Nyköping Castle, Swed. died Feb. 13, 1660, Göteborg King of Sweden (1809-18) and first king of the union of Sweden and Norway (1814-18). Second son of King Adolf Frederick (1710-71), he served as admiral of the fleet in the Russo-Swedish war. On the death of his brother Gustav III (1792), Charles became regent for his nephew Gustav IV. After the latter's deposition in 1809, Charles was elected king. He was prematurely aged and childless. In 1810 Jean-Baptiste Bernadotte (later Charles XIV John) was named heir apparent; from then on, Charles was eclipsed by the crown prince. born Oct. 9, 1757, Versailles, France died Nov. 6, 1836, Gorizia, Friuli King of France (1824-30). Fifth son of the dauphin Louis, and grandson of Louis XV, until 1824 he was known as Charles-Philippe, count d'Artois. During the French Revolution he went into exile and became the leader of the émigré nobility. Returning to France in 1814, he led the ultras during the Bourbon Restoration. On the death of his brother Louis XVIII, Charles became king. His popularity waned as his reign became increasingly reactionary. After the July Revolution he was forced to abdicate in favour of Louis-Philippe. His reign dramatized the failure of the Bourbons to reconcile the tradition of the monarchy by divine right with the democratic spirit produced in the wake of the Revolution. Carolus Magnus Charles the Great Adams Charles Francis Addams Charles Samuel Atlas Charles Babbage Charles Barkley Charles Wade Charles Daly Barnet Bartlett Sir Frederic Charles Baudelaire Charles Pierre Beard Charles Austin Benchley Robert Charles Charles Edward Anderson Berry Charles Ferdinand de Bourbon Bessey Charles Edwin Best Charles Herbert Anthony Charles Lynton Blanc Jean Joseph Charles Louis Borromeo Saint Charles Boulle André Charles André Charles Boule Boyer Charles Brown Charles Brockden Charles Albert Browning Bukowski Charles Bulfinch Charles Burchfield Charles Ephraim Burney Charles Calmette Albert Léon Charles Calonne Charles Alexandre de Cange Charles du Fresne Lord du Carroll Charles Charles Lutwidge Dodgson Chamberlain Charles Joseph Sir Charles Spencer Chaplin Charles Albert Charles II Charles the Lame Charles of Anjou Charles the Bad Charles the Bald Charles III Charles the Simple Charles the Fat Charles IV Charles the Fair Charles of Luxembourg Charles IX Charles I Charles Robert of Anjou Charles Martel Carolus Martellus Charles the Hammer Charles River Charles the Bold Charles VI Charles the Mad Charles the Well Beloved Charles VII Charles VIII Charles V Charles the Wise Charles XI Charles XII Charles XIII Charles XIV John Charles X Charles X Gustav Charles Philip Arthur George prince of Wales Charles Ray Ray Charles Robinson Chauncy Charles Chesnutt Charles Waddell Charles Christian Clarke Arthur Charles Claudel Paul Louis Charles Marie Colman Ronald Charles Charles William Gordon Cooley Charles Horton Cornwallis Charles Cornwallis 1st Marquess and 2nd Earl Coughlin Charles Edward Coulomb Charles Augustin de Cressent Charles Curtis Charles Gordon Dana Charles Anderson Darwin Charles Robert Daubigny Charles François Dawes Charles Gates de Colmar Charles Xavier Thomas de Gaulle Charles André Marie Joseph Demuth Charles Dibdin Charles Dickens Charles John Huffam Dilke Sir Charles Wentworth 2nd Baronet Doherty Peter Charles Draper Charles Stark Drew Charles Richard Duryea Charles Edgar and James Frank Eames Charles and Ray Eliot Charles William Erickson Arthur Charles Feininger Lyonel Charles Adrian Finley Charles Oscar Fourier François Marie Charles Fox Charles James Frémont John Charles Friml Charles Rudolf Fuller John Frederick Charles Gibson Charles Dana Goodyear Charles Gordon Charles George Goren Charles Henry Gosden Freeman Fisher and Correll Charles J. Gounod Charles François Greene Charles Sumner and Henry Mather Grey Charles Grey 2nd Earl Griffes Charles Tomlinson Guillemin Roger Charles Louis Hagen Walter Charles Hall Charles Martin Woodrow Charles Herman Charles Hardin Holley Houston Charles Hamilton Huggins Charles Brenton Hughes Charles Evans Charles Marie Georges Huysmans Charles Icle Ivanhoe Ives Ives Charles Edward Jackson Charles Thomas Charles Martin Jones Kettering Charles Franklin Kingsley Charles Kinsey Alfred Charles L'Enfant Pierre Charles Lamb Charles Lartigue Jacques Henri Charles Auguste Laughton Charles Le Brun Charles Charles Édouard Jeanneret Ray Charles Leonard Lindbergh Charles Augustus Loménie de Brienne Étienne Charles de Louis Charles Lovell Sir Alfred Charles Bernard Salvatore Lucania later Charles Luciano Lyell Sir Charles MacArthur Charles Gordon Mackintosh Charles Rennie Macready William Charles Manson Charles Mickey Charles Mantle Marsh Othniel Charles Massey Charles Vincent Maurras Charles Marie Photius McKim Charles Follen Merrill Charles Edward Messiaen Olivier Eugène Prosper Charles Mills Charles Wright Mingus Charles Mitchum Robert Charles Duran Moley Raymond Charles Montalembert Charles Forbes René count de Morny Charles Auguste Louis Joseph duke de Musset Louis Charles Alfred de Parnell Charles Stewart Parsons Sir Charles Algernon Pathé Charles Peale Charles Willson Peirce Charles Sanders Perrault Charles Philipon Charles Pinckney Charles Pinckney Charles Cotesworth Post Charles William Power Charles Gavan Reade Charles Redford Jr. Charles Robert Roberts Sir Charles George Douglas Rockingham Charles Watson Wentworth 2nd marquess of James Charles Rodgers Gabriel Charles Dante Rossetti Roussel Albert Charles Paul Marie Russell Charles Taze Saint Léon Charles Victor Arthur Michel Saint Saë ns Charles Camille Sainte Beuve Charles Augustin Schulz Charles Schwab Charles Michael Scribner Charles Charles Scrivener Sheeler Charles Sherrington Sir Charles Scott Shrewsbury Charles Talbot duke and 12th earl of Siemens Sir Charles William Simic Charles Sismondi Jean Charles Léonard Simonde de Snow Charles Percy Spearman Charles Edward Stanhope Charles Stanhope 3rd Earl Steinmetz Charles Proteus Charles Dillon Stengel Stuart Gilbert Charles Sumner Charles Swinburne Algernon Charles Talleyrand Périgord Charles Maurice de Tocqueville Alexis Charles Henri Maurice Clérel de Townes Charles Hard Townshend of Rainham Charles Townshend 2nd Viscount Varèse Edgard Victor Achille Charles Venturi Robert Charles Vergennes Charles Gravier count de Weidman Charles Wilson Charles Thomson Rees Worth Charles Frederick Yanofsky Charles Charles Elwood Yeager Zola Émile Édouard Charles Antoine Charles Edward the Young Pretender Charles Edward Louis Philip Casimir Stuart Lansdowne Henry Charles Keith Petty Fitzmaurice 5th marquess of Léopold Philippe Charles Albert Meinrad Hubertus Marie Miguel Montesquieu Charles Louis de Secondat baron de La Brède et de Napoléon François Charles Joseph Bonaparte Charles Louis Napoléon Bonaparte Northcliffe of Saint Peter Alfred Charles William Harmsworth Viscount. Spanish Carlos born Nov. 6, 1661, Madrid, Spain died Nov. 1, 1700, Madrid King of Spain (1665-1700), the last monarch of the Spanish Habsburg dynasty. Son of Philip IV and Maria Anna of Austria, he was slow-witted and became known as Charles the Mad. His reign opened with a 10-year regency under the queen mother. The first phase of his personal government was concerned with resistance to the French imperialism of Louis XIV, and the second was dominated by the succession problem, for it was clear that he would father no children. His death led to the War of the Spanish Succession. known as Charles the Bad born 1332 died Jan. 1, 1387 King of Navarra (1349-87). He acquired Normandy from John II of France by threatening an English alliance. Arrested for his treachery in 1356, he escaped a year later and regained Normandy. He pursued shifting alliances in Spain in an effort to expand Navarrese power. Charles V voided his claims in France, and the discovery of his plot to poison the French king cost him all of Normandy except Cherbourg. known as Charles the Bald born June 13, 823 died Oct. 6, 877, Brides-les-Bain, Fr. Carolingian king (843-77) and emperor (875-77). He was the son of the emperor Louis I and his second wife Judith. Louis's efforts to include Charles in the succession led to revolts against the emperor by his three older sons. After the death of Louis, Charles fought his two surviving half brothers in a bloody civil war (840-43) that was concluded with the Treaty of Verdun, which settled the terms of succession. Charles was granted the kingdom of the western Franks, which he ruled with the support of the bishops despite the wavering loyalties of his vassals and the attacks of Norsemen, Bretons, and Germans. In 864 he won control of Aquitaine, and in 870 he gained western Lorraine. He was crowned emperor in 875 but died two years later in the midst of invasion and internal revolt. Inspired by his grandfather, Charlemagne, Charles was a patron of the arts and oversaw the revival of the splendours of the Carolingian renaissance. known as Charles the Simple born Sept. 17, 879 died Oct. 7, 929, Péronne, France King of France (893-922). In 911 he ceded territory by treaty, in the area later known as Normandy, to the Vikings, to end their raids; their descendants became the Normans. The magnates of Lorraine (Lotharingia) accepted Charles's authority on the death of their last Carolingian king. His preoccupation with Lotharingian affairs alienated the French nobles, and in 922 they elected Robert I king in his stead. Spanish Carlos born Jan. 20, 1716, Madrid, Spain died Dec. 14, 1788, Madrid King of Spain (1759-88). Son of Philip V and Isabella Farnese, he was duke of Parma (1732-34) and king of Naples (as Charles VII, 1734-59) before becoming king of Spain. He was convinced of his mission to reform Spain and make it once more a first-rate power, but his foreign policy was not successful; Spain's losses in the Seven Years' War revealed naval and military weakness. He was more successful in strengthening his own empire; during his reign Spain undertook commercial reforms, made territorial adjustments in the interest of defense, and introduced a modern administrative system. One of the enlightened despots of the 18th century, he helped lead Spain to a brief cultural and economic revival. known as Charles the Fat born 839, Bavaria? [Germany] died Jan. 13, 888, Neidingen Frankish king and emperor (881-87). The great-grandson of Charlemagne, he inherited the kingdoms of Swabia (876) and Italy (879). Charles was crowned emperor by the pope in 881. He gained control of the eastern and western Frankish kingdoms on the deaths of their rulers, and by 885 he had reunited all of Charlemagne's empire except Provence. Chronically ill, he failed to attack the Saracens and used tribute to buy off Viking invaders. His nephew Arnulf led an uprising against him in 887, and his fall marked the final disintegration of the empire of Charlemagne. known as Charles the Fair born 1294 died Feb. 1, 1328, Vincennes, Fr. King of France and of Navarre (as Charles I) 1322-28. The last of the direct line of the Capetian dynasty, he took the throne on the death of his brother Philip V. His intrigues aimed at gaining the German throne and annexing Flanders were unsuccessful. He renewed war with England by invading Aquitaine and won a generous settlement in the peace of 1327
Swedish Karl born Oct. 4, 1550, Stockholm, Swed. died Oct. 30, 1611, Nyköping King of Sweden (1604-11). Third son of Gustav I Vasa, he helped lead a rebellion against the rule of his half brother Erik XIV that placed his other brother on the throne as John III. After the accession (1592) of his devoutly Catholic nephew, Sigismund III, Charles called the Convention of Uppsala, which demanded that Lutheranism be retained as the national religion. He opposed Sigismund in a civil war, and after the latter was deposed Charles became the virtual ruler of Sweden (1599-1604). Declared king in 1604, he pursued an aggressive foreign policy that led to war with Poland (1605) and Denmark (the Kalmar War, 1611-13). German Karl Franz Josef born Aug. 17, 1887, Persenbeug Castle, Austria died April 1, 1922, Quinta do Monte, Madeira Emperor of Austria (1916-18) and king of Hungary (as Charles IV), last ruler of the Austro-Hungarian monarchy. He became heir presumptive to the Habsburg throne on the assassination of his uncle, Francis Ferdinand. After he succeeded Francis Joseph in 1916, he made several abortive attempts to take Austria-Hungary out of World War I. He renounced participation in affairs of state in 1918 and was deposed in 1919. After two failed attempts to regain his Hungarian throne in 1921, he was sent into exile in Madeira, where he died. born Nov. 19, 1600, Dunfermline Palace, Fife, Scot. died Jan. 30, 1649, London, Eng. King of Great Britain and Ireland (1625-49). Son of James I, he acquired from his father a belief in the divine right of kings, and his earliest surviving letters reveal a distrust of the House of Commons. He became king in 1625 and soon after married Henrietta Maria. He came into conflict with his first Parliament because of religious issues, his war against Spain, and the general distrust of his adviser the 1st duke of Buckingham. After dissolving several successive Parliaments, Charles ruled his kingdom for 11 years without calling a Parliament. Among the measures he took to be independent of parliamentary grants was the levying of ship money. In 1639 he went to war against Scotland, and the need to raise money prompted him to summon what came to be known as the Short Parliament and the Long Parliament. Eventually his authoritarian rule and quarrels with Parliament provoked the English Civil Wars. After his forces were defeated in the second of these wars, the army demanded that he stand trial for treason as "the grand author of our troubles." In 1649 he was convicted and executed, and Oliver Cromwell proclaimed the Commonwealth. Hungarian Karoly known as Charles Robert of Anjou born 1288, Naples, Kingdom of Naples died July 16, 1342, Visegárd, Hung. King of Hungary (1301, 1308-42). He claimed the Hungarian throne with papal approval and was crowned in 1301, but his claim was disputed, and he was not recognized as king until 1308. A courtly and pious ruler, Charles restored Hungary to the status of a great power. An alliance with Poland enabled him to defeat the Holy Roman emperor and the Austrians. He failed to unite Hungary and Naples but negotiated a pact providing that his eldest son would become king of Poland. known as Charles of Anjou born March 1226 died Jan. 7, 1285, Foggia, Kingdom of Naples [Italy] King of Naples and Sicily (1266-85), the first of the Angevin dynasty. The younger brother of Louis IX of France, Charles allied with the papacy and conquered Naples and Sicily in the 1260s, defeating the last representatives of the Hohenstaufen dynasty. He created a great but short-lived Mediterranean empire, expanding into the Balkans and becoming heir to the kingdom of Jerusalem (1277). The Sicilians rebelled against French domination in 1282 (see Sicilian Vespers) and drove out the Angevins in 1284. Charles died while preparing a counteroffensive, and his kingdom was eventually secured by the Spanish. known as Charles the Well-Beloved or Charles the Mad born Dec. 3, 1368, Paris, Fr. died Oct. 21, 1422, Paris King of France (1380-1422). Crowned at age 11, he allowed his uncles and advisers to rule France until 1388. He suffered fits of madness from 1392, and royal power waned as the dukes of Burgundy and Orléans grew stronger. The English invasion and victory at the Battle of Agincourt (1415) obliged Charles to sign the Treaty of Troyes (1420), which provided for the marriage of his daughter Catherine of Valois to Henry V of England, who was declared regent of France and heir to the French throne. German Karl born Oct. 1, 1685, Vienna, Austria died Oct. 20, 1740, Vienna Holy Roman emperor (1711-40) and king of Hungary (as Charles III). Son of Emperor Leopold I, he tried unsuccessfully to claim the Spanish throne (as the pretender Charles III), which caused the War of the Spanish Succession. He conducted a successful war against the Ottoman Empire (1716-18) but lost the War of the Polish Succession (1733-38), and a new conflict with Turkey (1736-39) resulted in the loss of most of the territories gained in 1718. He promulgated the Pragmatic Sanction in an attempt to ensure that his daughter Maria Theresa would succeed him, which led to the War of the Austrian Succession. known as Charles of Anjou or Charles the Lame born 1254 died May 5, 1309, Naples King of Naples and ruler of several other European territories. He guarded Naples while his father, Charles I, launched a campaign to regain Sicily from the Aragonese. He was captured and imprisoned (1284-88); on being freed he promised to give up his claim to Sicily, but the pope released him from the vow, and he fought unsuccessfully for Sicily until 1302. He built alliances through the marriages of his children and extended his control over Piedmont, Provence, Hungary, Athens, and Albania. German Karl Albrecht born Aug. 6, 1697 died Jan. 20, 1745, Munich Elector of Bavaria (1726-45) and Holy Roman emperor (1742-45). He renounced any claims to the Austrian succession when he recognized the Pragmatic Sanction. However, on the death of Emperor Charles VI, he joined the alliance against Maria Theresa and was crowned emperor in 1742. Meanwhile, Bavaria was overrun by Austrian troops. He was restored by Prussia and France to his Bavarian lands in 1744 but died soon after. born June 30, 1470, Amboise, France died April 7, 1498, Amboise King of France (1483-98). He abandoned claims to parts of present-day France and Spain, and he consolidated French ownership of Brittany, in preparation for his grand enterprise, an expedition to Italy to assert his inherited right to the kingdom of Naples. This inaugurated wars with Italy that lasted more than 50 years and gained little in return for vast outlays. Charles was crowned in Naples in 1495, but his opponents rallied against him and he lost his conquests. He died while preparing another expedition. born Feb. 22, 1403, Paris, France died July 22, 1461, Mehun-sur-Yèvre King of France (1422-61). Despite the treaty signed by his father, Charles VI, which excluded his succession, Charles assumed the title of king on his father's death. In 1429, with the aid of Joan of Arc, he raised the siege of Orléans. He drove the English from France (1436) and gradually recovered French lands, ending the Hundred Years' War. His financial and military reforms increased the power of the monarchy. known as Charles the Wise born Jan. 21, 1338, Vincennes, France died Sept. 16, 1380, Nogent-sur-Marne King of France (1364-80). He raised money to ransom his father, John II, from the English, under the terms of the Treaty of Brétigny. Crowned king on his father's death in 1364, Charles helped the country recover its losses in the first phase of the Hundred Years' War. When war with England broke out again (1369), he won a series of victories for the French that nullified the damaging treaties of 1360. The plots of his enemy Charles II (of Navarra) prompted him to seize most of the king's French lands. His support of Pope Clement VII helped cause the Western Schism. German Karl born Feb. 24, 1500, Ghent died Sept. 21, 1558, San Jerónimo de Yuste, Spain Holy Roman emperor (1519-56) and king of Spain (as Charles I, 1516-56). Son of Philip I of Castile and grandson of Ferdinand V and Isabella I and of Emperor Maximilian I, he succeeded to his grandfathers' kingdoms on their deaths in 1516 and 1519, respectively. Important events of his reign include the Diet of Worms and the beginning of the Reformation; his defeat of Francis I, which assured Spanish supremacy in Italy (see Italian Wars); wars against Turkey under Süleyman I; the formation of the Schmalkaldic League; the Council of Trent; and the Peace of Augsburg. He struggled to hold his vast Spanish and Habsburg empire together against the growing forces of Protestantism, Turkish and French pressure, and even hostility from Pope Adrian VI. In 1555-56 Charles abdicated his claims to the Netherlands and Spain in favour of his son Philip II and the title of emperor to his brother Ferdinand I, and in 1557 he retired to a monastery in Spain. Swedish Karl born Nov. 24, 1655, Stockholm, Swed. died April 5, 1697, Stockholm King of Sweden (1660-97). At age five he succeeded his father, Charles X Gustav, and the kingdom was ruled under a regency of aristocrats until Charles came of age in 1672. The regents drew Sweden into the Dutch War (1672-78), but Charles took control of the armies and won favorable results for Sweden by the Treaties of Nijmegen, after which he maintained a foreign policy of neutrality. Within Sweden, Charles expanded royal power at the expense of the higher nobility and established an absolutist monarchy. Swedish Karl born June 17, 1682, Stockholm, Swed. died Nov. 30, 1718, Fredrikshald, Nor. King of Sweden (1697-1718). Son of Charles XI, he became absolute monarch at age
The eldest son of Elizabeth II and heir to the British throne. He was invested as Prince of Wales in 1969. French physicist and inventor who formulated Charles's law (1787) and was the first to use hydrogen in balloons (1783). American musician and composer whose songs, such as "I Can't Stop Loving You," are rooted in gospel music, blues, and jazz. born May 29, 1630, London, Eng. died Feb. 6, 1685, London King of Great Britain and Ireland (1660-85). Son of Charles I and Henrietta Maria, he supported his father in the English Civil Wars. After his father's execution, he invaded England in 1651 but was defeated at Worcester. He then spent years in exile until Oliver Cromwell died and conditions favored a return to the monarchy. His Declaration of Breda paved the way for him to be proclaimed king in May 1660 (see Restoration). He became known as "the Merry Monarch" for his lifting of Puritan restrictions on entertainment and his own love of pleasure; his best-known mistress was the actress Nell Gwyn. Important events of his reign included the controversial Treaty of Dover and two wars with the Dutch (see Anglo-Dutch Wars). By the 1670s the miscarriages of his queen, Catherine of Braganza, had reduced hopes that he would have a legitimate heir (though he left at least 14 illegitimate offspring). He almost lost control of his government when hysteria arose over the Popish Plot to replace him with his Roman Catholic brother James (the future James II). Charles kept his nerve, reestablished his political control, and eventually enjoyed a resurgence in loyalty. His political adaptability and acumen enabled him to steer his country through the struggle between Anglicans, Catholics, and dissenters that marked his reign. orig. Wenceslas known as Charles of Luxembourg born May 14, 1316, Prague died Nov. 29, 1378, Prague King of the Germans and of Bohemia (1346-78) and Holy Roman emperor (1355-78). Charles was elected German king in place of Louis IV in 1346. That same year his father died in a war against England, and Charles became king of Bohemia. He invaded Italy and won the crown of Lombardy as well as the imperial crown at Rome. Charles enlarged his dynastic power through skillful diplomacy and made Prague the political and cultural center of the empire. He issued the Golden Bull of 1356 and won the right of succession to the German throne for his son Wenceslas. Spanish Carlos born Nov. 11, 1748, Portici, Kingdom of Naples died Jan. 20, 1819, Rome King of Spain (1788-1808) during the turbulent period of the French Revolution. Son of Charles III, he lacked leadership qualities and entrusted the government to Manuel de Godoy. After a French invasion in 1794, Spain was reduced to the status of a French satellite. When Napoleon again occupied northern Spain in 1807, Charles was forced to abdicate (1808) and go into exile. born June 27, 1550, Saint-Germain-en-Laye, near Paris, France died May 30, 1574, Vincennes King of France (1560-74). Son of Catherine de Médicis, he became king on the death of his brother Francis II, under his mother's regency. Though he was proclaimed of age in 1563, he remained under his mother's domination. His reign was marked by conflicts between Catholics and Huguenots, and he was remembered for authorizing the Saint Bartholomew's Day Massacre (1572) at his mother's instigation, an event that apparently haunted him the rest of his life. He died of tuberculosis at age
a river in eastern Massachusetts that empties into Boston Harbor and that separates Cambridge from Boston French physicist and uathor of Charles's law which anticipated Gay-Lussac's law (1746-1823) the eldest son of Elizabeth II and heir to the English throne (born in 1948)
ulcers
clergy
Charles Darwin
A British naturalist and founder of the theory of evolution by natural selection
Charles Dickens
An English novelist of the Victorian era whose full name is Charles John Huffam Dickens
Charles Fort
Charles Hoy Fort (1874 – 1932), an American writer and researcher into anomalous phenomena. He was skeptical of scientific objectivity
Charles' Wain
A bright circumpolar asterism of the northern sky, said to resemble a wagon or cart. It is part of the constellation Ursa Major and includes the seven stars Dubhe, Merak, Phecda, Megrez, Alioth, Mizar, and Alkaid

Down from the heights reels the glittering Cassiopeia as the hours wear on, while Charles’ Wain lumbers up from behind the vapour-soaked swamp trees that sway in the night-wind.

Charles's law
the law that the density of an ideal gas is inversely proportional to its temperature at constant pressure
Charles count de Montalembert
born April 15, 1810, London, Eng. died March 13, 1870, Paris, France French politician and historian. He began his political career as a journalist for several Catholic journals, became a leader of the liberal Roman Catholics in the July monarchy, and was a member of the House of Peers (1835-48). A champion of civil and religious liberties, he opposed Napoleon III's policies after 1851. He wrote such historical works as The Catholic Interest in the 19th Century (1852), The Political Future of England (1856), and Monks of the West (1863-77)
Charles -Marie-Photius Maurras
born April 20, 1868, Martigues, France died Nov. 16, 1952, Tours French writer and political theorist. In 1891 he cofounded a group of poets opposed to the Symbolist movement and later known as the école romane. An ardent monarchist, he cofounded L'Action Française (1899), a review whose "integral nationalism" promoted the idea of the supremacy of the state; it became the party organ of the reactionary Action Française. He also wrote philosophical short stories and poetry. During World War II he was a strong supporter of the government of Philippe Pétain, for which he was imprisoned (1945-52)
Charles -Pierre Baudelaire
born April 9, 1821, Paris, France died Aug. 31, 1867, Paris French poet. While a law student he became addicted to opium and hashish and contracted syphilis. His early reckless spending on fine clothes and furnishings led to a life dogged by debt. In 1844 he formed an association with Jeanne Duval, a woman of mixed black and white ancestry who inspired some of his finest poetry. He published a single novel, La fanfarlo, in 1847. His discovery of the works of Edgar Allan Poe in 1852 led to years of work on Poe, which produced many masterly translations and critical articles. His reputation rests primarily on the extraordinary poetry collection Les fleurs du mal (1857; The Flowers of Evil), which dealt with erotic, aesthetic, and social themes in ways that appalled many of his middle-class readers, and he was accused of obscenity and blasphemy. Though the title became a byword for depravity, the book became perhaps the most influential collection of lyrics published in Europe in the 19th century. His Petits poèmes en prose (1868) was an important and innovative experiment in prose poetry. He also wrote provocative essays in art criticism. Baudelaire's later years were darkened by disillusionment, despair, and mounting debt; his death at 46 resulted from syphilis. He is regarded as the earliest and finest poet of modernism in French
Charles A Beard
born Nov. 27, 1874, near Knightstown, Ind., U.S. died Sept. 1, 1948, New Haven, Conn. U.S. historian. Beard taught at Columbia University (1904-17) and cofounded New York's New School for Social Research (1919). He is best known for iconoclastic studies of the development of U.S. political institutions, emphasizing the dynamics of socioeconomic conflict and change and analyzing motivational factors in the founding of institutions. His works include An Economic Interpretation of the Constitution of the United States (1913), claiming that the Constitution was formulated to serve the economic interests of the founders; The Economic Origins of Jeffersonian Democracy (1915); and, with his wife, Mary R. Beard (1876-1958), The Rise of American Civilization (1927)
Charles A Dana
born Aug. 8, 1819, Hinsdale, N.H., U.S. died Oct. 17, 1897, Glen Cove, N.Y. U.S. journalist. Dana lived at the utopian Brook Farm community for five years in the 1840s before becoming an editor for Horace Greeley's New York Tribune, where he actively promoted the antislavery cause. He became a national figure as editor and part owner of the New York Sun (1868-97), which under his control was much admired and imitated. With George Ripley, he edited the New American Cyclopaedia (1857-63). He also edited a highly successful verse anthology and wrote books such as The Art of Newspaper Making (1895)
Charles A Lindbergh
born Feb. 4, 1902, Detroit, Mich., U.S. died Aug. 26, 1974, Maui, Hawaii Aviator who made the first nonstop solo flight across the Atlantic Ocean. He left college to enroll in army flying schools and became an airmail pilot in 1926. He obtained backing from St. Louis businessmen to compete for a prize for flying from New York to Paris, and in 1927 in the monoplane Spirit of St. Louis he made the flight in 33.5 hours, becoming an instant hero in the U.S. and Europe. In 1929 he married the writer Anne Morrow (1906-2001), who would later serve as his copilot and navigator. In 1932 their child was kidnapped and murdered, a crime that received worldwide attention. They moved to England to escape the publicity, returning to the U.S. in 1940 to criticism over his speeches calling for U.S. neutrality in World War II. During the war Lindbergh was an adviser to Ford Motor Company and United Aircraft Corporation. After the war he was a consultant to Pan American Airways and the U.S. Department of Defense and served on many aeronautical boards and committees. In 1953 he wrote the Pulitzer Prize-winning The Spirit of St. Louis
Charles Addams
born Jan. 7, 1912, Westfield, N.J., U.S. died Sept. 29, 1988, New York, N.Y. U.S. cartoonist. He worked briefly as a commercial artist before selling his first cartoon to The New Yorker in 1933. He became famous for darkly humorous cartoons depicting morbid behaviour by sinister-looking characters, especially a family of ghouls whose activities travestied those of a conventional family; in one popular image, they prepare to pour boiling oil on a group of Christmas carolers. These evolved into The Addams Family, a 1960s television series that generated two Hollywood films
Charles Albert
Italian Carlo Alberto born Oct. 2, 1798, Turin, Piedmont, French Republic died July 28, 1849, Oporto, Port. King of Sardinia-Piedmont (1831-49). A member of the house of Savoy, he ascended the throne after the death of Charles Felix in 1831. He mitigated the harsh administration of his country and accelerated its economic and social development. The spread of revolutionary ideas forced him to grant a statute for representative government in 1848. After the election of Pius IX as pope and the Austrian occupation of Ferrara, he sought to lead the liberation of Italy. He went to war against Austria in 1848 and again in 1849, but, after his defeat in the Battle of Novara, he abdicated in favor of his son, Victor Emmanuel II
Charles Anderson Dana
born Aug. 8, 1819, Hinsdale, N.H., U.S. died Oct. 17, 1897, Glen Cove, N.Y. U.S. journalist. Dana lived at the utopian Brook Farm community for five years in the 1840s before becoming an editor for Horace Greeley's New York Tribune, where he actively promoted the antislavery cause. He became a national figure as editor and part owner of the New York Sun (1868-97), which under his control was much admired and imitated. With George Ripley, he edited the New American Cyclopaedia (1857-63). He also edited a highly successful verse anthology and wrote books such as The Art of Newspaper Making (1895)
Charles Atlas
In 1929 he and the advertiser Charles P. Roman launched a course involving isotonic exercises and nutritional maintenance. Their mail-order bodybuilding course became legendary through advertisements in three generations of pulp comic books, the standard ad depicting scenes in which a skinny boy loses his girlfriend to a well-built lifeguard (who kicks sand in his face) and regains her after taking the Atlas course
Charles Atlas
orig. Angelo Siciliano born Oct. 30, 1893, Acri, Italy died Dec. 24, 1972, Long Beach, N.Y., U.S. Italian-born U.S. bodybuilder. Atlas immigrated to the U.S. at age
Charles Augustus Lindbergh
born Feb. 4, 1902, Detroit, Mich., U.S. died Aug. 26, 1974, Maui, Hawaii Aviator who made the first nonstop solo flight across the Atlantic Ocean. He left college to enroll in army flying schools and became an airmail pilot in 1926. He obtained backing from St. Louis businessmen to compete for a prize for flying from New York to Paris, and in 1927 in the monoplane Spirit of St. Louis he made the flight in 33.5 hours, becoming an instant hero in the U.S. and Europe. In 1929 he married the writer Anne Morrow (1906-2001), who would later serve as his copilot and navigator. In 1932 their child was kidnapped and murdered, a crime that received worldwide attention. They moved to England to escape the publicity, returning to the U.S. in 1940 to criticism over his speeches calling for U.S. neutrality in World War II. During the war Lindbergh was an adviser to Ford Motor Company and United Aircraft Corporation. After the war he was a consultant to Pan American Airways and the U.S. Department of Defense and served on many aeronautical boards and committees. In 1953 he wrote the Pulitzer Prize-winning The Spirit of St. Louis
Charles Austin Beard
born Nov. 27, 1874, near Knightstown, Ind., U.S. died Sept. 1, 1948, New Haven, Conn. U.S. historian. Beard taught at Columbia University (1904-17) and cofounded New York's New School for Social Research (1919). He is best known for iconoclastic studies of the development of U.S. political institutions, emphasizing the dynamics of socioeconomic conflict and change and analyzing motivational factors in the founding of institutions. His works include An Economic Interpretation of the Constitution of the United States (1913), claiming that the Constitution was formulated to serve the economic interests of the founders; The Economic Origins of Jeffersonian Democracy (1915); and, with his wife, Mary R. Beard (1876-1958), The Rise of American Civilization (1927)
Charles Aznavour
{i} (born 1924) French singer and songwriter
Charles B Huggins
born Sept. 22, 1901, Halifax, Nova Scotia, Can. died Jan. 12, 1997, Chicago, Ill., U.S. Canadian-born U.S. surgeon and urologist. He studied at the University of Chicago and subsequently taught there for several decades. He found that using estrogen to block male hormones could slow the growth of prostate cancer. He also showed that removing the ovaries and adrenal glands, which produce estrogen, could reverse tumour growth in some breast cancers. Drugs are now used to block estrogen production in such cases. He shared a 1966 Nobel Prize with Peyton Rous (1879-1970)
Charles B. Wang
{i} (born 1944) Chinese co-founder of "Computer Associates International, Inc." (computer software company)
Charles Babbage
a British mathematician who designed a type of calculating machine which modern computers are based on (1792-1871). born Dec. 26, 1791, London, Eng. died Oct. 18, 1871, London British mathematician and inventor. Educated at Cambridge University, he devoted himself from about 1812 to devising machines capable of calculating mathematical tables. His first small calculator could perform certain computations to eight decimals. In 1823 he obtained government support for the design of a projected machine with a 20-decimal capacity. In the 1830s he developed plans for the so-called Analytical Engine, capable of performing any arithmetical operation on the basis of instructions from punched cards, a memory unit in which to store numbers, sequential control, and most of the other basic elements of the present-day computer. The forerunner of the modern digital computer, the Analytical Engine was never completed. In 1991 British scientists built Difference Engine No. 2 (accurate to 31 digits) to Babbage's specifications. His other contributions included establishing the modern postal system in England, compiling the first reliable actuarial tables, and inventing the locomotive cowcatcher
Charles Babbage
{i} (1792-1871) British mathematician and "the father of computing", inventor of a mathematical computing machine which was the forerunner of modern computers
Charles Barkley
born Feb. 20, 1963, Leeds, Ala., U.S. U.S. basketball player. He spent his collegiate career as a forward at Auburn University. He played for the Philadelphia 76ers (1984-91), the Phoenix Suns (1992-95), and the Houston Rockets (1996-99). He is known for his bruising play on the court and for his outspokenness off it
Charles Baudelaire
{i} (1821-1867), French poet known for gruesome imagery and evocative language, first translator of Edgar Allan Poe in French
Charles Baudelaire
a French symbolist poet, known for Les Fleurs du Mal (1821-1867). born April 9, 1821, Paris, France died Aug. 31, 1867, Paris French poet. While a law student he became addicted to opium and hashish and contracted syphilis. His early reckless spending on fine clothes and furnishings led to a life dogged by debt. In 1844 he formed an association with Jeanne Duval, a woman of mixed black and white ancestry who inspired some of his finest poetry. He published a single novel, La fanfarlo, in 1847. His discovery of the works of Edgar Allan Poe in 1852 led to years of work on Poe, which produced many masterly translations and critical articles. His reputation rests primarily on the extraordinary poetry collection Les fleurs du mal (1857; The Flowers of Evil), which dealt with erotic, aesthetic, and social themes in ways that appalled many of his middle-class readers, and he was accused of obscenity and blasphemy. Though the title became a byword for depravity, the book became perhaps the most influential collection of lyrics published in Europe in the 19th century. His Petits poèmes en prose (1868) was an important and innovative experiment in prose poetry. He also wrote provocative essays in art criticism. Baudelaire's later years were darkened by disillusionment, despair, and mounting debt; his death at 46 resulted from syphilis. He is regarded as the earliest and finest poet of modernism in French
Charles Boyer
born Aug. 28, 1897, Figeac, France died Aug. 26, 1978, Phoenix, Ariz., U.S. French-U.S. actor. After earning a philosophy degree from the Sorbonne, he made his stage debut in Paris in 1920. He became a popular romantic leading man in French theatre and film, and his rich, accented voice and suave manner made him an international star. His first successful U.S. film, Private Worlds (1935), was followed by such films as Algiers (1938) and Gaslight (1944)
Charles Brenton Huggins
{i} Charles Huggins (1901-1997), Canadian-born American physiologist and surgeon and cancer researcher who won the Nobel Prize for Physiology or Medicine in 1966 (together with Peyton Rous) for his discovery that hormones could be used to control the spread of and treat some cancers (such as cancer of the prostate)
Charles Brenton Huggins
born Sept. 22, 1901, Halifax, Nova Scotia, Can. died Jan. 12, 1997, Chicago, Ill., U.S. Canadian-born U.S. surgeon and urologist. He studied at the University of Chicago and subsequently taught there for several decades. He found that using estrogen to block male hormones could slow the growth of prostate cancer. He also showed that removing the ovaries and adrenal glands, which produce estrogen, could reverse tumour growth in some breast cancers. Drugs are now used to block estrogen production in such cases. He shared a 1966 Nobel Prize with Peyton Rous (1879-1970)
Charles Brockden Brown
born Jan. 17, 1771, Philadelphia, Pa., U.S. died Feb. 22, 1810, Philadelphia U.S. writer. Brown left his law studies to devote himself to writing. His gothic novels in American settings were the first in a tradition later adapted by Edgar Allan Poe and Nathaniel Hawthorne. Wieland (1798), his best-known work, shows the ease with which mental balance is lost when common sense is confronted with the uncanny. His writings reflect a thoughtful liberalism while exploiting horror and terror. He has been called the "father of the American novel
Charles Bukowski
a US writer, born in Germany, who wrote several novels, short stories, and collections of poetry. His work often shows both anger and humour (1920-94). born Aug. 16, 1920, Andernach, Ger. died March 9, 1994, San Pedro, Calif., U.S. German-born U.S. poet, short-story writer, and novelist. His family immigrated to Los Angeles in 1922. He began publishing short stories in the mid 1940s. His first poetry collection, Flower, Fist and Bestial Wail, appeared in 1959, and the poetry volumes he published regularly for the next few years earned a devoted cult following. His novels include Post Office (1971) and Factotum (1975); he also wrote the screenplay for the film Barfly (1987), a semiautobiographical comedy about alcoholic lovers. The novel Hollywood (1989) dealt with its filming. His writing, often scurrilous but humorous, frequently reflected his perpetually down-and-out mode of existence
Charles Bulfinch
born Aug. 8, 1763, Boston, Massachusetts Bay Colony died April 4, 1844, Boston, Mass., U.S. First professional U.S. architect. He studied at Harvard University and then toured Europe, visiting major architectural sites in France and Italy. Most of his works incorporate Classical orders and show a mastery of proportion. Chiefly a designer of government buildings, he served as architect of the U.S. Capitol in 1817-30. He used the plans of his immediate predecessor, Benjamin H. Latrobe, for the wings but prepared a new design for the rotunda. His son Thomas Bulfinch (1796-1867) wrote the famous Bulfinch's Mythology
Charles Bulfinch
(1763-1844) American architect, designer of several state government buildings, one of the designers of the United States Capitol
Charles Burchfield
born April 9, 1893, Ashtabula Harbor, Ohio, U.S. died Jan. 10, 1967, Gardenville, N.Y. U.S. painter. He attended the Cleveland School of Art and, after service in World War I, worked as a wallpaper designer in Buffalo, N.Y. In the 1920s and '30s he was one of the leading painters of American life; his work was associated with Edward Hopper's in its portrayal of the loneliness and bleakness of small-town life (e.g., November Evening, 1934). In the 1940s he abandoned realism for a more personal interpretation of nature, emphasizing its mystery, movement, and colour from season to season (e.g., The Sphinx and the Milky Way, 1946)
Charles Burney
born April 7, 1726, Shrewsbury, Shropshire, Eng. died April 12, 1814, Chelsea, Middlesex British music historian. After being apprenticed to Thomas Arne, he taught music and played the organ. In 1770 he set off on European travels, undertaken to research his seminal General History of Music, 4 vol. (1776-89). His accounts of the many famous musicians and others he met, including Christoph Willibald Gluck and Carl Philipp Emanuel Bach, provide an entertaining and invaluable account of 18th-century European musical life and of intellectual life in general. The novelist Fanny Burney was his daughter
Charles Camille Saint-Saë ns
born Oct. 9, 1835, Paris, France died Dec. 16, 1921, Algiers French composer. Astonishingly gifted from childhood, with a phenomenal memory (at his debut piano recital at age 11, he offered to play any Beethoven sonata without music), he became a darling of the salons and a celebrated improviser. To promote new music by French composers, he founded the Société Nationale de Musique in 1871. His compositions are often brilliant in their effects but not always profound. Of his 13 operas, Samson et Dalila (1877) had the greatest success. He wrote piano, cello, and violin concertos and three symphonies (including the "Organ" Symphony, 1886); his tone poem Danse macabre (1874) and the suite Carnival of the Animals (1886) are widely known
Charles Carroll
born Sept. 19, 1737, Annapolis, Md. died Nov. 14, 1832, Baltimore, Md., U.S. American patriot leader. He attended Jesuit colleges in Maryland and studied law in France and England. He served on Committees of Correspondence, signed the Declaration of Independence, and served in the Continental Congress (1776-78). He was a U.S. senator (1789-92)
Charles Chaplin
{i} Sir Charles Chaplin, Sir Charles Spencer "Charlie" Chaplin (1889-1977) English-born USA comedy and film star
Charles Chauncy
born Jan. 1, 1705, Boston, Mass. died Feb. 10, 1787, Boston, Mass., U.S. American clergyman. He served as minister of the First Church of Boston from 1727 until his death. He opposed the establishment of an Anglican bishopric in the American colonies. He is best known as a leading critic of the Great Awakening. He also wrote books, pamphlets, and sermons espousing the cause of the American Revolution
Charles Chesnutt
born June 20, 1858, Cleveland, Ohio, U.S. died Nov. 15, 1932, Cleveland U.S. writer, the first important African American novelist. As a young school principal in North Carolina, he was so distressed by the treatment of African Americans that he moved his family to Cleveland, where he became an attorney and began writing in his spare time. He published numerous tales and essays, two collections of short stories, a biography of Frederick Douglass, and three novels, including The Colonel's Dream (1905). A psychological realist, he used familiar scenes of folk life to protest social injustice
Charles Cornwallis
{i} First Marquess Cornwallis, 1st Marquess Cornwallis (1738-1805), British general during the Revolutionary War (surrendered to George Washington at Yorktown in 1781)
Charles Cornwallis 1st Marquess and 2nd Earl Cornwallis
born Dec. 31, 1738, London, Eng. died Oct. 5, 1805, Ghazipur, India British soldier and statesman. In 1780, during the American Revolution, he was appointed British commander in the American South. He defeated Horatio Gates at Camden, S.C., then marched into Virginia and encamped at Yorktown (see Siege of Yorktown). Trapped and besieged there, he was forced to surrender his army (1781), a defeat that effectively ended military operations in the war. Despite his defeat, he retained esteem in England. As governor-general of India (1786-93, 1805), he introduced legal and administrative reforms; the Cornwallis Code (1793) established a tradition of incorruptible British civil servants. In the third Mysore War he defeated Tippu Sultan in 1792. As viceroy of Ireland (1798-1801), he supported the parliamentary union of Britain and Ireland. He negotiated the Anglo-French Treaty of Amiens in 1802. Reappointed governor-general of India in 1805, he died shortly after his arrival there
Charles Cotesworth Pinckney
born Feb. 25, 1746, Charleston, S.C. died Aug. 16, 1825, Charleston, S.C., U.S. U.S. soldier, statesman, and diplomat. A cousin of Charles Pinckney and the brother of Thomas Pinckney, he was an aide to George Washington in the American Revolution, commanded at Savannah, Ga., and was promoted to brigadier general in 1783. He was a delegate to the Constitutional Convention. Appointed minister to France (1796), he was involved in negotiations that ended in the XYZ Affair; when one of the group of French negotiators suggested that the U.S. representatives offer a gift in order to gain a peace treaty, Pinckney is said to have replied, "No! No! Not a sixpence!" He was the unsuccessful Federalist candidate for vice president in 1800 and for president in 1804 and 1808
Charles Cressent
born Dec. 16, 1685, Amiens, Fr. died Jan. 10, 1768, Paris French cabinetmaker. He also studied sculpture and became an accomplished metalworker. In 1710 he went to Paris, where he worked in the studio of the cabinetmaker André-Charles Boulle. In 1715 Cressent was appointed official cabinetmaker to Philippe II, duke d'Orléans. He was elected to the Academy of St.-Luc in 1719, and he consequently received important commissions from French aristocrats, including Madame de Pompadour. His early works were in the Louis XIV style, but later pieces ( 1730-50) were lighter and more curvilinear. Cressent was the leading proponent of the Régence style and introduced marquetries of coloured wood and ormolu to case decoration
Charles Dana Gibson
born Sept. 14, 1867, Roxbury, Mass., U.S. died Dec. 23, 1944, New York, N.Y. U.S. illustrator. He studied at New York's Art Students League and began to contribute drawings to Life, Scribner's, Harper's, and Century. His "Gibson girl" drawings, relying on his wife as a model, defined the U.S. ideal of spirited feminine beauty at the turn of the century, and his refined pen-and-ink style was widely imitated. Collier's reportedly paid him the unprecedented sum of $50,000 to produce a double-page illustration every week for a year. He also published several collections of satirical drawings of high society
Charles Darwin
a British scientist who developed the theory of evolution, which is the idea that plants and animals develop gradually from simpler to more complicated forms by natural selection. This is the process by which only plants and animals that are naturally suitable for life in their environment will continue to live, while all others will die. He wrote about his ideas in his book On the Origin of Species. (1809-82). born Feb. 12, 1809, Shrewsbury, Shropshire, Eng. died April 19, 1882, Downe, Kent British naturalist. The grandson of Erasmus Darwin and Josiah Wedgwood, he studied medicine at the University of Edinburgh and biology at Cambridge. He was recommended as a naturalist on HMS Beagle, which was bound on a long scientific survey expedition to South America and the South Seas (1831-36). His zoological and geological discoveries on the voyage resulted in numerous important publications and formed the basis of his theories of evolution. Seeing competition between individuals of a single species, he recognized that within a local population the individual bird, for example, with the sharper beak might have a better chance to survive and reproduce and that if such traits were passed on to new generations, they would be predominant in future populations. He saw this natural selection as the mechanism by which advantageous variations were passed on to later generations and less advantageous traits gradually disappeared. He worked on his theory for more than 20 years before publishing it in his famous On the Origin of Species by Means of Natural Selection (1859). The book was immediately in great demand, and Darwin's intensely controversial theory was accepted quickly in most scientific circles; most opposition came from religious leaders. Though Darwin's ideas were modified by later developments in genetics and molecular biology, his work remains central to modern evolutionary theory. His many other important works included Variation in Animals and Plants Under Domestication (1868) and The Descent of Man... (1871). He was buried in Westminster Abbey. See also Darwinism
Charles Darwin
{i} Charles Robert Darwin (1809-82), British scientist, originator of the theory of evolution through natural selection, author of "The Descent of Man" and "Origin of Species by Means of Natural Selection
Charles De Gaulle
{i} (1890-1970) French statesman and military general, first president of the Fifth Republic of France (1959-1969)
Charles De Gaulle International Airport
{i} international airport located north east of Paris (France)
Charles Demuth
born Nov. 8, 1883, Lancaster, Pa., U.S. died Oct. 23, 1935, Lancaster U.S. painter. He studied in Philadelphia and later in Europe. On his return he became an important channel for the transmission of modern European movements into American art. Best known as an exponent of Precisionism, he excelled at watercolour and executed an outstanding series of flowers, circuses, and café scenes. Later he incorporated advertisements and billboard lettering into hard-edged, abstract cityscapes. Among his well-known works are his so-called "poster portraits" such as I Saw the Figure 5 in Gold (1928), a symbolic portrait of the poet William Carlos Williams
Charles Dibdin
(baptized March 4, 1745, Southampton, Hampshire, Eng. died July 25, 1814, London) British composer, novelist, and actor. A cathedral chorister, Dibdin began working for a music publisher at age 15 and began his stage career in 1762. His first operetta was The Shepherd's Artifice (1764). By 1778, when he became exclusive composer for Covent Garden, he had produced eight operas, including The Padlock (1768), The Waterman (1774), and The Quaker (1775). He later produced his ballad opera Liberty Hall. He was author, singer, and accompanist for his celebrated one-man "table entertainments"; most of his popular sea songs were written for these. In all, he wrote about 100 stage works and 1,400 songs. He was one of the most popular British composers of the 18th century
Charles Dickens
{i} (1812-1870) English author
Charles Dickens
a British writer whose novels made him the most popular British writer of the 19th century, and are still very popular today. His books contain humorous characters with unusual names, many of whom have become very well known. But they also show how hard life was in Victorian England, especially for poor people and children. His books include David Copperfield, Oliver Twist, Great Expectations, A Christmas Carol,A Tale of Two Cities, and The Pickwick Papers (1812-70). born Feb. 7, 1812, Portsmouth, Hampshire, Eng. died June 9, 1870, Gad's Hill, near Chatham, Kent British novelist, generally considered the greatest of the Victorian period. When Dickens's father, a clerk, was thrown into debtors prison, the boy was withdrawn from school and forced to work in a factory. As a young man he worked as a reporter. His fiction career began with short pieces reprinted as Sketches by "Boz" (1836). The comic novel The Pickwick Papers (1837) made him the most popular English author of his time. Oliver Twist (1838), Nicholas Nickleby (1839), The Old Curiosity Shop (1841), and Barnaby Rudge (1841) followed. After a trip to America, he wrote A Christmas Carol (1843) in a few weeks, followed by Martin Chuzzlewit (1844). With Dombey and Son (1848), his novels began to express a heightened uneasiness about the evils of Victorian industrial society, which intensified in the semiautobiographical David Copperfield (1850), as well as Bleak House (1853), Hard Times (1854), Little Dorrit (1857), Great Expectations (1861), and Our Mutual Friend (1865). A Tale of Two Cities (1859) appeared in the period when he achieved great popularity for his public readings. The Mystery of Edwin Drood (1870) was left unfinished. Dickens's works are characterized by attacks on social evils and inadequate institutions, an encyclopaedic knowledge of London, pathos, a vein of the macabre, a pervasive spirit of benevolence and geniality, inexhaustible powers of character creation, an acute ear for characteristic speech, and a highly individual and inventive prose style
Charles E Bessey
born May 21, 1845, near Milton, Ohio, U.S. died Feb. 25, 1915, Lincoln, Neb. U.S. botanist. He taught at Iowa State Agricultural College (1870-84) before joining the faculty of the University of Nebraska. By then he had so developed the experimental study of plant morphology that the recently founded university immediately became one of the nation's outstanding centres for botanical research. He wrote widely popular textbooks that dominated U.S. botanical instruction for more than 50 years
Charles E Coughlin
or Father Coughlin born Oct. 25, 1891, Hamilton, Ont., Can. died Oct. 27, 1979, Bloomfield Hills, Mich., U.S. Canadian-born U.S. clergyman. Ordained a Roman Catholic priest in 1923, he became pastor of a Michigan church. In 1930 he began radio broadcasts of his sermons, into which he gradually injected reactionary political statements and anti-Semitic rhetoric. His sermons attracted one of the first deeply loyal mass audiences in broadcast history. He attacked Herbert Hoover and later turned on Franklin Roosevelt and the New Deal. His magazine, Social Justice, targeted Wall Street, communism, and Jews. It was banned from the mails and ceased publication in 1942, the same year the Catholic hierarchy ordered Coughlin to stop broadcasting
Charles E Ives
born Oct. 20, 1874, Danbury, Conn., U.S. died May 19, 1954, New York, N.Y. U.S. composer. Ives claimed to be the product of training by his father, George, a highly imaginative former Union Army bandmaster. He received a solid classical grounding and began composing and performing at an early age. At Yale University he studied with the academic composer Horatio Parker (1863-1919) and composed his first symphony. Under the influence of Transcendentalism, he decided to forgo a music career, and in 1907 he founded a successful insurance firm. With music as a "sideline," he felt free to pursue his unusual interests, though he suffered from his amateur status and a lack of intelligent critiques. A heart attack in 1918 curtailed all activities, and he stopped composing 1926. His music is tonal despite much dissonance, atmospheric, and nostalgic, and it runs the gamut from sentimental or quirkily humorous songs to exciting tone poems (The Fourth of July, 1913) and weighty meditations (Concord Sonata, 1915). He apparently made many remarkable tonal innovations, though questions have been raised about whether he later predated his works to give a misleading impression. His music was rediscovered late in his life; the third of his four symphonies won a Pulitzer Prize in 1947
Charles E Merrill
born Oct. 19, 1885, Green Cove Springs, Fla., U.S. died Oct. 6, 1956, Southampton, N.Y. U.S. investment banker. He held a series of jobs before joining a Wall Street firm in 1911. In 1914 he cofounded the investment-banking firm Merrill, Lynch & Co., which soon became the broker for some of the largest chain-store securities, including S.S. Kresge Co. and J.C. Penney Co. He helped create Safeway Stores in 1926 and founded Family Circle magazine six years later. Foreseeing the crash of 1929, he advised many of his clients to lighten their stock holdings. In the 1930s the firm focused on underwriting and investment banking, but in 1940 it returned to brokerage. The company (now Merrill Lynch, Pierce, Fenner & Smith), which had 115 offices in the U.S. at the time of Merrill's death, is today among the largest retail brokerage houses in the U.S. He was the father of poet James Merrill
Charles E Spearman
born Sept. 10, 1863, London, Eng. died Sept. 17, 1945, London British psychologist. He is known for his studies on human mental abilities, particularly intelligence, and especially for the statistical technique (factor analysis) he utilized to examine individual differences in psychological testing and identify the underlying sources of these differences. His works include Abilities of Man (1927), Creative Mind (1931), and Human Abilities (1950)
Charles E and J Frank Duryea
born Dec. 15, 1861, Canton, Ill., U.S. died Sept. 28, 1938, Philadelphia, Pa. born Oct. 8, 1869, Washburn, Ill., U.S. died Feb. 15, 1967, Saybrook, Conn. U.S. automotive inventors. Charles initially worked as a bicycle mechanic. After seeing a gasoline engine at a state fair, he designed a gasoline-powered automobile, and in 1893 he and his brother Frank constructed the first U.S. automobile, which they drove successfully on the streets of Springfield, Mass. In Chicago in 1895, Frank drove an improved model to win the first U.S. auto race. In 1896 their company manufactured the first commercially produced U.S. automobiles; 13 cars were sold before the company failed and the brothers separated. Both started new automobile manufacturing ventures; Frank later developed the Stevens-Duryea limousine, which was produced into the 1920s
Charles Edgar and James Frank Duryea
born Dec. 15, 1861, Canton, Ill., U.S. died Sept. 28, 1938, Philadelphia, Pa. born Oct. 8, 1869, Washburn, Ill., U.S. died Feb. 15, 1967, Saybrook, Conn. U.S. automotive inventors. Charles initially worked as a bicycle mechanic. After seeing a gasoline engine at a state fair, he designed a gasoline-powered automobile, and in 1893 he and his brother Frank constructed the first U.S. automobile, which they drove successfully on the streets of Springfield, Mass. In Chicago in 1895, Frank drove an improved model to win the first U.S. auto race. In 1896 their company manufactured the first commercially produced U.S. automobiles; 13 cars were sold before the company failed and the brothers separated. Both started new automobile manufacturing ventures; Frank later developed the Stevens-Duryea limousine, which was produced into the 1920s
Charles Edward Coughlin
or Father Coughlin born Oct. 25, 1891, Hamilton, Ont., Can. died Oct. 27, 1979, Bloomfield Hills, Mich., U.S. Canadian-born U.S. clergyman. Ordained a Roman Catholic priest in 1923, he became pastor of a Michigan church. In 1930 he began radio broadcasts of his sermons, into which he gradually injected reactionary political statements and anti-Semitic rhetoric. His sermons attracted one of the first deeply loyal mass audiences in broadcast history. He attacked Herbert Hoover and later turned on Franklin Roosevelt and the New Deal. His magazine, Social Justice, targeted Wall Street, communism, and Jews. It was banned from the mails and ceased publication in 1942, the same year the Catholic hierarchy ordered Coughlin to stop broadcasting
Charles Edward Ives
born Oct. 20, 1874, Danbury, Conn., U.S. died May 19, 1954, New York, N.Y. U.S. composer. Ives claimed to be the product of training by his father, George, a highly imaginative former Union Army bandmaster. He received a solid classical grounding and began composing and performing at an early age. At Yale University he studied with the academic composer Horatio Parker (1863-1919) and composed his first symphony. Under the influence of Transcendentalism, he decided to forgo a music career, and in 1907 he founded a successful insurance firm. With music as a "sideline," he felt free to pursue his unusual interests, though he suffered from his amateur status and a lack of intelligent critiques. A heart attack in 1918 curtailed all activities, and he stopped composing 1926. His music is tonal despite much dissonance, atmospheric, and nostalgic, and it runs the gamut from sentimental or quirkily humorous songs to exciting tone poems (The Fourth of July, 1913) and weighty meditations (Concord Sonata, 1915). He apparently made many remarkable tonal innovations, though questions have been raised about whether he later predated his works to give a misleading impression. His music was rediscovered late in his life; the third of his four symphonies won a Pulitzer Prize in 1947
Charles Edward Merrill
born Oct. 19, 1885, Green Cove Springs, Fla., U.S. died Oct. 6, 1956, Southampton, N.Y. U.S. investment banker. He held a series of jobs before joining a Wall Street firm in 1911. In 1914 he cofounded the investment-banking firm Merrill, Lynch & Co., which soon became the broker for some of the largest chain-store securities, including S.S. Kresge Co. and J.C. Penney Co. He helped create Safeway Stores in 1926 and founded Family Circle magazine six years later. Foreseeing the crash of 1929, he advised many of his clients to lighten their stock holdings. In the 1930s the firm focused on underwriting and investment banking, but in 1940 it returned to brokerage. The company (now Merrill Lynch, Pierce, Fenner & Smith), which had 115 offices in the U.S. at the time of Merrill's death, is today among the largest retail brokerage houses in the U.S. He was the father of poet James Merrill
Charles Edward Spearman
born Sept. 10, 1863, London, Eng. died Sept. 17, 1945, London British psychologist. He is known for his studies on human mental abilities, particularly intelligence, and especially for the statistical technique (factor analysis) he utilized to examine individual differences in psychological testing and identify the underlying sources of these differences. His works include Abilities of Man (1927), Creative Mind (1931), and Human Abilities (1950)
Charles Edward Stuart
Bonnie Prince Charlie
Charles Edwin Bessey
born May 21, 1845, near Milton, Ohio, U.S. died Feb. 25, 1915, Lincoln, Neb. U.S. botanist. He taught at Iowa State Agricultural College (1870-84) before joining the faculty of the University of Nebraska. By then he had so developed the experimental study of plant morphology that the recently founded university immediately became one of the nation's outstanding centres for botanical research. He wrote widely popular textbooks that dominated U.S. botanical instruction for more than 50 years
Charles Ephraim Burchfield
born April 9, 1893, Ashtabula Harbor, Ohio, U.S. died Jan. 10, 1967, Gardenville, N.Y. U.S. painter. He attended the Cleveland School of Art and, after service in World War I, worked as a wallpaper designer in Buffalo, N.Y. In the 1920s and '30s he was one of the leading painters of American life; his work was associated with Edward Hopper's in its portrayal of the loneliness and bleakness of small-town life (e.g., November Evening, 1934). In the 1940s he abandoned realism for a more personal interpretation of nature, emphasizing its mystery, movement, and colour from season to season (e.g., The Sphinx and the Milky Way, 1946)
Charles Evans Hughes
born April 11, 1862, Glens Falls, N.Y., U.S. died Aug. 27, 1948, Osterville, Mass. U.S. jurist and statesman. He became prominent in 1905 as counsel to New York legislative committees investigating abuses in the life insurance and utilities industries. His two terms as governor of New York (1906-10) were marked by extensive reform. He was appointed to the Supreme Court of the United States in 1910 but resigned in 1916 to run as the Republican presidential candidate. After losing the election to Woodrow Wilson in a close race, he returned to his law practice. As secretary of state (1921-25), he planned and chaired the Washington Conference (1921-22). He served as a member of the Hague Tribunal (1926-30) and the Permanent Court of International Justice (1928-30) before being appointed chief justice of the U.S. Supreme Court in 1930 by Pres. Herbert Hoover. He led the court through the great controversies arising out the New Deal legislation of Pres. Franklin Roosevelt. Although generally favouring the exercise of government power, he spoke for the court in invalidating (in Schechter Poultry Corp. v. U.S.) a principal New Deal statute, and he attacked Roosevelt's court-packing plan (1937). He wrote the opinion sustaining collective bargaining under the Wagner Act. He served until 1941
Charles F Kettering
born Aug. 29, 1876, Loudonville, Ohio, U.S. died Nov. 25, 1958, Dayton, Ohio U.S. engineer. In 1904 he developed the first electric cash register. With Edward Deeds he founded Delco . 1910; in 1916 Delco became a subsidiary of General Motors Corp., and Kettering served as vice president and director of research for GM (1920-47). Many of his inventions were instrumental in the evolution of the modern automobile, including the first electric starter (1912), antiknock fuels, leaded gasoline, quick-drying lacquer finishes (with Thomas Midgley, Jr.), the high-speed, two-cycle diesel engine, and a revolutionary high-compression engine (1951). He later cofounded the Sloan-Kettering Institute for Cancer Research in New York City
Charles Follen McKim
born Aug. 24, 1847, Chester County, Pa., U.S. died Sept. 14, 1909, St. James, Long Island, N.Y. U.S. architect. He was educated at Harvard University and in Paris at the École des Beaux-Arts. In 1879 he joined William Rutherford Mead and Stanford White to found McKim, Mead & White, the most successful U.S. architectural firm of its time. Until 1887 the firm excelled at Shingle style residences. In later years it championed the formal Renaissance tradition and its Classical antecedents, helping to inspire a Neoclassical revival. Among the widely admired examples of McKim's formal planning are the Boston Public Library (1887), the Columbia University Library (1893), the building program of the World's Columbian Exposition in Chicago (1893, with Daniel H. Burnham and Richard Morris Hunt), and in New York City the Morgan Library (1903) and the magnificent Pennsylvania Railway Station (1904-10; demolished 1963)
Charles Fourier
born April 7, 1772, Besançon, France died Oct. 10, 1837, Paris French social theorist. He advocated a reconstruction of society based on communal associations of producers known as phalanges (phalanxes). His system became known as Fourierism. He felt that phalanges would distribute wealth more equitably than would capitalism and that they would contribute both to a cooperative lifestyle and to individual self-fulfillment. After inheriting his mother's estate in 1812, he devoted himself to writing and refining his theories. Cooperative settlements based on Fourierism were started in France and the U.S., including Brook Farm
Charles Francis Adams
born Aug. 18, 1807, Boston, Mass., U.S. died Nov. 21, 1886, Boston U.S. diplomat. The son of John Quincy Adams and the grandson of John Adams, he served in the Massachusetts legislature and edited a Whig journal. He helped form the antislavery Free-Soil Party and in 1848 was chosen its candidate for U.S. vice president. As ambassador to Britain (1861-68) he was instrumental in securing Britain's neutrality during the American Civil War and in promoting the arbitration of the Alabama claims
Charles Franklin Kettering
born Aug. 29, 1876, Loudonville, Ohio, U.S. died Nov. 25, 1958, Dayton, Ohio U.S. engineer. In 1904 he developed the first electric cash register. With Edward Deeds he founded Delco . 1910; in 1916 Delco became a subsidiary of General Motors Corp., and Kettering served as vice president and director of research for GM (1920-47). Many of his inventions were instrumental in the evolution of the modern automobile, including the first electric starter (1912), antiknock fuels, leaded gasoline, quick-drying lacquer finishes (with Thomas Midgley, Jr.), the high-speed, two-cycle diesel engine, and a revolutionary high-compression engine (1951). He later cofounded the Sloan-Kettering Institute for Cancer Research in New York City
Charles François Gounod
born June 17, 1818, Paris, Fr. died Oct. 18, 1893, Saint-Cloud, near Paris French composer. He studied music at the Paris Conservatory and in Rome. He also studied for the priesthood and worked as an organist, and he remained torn between the theatre and the church. His reputation largely rests on his hugely popular opera Faust (1859). His 15 other operas include Romeo and Juliet (1867), The Mock Doctor (1858), Philemon and Baucis (1860), and Mireille (1864); other works include 17 masses, more than 150 songs, and 2 symphonies
Charles Frederick Worth
born Oct. 13, 1825, Bourne, Lincolnshire, Eng. died March 10, 1895, Paris, France British-born French fashion designer. In 1845 he left England, where he had been a bookkeeper, and worked in a Paris dress accessories shop. In 1858 he opened his own ladies' tailor shop and soon gained the patronage of the empress Eugénie. He was a pioneer of the "fashion show" (the preparation and showing of a collection), the first man to become prominent in the field of fashion, and the first designer to create dresses intended to be copied and distributed throughout the world. He became the dictator of Paris fashion and was especially noted for his elegant Second Empire gowns. He invented the bustle, which became standard in women's fashion in the 1870s and '80s
Charles G Dawes
born Aug. 27, 1865, Marietta, Ohio, U.S. died April 23, 1951, Evanston, Ill. U.S. politician. He practiced law in Nebraska before being appointed U.S. comptroller of the currency (1897-1902). In World War I he headed supply procurement for the American Expeditionary Force in France. In 1923 he chaired the Allied Reparations Commission and arranged the Dawes Plan. He served as vice president (1925-29) under Calvin Coolidge. He shared the 1925 Nobel Prize for Peace with Sir Austen Chamberlain
Charles Gates Dawes
born Aug. 27, 1865, Marietta, Ohio, U.S. died April 23, 1951, Evanston, Ill. U.S. politician. He practiced law in Nebraska before being appointed U.S. comptroller of the currency (1897-1902). In World War I he headed supply procurement for the American Expeditionary Force in France. In 1923 he chaired the Allied Reparations Commission and arranged the Dawes Plan. He served as vice president (1925-29) under Calvin Coolidge. He shared the 1925 Nobel Prize for Peace with Sir Austen Chamberlain
Charles Gavan Power
(1888-1968) Canadian politician. Born in Sillery, Quebec, he was seriously wounded in World War I. He served in the Canadian House of Commons 1917-55. In W.L. Mackenzie King's government he served as minister for pensions and national health (1935-39) and postmaster general (1939-40). As minister for national defense for air (1940-44), he promoted the interests of Canadian air forces serving under British command and created Canadian squadrons in Europe
Charles George Gordon
born Jan. 28, 1833, Woolwich, near London, Eng. died Jan. 26, 1885, Khartoum, Sudan British general. Gordon distinguished himself as a young officer in the Crimean War (1853-56) and subsequently volunteered for the second Opium War (1856-60). In 1862 he helped defend Shanghai during the Taiping Rebellion. These exploits earned him the epithet "Chinese" Gordon. In 1873 the Egyptian ruler Isml Pasha, who regularly employed Europeans, appointed Gordon governor of the province of Equatoria in southern Sudan (1874-76) and as governor-general of the Sudan (1874-80). In that post Gordon acted to crush rebellions and suppress the slave trade. He was again sent to the Sudan by Britain in 1884 to evacuate Anglo-Egyptian forces from Khartoum, which was threatened by Mahdist movement insurgents. After his arrival the city was besieged; it remained isolated for several months until it finally succumbed (Jan. 26, 1885). Gordon was killed in the action
Charles Goodyear
born Dec. 29, 1800, New Haven, Conn., U.S. died July 1, 1860, New York, N.Y. U.S. inventor of the vulcanization process that permitted the commercial use of rubber. Interested in treating rubber so that it would lose its adhesive quality and not melt, he discovered vulcanization in 1839 when he accidentally dropped a rubber-sulfur mixture onto a hot stove. The process would prove profoundly important for the future uses of rubber. He patented it in 1844 but had to fight numerous patent infringements in the U.S. and Europe. He never profited from his discovery, and he died in debt. The Goodyear Tire and Rubber Company (founded 1898) honours his name
Charles Gordon Curtis
born Jan. 25, 1860, Kansas Territory, U.S. died Feb. 8, 1936, Washington, D.C. U.S. inventor. An associate of Thomas Alva Edison, Curtis patented the Curtis steam turbine in 1896. Its principles are still used in large ocean liners and other naval vessels; General Electric Co. has used it worldwide in its power installations. Curtis is also credited with inventing the first U.S. gas turbine, held many patents for diesel-engine improvements, and helped develop propulsion mechanisms for naval torpedoes
Charles Gordon MacArthur
born Nov. 5, 1895, Scranton, Pa., U.S. died April 21, 1956, New York, N.Y. U.S. journalist, playwright, and screenwriter. He worked as a reporter in Chicago and New York City (1914-26) before collaborating with Edward Shelden on the play Lulu Belle (1926). With Ben Hecht he wrote the Broadway hits The Front Page (1928; film, 1931) and Twentieth Century (1932; film, 1934) and several later plays noted for their graphic, crisp dialogue. Their screenplays included the film adaptations of their own plays and Wuthering Heights (1939), and they wrote and directed movies such as Crime Without Passion (1934), The Scoundrel (1935), and Soak the Rich (1936). He was married to actress Helen Hayes
Charles Gounod
born June 17, 1818, Paris, Fr. died Oct. 18, 1893, Saint-Cloud, near Paris French composer. He studied music at the Paris Conservatory and in Rome. He also studied for the priesthood and worked as an organist, and he remained torn between the theatre and the church. His reputation largely rests on his hugely popular opera Faust (1859). His 15 other operas include Romeo and Juliet (1867), The Mock Doctor (1858), Philemon and Baucis (1860), and Mireille (1864); other works include 17 masses, more than 150 songs, and 2 symphonies
Charles Gravier count de Vergennes
v. born Dec. 28, 1719, Dijon, France died Feb. 13, 1787, Versailles French statesman. As ambassador to Ottoman Turkey (1754-68), he ably defended French policies during the Seven Years' War. As Louis XVI's minister of foreign affairs (1774-87), he advocated French financial and military support for the colonists in the American Revolution, concluded an alliance with them (1778), and helped negotiate the Treaty of Paris (1783). He also worked to establish a stable balance of power in Europe by mediating the peace in the War of the Bavarian Succession
Charles Grey 2nd Earl Grey
born March 13, 1764, Falloden, Northumberland, Eng. died July 17, 1845, Howick, Northumberland British politician, leader of the Whig Party, and prime minister (1830-34). Grey entered Parliament in 1786 and soon became prominent among the aristocratic Whigs, led by Charles James Fox, in opposition to William Pitt's conservative government. In 1806 Grey became first lord of the Admiralty in Lord Grenville's government, and, when Fox died the same year, Grey became foreign secretary and leader of the Foxite Whigs. In 1807 the dismissal of the ministry and the loss of his seat for Northumberland because of his Catholic sympathies left Grey with a distaste for office. From 1815 to 1830 he was more patron than leader of the divided Whig opposition. In 1830 he became prime minister with popular backing for parliamentary reform. After considerable debate and conflict, he won adoption of the Reform Bill of 1832
Charles H Best
born Feb. 27, 1899, West Pembroke, Maine, U.S. died March 31, 1978, Toronto, Ont., Can. U.S.-born Canadian physiologist. He was a professor and administrator at the University of Toronto 1929-67. With Frederick Banting, he was the first to obtain a pancreatic extract of insulin in a form useful for controlling diabetes mellitus (1921). He did not receive the 1923 Nobel Prize for Physiology or Medicine with Banting and J. J. R. Macleod because he did not yet have his medical degree, although Banting voluntarily shared his portion of the prize with Best. Best also discovered the vitamin choline and the enzyme histaminase and was one of the first to introduce anticoagulants to treat thrombosis
Charles H Goren
born March 4, 1901, Philadelphia, Pa., U.S. died April 3, 1991, Encino, Calif. U.S. contract bridge authority. Goren learned bridge while a law student at McGill University. His innovative system of point-count bidding and his repeated successes in tournaments made him one of the world's most famous and influential players. His several popular books include the widely translated Goren's Bridge Complete (1963)
Charles H Houston
born Sept. 3, 1895, Washington, D.C., U.S. died April 22, 1950, Washington, D.C. U.S. lawyer and educator. He graduated from Amherst College and taught for two years at Howard University before serving as an officer in World War I. At Harvard Law School he became the first African American editor of the Harvard Law Review. Houston practiced law with his father (1924-50), also serving as special counsel to the NAACP (1935-40). Before the U.S. Supreme Court, in State ex rel. Gaines v. Canada (1939), he successfully challenged racial segregation in public schools in areas where no "separate but equal" facilities existed; the decision was a forerunner of Brown v. Board of Education (1954). He was a teacher and mentor of Thurgood Marshall
Charles H Townes
born July 28, 1915, Greenville, S.C., U.S. U.S. physicist. He studied at Furman University, Duke University, and the California Institute of Technology and worked for Bell Labs before joining the faculty of Columbia University (1948). In the early 1950s he and his students constructed the first maser and showed that a similar device producing visible light was also possible. For his role in the invention of the maser and later the laser, he shared a 1964 Nobel Prize with Aleksandr M. Prokhorov (b. 1916) and Nikolay G. Basov (b. 1922)
Charles Hamilton Houston
born Sept. 3, 1895, Washington, D.C., U.S. died April 22, 1950, Washington, D.C. U.S. lawyer and educator. He graduated from Amherst College and taught for two years at Howard University before serving as an officer in World War I. At Harvard Law School he became the first African American editor of the Harvard Law Review. Houston practiced law with his father (1924-50), also serving as special counsel to the NAACP (1935-40). Before the U.S. Supreme Court, in State ex rel. Gaines v. Canada (1939), he successfully challenged racial segregation in public schools in areas where no "separate but equal" facilities existed; the decision was a forerunner of Brown v. Board of Education (1954). He was a teacher and mentor of Thurgood Marshall
Charles Hard Townes
born July 28, 1915, Greenville, S.C., U.S. U.S. physicist. He studied at Furman University, Duke University, and the California Institute of Technology and worked for Bell Labs before joining the faculty of Columbia University (1948). In the early 1950s he and his students constructed the first maser and showed that a similar device producing visible light was also possible. For his role in the invention of the maser and later the laser, he shared a 1964 Nobel Prize with Aleksandr M. Prokhorov (b. 1916) and Nikolay G. Basov (b. 1922)
Charles Henry Goren
born March 4, 1901, Philadelphia, Pa., U.S. died April 3, 1991, Encino, Calif. U.S. contract bridge authority. Goren learned bridge while a law student at McGill University. His innovative system of point-count bidding and his repeated successes in tournaments made him one of the world's most famous and influential players. His several popular books include the widely translated Goren's Bridge Complete (1963)
Charles Herbert Best
born Feb. 27, 1899, West Pembroke, Maine, U.S. died March 31, 1978, Toronto, Ont., Can. U.S.-born Canadian physiologist. He was a professor and administrator at the University of Toronto 1929-67. With Frederick Banting, he was the first to obtain a pancreatic extract of insulin in a form useful for controlling diabetes mellitus (1921). He did not receive the 1923 Nobel Prize for Physiology or Medicine with Banting and J. J. R. Macleod because he did not yet have his medical degree, although Banting voluntarily shared his portion of the prize with Best. Best also discovered the vitamin choline and the enzyme histaminase and was one of the first to introduce anticoagulants to treat thrombosis
Charles Hermite
{i} (1822-1901) French Mathematician, discoverer of the first transcendental number
Charles Horton Cooley
born Aug. 17, 1864, Ann Arbor, Mich., U.S. died May 8, 1929, Ann Arbor U.S. sociologist. The son of an eminent Michigan jurist, Cooley taught sociology at the University of Michigan from 1894. He believed that the mind is social, that society is a mental construct, and that the moral unity of society derives from face-to-face relationships in primary groups such as the family and neighbourhood. In Human Nature and the Social Order (1902), he referred to this form of social reference as "the looking glass self." Cooley's other works include Social Organization (1909) and Social Process (1918)
Charles Huggins
{i} Charles Brenton Huggins (1901-1997), Canadian-born American physiologist and surgeon and cancer researcher who won the Nobel Prize for Physiology or Medicine in 1966 (together with Peyton Rous) for his discovery that hormones could be used to control the spread of and treat some cancers (such as cancer of the prostate)
Charles I
King of England, Scotland, and Ireland (1625-1649). His power struggles with Parliament resulted in the English Civil War (1642-1648) in which Charles was defeated. He was tried for treason and beheaded in 1649. Emperor of Austria (1916-1918) and king of Hungary as Charles IV (1916-1918). Deposed after World War I, he twice failed to regain the Hungarian throne (1921)
Charles II
King of England, Scotland, and Ireland (1660-1685) who reigned during the Restoration, a period of expanding trade and colonization as well as strong opposition to Catholicism
Charles IX
King of France (1560-1574). His mother, Catherine de Médicis, controlled most of his decisions and persuaded him to order the massacre of French Protestants on Saint Bartholomew's Day in 1572
Charles Ives
an American composer who wrote modern music that later influenced many other composers, and who used folk music and familiar songs in his works. He is known for his symphonies and for his Concord Sonata (1874-1954)
Charles James Fox
a British politician who was against the slave trade and the taxing of the American colonies (1749-1806). born Jan. 24, 1749, London, Eng. died Sept. 13, 1806, Chiswick, Devon British politician. He entered Parliament in 1768 and became leader of the Whigs in the House of Commons, where he used his brilliant oratorical skills to strongly oppose Britain's policy toward the American colonies. Almost always in the political opposition, he conducted a vendetta against George III and was later an enemy of William Pitt. He served as Britain's first foreign secretary (1782, 1783, 1806). He achieved two important reforms by steering through Parliament a resolution pledging it to end the slave trade and by enacting the 1792 Libel Act, which restored to juries their right to decide what constituted libel and whether or not a defendant was guilty of it. He is remembered as a great champion of liberty
Charles John Huffam Dickens
born Feb. 7, 1812, Portsmouth, Hampshire, Eng. died June 9, 1870, Gad's Hill, near Chatham, Kent British novelist, generally considered the greatest of the Victorian period. When Dickens's father, a clerk, was thrown into debtors prison, the boy was withdrawn from school and forced to work in a factory. As a young man he worked as a reporter. His fiction career began with short pieces reprinted as Sketches by "Boz" (1836). The comic novel The Pickwick Papers (1837) made him the most popular English author of his time. Oliver Twist (1838), Nicholas Nickleby (1839), The Old Curiosity Shop (1841), and Barnaby Rudge (1841) followed. After a trip to America, he wrote A Christmas Carol (1843) in a few weeks, followed by Martin Chuzzlewit (1844). With Dombey and Son (1848), his novels began to express a heightened uneasiness about the evils of Victorian industrial society, which intensified in the semiautobiographical David Copperfield (1850), as well as Bleak House (1853), Hard Times (1854), Little Dorrit (1857), Great Expectations (1861), and Our Mutual Friend (1865). A Tale of Two Cities (1859) appeared in the period when he achieved great popularity for his public readings. The Mystery of Edwin Drood (1870) was left unfinished. Dickens's works are characterized by attacks on social evils and inadequate institutions, an encyclopaedic knowledge of London, pathos, a vein of the macabre, a pervasive spirit of benevolence and geniality, inexhaustible powers of character creation, an acute ear for characteristic speech, and a highly individual and inventive prose style
Charles Joseph Chamberlain
born Feb. 23, 1863, Sullivan, Ohio, U.S. died Feb. 5, 1943, Chicago, Ill. U.S. botanist. His research into the structure and life cycles of primitive plants (cycads) enabled him to suggest a course of evolutionary development for the egg and embryo of seed plants (spermatophytes) and to speculate about a cycad origin for flowering plants (angiosperms). He organized and directed the botanical laboratories at the University of Chicago (1897-1931), where, with plants collected in Mexico, Australia, New Zealand, South Africa, and Cuba, he created the world's foremost collection of living cycads
Charles Kingsley
a British writer of historical novels such as Westward Ho! and Hereward the Wake, who also wrote the children's story The Water Babies (1819-75). born June 12, 1819, Holne Vicarage, Devon, Eng. died Jan. 23, 1875, Eversley, Hampshire English clergyman and novelist. After studies at Cambridge, he became a parish priest and later chaplain to Queen Victoria, professor of modern history at Cambridge, and canon of Westminster. An enthusiastic advocate of Christian socialism, he published several novels about social problems before writing the very successful historical novels Hypatia (1853), Westward Ho! (1855), and Hereward the Wake (1866). Fearing the Anglican church's trend in the direction of Catholicism, he engaged in a famous controversy with John Henry Newman. His wholehearted acceptance of Charles Darwin's theory of evolution inspired his popular children's book The Water-Babies (1863)
Charles Lamb
a British writer of essays, who worked with his sister Mary Lamb (1764-1847) on Tales from Shakespeare, a book for children that tells the stories of Shakespeare's plays in simple language (1775-1834). born Feb. 10, 1775, London, Eng. died Dec. 27, 1834, Edmonton, Middlesex English essayist and critic. Lamb was employed as a clerk at East India House (headquarters for the East India Company) from 1792 to 1825. From 1796 he was guardian of his sister, the writer Mary Lamb (1764-1847), who, in a fit of madness (which proved recurrent), had killed their mother. He is best known for the often autobiographical essays he wrote under the pseudonym Elia for London Magazine, collected in Essays of Elia (1823) and The Last Essays of Elia (1833). Among the greatest of English letter writers, he included some of his most perceptive literary criticism, often in the form of marginalia, in letters. He collaborated with Mary on Tales from Shakespear (1807), a highly popular retelling of the plays for children
Charles Lamb
{i} (1775-1834) English essayist and poet who used the pen name "Elia", author of the children's book "Tales From Shakespeare" together with his sister Mary Lamb
Charles Laughton
born July 1, 1899, Scarborough, Yorkshire, Eng. died Dec. 15, 1962, Hollywood, Calif., U.S. British actor. He made his London stage debut in 1926 and acted in plays such as The Government Inspector, Medea, and Payment Deferred, in which he made his New York debut in 1931. He appeared in movies from 1929 and earned international acclaim in The Private Life of Henry VIII (1933, Academy Award). With his bulky frame and ordinary face Laughton defied Hollywood typecasting and emerged as one of the most versatile performers of his generation. He played a wide range of character roles in films such as Mutiny on the Bounty (1935), Ruggles of Red Gap (1935), The Hunchback of Notre Dame (1939), Witness for the Prosecution (1957), and Advise and Consent (1962). He directed the memorable The Night of the Hunter (1955)
Charles Le Brun
born Feb. 24, 1619, Paris, France died Feb. 12, 1690, Paris French painter and designer. After study in Paris and Rome, he received large decorative and religious commissions that made his reputation. Possessing extraordinary organizational as well as technical skills, as the first painter to Louis XIV he created or supervised the production of most of the paintings, sculptures, and decorative objects commissioned by the French government for three decades, notably for the Palace of Versailles. As director of the Academy of Painting and Sculpture and organizer of the French Academy at Rome, he was instrumental in establishing the characteristic homogeneity of French art in the 17th century
Charles Lewis Tiffany
{i} (1812-1902) American merchant and jeweler, founder of the luxury jewelry store "Tiffany and Company", man who introduced sterling silver as the standard in jewelry making
Charles Lindbergh
a US pilot who in 1927 became the first person to fly alone across the Atlantic Ocean without stopping. He flew from New York to Paris in his plane called The Spirit of Saint Louis (1902-74)
Charles Lindbergh
(1902-1974) American pilot, first person to fly non-stop across the Atlantic Ocean from NY to Paris (in 1927)
Charles Louis de Secondat Montesquieu
(1689-1755) French political philosopher and writer who greatly influenced the Enlightenment Movement
Charles Lutwidge Dodgson
(1832-1898) English mathematician and writer who used the pen name "Lewis Carroll", author of "Alice's Adventures in Wonderland" and "Through the Looking Glass
Charles M Schwab
Schwab proposed the merger of the competing steel companies that would create the U.S. Steel Corp., and he became its first president in 1901. He resigned in 1903 to devote himself to the Bethlehem Steel Corp., which he built into one of the nation's largest steel producers of its time
Charles M Schwab
born Feb. 18, 1862, Williamsburg, Pa., U.S. died Sept. 18, 1939, New York, N.Y. U.S. entrepreneur and steel-industry pioneer. He joined Andrew Carnegie's steelworks at Braddock, Pa., as a labourer and rose swiftly in the Carnegie empire. In 1892 Carnegie delegated to Schwab the task of returning the plant in Homestead, Pa., to normal production after the bloody Homestead Strike. His success in improving labour relations and increasing production led to his appointment as president of Carnegie Steel Co. in 1897 at the age of
Charles MacArthur
born Nov. 5, 1895, Scranton, Pa., U.S. died April 21, 1956, New York, N.Y. U.S. journalist, playwright, and screenwriter. He worked as a reporter in Chicago and New York City (1914-26) before collaborating with Edward Shelden on the play Lulu Belle (1926). With Ben Hecht he wrote the Broadway hits The Front Page (1928; film, 1931) and Twentieth Century (1932; film, 1934) and several later plays noted for their graphic, crisp dialogue. Their screenplays included the film adaptations of their own plays and Wuthering Heights (1939), and they wrote and directed movies such as Crime Without Passion (1934), The Scoundrel (1935), and Soak the Rich (1936). He was married to actress Helen Hayes
Charles Manson
an American who had a group of followers that he called his 'family', who took drugs with him and regarded him as their religious leader. Under Manson's influence, his 'family' violently killed seven people in Los Angeles in 1969, including the actress Sharon Tate (1934- ). born Nov. 12, 1934, Cincinnati, Ohio, U.S. U.S. cult leader and mass murderer. From age 9 he spent a great deal of his life in the care of the state, first in juvenile reformatories and later in prison. By 1968, he had become the leader of the "Family," a communal religious cult in Los Angeles dedicated to studying and implementing his eccentric religious teachings. In 1969 he sent Family members to a house rented by the actress Sharon Tate and her husband Roman Polanski; there they murdered Tate and five friends, and elsewhere they killed three others. The trials of Manson and four of his followers in 1971 attracted national attention. Their death sentences were commuted to life imprisonment when California abolished the death penalty in 1972. Manson's crimes were the subject of the best-selling book Helter Skelter (1974), by the prosecutor in the case, Vincent Bugliosi
Charles Martel
Latin Carolus Martellus ("Charles the Hammer") born 688 died Oct. 22, 741, Quierzy-sur-Oise, Fr. Carolingian mayor of the palace (715-41). He was a child born out of wedlock to Pippin of Herstal, mayor of the palace and virtual ruler of the Frankish realm in the waning days of the Merovingian dynasty. On his father's death he overcame family opposition and rivals among the nobility to reunite and rule the entire Frankish realm. He subdued Neustria (724), attacked Aquitaine, and fought against the Frisians, Saxons, and Bavarians. His victory at the Battle of Tours/Poitiers (732) stemmed the Muslim invasion, and he controlled Burgundy by 739. He also supported the activities of St. Boniface and other missionaries. In Frankish royal tradition, he divided the kingdom between his sons Pippin III and Carloman who succeeded him as mayor; his grandson was Charlemagne
Charles Martin Hall
born Dec. 6, 1863, Thompson, Ohio, U.S. died Dec. 27, 1914, Daytona Beach, Fla. U.S. chemist. He attended Oberlin College, where, soon after graduating in 1885, he discovered the method of producing aluminum by electrolysis (simultaneously with Paul Héroult), an innovation that brought the metal into wide commercial use. Supported by the Mellon family, he formed the Pittsburgh Reduction Co. (later Alcoa). The need for cheap and plentiful power led the company to Niagara Falls, where in 1895 it became the first customer for Niagara's new power plant
Charles Maurras
born April 20, 1868, Martigues, France died Nov. 16, 1952, Tours French writer and political theorist. In 1891 he cofounded a group of poets opposed to the Symbolist movement and later known as the école romane. An ardent monarchist, he cofounded L'Action Française (1899), a review whose "integral nationalism" promoted the idea of the supremacy of the state; it became the party organ of the reactionary Action Française. He also wrote philosophical short stories and poetry. During World War II he was a strong supporter of the government of Philippe Pétain, for which he was imprisoned (1945-52)
Charles McBurney
{i} (1845-1913) U.S. surgeon
Charles Merrill
{i} (1885-1956) American banker and philanthropist, founder of the Merrill-Lynch Investment Bank
Charles Michael Schwab
born Feb. 18, 1862, Williamsburg, Pa., U.S. died Sept. 18, 1939, New York, N.Y. U.S. entrepreneur and steel-industry pioneer. He joined Andrew Carnegie's steelworks at Braddock, Pa., as a labourer and rose swiftly in the Carnegie empire. In 1892 Carnegie delegated to Schwab the task of returning the plant in Homestead, Pa., to normal production after the bloody Homestead Strike. His success in improving labour relations and increasing production led to his appointment as president of Carnegie Steel Co. in 1897 at the age of
Charles Michael Schwab
Schwab proposed the merger of the competing steel companies that would create the U.S. Steel Corp., and he became its first president in 1901. He resigned in 1903 to devote himself to the Bethlehem Steel Corp., which he built into one of the nation's largest steel producers of its time
Charles Mingus
{i} (1922-1979) U.S. jazz composer and bass player
Charles Mingus
born April 22, 1922, Nogales, Ariz., U.S. died Jan. 5, 1979, Cuernavaca, Mex. U.S. jazz composer, bassist, and bandleader. Mingus played in the groups of Lionel Hampton, Duke Ellington, and Red Norvo, ultimately working with many of the innovators of bebop. In 1953 he organized the Jazz Workshop ensemble, which played a spirited combination of loosely arranged passages and improvisation, incorporating elements of the blues and free jazz. As a pioneering bandleader and virtuoso bassist, Mingus remained an uncompromising and innovative force in jazz for the rest of his career. He was one of the most important and colourful figures in modern jazz
Charles O Finley
born Feb. 22, 1918, Ensley, Ala., U.S. died Feb. 19, 1996, Chicago, Ill. U.S. baseball club owner. Born on a farm in Alabama, Finley worked in a steel mill after his family moved to Gary, Ind. During a protracted illness Finley conceived of the insurance company that would make him a millionaire in two years. He became a wealthy executive and in 1960 acquired the Kansas City (later Oakland) Athletics. Under Finley they achieved three consecutive World Series victories (1972-74), even as he constantly stirred controversy among players, managers, civic leaders, and baseball officials with his promotional ideas. He sold the team in 1980
Charles Oscar Finley
born Feb. 22, 1918, Ensley, Ala., U.S. died Feb. 19, 1996, Chicago, Ill. U.S. baseball club owner. Born on a farm in Alabama, Finley worked in a steel mill after his family moved to Gary, Ind. During a protracted illness Finley conceived of the insurance company that would make him a millionaire in two years. He became a wealthy executive and in 1960 acquired the Kansas City (later Oakland) Athletics. Under Finley they achieved three consecutive World Series victories (1972-74), even as he constantly stirred controversy among players, managers, civic leaders, and baseball officials with his promotional ideas. He sold the team in 1980
Charles Percy Snow
later Baron Snow (of the City of Leicester) born Oct. 15, 1905, Leicester, Leicestershire, Eng. died July 1, 1980, London British novelist, scientist, and government administrator. Snow was a molecular physicist at the University of Cambridge for some 20 years and served as a scientific adviser to the British government. His 11-novel sequence Strangers and Brothers (1940-70), which analyzes bureaucratic man and the corrupting influence of power, includes The Masters (1951), The New Men (1954), and Corridors of Power (1964). The Two Cultures and the Scientific Revolution (1959) and later nonfiction works deal with the cultural separation between practitioners of science and literature
Charles Perrault
born Jan. 12, 1628, Paris, France died May 15/16, 1703, Paris French poet, prose writer, and storyteller. Perrault began to win a literary reputation 1660 with light verse and love poetry. He is best remembered for his collection of charming fairy stories written to amuse his children, Contes de ma mère l'oye, or Tales of Mother Goose (1697; see Mother Goose). He spent the rest of his life promoting the study of literature and the arts. A leading member of the Académie Française, he was involved in a famous controversy with Nicholas Boileau on the relative merits of ancient and modern literature; his support for the modern was of landmark significance in the revolt against the constraints of prevailing tradition
Charles Philipon
born April 19, 1802, Lyon, France died Jan. 25, 1862, Paris French caricaturist, lithographer, and journalist. An excellent draftsman with a fertile sense of satire and vigorous political opinions, he published a series of journals of political satire. La Caricature, which he introduced in 1830, was suppressed in 1835; Le Charivari, introduced in 1832, became the inspiration for Punch, subtitled The London Charivari. His drawing showing the transformation of Louis-Philippe into the shape of a pear established the pear as the common symbol for the king. He attracted and inspired the best caricaturists in France, including Honoré Daumier and Gustave Doré
Charles Pinckney
born Oct. 26, 1757, Charleston, S.C. died Oct. 29, 1824, Charleston, S.C., U.S. U.S. statesman. A cousin of Charles C. Pinckney and Thomas Pinckney, he fought in the American Revolution. From 1784 to 1787 he served in the Continental Congress, where he was instrumental in calling for the Constitutional Convention. As a delegate to the convention from South Carolina, he proposed numerous provisions that were incorporated in the final draft of the Constitution of the United States. He helped write the South Carolina constitution and was also governor of the state (1789-92, 1796-98, 1806-08). He served in the U.S. Senate from 1798 to 1801 and as minister to Spain from 1801 to 1805
Charles Proteus Steinmetz
orig. Karl August Rudolf Steinmetz born April 9, 1865, Breslau, Prussia died Oct. 26, 1923, Schenectady, N.Y., U.S. German-born U.S. electrical engineer. Forced to leave Germany because of his socialist activities, he emigrated to the U.S. in 1889 and began working for General Electric Co. in 1893. He taught at Union College from 1902. His experiments led to the law of hysteresis, which deals with power loss in electrical machinery when magnetic action is converted to unusable heat; the constant he calculated (by age 27) has remained a part of electrical engineering vocabulary. In 1893 he developed a simplified symbolic method of calculating alternating-current phenomena. He also studied electrical transients (changes of very short duration in electrical circuits; e.g., lightning); his theory of traveling waves led to development of devices to protect high-power transmission lines from lightning bolts and to the design of a powerful generator. He patented over 200 inventions
Charles Reade
born June 8, 1814, near Ipsden, Oxfordshire, Eng. died April 11, 1884, London English novelist and dramatist. Though trained in law and an administrator at Oxford University, he put much of his time and resources into writing and staging his melodramatic plays. His novels expose, with passionate indignation, the social injustices of his times. He is best remembered for the historical romance The Cloister and the Hearth (1861). His other novels include It Is Never Too Late to Mend (1856), attacking prison conditions; Hard Cash (1863), on the abuse of mental patients; and Put Yourself in His Place (1870), about terrorism by trade unionists
Charles Rennie Mackintosh
a Scottish architect, artist, and designer of furniture and glass. His work is considered to be among the best examples of the art nouveau style, and he designed many buildings in and around Glasgow in Scotland (1868-1928). born June 7, 1868, Glasgow, Scot. died Dec. 10, 1928, London, Eng. Scottish architect, furniture designer, and artist. A giant of the Arts and Crafts Movement, he is especially revered for his glass-and-stone studio building at the Glasgow School of Art (1896-1909), where he had attended classes. In the 1890s he achieved an international reputation creating unorthodox posters, craftwork, and furniture. Considered Britain's first designer of true Art Nouveau architecture, he produced work of an unrivaled lightness, elegance, and originality, as exemplified by four remarkable tearooms he designed in Glasgow (1896-1904). By 1914 he was dedicating all his energies to watercolour painting. The late 20th century saw a revival of interest in his work and the manufacture of reproductions of his chairs and settees, which were characterized by starkly simple geometric lines
Charles Richard Drew
born June 3, 1904, Washington, D.C., U.S. died April 1, 1950, near Burlington, N.C. U.S. physician and surgeon. He received his Ph.D. from Columbia University. While researching the properties and preservation of blood plasma, he developed efficient ways to process and store plasma in blood banks. He directed the U.S. and Britain's World War II blood-plasma programs until 1942. An African American, he resigned over the segregation of the blood of blacks and whites in blood banks
Charles River
A river, about 97 km (60 mi) long, of eastern Massachusetts flowing into Boston harbor and separating Boston from Cambridge. River, eastern Massachusetts, U.S. The longest river wholly in the state, it flows into Boston Bay after a course of about 80 mi (130 km). Navigable for about 7 mi (11 km), its estuary separates the cities of Boston and Cambridge
Charles Robert Darwin
born Feb. 12, 1809, Shrewsbury, Shropshire, Eng. died April 19, 1882, Downe, Kent British naturalist. The grandson of Erasmus Darwin and Josiah Wedgwood, he studied medicine at the University of Edinburgh and biology at Cambridge. He was recommended as a naturalist on HMS Beagle, which was bound on a long scientific survey expedition to South America and the South Seas (1831-36). His zoological and geological discoveries on the voyage resulted in numerous important publications and formed the basis of his theories of evolution. Seeing competition between individuals of a single species, he recognized that within a local population the individual bird, for example, with the sharper beak might have a better chance to survive and reproduce and that if such traits were passed on to new generations, they would be predominant in future populations. He saw this natural selection as the mechanism by which advantageous variations were passed on to later generations and less advantageous traits gradually disappeared. He worked on his theory for more than 20 years before publishing it in his famous On the Origin of Species by Means of Natural Selection (1859). The book was immediately in great demand, and Darwin's intensely controversial theory was accepted quickly in most scientific circles; most opposition came from religious leaders. Though Darwin's ideas were modified by later developments in genetics and molecular biology, his work remains central to modern evolutionary theory. His many other important works included Variation in Animals and Plants Under Domestication (1868) and The Descent of Man... (1871). He was buried in Westminster Abbey. See also Darwinism
Charles Robert Darwin
{i} Charles Darwin (1809-1882), British scientist, originator of the theory of evolution through natural selection, author of "The Descent of Man" and "Origin of Species by Means of Natural Selection
Charles Robert Redford Jr
born Aug. 18, 1937, Santa Monica, Calif., U.S. U.S. film actor and director. He made his Broadway debut in 1959 and won acclaim in Barefoot in the Park (1963; film, 1967). The blond, appealing Redford began acting in films in the mid-1960s. He appeared with Paul Newman in the hits Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid (1969) and The Sting (1973) and also starred in The Candidate (1972), Jeremiah Johnson (1972), All the President's Men (1976), The Natural (1984), Out of Africa (1985), and Indecent Proposal (1993). His directorial debut, Ordinary People (1980, Academy Award), was followed by The Milagro Beanfield War (1988), A River Runs Through It (1992), Quiz Show (1994), The Horse Whisperer (1998), and The Legend of Bagger Vance (2000). He received an honorary Academy Award in 2001. In 1980 he founded the Sundance Institute to sponsor young filmmakers' works, and by the 1990s its film festival was the major showcase for U.S. independent films
Charles Rolls
{i} C.S. Rolls, Charles Stewart Rolls (1877-1910) English who was the cofounder of the Rolls-Royce car manufacturing company (together with Frederick Henry Royce)
Charles Rudolf Friml
born Dec. 7, 1879, Prague died Nov. 12, 1972, Hollywood, Calif., U.S. Czech-born U.S. composer. He studied under Antonín Dvoák, and he immigrated to the U.S. in 1906. In 1912, replacing Victor Herbert, he composed the highly successful operetta The Firefly (with Otto Harbach). The next major success of his approximately 30 operettas, Rose Marie (1924; with "Indian Love Call"), was followed by The Vagabond King (1925; with "Song of the Vagabonds" and "Some Day") and The Three Musketeers (1928), among the last operettas to enjoy popular success
Charles Russell
a popular US artist who painted scenes of cowboys and Native Americans (1864-1926)
Charles Samuel Addams
born Jan. 7, 1912, Westfield, N.J., U.S. died Sept. 29, 1988, New York, N.Y. U.S. cartoonist. He worked briefly as a commercial artist before selling his first cartoon to The New Yorker in 1933. He became famous for darkly humorous cartoons depicting morbid behaviour by sinister-looking characters, especially a family of ghouls whose activities travestied those of a conventional family; in one popular image, they prepare to pour boiling oil on a group of Christmas carolers. These evolved into The Addams Family, a 1960s television series that generated two Hollywood films
Charles Sanders Peirce
a US philosopher, who said that an idea on its own does not have any value, and that there is only value in the results produced by the idea. His most important writings were put together after his death in a book called Chance, Love and Logic (1838-1914). born Sept. 10, 1839, Cambridge, Mass., U.S. died April 19, 1914, near Milford, Pa. U.S. scientist, logician, and philosopher. He was the son of the mathematician and astronomer Benjamin Peirce (1809-80). After attending Harvard University he spent 30 years with the U.S. Coast Guard Survey (1861-91). As a scientist, he is noted for his contributions to the theory of probability, the study of gravity, and the logic of scientific methodology. He eventually abandoned the physical sciences to study logic, which in its widest sense he identified with semiotics. He lectured on logic at Johns Hopkins University from 1879 to 1894, then spent the rest of his life writing in seclusion. He is regarded as the founder of pragmatism. Though he made eminent contributions to deductive logic, he was a student primarily of "the logic of science" i.e., of induction and of "retroduction," or "abduction," the forming and accepting on probation of a hypothesis in order to explain surprising facts. His lifelong ambition was to establish induction and abduction as permanent branches of logic
Charles Schultz
a US newspaper cartoonist who was famous for his strip cartoon 'Peanuts' in which the characters Charlie Brown, Linus, Lucy, and Snoopy the dog appeared. The cartoon first appeared in eight US newspapers in 1950, but soon appeared in newspapers all over the world (1922-2000)
Charles Schulz
born Nov. 26, 1922, Minneapolis, Minn., U.S. died Feb. 12, 2000, Santa Rosa, Calif. U.S. cartoonist. Son of a Minneapolis barber, he took a correspondence course in cartooning and worked as a freelance cartoonist before creating Peanuts (originally Li'l Folks, 1950), which would become the most widely syndicated comic strip of all time. The strip, whose characters are boys and girls ranging in age from three to five and a beagle with a grandiose imagination, deals with the frustrations of everyday life and the cruelty that exists among children, often with philosophical and psychological overtones. Just before his death, after 50 years of continuous production, Schulz announced the end of his strip
Charles Scribner
orig. Charles Scrivener born Feb. 21, 1821, New York, N.Y., U.S. died Aug. 26, 1871, Lucerne, Switz. U.S. publisher. In 1846, in partnership with Isaac D. Baker (d. 1850), Scribner established the publishing firm of Baker & Scribner in his native New York City. In 1878 the firm was renamed Charles Scribner's Sons. Its list initially consisted of philosophical and theological (mainly Presbyterian) books, but it later included reprints and translations of British and continental European literature. Among the firm's periodicals was Scribner's Monthly (1870-81). After his death other members of the Scribner family continued the business
Charles Sheeler
born July 16, 1883, Philadelphia, Pa., U.S. died May 7, 1965, Dobbs Ferry, N.Y. U.S. painter and photographer. Educated at the Pennsylvania Academy of the Fine Arts, he initially earned a living as a photographer. His acclaimed series of photographs of the Ford automobile plant at River Rouge, Mich. (1927), was followed by a series on Chartres Cathedral (1929). In his paintings, early Cubist influences led to the Precisionism of his maturity. He treated industrial and architectural subjects in an abstract-realist style, emphasizing their formal qualities, as in his painting Rolling Power (1939), which revealed the abstract power of a locomotive's driving wheels
Charles Simic
born May 9, 1938, Belgrade, Yugos. Yugoslavian-born U.S. poet. When he was 15 years old, he and his mother moved to Paris; a year later they joined his father in the U.S. After graduating from New York University, he translated Yugoslavian poetry into English. His first volume of poetry, What the Grass Says (1967) was recognized for its lively, surrealistic imagery; the collection The World Doesn't End (1989) won a Pulitzer Prize. He held a MacArthur Fellowship 1984-89. Since 1973 he has taught at the University of New Hampshire
Charles Stanhope 3rd Earl Stanhope
born Aug. 3, 1753, London, Eng. died Dec. 15, 1816, Chevening, Kent English politician and inventor. A member of the House of Commons (1780-86), where he was known as Lord Mahon until inheriting his father's title, he became chairman of the Revolution Society and favoured parliamentary reform. He sympathized with the French republicans and opposed Britain's war with Revolutionary France. He was also an experimental scientist and invented calculating machines, a printing press and a microscope lens named for him, a stereotyping machine, and a steam carriage
Charles Stark Draper
born Oct. 2, 1901, Windsor, Mo., U.S. died July 25, 1987, Cambridge, Mass. U.S. aeronautical engineer. He taught at MIT from 1935, where he developed a gunsight for naval anti-aircraft guns that was installed on most U.S. naval vessels in World War II. His inertial guidance system, called spatial inertial reference equipment (SPIRE), allowed planes, submarines, and ballistic missiles to travel thousands of miles to their destinations without reference to outside navigational aids, such as radio or the positions of celestial bodies. His group at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology also developed guidance systems for the Apollo program. He is memorialized in the annual Charles Stark Draper Prize for achievement in engineering
Charles Stewart Parnell
an Irish politician who was a member of the British Parliament. He was a leading supporter of the idea of Home Rule (=self-government) for Ireland (1846-91). born June 27, 1846, Avondale, County Wicklow, Ire. died Oct. 6, 1891, Brighton, Sussex, Eng. Irish nationalist leader. After an education at the University of Cambridge, he returned to Ireland and served in the British Parliament (1875-91), introducing obstructionist legislative tactics to call attention to Ireland's needs. In 1877 he became president of the Home Rule Confederation. He was jailed for making violent speeches against the new land act (1881-82), then released to curb an increase in terrorist acts. Reaction against the Phoenix Park murders enabled him to unite factions in Ireland to win support for parliamentary measures, such as William E. Gladstone's Home Rule proposals. He remained popular in Ireland until he was named in the divorce suit of his mistress, Katherine O'Shea (1890)
Charles Stewart Rolls
{i} C.S. Rolls, Charles Rolls (1877-1910) English who was the cofounder of the Rolls-Royce car manufacturing company (together with Frederick Henry Royce)
Charles Sumner
born Jan. 6, 1811, Boston, Mass., U.S. died March 11, 1874, Washington, D.C. U.S. politician. He practiced law while crusading for the abolition of slavery, prison reform, world peace, and educational reform. He was elected to the U.S. Senate (1852-74) and spoke out against slavery. He denounced the Kansas-Nebraska Act as the "crime against Kansas" and scorned its authors, Sen. Stephen A. Douglas and Sen. Andrew P. Butler. In 1856 an incensed relative of Butler, Congressman Preston S. Brooks of South Carolina, invaded the Senate and severely beat Sumner with a cane. He returned to the Senate in 1859, and as chairman of the foreign relations committee (1861-71) he helped resolve the Trent Affair
Charles Sumner and Henry Mather Greene
born Oct. 12, 1868, Brighton, Ohio, U.S. died June 11, 1957, Carmel, Calif. born Jan. 23, 1870, Brighton, Ohio died Oct. 2, 1954, Pasadena, Calif. U.S. architects. The Greene brothers established a partnership in Pasadena, Calif., in 1894. Using a Modernist approach, they pushed the older Stick style further than it had ever gone. In the years 1904-11 they pioneered the influential California bungalow, a single-storied house with a low-pitched roof. Their bungalows feature wide, low volumes, the use of balconies and verandas to achieve a melding of indoor and outdoor space, and frank utilization of wood members (sticks), exquisitely worked and extending gracefully beyond the edges of the spreading gables
Charles T Griffes
born Sept. 17, 1884, Elmira, N.Y., U.S. died April 8, 1920, New York City U.S. composer. He studied music in Berlin with Engelbert Humperdinck and others, then returned and taught at a boys' school in Tarrytown, N.Y., for the rest of his short life. His early works reflect German Romanticism, but his mature style combined Impressionism and orientalism. His principal works are for piano, though some were later orchestrated: The Pleasure-Dome of Kubla Khan (1912), a piano sonata ( 1912), and Roman Sketches (including "The White Peacock") (1915)
Charles Talbot duke and 12th earl of Shrewsbury
born July 24, 1660 died Feb. 1, 1718, London, Eng. English statesman. He inherited his father's title at age seven and was raised as a Catholic. He became a Protestant in 1679 and in 1688 was one of seven men who invited William of Orange to seize power from James II. After aiding the successful rebellion, Shrewsbury served William III as secretary of state (1689-90, 1694-99) and was created a duke in 1694. Shifting his allegiance from the Whigs, he served in a Tory administration as lord lieutenant of Ireland (1710-14) and was appointed by Queen Anne as lord high treasurer (1714). He obtained recognition of George I as the legitimate royal heir and assured the peaceful succession of the house of Hanover
Charles Taze Russell
born Feb. 16, 1852, Pittsburgh, Pa., U.S. died Oct. 31, 1916, Pampa, Texas U.S. religious leader who founded the International Bible Students Association, the forerunner of the Jehovah's Witnesses. He was raised in the Congregational church but rejected its teachings, unable to reconcile God's mercy with the idea of hell. Influenced by the Adventists, he adopted a doctrine of millennialism. He founded the International Bible Students Association in 1872 (renamed Jehovah's Witnesses in 1931) and taught that the final days would come in 1914 and that Christ's kingdom on earth would begin after a war between capitalism and socialism. In 1884 he founded the Watch Tower Bible and Tract Society, today one of the world's largest publishers. His books, pamphlets, and periodicals were widely circulated, and he won many converts despite the apparent failure of his apocalyptic prediction
Charles Thomas Jackson
born June 21, 1805, Plymouth, Mass., U.S. died Aug. 28, 1880, Somerville, Mass. U.S. physician, chemist, geologist, and mineralogist. He graduated from Harvard Medical School in 1829. Known for his contentiousness and litigiousness, he took credit for the first demonstration of surgical anesthesia with ether by a dental surgeon he had advised on it, and he claimed to have told Samuel F.B. Morse the basic principles of the telegraph. He worked many years as a geologist for the U.S. Geological Survey
Charles Thomson Rees Wilson
born Feb. 14, 1869, Glencorse, Midlothian, Scot. died Nov. 15, 1959, Carlops, Peeblesshire Scottish physicist. His invention of the Wilson cloud chamber, a device that became widely used in the study of radioactivity, X rays, cosmic rays, and other particle phenomena, also led to the later development of the bubble chamber. He shared the 1927 Nobel Prize for Physics with Arthur Compton
Charles Tomlinson Griffes
born Sept. 17, 1884, Elmira, N.Y., U.S. died April 8, 1920, New York City U.S. composer. He studied music in Berlin with Engelbert Humperdinck and others, then returned and taught at a boys' school in Tarrytown, N.Y., for the rest of his short life. His early works reflect German Romanticism, but his mature style combined Impressionism and orientalism. His principal works are for piano, though some were later orchestrated: The Pleasure-Dome of Kubla Khan (1912), a piano sonata ( 1912), and Roman Sketches (including "The White Peacock") (1915)
Charles Townshend 2nd Viscount Townshend
born April 18, 1675, Raynham Hall, Norfolk, Eng. died June 21, 1738, Raynham British politician. He succeeded to his father's title in 1687, married the sister of Robert Walpole, and served as secretary of state (1714-16). With Walpole, Townshend led the Whig Party and became president of the privy council (1720). Again secretary of state (1721-30), he formed the League of Hanover (1725), which allied Britain, France, and Prussia against Austria and Spain. He resigned when Walpole, by then the dominant minister, opposed an aggressive policy against Austria. Also interested in agricultural reform, Townshend developed the use of turnips in crop rotation, earning the nickname Turnip Townshend
Charles Townshend 2nd Viscount Townshend of Rainham
born April 18, 1675, Raynham Hall, Norfolk, Eng. died June 21, 1738, Raynham British politician. He succeeded to his father's title in 1687, married the sister of Robert Walpole, and served as secretary of state (1714-16). With Walpole, Townshend led the Whig Party and became president of the privy council (1720). Again secretary of state (1721-30), he formed the League of Hanover (1725), which allied Britain, France, and Prussia against Austria and Spain. He resigned when Walpole, by then the dominant minister, opposed an aggressive policy against Austria. Also interested in agricultural reform, Townshend developed the use of turnips in crop rotation, earning the nickname Turnip Townshend
Charles V
Holy Roman emperor (1519-1558) and king of Spain as Charles I (1516-1556). He summoned the Diet of Worms (1521) and the Council of Trent (1545-1563)
Charles VII
King of France (1422-1461). He ended the Hundred Years' War (1453) by driving the English from most of France
Charles Vincent Massey
v. born Feb. 20, 1887, Toronto, Ont., Can. died Dec. 30, 1967, London, Eng. Canadian administrator, first Canadian governor-general of Canada (1952-59). He taught history at the University of Toronto from 1913 to 1915. During World War I he served as associate secretary of the cabinet war committee. After the war he operated a farm-machinery business until 1925. Active in Liberal Party politics, he served in the cabinet of W.L. Mackenzie King (1925) and was later Canada's first minister to the U.S. (1926-30) and high commissioner for Canada in Britain (1935-46). After serving as chancellor of the University of Toronto (1947-52), he was named governor-general. His brother was the actor Raymond Massey (1896-1983)
Charles Waddell Chesnutt
born June 20, 1858, Cleveland, Ohio, U.S. died Nov. 15, 1932, Cleveland U.S. writer, the first important African American novelist. As a young school principal in North Carolina, he was so distressed by the treatment of African Americans that he moved his family to Cleveland, where he became an attorney and began writing in his spare time. He published numerous tales and essays, two collections of short stories, a biography of Frederick Douglass, and three novels, including The Colonel's Dream (1905). A psychological realist, he used familiar scenes of folk life to protest social injustice
Charles Wade Barkley
born Feb. 20, 1963, Leeds, Ala., U.S. U.S. basketball player. He spent his collegiate career as a forward at Auburn University. He played for the Philadelphia 76ers (1984-91), the Phoenix Suns (1992-95), and the Houston Rockets (1996-99). He is known for his bruising play on the court and for his outspokenness off it
Charles Watson-Wentworth 2nd marquess of Rockingham
born May 13, 1730 died July 1, 1782, London, Eng. British politician. From 1751 to 1762 he served as gentleman of the bedchamber for George II and then George III, who appointed him prime minister in 1765. He obtained repeal of the unpopular Stamp Act but agreed to the passage of the Declaratory Act. His ministry collapsed through internal dissension in 1766. He and Edmund Burke led the parliamentary opposition to the ministries in power and spoke in favour of independence for the American colonies. In his brief second ministry (1782), he began peace negotiations with the U.S. and obtained legislative independence for the Irish parliament
Charles Weidman
orig. Charles Edward Weidman, Jr. born July 22, 1901, Lincoln, Neb., U.S. died July 15, 1975, New York, N.Y. U.S. modern dancer, teacher, and choreographer. He studied at the Denishawn school and was a member of its company in the 1920s. In 1928 he cofounded with Doris Humphrey the Humphrey-Weidman school and dance company, for which he choreographed many works. His dances, often comic and satiric, employed an abstract, rhythmic pantomime. In 1945 he established his own school, and in 1948 he founded the Theatre Dance Company, for which he choreographed his major work, Fables for Our Time. He continued to teach, choreograph, and dance into the 1970s
Charles Weng
{i} Chairman and General Manager of the worldwide computer company "Computer Associates
Charles William Eliot
born March 20, 1834, Boston, Mass., U.S. died Aug. 22, 1926, Northeast Harbor, Maine U.S. educator and influential university president. He studied at Harvard University and taught mathematics and chemistry there (1858-63) and at MIT (1865-69). Eliot was named president of Harvard in 1869 after studying European educational systems, and he soon set about a program of fundamental reforms. He demanded a place for the sciences in liberal education, and he replaced the program of required courses for undergraduates with the elective system. Under Eliot, the graduate school of arts and sciences was created (1890), Radcliffe College was established (1894), the quality of the professional schools was raised, and the university became an institution of world renown. His reforms had widespread influence in American higher education. After resigning in 1909, he edited the 50-volume Harvard Classics (1909-10), wrote several books, and devoted himself to public service
Charles William Gordon
{i} Ralph Connor (1860-1937), Canadian novelist and clergyman
Charles William Post
born Oct. 26, 1854, Springfield, Ill., U.S. died May 9, 1914, Santa Barbara, Calif. U.S. manufacturer of breakfast cereals. In the 1880s Post became a patient of John H. Kellogg at a health sanitarium in Battle Creek, Mich., where he became interested in producing healthful foods like those Kellogg served. In 1895 he founded Postum Cereal Co., the precursor to General Foods Corp. His first product, the cereal beverage Postum, was followed by Grape Nuts and Post Toasties
Charles Willson Peale
born April 15, 1741, Queen Anne's county, Md. died Feb. 22, 1827, Philadelphia, Pa., U.S. U.S. painter, inventor, and naturalist. He began his career by exchanging a saddle for painting lessons. He later went to London to study with Benjamin West. On his return he became the preeminent portrait painter of the middle colonies. He damaged his professional career by entering enthusiastically into the revolutionary movement. In 1786 he founded an institution in Philadelphia for the study of natural law and display of natural history and technological objects; the Peale Museum, the first major U.S. museum, was widely imitated by other museums of the period and later by P.T. Barnum. Peale is best remembered for his portraits of the leading figures of the American Revolution
Charles Wright Mills
born Aug. 28, 1916, Waco, Texas, U.S. died March 20, 1962, Nyack, N.Y. U.S. sociologist. After studying at the University of Texas (B.A., M.A., 1939) and the University of Wisconsin (Ph.D., 1941), Mills joined the faculty of Columbia University; there he became associated with the theories of Max Weber and with issues regarding the role of intellectuals in modern life, and he contributed to the development of a critical sociology in the U.S. and abroad. Mills believed social scientists should shun "abstracted empiricism" and become activists on behalf of social change. His radical analysis of U.S. business and society appeared in White Collar (1951) and The Power Elite (1956); other works include The Causes of World War Three (1958) and The Sociological Imagination (1959). A colourful public figure, he wore black leather and rode a motorcycle. His death at 45 resulted from heart disease
Charles X
King of France (1824-1830) who attempted to restore absolutism by dissolving the Chamber of Deputies and terminating freedom of the press. He abdicated as a result of the July Revolution of 1830 and later fled to England
Charles X Gustav
Swedish Karl Gustav born 1622 died 1660 King of Sweden (1654-60). Nephew of Gustav II Adolf, he failed in his efforts to marry the Swedish queen Christina, but she named him to succeed her. As king he attempted to restore the public finances but was forced to devote most of his attention to military matters. He conducted the First Northern War (1655-60) against a coalition that eventually included Poland, Russia, Brandenburg, the Netherlands, and Denmark, with the aim of establishing a unified northern state. After conquering Poland (1655-56), he won back lands in southern Sweden from Denmark by the Treaty of Roskilde (1658)
Charles XIV
King of Sweden and Norway (1818-1844). He served under Napoleon Bonaparte in the Italian campaign (1796-1797) and was elected crown prince in 1810, founding the present Swedish royal dynasty
Charles XIV John
Swedish Karl Johan orig. Jean-Baptiste Bernadotte born Jan. 26, 1763, Pau, France died March 8, 1844, Stockholm, Swed. King of Sweden and Norway (1818-44). He became an ardent supporter of the French Revolution and rose rapidly in the army ranks to brigadier general (1794). Named marshal of France in 1804, he supported Napoleon in several campaigns (1805-09) but subsequently shifted his allegiance. In 1810 he was invited to become crown prince of Sweden; taking the name of Charles John, he assumed control of the government. He helped defeat Napoleon at the Battle of Leipzig, then defeated France's ally Denmark, forcing that country to transfer Norway to the Swedish crown. On the death of Charles XIII in 1818, Charles John became king of Sweden and Norway. His foreign policy led to a long and favourable period of peace
Charles Xavier Thomas de Colmar
born 1785, Colmar, Fr. died 1870, Paris French mathematician. In 1820, while serving in the French army, he built his first arithmometer, which could perform basic addition, subtraction, multiplication, and division. The first mechanical calculator to gain widespread use, it became a commercial success and was still being used up to World War I
Charles Yanofsky
born April 17, 1925, New York, N.Y., U.S. U.S. geneticist. He received his Ph.D. from Yale University. He was part of the research team that first demonstrated that certain mutant genes produce inactive proteins. Later, working with E. coli, he showed that the sequence of the nitrogenous bases that form part of the structure of the genetic material corresponds to the amino acid sequence of proteins. Investigating the biochemical actions of suppressor mutations (changes in a gene that reverse the visible effects of mutation in a second gene), he found that suppression restored the ability to form an active enzyme in a mutant that had previously produced an inactive protein
Charles Zhang
{i} founder and General Manager of the Chinese Internet company "ITC
Charles and Ray Eames
born June 17, 1907, St. Louis, Mo., U.S died Aug. 21, 1978, St. Louis born Dec. 15, 1912, Sacramento, Calif. died Aug. 21, 1988, Los Angeles, Calif. U.S. designers. Charles was trained as an architect, while Ray (b. Ray Kaiser) studied painting with Hans Hofmann. After marrying in 1941, they moved to California, where they designed movie sets and researched the uses of plywood for furniture. In 1946 an exhibit of their furniture designs at the Museum of Modern Art, New York City, resulted in the mass production of their molded plywood chairs by the Herman Miller Furniture Co., and their furniture soon became known for its beauty, comfort, and elegance. After 1955 they made educational films, notably Powers of Ten (1969). They worked as design consultants to major U.S. corporations, including IBM
Charles de Gaulle
born Nov. 22, 1890, Lille, France died Nov. 9, 1970, Colombey-les-Deux-Églises French soldier, statesman, and architect of France's Fifth Republic. He joined the army in 1913 and fought with distinction in World War I. He was promoted to the staff of the supreme war council in 1925. In 1940 he was promoted to brigadier general and served briefly as undersecretary of state for defense under Paul Reynaud. After the fall of France to the Germans, he left for England and started the Free French movement. Devoted to France and dedicated to its liberation, he moved to Algiers in 1943 and became president of the French Committee of National Liberation, at first jointly with Henri-Honoré Giraud. After the liberation of Paris, he returned and headed two provisional governments, then resigned in 1946. He opposed the Fourth Republic, and in 1947 he formed the Rally of the French People (RPF), but severed his connections with it in 1953. He retired from public life and wrote his memoirs. When an insurrection in Algeria threatened to bring civil war to France, he returned to power in 1958, as prime minister with powers to reform the constitution. That same year he was elected president of the new Fifth Republic, which ensured a strong presidency. He ended the Algerian War and transformed France's African territories into 12 independent states. He withdrew France from NATO, and his policy of neutrality during the Vietnam War was seen by many as anti-Americanism. He began a policy of détente with Iron Curtain countries and traveled widely to form a bond with French-speaking countries. After the civil unrest of May 1968 by students and workers, he was defeated in a referendum on constitutional amendments and resigned in 1969
Charles du Fresne Lord du Cange
born Dec. 18, 1610, Amiens, France died Oct. 23, 1688, , Paris French scholar. Du Cange's most important works, A Glossary for Writers of Middle and Low Latin (1678) and A Glossary for Writers of Middle and Low Greek (1688), made use of his encyclopaedic knowledge not only of languages but of history, law, archaeology, and geography. His historical approach and effort to distinguish medieval vocabularies from their classical counterparts inspired later scholars to examine the development of language from a historical perspective. Frequently reedited, his dictionaries retained their usefulness through the 20th century
Charles the Bold
born Nov. 10, 1433, Dijon, Burgundy [France] died Jan. 5, 1477, near Nancy, Lorraine Last of the great dukes of Burgundy (1467-77). An opponent of Louis XI of France, Charles tried to make Burgundy an independent kingdom. He had great success until 1474, casting off French rule, extending Burgundy's possessions, and building a centralized government. Charles brutally quelled a revolt in Liège (1468) and invaded Normandy (1471). Through negotiation, warfare, and purchases, he sought to extend his territory as far as the Rhine, but a coalition of Swiss, Austrians, and towns on the upper Rhine resisted him. He suffered defeats by the Swiss in 1476 and was killed in battle near Nancy
Charles-Alexandre de Calonne
born Jan. 20, 1734, Douai, France died Oct. 29, 1802, Paris French politician. He served as intendant of Metz (1768) and Lille (1774), and his financial genius led to his appointment as controller general of finance (1783). He soon discovered that major reforms were necessary to save France from bankruptcy. His efforts precipitated the governmental crisis that led to the French Revolution. After the Revolution began, he devoted himself to the cause of counterrevolution from his exile in England
Charles-Auguste-Louis-Joseph duke de Morny
born Oct. 21, 1811, Paris, France died March 10, 1865, Paris French politician. Half brother of Louis-Napoléon (later Napoleon III), Morny devoted himself to Parisian society and to making a fortune before serving in the Chamber of Deputies (1842-48, 1849). Appointed minister of the interior in 1851, he organized the plebiscite that made Louis-Napoléon dictator. As president of the legislature (1856-65), he tried unsuccessfully to persuade Napoleon III to give France more liberty
Charles-Augustin Sainte-Beuve
born Dec. 23, 1804, Boulogne, France died Oct. 13, 1869, Paris French literary historian and critic. In 1825 he began contributing critical articles to periodicals. In essays collected in Critiques et portraits littéraires, 5 vol. (1832-39) and Portraits contemporains (1846), he developed a new approach to critiquing living writers that involved extensive biographical research to understand their mental attitudes. His famous "Monday Chats," published in newspapers from 1849 to 1869, were detailed, well-rounded literary studies in which he applied historical frames of reference to contemporary writing. His methods revolutionized French criticism by freeing it from personal prejudice and partisan passions. His Port-Royal (1840-48) is a scholarly history of an abbey and of 17th-century France
Charles-Augustin de Coulomb
born June 14, 1736, Angoulême, France died Aug. 23, 1806, Paris French physicist. After serving as a military engineer in the West Indies, he returned to France in the 1780s to pursue scientific research. To investigate Joseph Priestley's law of electrical repulsions, he invented a sensitive instrument to measure the electrical forces involved. A light rod made of an insulator, with a small conducting sphere at each end, was suspended horizontally by a fine wire so that it was free to twist when another charged sphere was brought close to it. By measuring the angle through which the rod twisted, Coulomb could measure the repulsive forces. He is best known for formulating Coulomb's law. He also did research on friction of machinery, on windmills, and on the elasticity of metal and silk fibres. The coulomb, a unit of electric charge, was named in his honour
Charles-François Daubigny
born Feb. 15, 1817, Paris, Fr. died Feb. 19, 1878, Paris French landscape painter of the Barbizon school. He was trained by his father, also a painter. He began by painting historical and religious works but soon turned to landscapes, painting rivers, beaches, and canals from a boat. His images were notable for their uncrowded composition and accurate depiction of natural light. One of the earliest proponents of painting directly from nature, he is considered the link between mid-19th-century naturalism and Impressionism
Charles-Louis de Secondat baron de La Brède et de Montesquieu
born Jan. 18, 1689, Château La Brède, near Bordeaux, France died Feb. 10, 1755, Paris French philosophe and satirist. Born into a noble family, he held public office in Bordeaux from 1714. His satirical Persian Letters (1721) was hugely successful. From 1726 he traveled widely to study social and political institutions. His magnum opus, the enormous The Spirit of the Laws (1750), contained an original classification of governments by their manner of conducting policy, an argument for the separation of the legislative, judicial, and executive powers, and a celebrated but less influential theory of the political influence of climate. The work profoundly influenced European and American political thought and was relied on by the framers of the U.S. Constitution. His other works include Causes of the Greatness and Decadence of the Romans (1734)
Charles-Louis de Secondat baron de Montesquieu
born Jan. 18, 1689, Château La Brède, near Bordeaux, France died Feb. 10, 1755, Paris French philosophe and satirist. Born into a noble family, he held public office in Bordeaux from 1714. His satirical Persian Letters (1721) was hugely successful. From 1726 he traveled widely to study social and political institutions. His magnum opus, the enormous The Spirit of the Laws (1750), contained an original classification of governments by their manner of conducting policy, an argument for the separation of the legislative, judicial, and executive powers, and a celebrated but less influential theory of the political influence of climate. The work profoundly influenced European and American political thought and was relied on by the framers of the U.S. Constitution. His other works include Causes of the Greatness and Decadence of the Romans (1734)
Charles-Maurice de Talleyrand
born Feb. 2, 1754, Paris, France died May 17, 1838, Paris French statesman. Ordained a priest, he became bishop of Autun in 1788. Elected to represent the clergy at the Estates-General (1789), he became the "bishop of the Revolution" by calling for confiscation of church property to fund the new government and supporting the Civil Constitution of the Clergy. Excommunicated by the pope in 1790, he was sent to England as an envoy in 1792. He was expelled from France during the Reign of Terror, lived in the U.S. (1794-96), then returned to serve in the Directory as foreign minister (1797-99). He was forced to resign briefly for involvement in bribery scandals, including the XYZ Affair. Adept at political survival, he supported Napoleon and again became foreign minister (1799-1807) and later grand chamberlain (1804-07). He resigned in opposition to Napoleon's policy toward Russia but continued to advise him, arranging his marriage with Marie-Louise of Austria. As Napoleon faced defeat, Talleyrand secretly worked to restore the monarchy; in 1814 he was appointed foreign minister to Louis XVIII and represented France at the Congress of Vienna. Forced by ultraroyalists to resign (1815), he later became involved in the July Revolution of 1830 and served as ambassador to Britain (1830-34)
charles dickens
Dickens: English writer whose novels depicted and criticized social injustice (1812-1870)
charles i
son of James I who was King of England and Scotland and Ireland; was deposed and executed by Oliver Cromwell (1600-1649)
charles ii
King of England and Scotland and Ireland during the Restoration (1630-1685) as Charles II he was Holy Roman Emperor and as Charles I he was king of France (1630-1685)
charles ix
King of France from 1560 to 1574 whose reign was dominated by his mother Catherine de Medicis (1550-1574)
charles vii
King of France who began his reign with most of northern France under English control; after the intervention of Jeanne d'Arc the French were able to defeat the English and end the Hundred Years' War (1403-1461)
charles's wain
{i} (Astronomy) Big Dipper, group of seven stars (in the constellation Ursa Major)
King Charles spaniel
A breed of dog originating from England
King Charles spaniels
plural form of King Charles spaniel
King Charles' head
An obsession, especially one that keeps intruding irrelevantly into other matters

It is characteristic of Cobbett that he could always be relied on to produce conjuror-like from any subject one of his many King Charles' heads.

King Charles' heads
plural form of King Charles' head
King Charles's head
Alternative spelling of King Charles' head
charles

    Hyphenation

    Charles

    Turkish pronunciation

    çärlz

    Pronunciation

    /ˈʧärlz/ /ˈʧɑːrlz/

    Etymology

    (biographical name.) From the French Charles, from the German Karl, from the Germanic root karal, meaning person, free man; compare the English word churl and the German Kerl.

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