william-h

Английский Язык - Турецкий язык

Определение william-h в Английский Язык Турецкий язык словарь
sweet william: hüsnüyusuf çiçeği
william the conqueror: william fatihi
sweet william: bot. hüsnüyusuf
sweet william: guguçiçeği [(Botanik) ]

Турецкий язык - Турецкий язык

Определение william-h в Турецкий язык Турецкий язык словарь
william faulkner: Ses ve öfke, Döşeğimde ölürken, Kutsal Sığınak gibi romanlarıyla ünlü ABD'li yazar

Английский Язык - Английский Язык

Определение william-h в Английский Язык Английский Язык словарь
Sweet William: Alternative spelling of sweet william
William: A male given name popular since the Norman Conquest
By the same token I should probably have called myself 'Bill'. With a name like William you have choices. Very handy for us chameleons. 'William' is stern and dignified. A little austere and unapproachable. He conquers things. It is what my mother calls me when she is angry with me.
sweet william: A flowering plant, Dianthus barbatus, in the family Caryophyllaceae, native to the mountains of southern Europe from the Pyrenees east to the Carpathians and the Balkans
Of flowers there were double poppies and sweet-williams. - The Woman At The Store, from Selected Short Stories by Katherine Mansfield (first published in 1912).
sweet-william: Alternative spelling of sweet william
William: {i} name of a number of English kings; male first name
Alben William Barkley: born Nov. 24, 1877, Graves county, Ky., U.S. died April 30, 1956, Lexington, Va. U.S. politician. After graduating from college, he studied law and was admitted to the Kentucky bar in 1901. He was elected as a Democrat to the U.S. House of Representatives (1913-27) and the Senate (1927-49), where he served as majority leader (1937-47). He was a prominent spokesman for the domestic and international policies of Pres. Franklin D. Roosevelt. He served as vice president under Pres. Harry S. Truman (1949-53). He later returned to the Senate (1954-56)
Alfred Charles William Harmsworth Viscount Northcliffe: born July 15, 1865, Chapelizod, near Dublin, Ire. died Aug. 14, 1922, London, Eng. British newspaper publisher. After an impoverished childhood and a few attempts to make a quick fortune, he joined his brother, Harold Sidney Harmsworth (1868-1940), in publishing popular periodicals that formed the basis of Amalgamated Press, at the time the world's largest periodical publishing empire. In 1896 he started the Daily Mail, one of the first British newspapers to popularize its coverage to appeal to a mass readership. He also founded the Daily Mirror (1903) and bought The Times (1908), transforming it into a modern newspaper. His influence was greatest in shifting the press away from its traditional informative role to that of the commercial exploiter and entertainer of mass publics. He has been considered the most successful publisher in the history of the British press
Alfred Charles William Harmsworth Viscount Northcliffe of Saint Peter: born July 15, 1865, Chapelizod, near Dublin, Ire. died Aug. 14, 1922, London, Eng. British newspaper publisher. After an impoverished childhood and a few attempts to make a quick fortune, he joined his brother, Harold Sidney Harmsworth (1868-1940), in publishing popular periodicals that formed the basis of Amalgamated Press, at the time the world's largest periodical publishing empire. In 1896 he started the Daily Mail, one of the first British newspapers to popularize its coverage to appeal to a mass readership. He also founded the Daily Mirror (1903) and bought The Times (1908), transforming it into a modern newspaper. His influence was greatest in shifting the press away from its traditional informative role to that of the commercial exploiter and entertainer of mass publics. He has been considered the most successful publisher in the history of the British press
Andrew William Mellon: born March 24, 1855, Pittsburgh, Pa., U.S. died Aug. 26, 1937, Southampton, N.Y. U.S. financier. He joined his father's banking house in 1874 and through the next three decades built up a financial empire by supplying capital for corporations in industries such as aluminum, steel, and oil. He helped found the Aluminum Co. of America (Alcoa) and the Gulf Oil Corp., and he joined Henry Clay Frick to found Union Steel Co. and Union Trust Co. By the early 1920s he was one of the richest men in the U.S. As secretary of the Treasury (1921-32) he persuaded Congress to lower taxes in order to encourage business expansion. He was praised for the economic boom of the 1920s but criticized during the Great Depression, and in 1932 he resigned to serve as ambassador to England. A noted art collector and philanthropist, Mellon donated an extensive art collection and $15 million to establish the National Gallery of Art
Arthur William Symons: born Feb. 28, 1865, Milford Haven, Pembrokeshire, Eng. died Jan. 22, 1945, Wittersham, Kent English poet and critic. He contributed to The Yellow Book, an avant-garde journal, and edited The Savoy (1896). His Symbolist Movement in Literature (1899), the first English work championing the French Symbolist movement in poetry, summed up a decade of interpretation and influenced William Butler Yeats and T.S. Eliot. His poetry, mainly disillusioned in feeling, appears in such volumes as Silhouettes (1892) and London Nights (1895). He also translated the poetry of Paul Verlaine and wrote travel pieces. After a nervous breakdown in 1908, he produced little apart from Confessions (1930), a moving account of his illness
Arthur William Tedder 1st Baron Tedder: born July 11, 1890, Glenguin, Stirling, Scot. died June 3, 1967, Banstead, Surrey, Eng. British air marshal. He joined the British army in 1913, transferred to the Royal Flying Corps in 1916, and after World War I commanded a branch of the Royal Air Force (RAF). As head of the RAF Middle East Command in World War II, he commanded Allied air operations in North Africa and Italy, and in 1944 he was appointed head of Allied air operations in western Europe. His policy of bombing German communications and providing close air support of ground operations contributed significantly to the success of the Normandy Campaign and the Allied advance into Germany. He later became the first peacetime chief of the air staff (1946-50)
Arthur William Tedder 1st Baron Tedder of Glenguin: born July 11, 1890, Glenguin, Stirling, Scot. died June 3, 1967, Banstead, Surrey, Eng. British air marshal. He joined the British army in 1913, transferred to the Royal Flying Corps in 1916, and after World War I commanded a branch of the Royal Air Force (RAF). As head of the RAF Middle East Command in World War II, he commanded Allied air operations in North Africa and Italy, and in 1944 he was appointed head of Allied air operations in western Europe. His policy of bombing German communications and providing close air support of ground operations contributed significantly to the success of the Normandy Campaign and the Allied advance into Germany. He later became the first peacetime chief of the air staff (1946-50)
Baron von Steuben, Frederick William: born Sept. 17, 1730, Magdeburg, Prussia died Nov. 28, 1794, near Remsen, N.Y., U.S. German-born American Revolutionary officer. He joined the Prussian army at 16 and was a captain in the Seven Years' War. After the war he retired from the army and became court chamberlain for the prince of Hohenzollern-Hechingen; at some unknown date he apparently was created a baron. Recommended to George Washington, he arrived in America in 1777. Appointed to train the Continental forces at Valley Forge, Pa., he produced a disciplined fighting force that became the model for the entire Continental Army. He was appointed inspector general of the army and was promoted to major general (1778), and he helped command the Siege of Yorktown
Baron von Steuben, Frederick William Augustus: born Sept. 17, 1730, Magdeburg, Prussia died Nov. 28, 1794, near Remsen, N.Y., U.S. German-born American Revolutionary officer. He joined the Prussian army at 16 and was a captain in the Seven Years' War. After the war he retired from the army and became court chamberlain for the prince of Hohenzollern-Hechingen; at some unknown date he apparently was created a baron. Recommended to George Washington, he arrived in America in 1777. Appointed to train the Continental forces at Valley Forge, Pa., he produced a disciplined fighting force that became the model for the entire Continental Army. He was appointed inspector general of the army and was promoted to major general (1778), and he helped command the Siege of Yorktown
Bertrand Arthur William 3rd Earl Russell Russell: born May 18, 1872, Trelleck, Monmouthshire, Eng. died Feb. 2, 1970, near Penrhyndeudraeth, Merioneth, Wales British logician and philosopher. He is best known for his work in mathematical logic and for his advocacy on behalf of a variety of social and political causes, especially pacifism and nuclear disarmament. He was born into the British nobility as the grandson of Earl Russell, who was twice prime minister of Britain in the mid-19th century. He studied mathematics and philosophy at Cambridge University, where he came under the influence of the idealist philosopher J.M.E. McTaggart, though he soon rejected idealism in favour of an extreme Platonic realism. In an early paper, "On Denoting" (1905), he solved a notorious puzzle in the philosophy of language by showing how phrases such as "The present king of France," which have no referents, function logically as general statements rather than as proper names. Russell later regarded this discovery, which came to be known as the "theory of descriptions," as one of his most important contributions to philosophy. In The Principles of Mathematics (1903) and the epochal Principia Mathematica (3 vol., 1910-13), which he wrote with Alfred North Whitehead, he sought to demonstrate that the whole of mathematics derives from logic. For his pacifism in World War I he lost his lectureship at Cambridge and was later imprisoned. (He would abandon pacifism in 1939 in the face of Nazi aggression.) Russell's best-developed metaphysical doctrine, logical atomism, strongly influenced the school of logical positivism. His later philosophical works include The Analysis of Mind (1921), The Analysis of Matter (1927), and Human Knowledge: Its Scope and Limits (1948). His A History of Western Philosophy (1945), which he wrote for a popular audience, became a best-seller and was for many years the main source of his income. Among his many works on social and political topics are Roads to Freedom (1918); The Practice and Theory of Bolshevism (1920), a scathing critique of Soviet communism; On Education (1926); and Marriage and Morals (1929). In part because of the controversial views he espoused in the latter work, he was prevented from accepting a teaching position at the City College of New York in 1940. After World War II he became a leader in the worldwide campaign for nuclear disarmament, serving as first president of the international Pugwash Conferences on nuclear weapons and world security and of the Campaign for Nuclear Disarmament. In 1961, at the age of 89, he was imprisoned for a second time for inciting civil disobedience. He received the Nobel Prize for Literature in 1950
Captain William Bligh: an officer in the British navy who was in command of the ship HMS Bounty. Bligh was unpopular because he was a strict leader, so the men on his ship took power from him, and made him leave in a small boat (1754-?1817)
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
Chester William Nimitz: born Feb. 24, 1885, Fredericksburg, Texas, U.S. died Feb. 20, 1966, near San Francisco, Calif. U.S. naval officer. He graduated from the U.S. Naval Academy in 1905 and served in World War I with the U.S. Atlantic submarine force. He rose to become chief of the navy's bureau of navigation in 1939. After the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor, he was made commander in chief of the U.S. Pacific fleet, which won the battles of Midway and the Coral Sea (1942). In succeeding years, the historic battles of the Solomon Islands (1942-43), the Gilbert Islands (1943), and Iwo Jima and Okinawa (1945) were fought under his direction. The Japanese surrender was signed aboard his flagship, the USS Missouri. From 1945 to 1947 he served as chief of naval operations
College of William and Mary: State-supported college in Williamsburg, Va. The second-oldest institution of higher education in the U.S. (after Harvard University), it was chartered in 1693 by King William III and Queen Mary II. Its alumni include Thomas Jefferson, John Marshall, James Monroe, John Tyler, and Gen. Winfield Scott. George Washington was the college's first American chancellor, from 1788 to 1799. The honour society Phi Beta Kappa was organized as a social fraternity there in 1776
Edward William Bok: born Oct. 9, 1863, Den Helder, Neth. died Jan. 9, 1930, Lake Wales, Fla., U.S. Dutch-born U.S. editor. Raised in a poor immigrant family in Brooklyn, N.Y., Bok pursued a career in book and magazine publishing. As editor of the Ladies' Home Journal (1889-1919) he devised departments to inform women on diverse subjects and led campaigns for public health and beautification. His decision to stop accepting patent-medicine advertising helped bring about the Pure Food and Drug Act (1906). He also broke the taboo against the printed mention of venereal disease. His last years were devoted to working for civic improvement and world peace. He wrote a notable autobiography, The Americanization of Edward Bok (1920, Pulitzer Prize)
Ernest William Goodpasture: born Oct. 17, 1886, Montgomery county, Tenn., U.S. died Sept. 20, 1960, Nashville, Tenn. U.S. pathologist. He spent most of his career (1924-55) at Vanderbilt University. His method for cultivating viruses and rickettsias in fertile chicken eggs, developed in 1931, made possible the production of vaccines for such diseases as smallpox, influenza, yellow fever, typhus, Rocky Mountain spotted fever, and other illnesses caused by agents that propagate in living tissue
Francis William Aston: {i} (1877-1945) British chemist and physicist, Nobel Prize winner for chemistry in 1922
Franklin William Stahl: born Oct. 8, 1929, Boston, Mass., U.S. U.S. geneticist. Educated at Harvard University and the University of Rochester, he worked primarily at the University of Oregon. With Matthew Stanley Meselson he discovered and described (1958) the mode of replication of DNA. They found that the double-stranded helix breaks apart to form two strands, each of which directs the construction of a new sister strand
Frederic William Maitland: born May 28, 1850, London, Eng. died Dec. 19, 1906, Las Palmas, Canary Islands, Spain British legal historian. He practiced law in London before joining the faculty of the University of Cambridge (1888). With Frederick Pollock he wrote History of English Law Before the Time of Edward I (1895), which became a standard authority on the subject. In 1887 he helped found the Selden Society for the study of English law
Frederick William: Elector of Brandenburg (1640-1688) who reorganized and rebuilt his domain after its devastation in the Thirty Years' War. German Friedrich Wilhelm known as the Great Elector born Feb. 16, 1620, Cölln, near Berlin died May 9, 1688, Potsdam Elector of Brandenburg (1640-88) who restored the Hohenzollern dominions after the Thirty Years' War. At his accession to the electorship, Brandenburg was ravaged by war and occupied by foreign troops. He cautiously maintained neutrality between the warring Swedes and Habsburgs, started to build a standing army, and added to his territories with the Peace of Westphalia (1648). In the First Northern War (1655-60) he gained sovereignty over the duchy of Prussia. In the complex power struggles in Europe starting in 1661, he shifted allegiance by always joining with the weaker party, hoping to maintain the balance of power. He issued the Edict of Potsdam in 1685, granting asylum to Huguenots expelled from France. When he died, he left a centralized political administration, sound finances, and an efficient army, laying the foundation for the future Prussian monarchy. German Friedrich Wilhelm born Aug. 15, 1688, Berlin died May 31, 1740, Potsdam, Prussia King of Prussia (1713-40). The son of Frederick I, he received valuable military experience in the War of the Spanish Succession. Realizing that Prussia's military and financial weakness made it dependent on the relations between the great powers, he built up an army that became a strong military presence on the Continent, instituted economic and financial reforms, centralized his administration, encouraged industry and manufacture, mandated compulsory primary education (1717), and freed the serfs on his own domains (1719). He was succeeded by his son, Frederick II. German Friedrich Wilhelm born Sept. 25, 1744, Berlin, Prussia died Nov. 16, 1797, Berlin King of Prussia from 1786. He succeeded his uncle Frederick II. Prussia expanded under his rule, adding territories it gained in the second (1793) and third (1795) partitions of Poland and acquiring additional German lands. He entered into an Austro-Prussian alliance, chiefly in opposition to the French Revolution, but signed a separate treaty with France and withdrew from the alliance in 1795 after defeat in the French Revolutionary Wars. Cultural activities, especially music, flourished in his reign; both Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart and Ludwig van Beethoven visited the king and dedicated music to him. German Friedrich Wilhelm born Aug. 3, 1770, Potsdam, Prussia died June 7, 1840, Berlin King of Prussia (1797-1840). The son of Frederick William II, he pursued a policy of neutrality in the early years of the Napoleonic Wars, which accelerated the decline of Prussia's prestige. Prussia joined the third coalition against France in 1806 and suffered crushing defeat at the Battles of Jena and Auerstedt. Defeat convinced the king of the need to make decisive changes. He allowed Prussian statesmen such as Karl August, prince von Hardenberg, and Karl, imperial baron vom Stein, to make domestic reforms, though the state remained absolutist. The Congress of Vienna confirmed Prussia's acquisition of Westphalia and much of Saxony, but the last 25 years of the king's reign brought a downward trend in Prussia's fortunes. German Friedrich Wilhelm born Oct. 15, 1795, Cölln, near Berlin, Prussia died Jan. 2, 1861, Potsdam King of Prussia (1840-61). The son of Frederick William III, he was a disciple of the German Romantic movement and an artistic dilettante, but his conservative policies helped spark the Revolutions of 1848, in opposition. In 1849 he refused the imperial crown offered by the Frankfurt National Assembly. His subsequent efforts to create a German union under Prussian leadership were thwarted by Austria (see Punctation of Olmütz). A stroke left him paralyzed in 1857, and his brother, the future William I, became regent in 1858
Frederick William I: King of Prussia (1713-1740) who strengthened the army and diversified the economy of his dominion
Frederick William II: King of Prussia (1786-1797) whose mismanaged reign was marked by a costly war with Revolutionary France (1792-1795)
Frederick William III: King of Prussia (1797-1840) whose long turbulent reign included participation in the Napoleonic Wars and the suppression of democratic movements
Frederick William IV: King of Prussia (1840-1861) who crushed the Revolution of 1848 and refused the crown of a united Germany offered to him by the Frankfurt Parliament (1849)
Frederick William Lanchester: born Oct. 23, 1868, London, Eng. died March 8, 1946, Birmingham, Warwickshire British automobile and aeronautics pioneer. Lanchester produced the first British automobile, a one-cylinder, five-horsepower model, in 1896. After he successfully produced improved models, financial backing enabled him to produce several hundred cars over the next few years, vehicles notable for a relative freedom from vibration, a graceful appearance, and a luggage rack. He published an important paper (1897) on the principles of heavier-than-air flight and later major texts on aeronautics
George William Frederick Villiers 4th earl of Clarendon: born Jan. 12, 1800, London, Eng. died June 27, 1870, London British statesman. After serving as British ambassador to Spain (1833-39), he held various cabinet posts until Lord Aberdeen named him secretary of state for foreign affairs in 1853. Clarendon failed to prevent the outbreak of the Crimean War, and his performance during it was undistinguished, but he secured favourable terms for Britain at the Congress of Paris (1856). He continued in office under Lord Palmerston until 1858 and also served as foreign secretary under Earl Russell (1865-66) and William E. Gladstone (1868-70)
George William Norris: born July 11, 1861, Sandusky, Ohio, U.S. died Sept. 2, 1944, McCook, Neb. U.S. politician. He served in the U.S. House of Representatives from 1903 to 1913. In the U.S. Senate (1913-43) he drafted the 20th Amendment to the Constitution of the United States, which abolished the so-called lame-duck session of Congress. He also worked for the introduction of presidential primaries and for direct election of U.S. senators. He introduced the bill establishing the Tennessee Valley Authority and coauthored the Norris-La Guardia Act, which restricted the use of injunctions in labour disputes. An independent Republican, he said he "would rather be right than regular
George William Russell: orig. George William Russell born April 10, 1867, Lurgan, County Armagh, Ire. died July 17, 1935, Bournemouth, Hampshire, Eng. Irish poet and mystic. A leading figure in the Irish Literary Renaissance, he published many books of verse, including Homeward (1894). Though initially considered by many to be the equal of William Butler Yeats, he did not develop as a poet, and many critics found him facile, vague, and monotonous. His pseudonym arose from a proofreader's query about an earlier pseudonym, on
Harvey William: (1578-1657) British physician who first demonstrated the circulation of blood through the body
Henry William Blair: born Dec. 6, 1834, Campton, N.H., U.S. died March 14, 1920, Washington, D.C. U.S. politician. He practiced law from 1859 and served in the New Hampshire state legislature before being elected to the U.S. House of Representatives (1875-79) and Senate (1879-91). In 1876 he sought to give revenues from the sale of public lands to the nation's schools, and in 1881 he proposed to "vitalize" the schools with a $120-million grant to the states; neither effort succeeded. He also advocated women's rights and racial justice
Henry William Stiegel: orig. Heinrich Wilhelm Stiegel born May 13, 1729, near Cologne died Jan. 10, 1785, Charming Forge, Pa., U.S. German-born U.S. ironmaster and glassmaker. After arriving in Philadelphia in 1750, he quickly became a prosperous ironmaster. In 1762 he bought a huge tract of land in Lancaster County and built the town of Manheim, where he established American Flint Glassworks; there he imported Venetian, German, and English glassworkers to make utilitarian vessels and high-quality blue, purple, green, and clear tableware. He owned three mansions, where his comings and goings were announced by a cannon salute and band music, but his lavish style and adverse economic conditions eventually bankrupted him
Henry and William Lawes: (baptized Jan. 5, 1596, Dinton, Wiltshire, Eng. died Oct. 21, 1662, London) (baptized May 1, 1602, Salisbury, Wiltshire, Eng. died Sept. 24, 1645, Chester, Cheshire) English composers. Both brothers served at the court of Charles I. Henry became the leading English songwriter of his time; some 435 of his songs survive. His theatrical music includes that to John Milton's masque Comus (1634). William wrote a large quantity of instrumental music, mostly for string consorts. His music for some 25 dramatic productions, including works by Ben Jonson and William Davenant, made him the principal English theatrical composer before Henry Purcell. He fought with the Royalists during the English Civil Wars and was killed at the siege of Chester
J William Fulbright: born April 9, 1905, Sumner, Mo., U.S. died Feb. 9, 1995, Washington, D.C. U.S. politician. After earning degrees from the Universities of Arkansas and Oxford, he taught law at Arkansas; he later served as its president (1939-41). In 1942 he was elected to the U.S. House of Representatives, where in 1943 he introduced a resolution supporting U.S. participation in what would become the UN. In the U.S. Senate (1945-75), he initiated the international exchange program known as the Fulbright scholarship. As chairman of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee (1959-74), he presided over televised hearings in 1966 on U.S. policy in the Vietnam War, from which he emerged as a leading advocate of ending the bombing of North Vietnam and opening peace talks. In 1974 he lost his bid for reelection
Jack William Nicklaus: born Jan. 21, 1940, Columbus, Ohio, U.S. U.S. golfer, one of the greatest in the game's history. Nicklaus won the U.S. Amateur Championship twice (1959, 1961) while attending Ohio State University. After turning professional in 1962, he won the U.S. Open four times (1962, 1967, 1972, 1980), the Masters Tournament six times (1963, 1965, 1966, 1972, 1975, 1986), the PGA championship five times (1963, 1971, 1973, 1975, 1980), and the British Open three times (1966, 1970, 1978). He was a member of the winning U.S. World Cup team six times and was a record three-time individual World Cup winner (1963, 1964, 1971). By 1986 "the Golden Bear" had played in 100 major championships, finishing in the top three 45 times. His great career was a reflection of his ability to combine skill and power with remarkable concentration and composure under pressure
James William Fulbright: born April 9, 1905, Sumner, Mo., U.S. died Feb. 9, 1995, Washington, D.C. U.S. politician. After earning degrees from the Universities of Arkansas and Oxford, he taught law at Arkansas; he later served as its president (1939-41). In 1942 he was elected to the U.S. House of Representatives, where in 1943 he introduced a resolution supporting U.S. participation in what would become the UN. In the U.S. Senate (1945-75), he initiated the international exchange program known as the Fulbright scholarship. As chairman of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee (1959-74), he presided over televised hearings in 1966 on U.S. policy in the Vietnam War, from which he emerged as a leading advocate of ending the bombing of North Vietnam and opening peace talks. In 1974 he lost his bid for reelection
James William Fulbright: {i} William Fulbright (1905-1995), U.S. politician and senator (1945-1974), creator of grants that finance exchange programs of teachers and students between the USA and other countries
James William Wallack: born Aug. 24, 1795, London, Eng. died Dec. 25, 1864, New York, N.Y., U.S. British-U.S. actor-manager. Born into a London stage family, he acted in Shakespearean roles from age 12 and made his U.S. debut as Macbeth in 1818. He performed in London and New York City until 1852, crossing the Atlantic 35 times. In 1837-39 he comanaged New York's National Theatre with his brother Henry John Wallack (1790-1870), the company's leading player. In 1852-62 he comanaged the Lyceum Theatre (renamed Wallack's Lyceum) with his son Lester (1820-88) as stage manager. Succeeding his father as general manager, Lester staged polished productions of English plays and trained most of the major 19th-century U.S. stage performers
John William Bricker: born Sept. 6, 1893, Madison county, Ohio, U.S. died March 22, 1986, Columbus, Ohio U.S. politician, governor of Ohio (1939-45) and U.S. senator (1947-59). He graduated from Ohio State University (1916), then practiced law and later served as the state's attorney general (1933-37). Elected governor, he became the first Republican to win three consecutive terms. He was Thomas Dewey's running mate in the 1944 presidential race. As a U.S. senator, he led efforts to curb the president's power in foreign affairs. In 1953 he sponsored a constitutional amendment to limit U.S. participation in international treaties; opposed by John Foster Dulles, it was narrowly defeated
John William Coltrane: born Sept. 23, 1926, Hamlet, N.C., U.S. died July 17, 1967, Huntington, N.Y. U.S. saxophonist and composer. After growing up in Philadelphia, he gained early experience in the bands of Dizzy Gillespie and Johnny Hodges. Associations with Miles Davis and Thelonious Monk in the 1950s established Coltrane's place in the vanguard of modern jazz, and his quartet of the early 1960s is one of the outstanding groups in jazz history. His style encompassed the modal jazz first explored with Davis, the complex chord structures of his own compositions, and ultimately the extremes of timbre, dynamics, and register associated with free jazz. Coltrane's total mastery of the tenor and soprano saxophones, the rich harmonic density of his compositions, and his clear projection of emotion enabled him to reconcile technical virtuosity with an often spiritual profundity
John William Heisman: born Oct. 23, 1869, Cleveland, Ohio, U.S. died Oct. 3, 1936, New York City, N.Y. U.S. collegiate gridiron football coach and one of the game's greatest innovators. Heisman played football for both Brown University and the University of Pennsylvania. He was responsible for legalizing the forward pass in 1906, and he originated the centre snap and the "hike" count signals of the quarterback in starting play. He coached at several colleges between 1892 and 1927, compiling a record of 185 wins, 68 losses, and 18 ties. The Heisman Trophy was named for him
John William Mauchly: born Aug. 30, 1907, Cincinnati, Ohio, U.S. died Jan. 8, 1980, Ambler, Pa. U.S. physicist and engineer. He joined the faculty at the University of Pennsylvania after completing his graduate studies. During World War II he and J. Presper Eckert were asked by the U.S. Army to devise ways to accelerate the recomputation of artillery firing tables, for which they eventually developed the electronic computer ENIAC. The two men formed a computer-manufacturing firm in 1948, and in 1949 they produced the Binary Automatic Computer (BINAC), which used magnetic tape instead of punched cards for data storage. Their third computer, the UNIVAC I, was designed to handle business data
John William Money: {i} John Money (1921-2006), psychologist and sexologist born in New Zealand
John William Strutt 3rd Baron Rayleigh: born Nov. 12, 1842, Langford Grove, Essex, Eng. died June 30, 1919, Terling Place, Witham, Essex English physicist. In 1873 he succeeded to his father's title and built a research laboratory on his estate. He taught physics at Cambridge University (1879-84) and was secretary of the Royal Society (1884-95). His research included work on electromagnetism, colour, acoustics, and diffraction gratings, and his theory explaining the blue colour of the sky evolved into the Rayleigh scattering law. In 1904 he was awarded the Nobel Prize for Physics for his isolation of argon. In 1908 he became chancellor of Cambridge University. His influential Theory of Sound (1877, 1878) examines questions of vibrations and resonance of media
John William Strutt 3rd Baron Rayleigh of Terling Place: born Nov. 12, 1842, Langford Grove, Essex, Eng. died June 30, 1919, Terling Place, Witham, Essex English physicist. In 1873 he succeeded to his father's title and built a research laboratory on his estate. He taught physics at Cambridge University (1879-84) and was secretary of the Royal Society (1884-95). His research included work on electromagnetism, colour, acoustics, and diffraction gratings, and his theory explaining the blue colour of the sky evolved into the Rayleigh scattering law. In 1904 he was awarded the Nobel Prize for Physics for his isolation of argon. In 1908 he became chancellor of Cambridge University. His influential Theory of Sound (1877, 1878) examines questions of vibrations and resonance of media
John William Strutt Rayleigh: {i} Lord Rayleigh, Third Baron Rayleigh (1842-1919), English physicist, winner of the 1904 Nobel Prize in Physics for investigating of the densities of the most important gases and for his discovery of the element argon
Joseph Mallord William Turner: born April 23, 1775, London, Eng. died Dec. 19, 1851, London British landscape painter. The son of a barber, he entered the Royal Academy school in 1789. In 1802 he became a full academician and in 1807 was appointed professor of perspective. His early work was concerned with accurate depictions of places, but he soon learned from Richard Wilson to take a more poetic and imaginative approach. The Shipwreck (1805) shows his new emphasis on luminosity, atmosphere, and Romantic, dramatic subjects. After a trip to Italy in 1819, his colour became purer and more prismatic, with a general heightening of key. In later paintings, such as Sunrise, with a Boat Between Headlands (1845), architectural and natural details are sacrificed to effects of colour and light, with only the barest indication of mass. His compositions became more fluid, suggesting movement and space. In breaking down conventional formulas of representation, he anticipated French Impressionism. His immense reputation in the 19th century was due largely to John Ruskin's enthusiasm for his early works; 20th-century critics celebrated the abstract qualities of his late colour compositions
Jr. William Franklin Graham: in full William Franklin Graham, Jr. born Nov. 7, 1918, Charlotte, N.C., U.S. U.S. Christian evangelist. The son of a dairy farmer, he underwent a conversion experience at age 16 during a revival. After attending Bob Jones College and the Florida Bible Institute, he was ordained a Southern Baptist clergyman in 1940. He later earned a degree in anthropology from Wheaton College. He won numerous converts with his tent revivals and radio broadcasts, and by 1950 he had become fundamentalism's leading spokesman. He led a series of widely televised international revival crusades through the Billy Graham Evangelistic Association in Minneapolis, Minn., and he enjoyed close associations with a series of U.S. presidents. Graham and his wife, Ruth, were awarded the Congressional Gold Medal in 1996
Jr. William Henry Cosby: in full William Henry Cosby, Jr. born July 12, 1937, Philadelphia, Pa., U.S. U.S. television actor and producer. He worked as a comedian in New York City nightclubs and on tour in the 1960s. In the series I Spy (1965-68) he became the first black actor to star in a dramatic role on network television. He later frequently appeared on the children's programs Sesame Street and The Electric Company as well as in several films. He starred in several other television series, most notably The Cosby Show (1984-92), which became one of the most durable family comedies in the history of television
Just William books: a series of humorous British books for children by Richmal Crompton, the first of which was called Just William (1922), about an English schoolboy called William Brown who likes to play tricks on adults and who always gets into trouble
King William II: the king of England from 1087 until his death He was sometimes called William Rufus. He was the son of William the Conqueror, and was killed in a hunting accident (?1056-1100)
King William Island: An island of central Nunavut, Canada, in the Arctic Ocean between Boothia Peninsula and Victoria Island. Long an Inuit hunting ground, it was sighted by Sir John Ross in 1831
King William of Orange: the king of Britain and Ireland from 1689 until his death. He was also called William III. He was married to the daughter of King James II, and was asked by James's enemies to become king instead of him. William and his Protestant army beat James and his Catholic army at the Battle of the Boyne, and for this reason Protestants still admire him in Northern Ireland and sometimes call him 'King Billy'. William's wife, Queen Mary II, had equal power, and people usually talk about the reign of William and Mary (1650-1702)
King William's War: war fought during the years of 1689-97 between English and French colonies in North America, first war of the French and Indian Wars
King William's War: (1689-97) Battle for North American territory between Britain, under King William III, and France. The war, which was the North American extension of the War of the Grand Alliance, involved French Canadians and New England colonists and their Indian allies. The British captured Port Royal, Acadia (later Nova Scotia), but failed to take Quebec. The French, under the count de Frontenac, won skirmishes at Schenectady, N.Y., and in New England but failed to take Boston. The war ended with the Treaty of Rijswijk (1697). See also French and Indian War
Prince William: William, Prince. the elder son of Prince Charles and Diana, Princess of Wales (1982- )
Prince William Sound: An arm of the Gulf of Alaska east of the Kenai Peninsula. The worst oil spill in U.S. history occurred here in March 1989. Inlet of the Gulf of Alaska, southern Alaska, U.S. It lies east of the Kenai Peninsula and spans 90-100 mi (145-160 km). It was named by the British captain George Vancouver in 1778 to honour a son of George III. In 1989 one of the largest oil spills in history occurred when the tanker Exxon Valdez ran aground on Bligh Reef and lost 10.9 million gallons of crude oil into the sound, with disastrous effects on its ecology
Robert William Holley: born Jan. 28, 1922, Urbana, Ill., U.S. died Feb. 11, 1993, Los Gatos, Calif. U.S. biochemist. He received his Ph.D. from Cornell University. Holley and others showed that transfer RNA was involved in the assembly of amino acids into proteins. He was the first to determine the sequence of nucleotides in a nucleic acid, a process that required digesting the molecule with enzymes, identifying the pieces, and then figuring out how they fit together. It has since been shown that all transfer RNA has a similar structure. He shared a 1968 Nobel Prize with Marshall Warren Nirenberg and Har Gobind Khorana
Robert William Service: born Jan. 16, 1874, Preston, Lancashire, Eng. died Sept. 11, 1958, Lancieux, France English-born Canadian popular verse writer. He immigrated to Canada in 1894 and lived eight years in the Yukon. His Songs of a Sourdough (1907) and Ballads of a Cheechako (1909), about life in the "frozen North," were enormously popular. He became known as "the Canadian Kipling" with such rollicking ballads as "The Shooting of Dan McGrew" and "The Cremation of Sam McGee". His other works include the novel The Trail of '98 (1910) and Rhymes of a Red Cross Man (1916)
Robert and William Chambers: born July 10, 1802, Peebles, Tweeddale, Scot. died March 17, 1871, St. Andrews, Fifeshire born 1800, Peebles died 1883 Scottish publishers. Robert, who began business as a bookstall keeper in Edinburgh, wrote historical, literary, and geological works. In 1832 the brothers started Chambers's Edinburgh Journal, which led to the establishment of the publishing firm W. & R. Chambers, Ltd. Their Chambers's Encyclopaedia (1859-68) was based on a translation of the German Konversations-Lexikon. Considered scholarly and reliable on historical subjects, the encyclopaedia has gone through several editions, but the lack of a continuous revision system has led to the dating of much of its material
Roger William Corman: born April 5, 1926, Detroit, Mich., U.S. U.S. film director and producer. He directed his first films, Five Guns West and Apache Woman,in 1955, and by 1960 he was one of the most prolific makers of low-budget "exploitation" films. His film versions of stories by Edgar Allan Poe, including The House of Usher (1960) and The Masque of the Red Death (1964), won him a cult following as a master of the macabre. In 1970 he formed New World Pictures, an independent distribution company that produced the work of such struggling young directors as Peter Bogdanovich, Francis Ford Coppola, and Martin Scorsese
Rudolph William Giuliani: or Rudy Giuliani born May 28, 1944, Brooklyn, New York, N.Y., U.S. U.S. politician, who was mayor of New York City from 1994 to 2002. Beginning in 1970, he worked for the U.S. government, holding positions in the office of the U.S. attorney and in the Department of Justice. He practiced law privately (1977-81) but returned to the Justice Department as associate attorney general (1981-83). In 1983 he was appointed U.S. attorney for the Southern District of New York. In 1994 he became New York City's first Republican mayor in two decades. Credited with cutting crime, improving the quality of life, and benefiting business, he won a second term in 1997, though critics charged that he defended police misconduct and gutted essential programs. After the September 11 attacks in 2001, Giuliani was praised for his strong leadership of the city through the crisis
Rudolph William Louis Giuliani: {i} Rudy Giuliani (born 1944), United States lawyer and politican, former mayor of New York City (1994-2001)
Sir Arthur William Currie: born Dec. 5, 1875, Napperton, Ont., Can. died Nov. 30, 1933, Montreal, Que. Canadian military leader. He was a businessman in Victoria, B.C., before enlisting in the militia. Given command of a battalion in 1914, he won distinction in several battles of World War I; within three years he was promoted to lieutenant general and given command of the four divisions of the Canadian Corps. After the war he served as the first general in the Canadian army. In 1920 he became principal and vice chancellor of McGill University
Sir Charles William Siemens: orig. Karl Wilhelm Siemens born April 4, 1823, Lenthe, Prussia died Nov. 19, 1883, London, Eng. German-born British engineer and inventor. He immigrated to Britain in 1844. In 1861 he patented the open-hearth furnace (see open-hearth process), which was soon being widely used in steelmaking and eventually replaced the earlier Bessemer process. He also made a reputation and a fortune in the steel cable and telegraph industries and was a principal in the company that laid the first successful transatlantic telegraph cable (1866). His three brothers were also eminent engineers and industrialists (see Siemens AG)
Sir Edward William Elgar: born June 2, 1857, Broadheath, Worcestershire, Eng. died Feb. 23, 1934, Worcester, Worcestershire British composer. Son of a piano tuner, he became proficient on violin and organ. His Enigma Variations (1896) brought him fame; he followed it with the oratorio The Dream of Gerontius (1900), which many consider his masterpiece. He composed in the orchestral idiom of late 19th-century Romanticism characterized by bold tunes, striking colour effects, and mastery of large forms stimulating a renaissance of English music. His principal works include the five Pomp and Circumstance Marches (1901-07), two symphonies (1908, 1911), concertos for violin (1910) and cello (1919), and the tone poems Cockaigne (1901) and Falstaff (1913)
Sir Frederick William Borden: born May 14, 1847, Cornwallis, Nova Scotia died Jan. 6, 1917, Canning, Nova Scotia, Can. Canadian politician. After studying at Harvard University, he returned to Nova Scotia to practice medicine. In 1874 he was elected as a Liberal Party member to the House of Commons, where he served almost continuously until 1911. As minister of militia and defense (1896-1911), he improved the training of the armed services and helped create a Canadian navy
Sir Frederick William Mallandaine Ashton: born Sept. 17, 1904, Guayaquil, Ecua. died Aug. 18, 1988, Sussex, Eng. Principal choreographer and director of England's Royal Ballet. After creating ballets from 1925 for the Ballet Club (later Ballet Rambert), he joined the Vic-Wells Ballet (later Royal Ballet) in 1933, becoming principal choreographer, assistant director (1953-63), and director (1963-70). At least 30 of his works remain in its repertoire, including Façade (1931), Symphonic Variations (1946), and Birthday Offering (1956). He also choreographed for companies such as the Royal Danish Ballet (Romeo and Juliet, 1955) and the New York City Ballet (Illuminations, 1950)
Sir Kingsley William Amis: born April 16, 1922, London, Eng. died Oct. 22, 1995, London British novelist, poet, critic, and teacher. His first novel, Lucky Jim (1954; film, 1957), was a hugely successful comic masterpiece. He was often characterized as an Angry Young Man, a label he rejected. Notable among his more than 40 books (including four volumes of poetry) are the mordantly humorous novels That Uncertain Feeling (1955; film, Only Two Can Play, 1962), The Green Man (1959; film, 1957), Jake's Thing (1978), and The Old Devils (1986, Booker Prize). He was the father of Martin Amis
Sir William 1st Baronet Johnson: born 1715, Smithtown, County Meath, Ire. died July 11, 1774, near Johnstown, N.Y. British colonial official. In 1737 he emigrated from Ireland and settled in New York's Mohawk Valley. He purchased his first tract of land two years later, thus beginning the acquisitions that eventually made him one of the largest landholders and wealthiest settlers in British America. He fostered friendly relations with the Indians; his ties with them were further cemented when, following the death of his first wife, he married successively two Mohawk women. In 1746 he was appointed colonel of the Iroquois Confederacy. In the French and Indian War he defeated French forces at Lake George, N.Y. (1755), and captured Fort Niagara (1759). He was appointed superintendent of the Six Iroquois Nations (1756-74), helped subdue the Indian uprising called Pontiac's War (1763-64), and negotiated the first Treaty of Fort Stanwix (1768)
Sir William Berkeley: born 1606, Somerset, Eng. died July 9, 1677, Twickenham, Middlesex British colonial governor of Virginia. Appointed governor in 1641, he introduced crop diversification, encouraged manufacturing, and promoted peace with the Indians. A strong monarchist, he was forced to retire to his Virginia plantation during the Commonwealth period in England (1652-59). Reappointed in 1660, he faced crop failures and Indian attacks on the frontier. In 1676 Nathaniel Bacon mounted an expedition against the Indians in defiance of Berkeley's policy of fostering trade. Berkeley fought Bacon for control of the colony, which he eventually regained
Sir William Blackstone: born July 10, 1723, London, Eng. died Feb. 14, 1780, Wallingford, Oxfordshire British jurist. Orphaned at age 12, he was educated at public school and later at Pembroke College, Oxford, at the expense of his uncle, a London surgeon. He was elected a fellow of All Souls College in 1744, and in 1746 he became a barrister. Having taken a doctorate in civil law in 1750, he abandoned his legal practice in 1753 to concentrate on teaching and legal work around Oxford. He gave the first university lectures on English common law, publishing a synopsis for students in 1756. He was elected to the first chair in common law, the Vinerian professorship at Oxford, in 1758. His classic Commentaries on the Laws of England (1765-69) is the best-known description of the doctrines of English law; it became the basis of university legal education in England and North America. He also served as a member of Parliament (1761-70), as solicitor general to the queen (from 1763), and as judge of the Court of Common Pleas (1770-80)
Sir William Bowman: born July 20, 1816, Nantwich, Cheshire, Eng. died March 29, 1892, near Dorking, Surrey English surgeon and histologist. His studies of organ tissues with his teacher Robert Todd led to major papers on the structure and function of voluntary muscle and of the kidneys and on the detailed anatomy of the liver. In the kidneys, he found that the capsule (Bowman capsule) surrounding each glomerulus (ball of capillaries) in the nephrons is a continuous part of the renal duct. This was of prime importance to his filtration theory of urine formation, key to understanding kidney function. Bowman and Todd published The Physiological Anatomy and Physiology of Man (2 vol., 1845-56), a pioneering work in both physiology and histology. Turning to the eye, Bowman became one of the world's foremost ophthalmic research scientists, London's outstanding eye surgeon, and the first to describe several eye structures and their functions
Sir William Bragg: (b. July 2, 1862, Wigton, Cumberland, Eng. d. March 12, 1942, London) British scientist, a pioneer in solid-state physics. With his son (William) Lawrence Bragg (1890-1971), he shared a 1915 Nobel Prize for research on the determination of crystal structures and Lawrence's discovery (1912) of the Bragg law of X-ray diffraction. The Bragg ionization spectrometer William designed and built is the prototype of all modern X-ray and neutron diffractometers; the two men used it to make the first exact measurements of X-ray wavelengths and crystal data
Sir William Davenant: or William D'Avenant born 1606, Oxford, Eng. died April 7, 1668, London British poet, playwright, and theatre manager. Early works include the comedy The Witts (licensed 1634) and a volume of poems, Madagascar (1638). He was made poet laureate in 1638. Involved in intrigues during the English Civil Wars, he was imprisoned at the Tower of London, where he worked on his verse epic Gondibert (1651). Later he made the first attempt to revive English drama (banned under Oliver Cromwell) and brought the first opera, painted stage sets, and female actress-singer to the English public stage. After the Restoration he continued playwriting and founded a playhouse
Sir William David Ross: born April 15, 1877, Thurso, Caithness, Scot. died May 5, 1971, Oxford, Oxfordshire, Eng. Scottish moral philosopher. He served many years as provost at Oriel College, University of Oxford (1902-47), and later as Oxford's vice chancellor. A critic of utilitarianism, he maintained a form of ethical intuitionism. He held that the terms "good" (which pertains to motives) and "right" (which pertains to acts) are indefinable and irreducible (see naturalistic fallacy) and that certain commonsensical moral principles (e.g., those requiring promise-keeping, truth-telling, and justice) are knowable by mature reflection. His writings include Aristotle (1923), The Right and the Good (1930), Foundations of Ethics (1939), Plato's Theory of Ideas (1951), and Kant's Ethical Theory (1954)
Sir William Empson: born Sept. 27, 1906, Hawdon, Yorkshire, Eng. died April 15, 1984, London British poet and critic. He studied at Cambridge and later taught in Japan and China. His precocious Seven Types of Ambiguity (1930), which suggests that uncertainty or overlap of meanings in the use of a word can be an enrichment of poetry rather than a fault, had an immense influence on 20th-century criticism; its close examination of poetic texts helped lay the foundation for New Criticism. Later works include Some Versions of Pastoral (1935) and The Structure of Complex Words (1951)
Sir William Fairbairn: born Feb. 19, 1789, Kelso, Roxburghshire, Scot. died Aug. 18, 1874, Moor Park, Surrey, Eng. Scottish civil engineer and inventor. In 1835 he established a shipbuilding yard in London, where he constructed several hundred vessels. He was the first to use wrought iron for ship hulls, bridges, mill shafting, and structural beams. He experimented with the strength of iron and the relative merits of hot and cold blast in iron manufacture (see blast furnace). In 1845 he and Robert Stephenson designed two tubular railway bridges in Wales; Fairbairn designed the hydraulic riveters used in constructing one of them
Sir William Gerald Golding: born Sept. 19, 1911, St. Columb Minor, near Newquay, Cornwall, Eng. died June 19, 1993, Perranarworthal, near Falmouth, Cornwall British novelist. Educated at the University of Oxford, Golding worked as a schoolmaster until 1960. His first and best-known novel was Lord of the Flies (1954; film, 1963, 1990), about a group of boys isolated on an island who revert to savagery. Later works, several of which are likewise parables of the human condition that show the thinness of the veneer of civilization, include The Inheritors (1955), Pincher Martin (1956), The Spire (1964), Rites of Passage (1980, Booker Prize), and Close Quarters (1987). He won the Nobel Prize for Literature in 1983
Sir William Gilbert: {i} William S. Gilbert, William Schwenk Gilbert (1836-1911), librettist who worked together with Sir Arthur Sullivan in a well-known series of comic operettas
Sir William Golding: born Sept. 19, 1911, St. Columb Minor, near Newquay, Cornwall, Eng. died June 19, 1993, Perranarworthal, near Falmouth, Cornwall British novelist. Educated at the University of Oxford, Golding worked as a schoolmaster until 1960. His first and best-known novel was Lord of the Flies (1954; film, 1963, 1990), about a group of boys isolated on an island who revert to savagery. Later works, several of which are likewise parables of the human condition that show the thinness of the veneer of civilization, include The Inheritors (1955), Pincher Martin (1956), The Spire (1964), Rites of Passage (1980, Booker Prize), and Close Quarters (1987). He won the Nobel Prize for Literature in 1983
Sir William Haley: born May 24, 1901, Jersey, Channel Islands died Sept. 6, 1987, Jersey English journalist and editor. Haley began to study journalism in 1918 and joined the staff of the Manchester Evening News in 1922. He held the post of director of the Manchester Guardian and Evening News before becoming director general of the BBC (1944-52) and then editor of The Times of London (1952-66), the most important and influential position in British journalism
Sir William Henry Bragg: (b. July 2, 1862, Wigton, Cumberland, Eng. d. March 12, 1942, London) British scientist, a pioneer in solid-state physics. With his son (William) Lawrence Bragg (1890-1971), he shared a 1915 Nobel Prize for research on the determination of crystal structures and Lawrence's discovery (1912) of the Bragg law of X-ray diffraction. The Bragg ionization spectrometer William designed and built is the prototype of all modern X-ray and neutron diffractometers; the two men used it to make the first exact measurements of X-ray wavelengths and crystal data
Sir William Henry Lytton Earle Bulwer: later Baron Dalling and Bulwer of Dalling born Feb. 13, 1801, London, Eng. died May 23, 1872, Naples, Italy British diplomat. In the diplomatic service from 1829, he negotiated the Ponsonby Treaty (1838), which was advantageous to British trade with the Ottoman Empire. As ambassador to the U.S. (1849-52), he negotiated the controversial Clayton-Bulwer Treaty, which was intended to resolve (but in fact aggravated) Anglo-American disputes in Latin America. In 1856 he played a major part in the negotiations following the Crimean War. His brother was the novelist Edward Bulwer-Lytton
Sir William John Haley: born May 24, 1901, Jersey, Channel Islands died Sept. 6, 1987, Jersey English journalist and editor. Haley began to study journalism in 1918 and joined the staff of the Manchester Evening News in 1922. He held the post of director of the Manchester Guardian and Evening News before becoming director general of the BBC (1944-52) and then editor of The Times of London (1952-66), the most important and influential position in British journalism
Sir William Jones: born Sept. 28, 1746, London, Eng. died April 27, 1794, Calcutta British orientalist, linguist, and jurist. He completed an authoritative Grammar of the Persian Language in 1771. For financial reasons he then turned to the study and practice of law. His Moallakât, a translation of seven famous Arabic odes, was published in 1782, and the following year he was knighted and sailed for Calcutta (now Kolkata) as judge of the Supreme Court. He founded the Asiatic Society of Bengal to encourage Asian studies and published scholarly works on Hindu and Muslim law. His proposition (1786) that there was a common source for languages ranging from Celtic to Sanskrit led to recognition of the Indo-European language family
Sir William Maddock Bayliss: born May 2, 1860, Wolverhampton, Staffordshire, Eng. died Aug. 27, 1924, London British physiologist. He and Ernest H. Starling studied nerve-controlled blood-vessel contraction and dilation and discovered the peristaltic wave. In 1902 they showed that dilute hydrochloric acid mixed with partly digested food activates a chemical in the duodenum that they called secretin, because it stimulates secretion of pancreatic juice. This marked the discovery of hormones, a term the men coined. Bayliss also showed how the enzyme trypsin was formed from inactive trypsinogen and measured precisely the time it took to digest protein. His recommendation of gum-saline injections for wound shock saved many lives in World War I
Sir William Matthew Flinders Petrie: born June 3, 1853, Charlton, near Greenwich, London, Eng. died July 28, 1942, Jerusalem British archaeologist who made valuable contributions to the techniques of excavation and dating. During excavations in Egypt in the mid 1880s Petrie developed a sequence dating method, based on a comparison of potsherds at various levels, that made possible the reconstruction of ancient history from material remains. His excavations, together with those of Heinrich Schliemann at Troy, marked the beginning of the examination of successive levels of a site, rather than the previously haphazard digging. Petrie made many important discoveries in Egypt and Palestine. His Methods and Aims in Archaeology (1904) was the definitive work of its time. He taught at the University of London (1892-1933)
Sir William Osler: born July 12, 1849, Bond Head, Canada West, Can. died Dec. 29, 1919, Oxford, Oxfordshire, Eng. Canadian physician and professor. He became the first to identify blood platelets (1873) and later taught at the medical school at McGill University (1875-84) and then at Johns Hopkins University's medical school (1889-1905). There he helped transform clinical teaching; students studied patients in the wards and took their problems to the lab, and experts pooled their knowledge to benefit both patient and student in public teaching sessions. Osler's Principles and Practice of Medicine (1892) became the most popular medical textbook of its day. He was involved in the formation of two physicians' associations and the Quarterly Journal of Medicine. Osler nodes on the hand are seen in some cardiac infections, and two blood disorders also bear his name
Sir William Petty: born May 26, 1623, Romsey, Hampshire, Eng. died Dec. 16, 1687, London British political economist and statistician. He gave up a life at sea to study medicine, and taught anatomy at the University of Oxford. He founded mines, ironworks, and fisheries in Ireland. He was also responsible for several inventions and was a founder of the Royal Society. Petty was an originator of political arithmetic, which he defined as the art of reasoning by figures upon things relating to government. In his best-known work, Treatise of Taxes and Contributions (1662), he favoured giving free rein to the forces of individual self-interest but declared the maintenance of a high level of employment to be a duty of the state. He also argued that the labour necessary for production was the main determinant of exchange value
Sir William Schwenck Gilbert: born Nov. 18, 1836, London, Eng. died May 29, 1911, Harrow Weald, Middlesex British librettist. His early ambition was for a legal career, but in 1861 he began to publish comic ballads, illustrated by himself and signed "Bab." In 1870 he met Arthur Sullivan, and they soon produced the light opera Thespis (1871), which was followed by Trial by Jury (1875) and four productions staged by Richard D'Oyly Carte: The Sorcerer (1877), H.M.S. Pinafore (1878), The Pirates of Penzance (1879), and Patience (1881). Carte built the Savoy Theatre in 1881 for productions of the partners' work, which became known as the "Savoy Operas"; these later operettas included Iolanthe (1882), Princess Ida (1884), The Mikado (1885), Ruddigore (1887), The Yeomen of the Guard (1888), and The Gondoliers (1889). Mounting tensions between Gilbert and Sullivan led to a break, but they reunited in 1893 to produce Utopia Limited and later The Grand Duke (1896). Gilbert died of a heart attack brought on while rescuing a woman from drowning. His lyrics include some of the finest comic verse ever written in English
Sir William Siemens: orig. Karl Wilhelm Siemens born April 4, 1823, Lenthe, Prussia died Nov. 19, 1883, London, Eng. German-born British engineer and inventor. He immigrated to Britain in 1844. In 1861 he patented the open-hearth furnace (see open-hearth process), which was soon being widely used in steelmaking and eventually replaced the earlier Bessemer process. He also made a reputation and a fortune in the steel cable and telegraph industries and was a principal in the company that laid the first successful transatlantic telegraph cable (1866). His three brothers were also eminent engineers and industrialists (see Siemens AG)
Sir William Temple: born April 25, 1628, London, Eng. died Jan. 27, 1699, Moor Park, Surrey British statesman. As ambassador to The Hague (1668-70, 1674-79), he formulated England's pro-Dutch foreign policy and arranged the marriage between William of Orange and Princess Mary of England (later William III and Mary II). After retiring from politics in 1681, he wrote numerous essays that were collected for publication by his secretary, Jonathan Swift. He also wrote the acclaimed Observations upon the United Provinces (1673)
Sir William Turner Walton: born March 29, 1902, Oldham, Lancashire, Eng. died March 8, 1983, Ischia, Italy British composer. His parents were musicians, and he learned to sing and play piano and violin early. He established his reputation at age 19 by setting to jazzy music the whimsical poetry of Edith Sitwell (see Sitwell family); Façade (1923) premiered with the poet reading her poetry through a megaphone. Walton's later works include Belshazzar's Feast (1931), two symphonies (1935, 1960), and concertos for viola, violin, and cello (1929, 1939, 1956). His scores for Laurence Olivier's films of Henry V (1944), Hamlet (1947), and Richard III (1955) became well known; he also wrote coronation marches for George VI and Elizabeth II
Sir William Tyrone Guthrie: born July 2, 1900, Tunbridge Wells, Kent, Eng. died May 15, 1971, Newbliss, County Monaghan, Ire. British theatre director and producer. After his first London production in 1931, he became director of the Shakespeare Repertory Company (1933-34, 1936-45), which performed at the Old Vic and Sadler's Wells theatres. His original approach to Shakespearean drama greatly influenced the 20th-century revival of interest in traditional theatre. He also directed operas such as Peter Grimes (1946) and Carmen (1949) and his own play, Top of the Ladder (1950). He helped found and direct the Stratford Festival in Canada (1953-57), influencing the development of Canadian theatre. He also founded and directed (1963-66) the Tyrone Guthrie Theater in Minneapolis
Sir William Wallace: a Scottish soldier and politician, who was a leader of the fight to keep Scotland independent of England. After being defeated in battle by the English king, Edward I, he was taken to London and hanged. In Scotland people regard him as a national hero (1272-1305)
Sir William Walton: born March 29, 1902, Oldham, Lancashire, Eng. died March 8, 1983, Ischia, Italy British composer. His parents were musicians, and he learned to sing and play piano and violin early. He established his reputation at age 19 by setting to jazzy music the whimsical poetry of Edith Sitwell (see Sitwell family); Façade (1923) premiered with the poet reading her poetry through a megaphone. Walton's later works include Belshazzar's Feast (1931), two symphonies (1935, 1960), and concertos for viola, violin, and cello (1929, 1939, 1956). His scores for Laurence Olivier's films of Henry V (1944), Hamlet (1947), and Richard III (1955) became well known; he also wrote coronation marches for George VI and Elizabeth II
Sir William Watson Cheyne: born Dec. 14, 1852, at sea off Hobart, Tas. died April 19, 1932, Fetlar, Shetland Islands, Scot. English surgeon and bacteriologist. His early work on preventive medicine and bacterial causes of disease was strongly influenced by that of Robert Koch. He became a devoted follower of Joseph Lister and was a pioneer of antiseptic surgical methods in Britain. He published the important works Antiseptic Surgery (1882) and Lister and His Achievements (1885)
Sir William Withey Gull: born Dec. 31, 1816, Colchester, Essex, Eng. died Jan. 29, 1890, London British physician. A famous and popular teacher, Gull was one of the first clinicians to describe pathological lesions in tabes dorsalis (1856), intermittent hemoglobin in the urine, atherosclerotic atrophy of the kidney, and Gull disease (a form of hypothyroidism). He believed in minimal use of drugs and defended vivisection and clinical investigation. He was the leading British physician of his time; his patients included Queen Victoria
Stephen William Hawking: born Jan. 8, 1942, Oxford, Oxfordshire, Eng. English theoretical physicist. He studied at the University of Oxford and later received his Ph.D. from Cambridge. He has worked primarily in the field of general relativity and particularly on the physics of black holes. In 1971 he suggested that numerous objects, formed after the big bang, each had as much as one billion tons of mass but the size of only a proton. These "mini black holes" are unique in being subject to both the laws of relativity, due to their immense mass and gravity, and the laws of quantum mechanics, due to their minute size. In 1974 he proposed that black holes "evaporate" by what is now known as Hawking radiation. His work greatly spurred efforts to delineate the properties of black holes. His work also showed the relationship of these properties to the laws of classical thermodynamics and quantum mechanics. Hawking's achievements, despite near-total paralysis from amyotrophic lateral sclerosis, have earned him extraordinary honours. His books include the best-selling A Brief History of Time (1988)
Thomson William Gunn: born Aug. 29, 1929, Gravesend, Kent, Eng. died April 25, 2004, San Francisco, Calif., U.S. British-U.S. poet. Educated at Cambridge and Stanford universities, he lived in San Francisco from the 1950s and taught for many years at the University of California, Berkeley. His early verse appeared in Fighting Terms (1954) and The Sense of Movement (1957); in the late 1950s his poems became more experimental. My Sad Captains (1961), Moly (1971), Jack Straw's Castle (1976), and The Passages of Joy (1982) discuss his homosexuality; The Man with Night Sweats (1992) has AIDS as a subject. Other collections include Collected Poems (1993) and Boss Cupid (2000)
William: popular since the Norman Conquest
William: or William Rufus born 1056 died Aug. 2, 1100, near Lyndhurst, Hampshire, Eng. King of England (1087-1100) and de facto duke of Normandy (1096-1100). He inherited England from his father, William I (the Conqueror), and quelled a rebellion (1088) by barons loyal to his brother Robert II. A tyrannical ruler, he brutally punished the leaders of a second revolt (1095). He forced St. Anselm, archbishop of Canterbury, to leave England and seized his lands (1097). He reduced the Scottish kings to vassals (1093), subjugated Wales (1097), and waged war on Normandy (1089-96), gaining control when Robert mortgaged the duchy. His death in a hunting accident may have been an assassination ordered by his brother Henry (later Henry I). Dutch Willem Frederik born Aug. 24, 1772, The Hague, United Provinces of the Netherlands died Dec. 12, 1843, Berlin, Prussia King of The Netherlands and grand duke of Luxembourg (1815-40). Son of William V, prince of Orange, he married in 1791 and immigrated with his family to England after the French invasion of the Dutch Republic (1795). He sided with Prussia against Napoleon and lived in exile at the Prussian court until 1812. After the Dutch revolt against French rule, he became sovereign prince of the Dutch Republic (1813) and king of the United Netherlands (1815), which included Belgium, Liège, and Luxembourg. He led an economic recovery program that sparked a commercial revival, but his autocratic methods and imposition of Dutch as the official language provoked a revolt by Belgium (1830) that led to its independence. In 1840 he abdicated in favour of his son, William II. known as William the Lion born 1143 died Dec. 2, 1214, Stirling, Stirlingshire, Scot. King of Scotland (1165-1214). He succeeded his father as earl of Northumberland (1152) but was forced to relinquish his earldom to England's Henry II in 1157. He succeeded his brother, Malcolm IV, as king of Scotland and in 1173 joined a revolt of Henry's sons in an attempt to regain Northumberland. Captured in 1174, he was released after submitting to Henry's overlordship. He bought his release from subjection in 1189. He continued to agitate for the restoration of Northumberland but was forced to renounce his claim by King John in 1209. William created many of the major burghs of modern Scotland. known as William the Conqueror born 1028, Falaise, Normandy died Sept. 9, 1087, Rouen Duke of Normandy (1035-87) and king of England (1066-87). Though born out of wedlock, he succeeded his father as duke of Normandy, subduing rebellions and becoming the mightiest noble in France. In 1051 Edward the Confessor promised to make him heir to the English throne, but on Edward's death in 1066, Harold Godwineson, earl of Wessex (Harold II), was accepted as king. Determined to assert his right to the throne, William sailed from Normandy with an invasion force, defeated Harold at the Battle of Hastings, and was crowned king. The Norman Conquest was thus completed, though English rebellions continued until 1071. To secure England's frontiers, William invaded Scotland (1072) and Wales (1081). In 1086 he ordered the survey summarized in the Domesday Book. He divided his lands between his sons, giving Normandy and Maine to Robert II and England to William II. Dutch Willem known as William the Silent born April 24, 1533, Dillenburg, Nassau died July 10, 1584, Delft, Holland First stadtholder of the United Provinces of the Netherlands (1572-84). Son of William, count of Nassau-Dillenburg, he inherited the principality of Orange and other vast estates from his cousin in 1544. He was educated at the Habsburg imperial court in Brussels, then appointed by Philip II to the council of state (1555). He helped negotiate the Treaty of Cateau-Cambrésis, earning his byname for keeping silent about secret policy decisions, and was named stadtholder (governor) in Holland, Zeeland, and Utrecht in 1559. Increasingly opposed to Philip's strict ordinances against Protestants, he led a revolt in 1568 that proved unsuccessful, but in 1572 he succeeded in uniting the northern provinces. He was proclaimed their stadtholder, and his position was solidified by the Pacification of Ghent (1576). He sought help from France in the revolt against Spain, and in 1579 he was outlawed by Philip. A reward was offered for his assassination, and in 1584 he was shot by a fanatical Catholic. Huddie William Ledbetter Aberhart William George William Russell Stephen Valentine Patrick William Allen Amis Sir Kingsley William Ashley William Henry Ashton Sir Frederick William Mallandaine Barkley Alben William Bartram William William Allen Basie Bateson William Bayliss Sir William Maddock Beaumont William Beckford William Becknell William Bentinck William Henry Cavendish Lord Benton William Burnett William Berkeley Enos Berkeley Sir William Beveridge of Tuggal William Henry 1st Baron Billings William Bishop William Avery Blackstone Sir William Blair Henry William Blake William Bligh William Bliss William Dwight Porter Blount William Bok Edward William Booth William Borah William Edgar Borden Sir Frederick William Bouguereau William Adolphe Bowman Sir William Bradford William William Warren Bradley Bragg Sir William Henry Brennan William Joseph Jr. Brewster William Bricker John William Brown William Wells Bryan William Jennings Paul William Bryant Bryant William Cullen Buckley William Frank Jr. Burroughs William Seward Byrd William Cadogan William 1st Earl John William Carson Caxton William Cecil William 1st Baron Burghley Chambers Robert and William Channing William Ellery Chase William Merritt Cheselden William Cheyne Sir William Watson Claiborne William Clarendon George William Frederick Villiers 4th earl of Clark William Clemens William Roger Cobbett William Coddington William Cody William Frederick Collins William Wilkie Coltrane John William Congreve William Charles William Gordon Coolidge William David Corman Roger William Cosgrave William Thomas Cowper William Crawford William Harris Cullen William Currie Sir Arthur William D'Arcy William Knox Dampier William Davenant Sir William William D'Avenant Davies William Robertson Deming William Edwards William Harrison Dempsey William James Dixon Dodge William Earl Douglas William Orville Du Bois William Edward Burghardt Dunbar William Durant William James and Ariel Durant William Crapo Eccles William Henry William Clarence Eckstein William Blake McEdwards Elgar Sir Edward William Eliot Charles William Empson Sir William Estes William Kaye William John Evans Evarts William Maxwell Ewing William Maurice Fairbairn Sir William Faulkner William Cuthbert William Cuthbert Falkner Robert William Andrew Feller Fessenden William Pitt William Claude Dukenfield Foster William Zebulon Fowler William Alfred Frederick William Frederick William I Frederick William II Frederick William III Frederick William IV William Orville Frizzell Froude William Fulbright James William Gable William Clark Gaddis William Thomas Garrison William Lloyd William Henry Gates III George William Frederick Prince William of Denmark Gibbs William Francis Gibson William Ford Gilbert Sir William Schwenck Giuliani Rudolph William Glackens William James Gladstone William Ewart Godwin William Golding Sir William Gerald Goodpasture Ernest William Gorgas William Crawford Grace William Gilbert Green William Gull Sir William Withey Gunn Thomson William Guthrie Sir William Tyrone William John Clifton Haley Sir William John Halsey William Frederick Jr. Halsted William Stewart Handy William Christopher Hanna William Denby and Barbera Joseph Roland Hardee William Joseph Harnett William Michael Harriman William Averell Harrison William Henry Hart William S. William John Hartack Harvey William Hawking Stephen William Haywood William Dudley Hazlitt William Hearst William Randolph Heisman John William Henley William Ernest William Sydney Porter William Benjamin Hogan Hogarth William Holley Robert William William Frederick Hoppe Howe William Howe 5th Viscount Howells William Dean Hull William Hunt William Holman Hunter William Inge William Motter Christopher William Bradshaw Jackson William Henry James William Johnson Sir William 1st Baronet William Tass Jones Jones Sir William William Henry Pratt Keen William Williams Kelly William Kelvin of Largs William Thomson Baron Kennedy William Kidd William King William's War King William Lyon Mackenzie King William Rufus de Vane Knudsen William Signius Kunstler William Moses Labov William Lanchester Frederick William Langland William Laud William Lawes Henry and William Leahy William Daniel Lear William Powell Lee William Lily William Livingston William Mackenzie William Lyon Macready William Charles Mahone William Maitland Frederic William Maitland of Lethington William Mansfield William Murray 1st earl of Marcy William Learned Masters William Howell and Johnson Virginia Eshelman Mauchly John William Maugham William Somerset Maxwell William McAdoo William Gibbs McGuffey William Holmes McKinley William Melbourne of Kilmore William Lamb 2nd Viscount Mellon Andrew William Merwin William Stanley William Mervin Mills William Mitchell William Smith Monroe Morris William William Joseph Mosconi Moultrie William Mount William Sidney William Francis Murphy Joseph William Namath Newcastle upon Tyne William Cavendish 1st duke of Nicklaus Jack William Nimitz Chester William Norris George William O'Brien William Smith Ockham William of William of Occam Osler Sir William Paley William Samuel Paterson William Penn William Petrie Sir William Matthew Flinders Petty Sir William Pitt William the Elder Pitt William the Younger Post Charles William Powell William Prescott William Hickling Prince William Sound Procter William Cooper Prynne William Quantrill William Clarke Rankine William John Macquorn Rayleigh of Terling Place John William Strutt 3rd Baron Rehnquist William Hubbs Ella Gwendolen Rees William William Robinson Rogers William Penn Adair Rosecrans William Starke Ross Sir William David Rosse William Parsons 3rd earl of Russell Bertrand Arthur William 3rd Earl Russell William Felton Russell Russell William Russell Lord Safire William Salesbury William Sampson William Thomas Saroyan William Schuman William Howard Service Robert William Seward William Henry Shakespeare William Sherman William Tecumseh Shippen William Jr. Shirer William Lawrence Shirley William Shockley William Bradford William Lee Shoemaker Siemens Sir Charles William Sims William Sowden Smith William Eugene Smith William Stahl Franklin William Steuben Frederick William Augustus Baron von Stiegel Henry William Still William Grant Stirling William Alexander 1st earl of Stokes William William Thomas Strayhorn Strong William Styron William William Ashley Sunday sweet William Symington William Stuart Symington William Symons Arthur William Taft William Howard Talbot William Henry Fox Tedder of Glenguin Arthur William Tedder 1st Baron Tell William Temple Sir William Thackeray William Makepeace William Tatem Tilden Trevor William William Trevor Cox Trimble William David Tubman William Vacanarat Shadrach William Cook Turner Joseph Mallord William Tweed William Marcy Robert William Unser William Louis Veeck Walker William Wallace William Sir Wallack James William Walton Sir William Turner Warner William Lloyd Welch William Henry Wellman William Augustus Whewell William White William Allen Whitney William Collins Wilberforce William William and Mary College of William II William Rufus William the Good William III William IV William I William the Lion William the Conqueror William the Silent William of Auvergne William of Auxerre Williams William Carlos Wilson William Julius Wordsworth William Wycherley William Wyler William Yancey William Lowndes William Caleb Yarborough Yeats William Butler William Alexander Abbott William Maxwell Aitken Bulwer Sir William Henry Lytton Earle William Jefferson Blythe IV William Jefferson Clinton Northcliffe of Saint Peter Alfred Charles William Harmsworth Viscount Slim William Joseph 1st Viscount Slim of Yarralumla and Bishopston Wallace William Roy DeWitt and Lila Acheson. German Friedrich Wilhelm Viktor Albert known as Kaiser Wilhelm born Jan. 27, 1859, Potsdam, near Berlin, Prussia died June 4, 1941, Doorn, Neth. German emperor (kaiser) and king of Prussia (1888-1918). Son of the future Frederick III and grandson of Britain's Queen Victoria, William succeeded his father to the throne in 1888. Two years later, he forced the resignation of Otto von Bismarck. He was characterized by his frequently militaristic manner and by his vacillating policies that undermined those of his chancellors, including Leo, count von Caprivi, and Bernhard, prince von Bülow. From 1897 he encouraged Adm. Alfred von Tirpitz to strengthen the German fleet and challenged France's position in Morocco (see Moroccan crises). He sided with Austria-Hungary in the crisis with Serbia (1914), and in World War I he encouraged the grandiose war aims of the generals and politicians. After Germany's defeat, he fled to The Netherlands, ending the monarchy in Germany, and lived in exile until his death. Dutch Willem Frederik George Lodewijk born Dec. 6, 1792, The Hague, United Provinces of the Netherlands died March 17, 1849, Tilburg, Neth. King of The Netherlands and grand duke of Luxembourg (1840-49). Son of William I, he lived in exile with his family in England from 1795. He commanded Dutch troops in the Battle of Waterloo (1815). Sent by his father to Belgium in 1830 to appease the rebels, he failed to stop the independence movement. In 1840 he became king of The Netherlands on his father's abdication. As king, he helped stabilize the economy. In 1848 he oversaw passage of a new liberal constitution that expanded the authority of the ministers and assembly, established direct elections, and secured basic civil liberties. Dutch Willem born May 27, 1626, The Hague, United Provinces of the Netherlands died Nov. 6, 1650, The Hague Prince of Orange, count of Nassau, and stadtholder of the Netherlands (1647-50). The son of Frederick Henry, prince of Orange, he married Mary Stuart, eldest daughter of Charles I of England, in 1641 and later succeeded to his father's offices (1647), which included the stadtholdership of all the provinces of the Netherlands except Friesland. Despite the treaty with Spain in 1648 that recognized the independence of the United Provinces, he planned to conquer part of the Spanish Netherlands (modern Belgium). He imprisoned members of the assembly of Holland who opposed his war policy but died of smallpox before his influence could be tested. Italian Guglielmo known as William the Good born 1154 died Nov. 18, 1189, Palermo, Kingdom of Sicily Last Norman king of Sicily (1166-89). His mother served as regent until 1171, after which he ruled alone, winning a reputation for clemency and justice. His friendship with Manuel I Comnenus ended when the Byzantine emperor thwarted William's proposed marriage to his daughter. Turning against the Byzantines, William allied with Frederick I Barbarossa. He agreed to his aunt's marriage to Frederick's son Henry (later Henry VI), giving Henry a claim to Sicily. He attacked the Byzantines (1185) with early success but was defeated within sight of Constantinople. Dutch Willem Hendrik born Nov. 14, 1650, The Hague, United Provinces of the Netherlands died March 19, 1702, London, Eng. Stadtholder of the United Provinces of the Netherlands (1672-1702) and king of England (1689-1702). Son of William II, prince of Orange, and Mary Stuart, daughter of Charles I of England, he was born in The Hague soon after his father's death. The Act of Seclusion (1654) that barred the house of Orange from power in the United Provinces was rescinded in 1660, and William was appointed captain general and named stadtholder by popular acclaim in 1672. He successfully defended his country against Charles II of England and Louis XIV of France. In 1677 he married Mary (later Queen Mary II), daughter of the English duke of York (later James II). In 1688 William was invited by James's opponents to intervene against the Catholic ruler, and he landed with a Dutch army in Devon, Eng. He and Mary were proclaimed joint rulers of England in 1689; he ruled alone after Mary's death in 1694. He directed the European opposition to Louis XIV, which eventually led to the War of the Grand Alliance after William's death. In Britain he secured religious toleration and strengthened Parliament, granting independence to the judiciary in the Act of Settlement. Dutch Willem Alexander Paul Frederik Lodewijk born Feb. 19, 1817, Brussels, Belg. died Nov. 23, 1890, Apeldoorn, Neth. King of The Netherlands and grand duke of Luxembourg (1849-90). Son of William II, he succeeded to the throne on his father's death in 1849. Opposed to the liberal constitution of 1848, he adopted an anti-Catholic posture and from 1862 to 1868 was able to rule through the cabinet. He tried to sell his sovereignty over Luxembourg to France (1867) but yielded to Prussia's demand that the area be independent. Following this crisis, his influence over parliament declined. On his death, he was succeeded by his daughter, Wilhelmina. born Aug. 21, 1765, London, Eng. died June 20, 1837, Windsor Castle, near London King of Great Britain and Ireland and of Hanover (1830-37). The son of George III, he entered the royal navy at age 13, fought in the American Revolution, and served in the West Indies, leaving the navy as a rear admiral in 1790 (he was later called "the Sailor King"). He angered his father by his numerous love affairs and fathered 10 illegitimate children by the actress Dorothea Jordan (1761-1816). In 1830 he succeeded his brother George IV as king. Opposed to parliamentary reform, William delayed consideration of the Reform Bill of 1832, but his prime minister, Earl Grey, persuaded him to promise to create enough peers in the House of Lords to carry it, forcing its passage. On William's death, the British crown passed to his niece, Victoria, and the Hanoverian crown to his brother Ernest Augustus, duke of Cumberland (1771-1851). German Wilhelm Friedrich Ludwig born March 22, 1797, Berlin died March 9, 1888, Berlin King of Prussia (1861-88) and German emperor (1871-88). Son of Frederick William III of Prussia, he fought in the war against Napoleon (1814) and thereafter devoted himself to the Prussian army and military affairs. He advocated the use of force against the rebels in 1848. The military governor of Rhineland province from 1849, he succeeded his brother on the Prussian throne in 1861. A conservative and a supporter of military reform, William insisted on a three-year term of military conscription, which the liberal lower chamber rejected in 1862. William was ready to abdicate but was dissuaded by Otto von Bismarck, whom he had installed as prime minister (1862). He cautiously supported Bismarck's policies in the Seven Weeks' War and the Franco-Prussian War. Proclaimed German emperor in 1871, he oversaw the continued rise of Germany as a European power
William 1st Viscount Slim Slim: born , Aug. 6, 1891, Bristol, Gloucestershire, Eng. died Dec. 14, 1970, London British general. He served with the British army in World War I and with the Indian army from 1920. In World War II he commanded Indian troops in East Africa and the Middle East (1940-41). As commander of the 1st Burma Corps (1942), he led a 900-mi (1,450-km) retreat from superior Japanese forces in Burma to India. In 1944 he led forces to repel a Japanese invasion of northern India; in 1945 he retook Burma from the Japanese. Promoted to field marshal (1948), he served as chief of the Imperial General Staff (1948-52) and later as governor-general of Australia (1953-60)
William Lord Bentinck: born Sept. 14, 1774, Bulstrode, Buckinghamshire, Eng. died June 17, 1839, Paris, France British colonial administrator. Born to wealth and rank, he was appointed governor of Madras in 1803. Recalled in 1807 after a mutiny of Indian troops at Vellore, he pressed for the next 20 years for a chance to vindicate his name. In 1828 he was named governor-general of Bengal (in effect, of all India), and he served until 1835. He reformed the country's finances, opened up administrative and judicial posts to Indians, suppressed bands of assassins known as thugs, and abolished suttee. His policies helped pave the way to independence more than a century later
William -Adolphe Bouguereau: born Nov. 30, 1825, La Rochelle, Fr. died Aug. 19, 1905, La Rochelle French painter. He entered the École des Beaux-Arts in 1846 and was awarded the Prix de Rome in 1850. On his return from Italy in 1854, he became a successful proponent of academic painting and was instrumental in the exclusion of the radical Impressionists from the official Salon. Working in a smooth, highly finished style, he painted sentimental religious works, coyly erotic nudes, allegorical scenes, and realistic portraits. In 1876 he was elected to the Academy of Fine Arts. His influence was felt widely, particularly in the U.S
William 1st Baron Burghley Cecil: born Sept. 13, 1520, Bourne, Lincolnshire, Eng. died Aug. 5, 1598, London English statesman, principal adviser to Elizabeth I through most of her reign and a master of Renaissance statecraft. Having served as a councillor and cosecretary to Edward VI, he was appointed Elizabeth's sole secretary when she became queen in 1558. A dedicated and skillful adviser to the queen, Cecil was created Baron Burghley in 1571 and appointed lord high treasurer (1572-98). He obtained the trial and execution of Mary, Queen of Scots, thus securing the Protestant succession, and his preparations enabled England to survive the Spanish Armada. But he failed to induce Elizabeth to marry or to reform her church along more Protestant lines
William 1st Earl Cadogan: born 1672, Liscarton, County Meath, Ire. died July 17, 1726, Kensington, near London, Eng. British soldier. He served as a trusted colleague with the duke of Marlborough in the War of the Spanish Succession. Later he became involved in intrigues to secure the succession for the Hanoverian George I (1714). He crushed a Jacobite rebellion in 1716, was granted an earldom in 1718, and was promoted to commander in chief in 1722
William ; and Barbera Joseph Hanna: born July 14, 1910, Melrose, N.M., U.S. died March 22, 2001, Hollywood, Calif. born March 24, 1911, New York, N.Y. U.S. animators. Both Hanna and Barbera joined MGM in 1937 and there collaborated to create the cartoon characters Tom and Jerry. From 1940 to 1957 they produced over 200 Tom and Jerry cartoons, 7 of which won Academy Awards. They founded Hanna-Barbera Productions in 1957 and collaborated on such popular television cartoon series as The Flintstones, Yogi Bear, and Huckleberry Hound
William A Fowler: born Aug. 9, 1911, Pittsburgh, Pa., U.S. died March 14, 1995, Pasadena, Calif. U.S. nuclear astrophysicist. He received his Ph.D. from Caltech and became a professor there in 1939. His theory of element generation (nucleosynthesis) suggests that, as stars evolve, chemical elements are synthesized progressively (light to heavy) by means of nuclear fusion that also produces light and heat and that the heaviest elements are synthesized in supernovas. For his theory he shared a 1983 Nobel Prize with Subrahmanyan Chandrasekhar. He is also known for his work in radio astronomy with Fred Hoyle
William Aberhart: born Dec. 30, 1878, Kippen, Ont., Can. died May 23, 1943, Vancouver, B.C. Canadian politician and the country's first Social Credit Party premier (Alberta, 1935-43). Aberhart was a high school principal in Calgary, Alta. (1915-35). An active lay preacher, he founded the Calgary Prophetic Bible Institute (1918). In 1932 he used his evangelical rhetoric to promote monetary-reform theories to solve the economic problems created in Alberta by the Great Depression, proposing to issue dividends (social credit) to each person, based on the real wealth of the province. When his party won a majority in the 1935 provincial election, he became premier and minister of education, but his social-credit proposals were disallowed by the federal government
William Alexander 1st earl of Stirling: born 1576, Menstrie, Clackmannan, Scot. died Feb. 12, 1640, London, Eng. Scottish poet and colonizer of Canada. He was a member of the court of James I, where he wrote his sonnet sequence Aurora (1604). In 1621 he obtained a grant for territory in North America that he named New Scotland (Nova Scotia), despite French claims to part of the land. He offered baronetcies to Scotsmen who would sponsor settlers, but the region was not colonized until his son established a settlement at Port Royal (Annapolis Royal). Alexander was compelled to surrender the territory under the Treaty of Susa (1629), which ended an Anglo-French conflict. Scottish settlers were ordered to withdraw by 1631
William Alfred Fowler: born Aug. 9, 1911, Pittsburgh, Pa., U.S. died March 14, 1995, Pasadena, Calif. U.S. nuclear astrophysicist. He received his Ph.D. from Caltech and became a professor there in 1939. His theory of element generation (nucleosynthesis) suggests that, as stars evolve, chemical elements are synthesized progressively (light to heavy) by means of nuclear fusion that also produces light and heat and that the heaviest elements are synthesized in supernovas. For his theory he shared a 1983 Nobel Prize with Subrahmanyan Chandrasekhar. He is also known for his work in radio astronomy with Fred Hoyle
William Allen White: born Feb. 10, 1868, Emporia, Kan., U.S. died Jan. 29, 1944, Emporia U.S. journalist. White purchased the Emporia Daily and Weekly Gazette in 1895. His editorial writing was a mixture of tolerance, optimism, liberal Republicanism, and provincialism. His widely circulated 1896 editorial "What's the Matter with Kansas?" was credited with helping elect William McKinley president. He also wrote fiction, biographies, and an autobiography. His son and successor, William Lindsay White (1900-73), wrote one of the best-selling books on World War II, They Were Expendable (1942)
William Augustus Wellman: born Feb. 29, 1896, Brookline, Mass, U.S. died Dec. 9, 1975, Los Angeles, Calif. U.S. film director. He was a flying ace in World War I and later a barnstorming stunt pilot. He acted in Knickerbocker Buckeroo (1919) with Douglas Fairbanks before turning to directing. Known as "Wild Bill," he made the aerial dogfight classic Wings (1929, Academy Award), setting standards for documentary realism, and he launched a gangster movie trend with Public Enemy (1931), starring James Cagney. The Ox-Bow Incident (1942), considered one of his best films, examined frontier justice in the American West. In Track of the Cat (1954), Wellman experimented with the minimal use of colour. His other films include A Star Is Born (1937), Nothing Sacred (1937), Beau Geste (1939), The Story of GI Joe (1945), and The High and the Mighty (1954)
William Averell Harriman: born Nov. 15, 1891, New York, N.Y., U.S. died July 26, 1986, Yorktown Heights, N.Y. U.S. diplomat. The son of Edward H. Harriman, he worked for the Union Pacific Railroad Co. from 1915, serving as chairman of the board from 1932 to 1946. In 1934 Pres. Franklin D. Roosevelt appointed him to the National Recovery Administration. In 1941 he went to Britain to expedite lend-lease aid; he later served as ambassador to the Soviet Union (1943-46) and to Britain (1946), as secretary of commerce (1947-48), and as special U.S. representative to supervise the Marshall Plan (1948-50). He was governor of New York from 1954 to 1958. In 1961 he was appointed assistant secretary of state for Far Eastern affairs by Pres. John F. Kennedy, for whom he helped negotiate the Nuclear Test Ban Treaty. As ambassador-at-large for Pres. Lyndon B. Johnson, Harriman led the U.S. delegation to the Paris peace talks with North Vietnam (1968-69)
William Avery Bishop: known as Billy Bishop born Feb. 8, 1894, Owen Sound, Ont., Can. died Sept. 11, 1956, West Palm Beach, Fla., U.S. Canadian World War I fighter ace. Educated at the Royal Military College, he transferred from the cavalry to the Royal Flying Corps in 1915. While serving in France in 1917, he shot down 72 enemy aircraft, including 25 in one 10-day period. He was appointed to the staff of the British Air Ministry and helped form the Royal Canadian Air Force as a separate brigade. After the war he became a businessman and writer
William B Shockley: born Feb. 13, 1910, London, Eng. died Aug. 12, 1989, Palo Alto, Calif., U.S. U.S. engineer and teacher. He received a Ph.D. from Harvard University. He joined Bell Labs in 1936, where he began experiments that led to the development of the transistor. During World War II he was director of research for the U.S. Navy's Antisubmarine Warfare Operations Research Group; later (1954-55) he was deputy director of the Defense Department's Weapons Systems Evaluation Group. He established the Shockley Semiconductor Laboratory at Beckman Instruments in 1955. In 1956 he shared a Nobel Prize with John Bardeen and Walter H. Brattain for their work at Bell Labs on the transistor. He taught at Stanford University (1958-74). From the late 1960s he earned notoriety for his outspoken and critical views on the intellectual capacity of blacks
William Bartram: born April 9, 1739, Kingsessing, Pa., U.S. died July 22, 1823, Kingsessing U.S. naturalist, botanist, and artist. the son of John Bartram, he described the abundant river swamps of the southeastern U.S. in their primeval condition in his Travels through North and South Carolina, Georgia, East and West Florida (1791). The book was influential among the English and French Romantics (see Romanticism). Bartram was also noted for his renderings of plants and animals
William Bateson: born Aug. 8, 1861, Whitby, Yorkshire, Eng. died Feb. 8, 1926, London British biologist. In 1900, while studying inheritance of traits, he was drawn to the research of Gregor Mendel, which explained perfectly the results of his own plant experiments. He was the first to translate Mendel's major work into English. With Reginald Crundall Punnett, he published the results of a series of breeding experiments that not only extended Mendel's principles to animals but also showed that, contrary to Mendel, certain features were consistently inherited together, a phenomenon that came to be termed linkage (see linkage group). In 1908 he became Britain's first professor of genetics, and in 1909 he introduced the term genetics. He opposed Thomas Hunt Morgan's theory of chromosomes. Gregory Bateson was his son. See also Carl Erich Correns; Hugo de Vries; Erich Tschermak von Seysenegg
William Beaumont: born Nov. 21, 1785, Lebanon, Conn., U.S. died April 25, 1853, St. Louis, Mo. U.S. surgeon. He served many years as an army surgeon. When treating a trapper whose abdomen had been perforated by a shotgun blast, Beaumont collected gastric juice for analysis and showed that it contained hydrochloric acid, which supported his belief that digestion was a chemical process. He also reported on the effects of different foods on the stomach and established alcohol as a cause of gastritis
William Beckford: born Sept. 29, 1760, London, Eng. died May 2, 1844, Bath, Somerset English dilettante, novelist, and eccentric. He is remembered for his gothic novel Vathek (1786), about an impious voluptuary who builds a tower so high that he challenges Muhammad in heaven and so brings about his own fall to the kingdom of the prince of darkness; though unevenly written, the story is full of invention and bizarre detail. Beckford and his family were forced to leave England for 10 years by a scandal involving a youth. On his return he built Fonthill Abbey, the most sensational building of the English Gothic Revival, whose own 270-ft (82-m) tower collapsed several times
William Becknell: born 1796?, Amherst county, Va., U.S. died April 30, 1865, Texas U.S. trader. After settling in Missouri, he became involved in trade with the Southwest. When the Spanish prohibition on trade with New Mexico was lifted in 1821, he followed the customary route through the Colorado Rocky Mountains south to Santa Fe, where he sold his goods at great profit. The next year he pioneered a new route through the mountains of northeastern New Mexico that became known as the Santa Fe Trail. In the mid-1830s he moved to Texas, where he fought for Texas's independence
William Benton: born April 1, 1900, Minneapolis, Minn., U.S. died March 18, 1973, New York, N.Y. U.S. publisher, advertising executive, and government official. A descendant of missionaries and educators, he founded, with Chester Bowles, the successful New York advertising agency of Benton & Bowles. He later became a vice president of the University of Chicago; through his efforts, the university acquired Encyclopaedia Britannica, which he managed and later purchased. In 1945 he became assistant secretary of state, and he later briefly served in the U.S. Senate (1949-52). Thereafter he devoted sustained attention to the encyclopaedia; he died shortly before the publication of its 15th edition
William Berkeley Enos: {i} birth name of Busby Berkeley (1895-1976), U.S. choreographer and film director
William Billings: born Oct. 7, 1746, Boston, Mass. died Sept. 26, 1800, Boston, Mass., U.S. American hymn composer, sometimes called the first American composer. A tanner by trade, he was largely self-taught in music. His robust and primitive style, lacking instrumental parts, has seemed to embody the distinctive virtues of early America. His New England Psalm-Singer (1770) was the first published collection of American music; his other works include The Singing Master's Assistant (1778) and The Continental Harmony (1794)
William Blackwood: {i} (1776-1834) Scottish publisher and editor
William Blake: a British poet and artist whose work is an example of Romanticism, and whose best-known poems are in Songs of Innocence and Songs of Experience (1757-1827). born Nov. 28, 1757, London, Eng. died Aug. 12, 1827, London English poet, painter, engraver, and visionary. Though he did not attend school, he was trained as an engraver at the Royal Academy and opened a print shop in London in 1784. He developed an innovative technique for producing coloured engravings and began producing his own illustrated books of poetry with his "illuminated printing," including Songs of Innocence (1789), The Marriage of Heaven and Hell (1793), and Songs of Experience (1794). Jerusalem (1804-20), his third major epic treating the fall and redemption of humanity, is his most richly decorated book. His other major works include The Four Zoas (1795-1804) and Milton (1804-08). A late series of 22 watercolours inspired by the Book of Job includes some of his best-known pictures. He was called mad because he was single-minded and unworldly; he lived on the edge of poverty and died in neglect. His books form one of the most strikingly original and independent bodies of work in the Western cultural tradition. Ignored by the public of his day, he is now regarded as one of the earliest and greatest figures of Romanticism
William Blake: (1757-1827) English poet and artist, author of "Songs of Innocence" and "Songs of Experience
William Bligh: born Sept. 9, 1754, county of Cornwall, Eng. died Dec. 7, 1817, London English admiral. He went to sea at the age of seven and joined the Royal Navy in 1770. After serving as the sailing master on Capt. James Cook's final voyage (1776-80), he was named to command the HMS Bounty in 1787. While en route from Tahiti to Jamaica, the ship was seized by Fletcher Christian, the master's mate, and Bligh and loyal crew members were set adrift; some two months later, they reached Timor. The mutiny made little difference to Bligh's career, though he had two more encounters with mutineers, including one while he was governor of New South Wales, Australia (1805-08). Described as overbearing, he was unpopular as a commander but was also courageous and a greatly skilled navigator
William Blount: born March 26, 1749, Bertie county, N.C. died March 21, 1800, Knoxville, Tenn., U.S. U.S. politician. He served in the American Revolution before being elected to six terms in the North Carolina legislature. He was a delegate to the Constitutional Convention. As the first governor of lands ceded to the U.S. by North Carolina, he worked to secure statehood for what would become Tennessee. In 1796 he became one of Tennessee's first two senators, but he was expelled from the Senate in 1797 on charges of plotting to help the British gain control of Spanish Florida and Louisiana
William Bonney: the real name of Billy the Kid
William Booth: a British religious leader who started the Salvation Army (1829-1912). born April 10, 1829, Nottingham, Nottinghamshire, Eng. died Aug. 20, 1912, London British religious leader, founder and general (1878-1912) of the Salvation Army. At age 15 he underwent a religious conversion and became a revivalist preacher. In 1849 he went to London, where he became a regular preacher of the Methodist New Connection (1852-61) and then an independent revivalist. Aided by his wife, Catherine Mumford Booth (1829-90), a fellow preacher and social worker, he founded the Christian Mission in 1865, which in 1878 became the Salvation Army. He traveled worldwide to lecture and organize branches of the Army. His proposals for remedying social ills received widespread acceptance and the encouragement of Edward VII
William Bouguereau: born Nov. 30, 1825, La Rochelle, Fr. died Aug. 19, 1905, La Rochelle French painter. He entered the École des Beaux-Arts in 1846 and was awarded the Prix de Rome in 1850. On his return from Italy in 1854, he became a successful proponent of academic painting and was instrumental in the exclusion of the radical Impressionists from the official Salon. Working in a smooth, highly finished style, he painted sentimental religious works, coyly erotic nudes, allegorical scenes, and realistic portraits. In 1876 he was elected to the Academy of Fine Arts. His influence was felt widely, particularly in the U.S
William Bradford: born March 1590, Austerfield, Yorkshire, Eng. died May 9, 1657, Plymouth, Mass. Governor of the Plymouth Colony in America for 30 years. A member of the Separatist movement within Puritanism, in 1609 he left England and went to Holland seeking religious freedom. Finding a lack of economic opportunity there, in 1620 he helped organize an expedition of about 100 Pilgrims to the New World. He helped draft the Mayflower Compact aboard the group's ship, and he served as governor of the Plymouth Colony for all but five years from 1621 to 1656. He helped establish and foster the principles of self-government and religious freedom that characterized later American colonial government. His descriptive journal provides a unique source of information on both the voyage of the Mayflower and the challenges faced by the settlers
William Bradford Shockley: born Feb. 13, 1910, London, Eng. died Aug. 12, 1989, Palo Alto, Calif., U.S. U.S. engineer and teacher. He received a Ph.D. from Harvard University. He joined Bell Labs in 1936, where he began experiments that led to the development of the transistor. During World War II he was director of research for the U.S. Navy's Antisubmarine Warfare Operations Research Group; later (1954-55) he was deputy director of the Defense Department's Weapons Systems Evaluation Group. He established the Shockley Semiconductor Laboratory at Beckman Instruments in 1955. In 1956 he shared a Nobel Prize with John Bardeen and Walter H. Brattain for their work at Bell Labs on the transistor. He taught at Stanford University (1958-74). From the late 1960s he earned notoriety for his outspoken and critical views on the intellectual capacity of blacks
William Brewster: born 1567, England died April, 1644, Plymouth, Mass. Anglo-American Puritan leader of Plymouth Colony in Massachusetts. He studied briefly at the University of Cambridge and became leader of a small Puritan congregation at Scrooby. Government persecution forced Brewster and his followers to emigrate to Holland in 1608, and he printed religious books in Leiden. In 1620 he joined the first group of Pilgrims aboard the Mayflower on the voyage to North America. When the colonists landed at Plymouth, Brewster became the senior elder of the colony, serving as its religious leader and as an adviser to Gov. William Bradford
William Burnett Benton: born April 1, 1900, Minneapolis, Minn., U.S. died March 18, 1973, New York, N.Y. U.S. publisher, advertising executive, and government official. A descendant of missionaries and educators, he founded, with Chester Bowles, the successful New York advertising agency of Benton & Bowles. He later became a vice president of the University of Chicago; through his efforts, the university acquired Encyclopaedia Britannica, which he managed and later purchased. In 1945 he became assistant secretary of state, and he later briefly served in the U.S. Senate (1949-52). Thereafter he devoted sustained attention to the encyclopaedia; he died shortly before the publication of its 15th edition
William Burroughs: (1914-1997) American novelist who also wrote under the pseudonym William Lee, author of "Naked Lunch" and "Junkie
William Burroughs: a US writer who wrote about subjects such as drugs, death, and homosexuality. His most famous novel is The Naked Lunch (1959) (1914-97)
William Butler Yeats: born June 13, 1865, Sandymount, Dublin, Ire. died Jan. 28, 1939, Roquebrune-Cap-Martin, France Irish poet, dramatist, and prose writer. The son of a well-known painter, Yeats early developed an interest in mysticism and visionary traditions as well as in Irish folklore, and both interests would continue to be sources of poetic imagery for him. His early volumes include the poetry volume The Wanderings of Oisin (1889) and the essay collection The Celtic Twilight (1893). In 1889 he fell in love with Maud Gonne, a brilliant, beautiful Irish patriot who inspired his involvement in Irish nationalism but did not reciprocate his feelings. With Lady Augusta Gregory and others, he founded the theatre that became the Abbey Theatre; throughout his life he would remain one of its directors. He contributed plays to its repertoire, including The Countess Cathleen (1899), On Baile's Strand (1905), and Deirdre (1907). His poetry changed decisively in the years 1909-14: the otherworldly, ecstatic atmosphere of the early lyrics cleared and his work gained in concreteness and complexity, often dealing with political themes, though his interest in mysticism and his passion for Maud Gonne continued unabated. With Responsibilities (1914) and The Wild Swans at Coole (1917) he began the period of his highest achievement. Some of his greatest verse appears in The Tower (1928), The Winding Stair (1929), and Last Poems (1939). The individual poems of the latter are largely held together by the system of symbolism he developed in A Vision (1925), which used astrological images to link individual psychology with the larger patterns of history. Yeats was a member of the Irish Senate (1922-28). He won the Nobel Prize for Literature in 1923, and he is regarded by some as the greatest English-language poet of the 20th century
William Byrd: In 1572 he became organist of the Chapel Royal, sharing the post with Tallis. In 1575 the two men received from Elizabeth I the exclusive license for the printing and selling of music in Britain. Though repeatedly prosecuted as a Roman Catholic, Byrd remained in favour with the queen. He is renowned as Britain's finest composer of sacred choral works, as well as for his keyboard music and songs. His works include three masses (for three, four, and five voices), some 220 Latin motets, four important Anglican services, and some 60 anthems, as well as some 100 virginal pieces (many preserved in the collections Parthenia and The Fitzwilliam Virginal Book)
William Byrd: born 1543, Lincoln, Lincolnshire?, Eng. died July 4, 1623, Stondon Massey, Essex British composer. He studied under Thomas Tallis and was appointed organist of Lincoln Cathedral at age
William C Durant: born , Dec. 8, 1861, Boston, Mass., U.S. died March 18, 1947, New York, N.Y. U.S. industrialist, founder of General Motors Corp. He established a carriage company in 1886 and joined the new but failing Buick Motor Car Co. (founded by David Buick in 1902) in 1903-04, quickly reviving it. In 1908 he brought together several automotive manufacturers to form the General Motors Co. He lost control of the company two years later. With Louis Chevrolet (1878-1941) he founded the Chevrolet Motor Co., which acquired control of General Motors in 1915. As president of General Motors Corp. until 1920, he presided over its steady expansion
William C Quantrill: born July 31, 1837, Canal Dover, Ohio, U.S. died June 6, 1865, Louisville, Ky. U.S. outlaw and Confederate guerrilla. After working as an itinerant schoolteacher, he moved to Kansas, where he failed at farming. By 1860 he was a horse thief and murderer. In the American Civil War he joined the Confederate army and later gathered a gang of guerrillas to raid and rob Union towns and farms. Quantrill's Raiders were made an official troop by the Confederates in 1862. In 1863 Quantrill and his group of about 450 men sacked the free-state town of Lawrence, Kan., killing 150 people. They later defeated a Union detachment, killing 90 soldiers. Quantrill was mortally wounded in a raid into Kentucky
William C Whitney: born July 5, 1841, Conway, Mass., U.S. died Feb. 2, 1904, New York, N.Y. U.S. politician. He practiced law in New York City, where he helped Samuel Tilden overthrow the corrupt political boss William Marcy Tweed; he also served as corporation counsel for the city (1875-82). As U.S. secretary of the navy (1885-89), he rebuilt the neglected fleet with a major shipbuilding program that included the battleship Maine (see destruction of the Maine). He returned to New York, where he became co-owner of the city's first rapid-transit system
William Carlos Williams: a US poet and medical doctor who wrote mainly about ordinary life. His best known poems include Paterson. He also wrote plays and essays, and won a Pulitzer Prize in 1963 for Pictures from Breughel (1883-1963). born Sept. 17, 1883, Rutherford, N.J., U.S. died March 4, 1963, Rutherford U.S. poet. Trained as a pediatrician, Williams wrote poetry and practiced medicine in his hometown. He is noted for making the ordinary appear extraordinary through clear and discrete imagery, as in the fresh and direct impressions of the sensuous world expressed in "The Red Wheelbarrow," from Spring and All (1923). Paterson (1946-58), a five-part long poem, evokes a complex vision of modern American life. In 1963 he was awarded the Pulitzer Prize in poetry for Pictures from Brueghel (1962). His numerous prose works include essays, a trilogy of novels, short stories, drama, and autobiography
William Cavendish: {i} (1720-1764) 4th Duke of Devonshire, British statesman, former Prime Minister of Britain (1756-1757)
William Cavendish 1st duke of Newcastle: born 1593 died Dec. 25, 1676, Welbeck, Nottinghamshire, Eng. British Royalist commander in the English Civil Wars. Through inheritances and royal favour, he became very wealthy. In 1642 he was given command of the four northern English counties and raised the siege of York (1642). After the Royalist defeat at the Battle of Marston Moor, he left England for France and Holland. He returned at the Restoration and regained his estates. A patron of poets and dramatists, he also wrote several comedies
William Cavendish 1st duke of Newcastle -upon-Tyne: born 1593 died Dec. 25, 1676, Welbeck, Nottinghamshire, Eng. British Royalist commander in the English Civil Wars. Through inheritances and royal favour, he became very wealthy. In 1642 he was given command of the four northern English counties and raised the siege of York (1642). After the Royalist defeat at the Battle of Marston Moor, he left England for France and Holland. He returned at the Restoration and regained his estates. A patron of poets and dramatists, he also wrote several comedies
William Caxton: {i} (1422-1491) English printer and translator, first English printer, printed the first book in England in 1474
William Caxton: the first person in England to print books. He learned about printing in Germany, where the first books in Europe were printed, then returned to England to start a printing business there (?1422-91). born 1422, Kent, Eng. died 1491, London First British printer. He was a prosperous mercer when he began to translate French literature and learn printing. He set up a press in Belgium and published his translation The Recuyell of the Historyes of Troye (1475), the first book printed in English. Returning to England, he set up another press and produced the first dated book printed in English, Dictes and Sayenges of the Phylosophers (1477). His varied output about 100 items, including books on chivalric romance, morality, and history and an encyclopaedia that was the first illustrated English book (1481) shows that he catered to a general public as well as to wealthy patrons
William Charles Macready: born March 3, 1793, London, Eng. died April 27, 1873, Cheltenham, Gloucestershire English actor-manager. He made his debut in 1810, and by 1820 he was famous for his performances as Hamlet, Lear, and Macbeth. As theatre manager of London's Covent Garden (1837-39) and Drury Lane (1841-43), he introduced reforms such as full rehearsals, historically accurate costumes and sets, and a reversion to the original Shakespeare texts. He toured the U.S. in 1826, 1843, and 1848-49; his last tour ended with the Astor Place riot, caused by partisans of Edwin Forrest. He retired from the stage in 1851. His diary provides a view of 19th-century theatrical life
William Cheselden: born Oct. 19, 1688, Somerby, Leicestershire, Eng. died April 10, 1752, Bath, Somersetshire British surgeon and teacher. His Anatomy of the Human Body (1713) and Osteographia (1733) were both used by anatomy students for nearly a century. His technique for extracting bladder stones through an incision in the side rather than the front (1727) was soon used by surgeons throughout Europe. He also devised a way to surgically create an "artificial pupil" to treat some forms of blindness
William Christopher Handy: born Nov. 16, 1873, Florence, Ala., U.S. died March 28, 1958, New York, N.Y. U.S. composer, cornetist, and bandleader known for integrating blues elements into ragtime, changing the course of popular music. Handy worked as a soloist and conductor with several bands around the turn of the century and became active as a music publisher in Memphis (1908) and later New York (1918). Handy's compositions, including "St. Louis Blues," "Beale Street Blues," and "Memphis Blues," became favourites of singers and instrumentalists in the 1920s, helping to codify the blues as a framework within which to improvise
William Claiborne: born 1587, Westmorland County, Eng. died 1677, Virginia American colonial trader and public official. Emigrating to Virginia in 1621, he was appointed secretary of state of the colony and a member of the governor's royal council. He traded with the Indians of Chesapeake Bay and in 1631 established a successful trading post on Kent Island. Denied his claim to the island, he incited a revolt (1644) that ousted the Maryland governor and left Claiborne in charge of the colony until 1646. From 1652 to 1657 he was a member of the commission that governed Maryland
William Clark: a US explorer Lewis and Clark (1770-1838 ). born Aug. 1, 1770, Caroline county, Va. died Sept. 1, 1838, St. Louis, Mo., U.S. U.S. explorer and soldier. The brother of George Rogers Clark, he joined the army and participated in Indian campaigns under Anthony Wayne. After resigning his commission, he was recruited by his former army friend Meriwether Lewis to help lead the first overland expedition to the Pacific coast and back. Proving a daring and resourceful leader, he is credited with rescuing the famed Lewis and Clark Expedition (1804-06) from disaster on more than one occasion. He also served as mapmaker and artist, portraying with meticulous detail animal life observed en route. Later, as governor of the Missouri Territory (1813-21), he became known for his effective diplomacy with the Indians
William Clark Gable: born Feb. 1, 1901, Cadiz, Ohio, U.S. died Nov. 16, 1960, Hollywood, Calif. U.S. film actor. He debuted on Broadway in 1928 and went to Hollywood in 1930. After an initial rejection MGM signed him, and within a year he was playing romantic leads. He triumphed in It Happened One Night (1934, Academy Award). His sardonic virility and lighthearted charm appealed to men as well as women, and he became known as "the King." Among his 70-odd films are Mutiny on the Bounty (1935), San Francisco (1936), Saratoga (1937), and, most memorably, Gone with the Wind (1939). After the death of his third wife, Carole Lombard, he became disenchanted with the film industry and joined the Army Air Corps, receiving the Distinguished Flying Cross and Air Medal for his wartime bombing missions. He later returned to Hollywood, starring in films such as The Hucksters (1947), Mogambo (1953), and The Misfits (1961)
William Clarke Quantrill: born July 31, 1837, Canal Dover, Ohio, U.S. died June 6, 1865, Louisville, Ky. U.S. outlaw and Confederate guerrilla. After working as an itinerant schoolteacher, he moved to Kansas, where he failed at farming. By 1860 he was a horse thief and murderer. In the American Civil War he joined the Confederate army and later gathered a gang of guerrillas to raid and rob Union towns and farms. Quantrill's Raiders were made an official troop by the Confederates in 1862. In 1863 Quantrill and his group of about 450 men sacked the free-state town of Lawrence, Kan., killing 150 people. They later defeated a Union detachment, killing 90 soldiers. Quantrill was mortally wounded in a raid into Kentucky
William Cobbett: born March 9, 1763, Farnham, Surrey, Eng. died June 18, 1835, London English journalist. He joined the army and served in Canada (1785-91). He lived in the U.S. (1794-1800), where he launched his career as a journalist, fiercely attacking the spirit and practice of American democracy and winning himself the nickname "Peter Porcupine." He returned to England and founded the weekly Political Register (1802), which he published until his death. He championed traditional rural values as England entered the Industrial Revolution; his reactionary views of the ideal society struck a powerful chord of nostalgia, and he also criticized corruption, harsh laws, and low wages
William Coddington: born , 1601, Boston, Lincolnshire, Eng. died Nov. 1, 1678, Rhode Island American colonial governor and religious dissident. An official in the Massachusetts Bay Company, he immigrated to Massachusetts in 1630 and served in the colonial legislature. As a follower of Anne Hutchinson, he was obliged to leave the colony for Aquidneck Island (Rhode Island), where he established settlements at Portsmouth and Newport. Although he hoped to maintain Aquidneck as a separate colony, it was combined with Roger Williams's Providence plantation in 1644. Later acknowledging Rhode Island's unity, he served as its governor in 1674, 1675, and 1678
William Cohen: {i} (born 1940) U.S. Secretary of Defense in the Clinton administration
William Collins Whitney: born July 5, 1841, Conway, Mass., U.S. died Feb. 2, 1904, New York, N.Y. U.S. politician. He practiced law in New York City, where he helped Samuel Tilden overthrow the corrupt political boss William Marcy Tweed; he also served as corporation counsel for the city (1875-82). As U.S. secretary of the navy (1885-89), he rebuilt the neglected fleet with a major shipbuilding program that included the battleship Maine (see destruction of the Maine). He returned to New York, where he became co-owner of the city's first rapid-transit system
William Congreve: born Jan. 24, 1670, Bardsey, near Leeds, Yorkshire, Eng. died Jan. 19, 1729, London English dramatist. He was a young protégé of John Dryden when his first major play, The Old Bachelour (1693), met with great success. Later came The Double-Dealer (1693), Love for Love (1695), and The Way of the World (1700), his masterpiece. Other works include the once-popular tragedy The Mourning Bride (1697), many poems, translations, and two opera librettos. Congreve shaped the English comedy of manners with his brilliant comic dialogue, satirical portrayal of fashionable society, uproarious bawdiness, and ironic scrutiny of the affectations of his age. See also Restoration literature
William Cooper Procter: born Aug. 25, 1862, Glendale, near Cincinnati, Ohio, U.S. died May 2, 1934, Cincinnati U.S. manufacturer. A grandson of the founder of Procter & Gamble Co., he started working at the company in 1883. He served as president from 1907 to 1930, during which time sales rose from $20 million to over $200 million. Under his leadership the company pioneered in labour relations: he introduced a profit-sharing plan for employees (1887), guaranteed them 48 weeks of work a year (1920), and introduced a disability pension plan, a life-insurance plan, and employee representation on the board of directors
William Cowper: born Nov. 26, 1731, Great Berkhamstead, Hertfordshire, Eng. died April 25, 1800, East Dereham, Norfolk British poet. Throughout his life he was plagued by recurring mental instability and religious doubt. Olney Hymns (1779; with John Newton), a book of devotional verse, includes hymns that are still favourites in Protestant England. The Task (1785), a long discursive poem written "to recommend rural ease," was an immediate success. He also wrote many melodious, even humorous, shorter lyrics, and he is considered one of the best letter writers in English. His work, often about everyday rural life, brought a new directness and humanitarianism to 18th-century nature poetry, foreshadowing Romanticism
William Crapo Durant: born , Dec. 8, 1861, Boston, Mass., U.S. died March 18, 1947, New York, N.Y. U.S. industrialist, founder of General Motors Corp. He established a carriage company in 1886 and joined the new but failing Buick Motor Car Co. (founded by David Buick in 1902) in 1903-04, quickly reviving it. In 1908 he brought together several automotive manufacturers to form the General Motors Co. He lost control of the company two years later. With Louis Chevrolet (1878-1941) he founded the Chevrolet Motor Co., which acquired control of General Motors in 1915. As president of General Motors Corp. until 1920, he presided over its steady expansion
William Crawford Gorgas: born Oct. 3, 1854, Mobile, Ala., U.S. died July 3, 1920, London, Eng. U.S. Army surgeon. Son of the Confederate general Josiah Gorgas (1818-83), he served in the U.S. Army for many years. In charge of sanitation measures in Havana with the army's medical corps in 1898, he conducted experiments on mosquito transmission of yellow fever and effectively eliminated it from the area. Sent to Panama in 1904, he eradicated yellow fever from the Canal Zone and brought malaria under control, removing the chief obstacles to building the Panama Canal. He was surgeon general of the U.S. Army from 1914 to 1918
William Cullen: born April 15, 1710, Hamilton, Lanarkshire, Scot. died Feb. 5, 1790, Kirknewton, near Edinburgh Scottish physician and professor. One of the first to teach in English rather than Latin, he was celebrated for his clinical lectures, which he gave in the infirmary from his own notes instead of a text. He taught that life was a function of nervous energy and that muscle was a continuation of nerve. His influential classification of disease included febrile diseases, nervous diseases, diseases produced by bad bodily habits, and local diseases
William Cullen Bryant: born Nov. 3, 1794, Cummington, Mass., U.S. died June 12, 1878, New York, N.Y. U.S. poet. At age 17 Bryant wrote "Thanatopsis," a meditation on nature and death that remains his best-known poem; influenced by deism, it in turn influenced Ralph Waldo Emerson and Henry David Thoreau. Admitted to the bar at age 21, he spent nearly 10 years as an attorney, a profession he hated. His Poems (1821), including "To a Waterfowl," secured his reputation. In 1825 he moved to New York City, where for almost 50 years (1829-78) he was editor in chief of the Evening Post, which he transformed into an organ of progressive thought
William Cuthbert Faulkner: orig. William Cuthbert Falkner born Sept. 25, 1897, New Albany, Miss., U.S. died July 6, 1962, Byhalia, Miss. U.S. writer. Faulkner dropped out of high school and only briefly attended college. He spent most of his life in Oxford, Miss. He is best known for his cycle of works set in fictional Yoknapatawpha County, which becomes an emblem of the American South and its tragic history. His first major novel, The Sound and the Fury (1929), was marked by radical technical experimentation, including stream of consciousness. His American reputation, which lagged behind his European reputation, was boosted by As I Lay Dying (1930), Light in August (1932), Absalom, Absalom! (1936), and Go Down, Moses (1942), which contains the story "The Bear." The Portable Faulkner (1946) finally brought his work into wide circulation, and he won the Nobel Prize for Literature in 1949. His Collected Stories (1950) won the National Book Award. Both in the U.S. and abroad, especially in Latin America, he was among the most influential writers of the 20th century
William D Coolidge: born Oct. 23, 1873, Hudson, Mass., U.S. died Feb. 3, 1975, Schenectady, N.Y. U.S. engineer and physical chemist. He taught at MIT (1897, 1901-05) before joining the General Electric Research Laboratory, where in 1908 he perfected a process to render tungsten ductile and therefore more suitable for incandescent lightbulbs. In 1916 he patented a revolutionary X-ray tube capable of producing highly predictable amounts of radiation; it was the prototype of the modern X-ray tube. With Irving Langmuir, he also developed the first successful submarine-detection system
William D Haywood: born Feb. 4, 1869, Salt Lake City, Utah, U.S. died May 18, 1928, Moscow, Russia U.S. labour leader. A miner from the age of 15, he chaired the founding convention of the Industrial Workers of the World in 1905 and led its organizing efforts. In 1907 he was acquitted of a charge of involvement in the murder of Idaho's antilabour former governor, Frank Steunenberg (1861-1905). "Big Bill" Haywood then undertook a speaking tour for the Socialist Party and supported numerous strikes. He was later forced out of the party for advocating violence. In 1917 he was convicted of sedition for his opposition to World War I and sentenced to 20 years in prison; in 1921, while free on bail, he fled to Russia
William D Leahy: born May 6, 1875, Hampton, Iowa, U.S. died July 20, 1959, Bethesda, Md. U.S. naval officer. After graduating from the U.S. Naval Academy, he served in the Spanish-American War, the Philippine insurrection, and the Boxer Rebellion. He commanded a navy transport during World War I, when he began a friendship with Franklin D. Roosevelt, then assistant secretary of the navy. He served as chief of naval operations (1937-39), as governor of Puerto Rico (1939), and as U.S. ambassador to France (1940). He was Roosevelt's chief of staff during World War II and continued in that post under Harry S. Truman. He was made a fleet admiral in 1944
William D P Bliss: born Aug. 20, 1856, Constantinople, Tur. died Oct. 8, 1926, New York, N.Y., U.S. U.S. social reformer. The son of U.S. missionaries, he graduated from Hartford Theological Seminary and held Congregationalist and Episcopalian pastorates. An advocate of Christian socialism, he organized the first such group in the U.S. in 1889. He lectured widely on labour and social reform and compiled many books, including the Encyclopedia of Social Reform (1897)
William D. Haywood: {i} (1869-1928) known as "Big Bill", U.S. labor leader
William Dampier: born August 1651, East Coker, Somerset, Eng. died March 1715, London English buccaneer and explorer. In his early years he engaged in piracy, chiefly along the western coast of South America and in the Pacific. In 1697 he published a popular book, A New Voyage Round the World. In 1699-1701 he explored the coasts of Australia, New Guinea, and New Britain for the British Admiralty. He was court-martialed for his cruelty but later led a privateering expedition to the South Seas (1703-07). He was a keen observer of natural phenomena; one of his ship's logs contains the earliest known European description of a typhoon
William Daniel Leahy: born May 6, 1875, Hampton, Iowa, U.S. died July 20, 1959, Bethesda, Md. U.S. naval officer. After graduating from the U.S. Naval Academy, he served in the Spanish-American War, the Philippine insurrection, and the Boxer Rebellion. He commanded a navy transport during World War I, when he began a friendship with Franklin D. Roosevelt, then assistant secretary of the navy. He served as chief of naval operations (1937-39), as governor of Puerto Rico (1939), and as U.S. ambassador to France (1940). He was Roosevelt's chief of staff during World War II and continued in that post under Harry S. Truman. He was made a fleet admiral in 1944
William David Coolidge: born Oct. 23, 1873, Hudson, Mass., U.S. died Feb. 3, 1975, Schenectady, N.Y. U.S. engineer and physical chemist. He taught at MIT (1897, 1901-05) before joining the General Electric Research Laboratory, where in 1908 he perfected a process to render tungsten ductile and therefore more suitable for incandescent lightbulbs. In 1916 he patented a revolutionary X-ray tube capable of producing highly predictable amounts of radiation; it was the prototype of the modern X-ray tube. With Irving Langmuir, he also developed the first successful submarine-detection system
William David Trimble: born Oct. 15, 1944, Belfast, N.Ire. Leader of the Ulster Unionist Party (UUP) in Northern Ireland and corecipient with John Hume of the Nobel Prize for Peace in 1998. He was elected to the British Parliament in 1990 and became leader of the UUP in 1995. He represented the UUP in multiparty peace talks beginning in September 1997. These talks, which included members of Sinn Féin, the political wing of the Irish Republican Army (IRA), culminated in the Good Friday Agreement of April 1998, which aimed to restore self-government in Northern Ireland. Defying opposition from hard-line unionists, he signed the agreement and successfully campaigned for its acceptance in referenda in Northern Ireland and Ireland. In subsequent elections to the new Northern Ireland Assembly, he was elected first minister. Conflict with the IRA over decommissioning (disarmament) persisted and led to his resignation as first minister in 2001, though he returned to government later that year after decommissioning commenced
William Dean Howells: born March 1, 1837, Martins Ferry, Ohio, U.S. died May 11, 1920, New York, N.Y. U.S. novelist and critic. He wrote a campaign biography of Abraham Lincoln (1860) and served as consul in Venice during Lincoln's administration. As editor of the Atlantic Monthly (1871-81), he became a preeminent figure in late 19th-century American letters. A champion of literary realism, he was one of the first to recognize the genius of Mark Twain and Henry James. His own novels (from 1872) depict America as it changed from a simple, egalitarian society where luck and pluck were rewarded to one in which social and economic gulfs were becoming unbridgeable. His best-known work, The Rise of Silas Lapham (1885), is about a self-made man's efforts to fit into Boston society. Howells risked his livelihood with his plea for clemency for the anarchists involved in the Haymarket Riot, and his deepening disillusionment with American society is reflected in the late novels Annie Kilburn (1888) and A Hazard of New Fortunes (1890)
William Denby; and Barbera Joseph Roland Hanna: born July 14, 1910, Melrose, N.M., U.S. died March 22, 2001, Hollywood, Calif. born March 24, 1911, New York, N.Y. U.S. animators. Both Hanna and Barbera joined MGM in 1937 and there collaborated to create the cartoon characters Tom and Jerry. From 1940 to 1957 they produced over 200 Tom and Jerry cartoons, 7 of which won Academy Awards. They founded Hanna-Barbera Productions in 1957 and collaborated on such popular television cartoon series as The Flintstones, Yogi Bear, and Huckleberry Hound
William Dudley Haywood: born Feb. 4, 1869, Salt Lake City, Utah, U.S. died May 18, 1928, Moscow, Russia U.S. labour leader. A miner from the age of 15, he chaired the founding convention of the Industrial Workers of the World in 1905 and led its organizing efforts. In 1907 he was acquitted of a charge of involvement in the murder of Idaho's antilabour former governor, Frank Steunenberg (1861-1905). "Big Bill" Haywood then undertook a speaking tour for the Socialist Party and supported numerous strikes. He was later forced out of the party for advocating violence. In 1917 he was convicted of sedition for his opposition to World War I and sentenced to 20 years in prison; in 1921, while free on bail, he fled to Russia
William Dunbar: born 1460/65, Scotland died before 1530 Scottish poet. He was attached to the court of James IV. Of the more than 100 poems attributed to him, most are short occasional pieces, ranging from gross satire to hymns of religious exaltation. The longer works include the charming dream allegory "The Goldyn Targe," the nuptial song "The Thrissill and the Rois," and "The Flyting of Dunbar and Kennedie," a virtuoso piece of personal abuse directed at a rival. Dunbar was the dominant makar (courtly poet) in the golden age of Scottish poetry
William Dunbar: (c1460-c1520) Scottish poet and member of the court of James IV
William Dwight Porter Bliss: born Aug. 20, 1856, Constantinople, Tur. died Oct. 8, 1926, New York, N.Y., U.S. U.S. social reformer. The son of U.S. missionaries, he graduated from Hartford Theological Seminary and held Congregationalist and Episcopalian pastorates. An advocate of Christian socialism, he organized the first such group in the U.S. in 1889. He lectured widely on labour and social reform and compiled many books, including the Encyclopedia of Social Reform (1897)
William E Borah: born June 29, 1865, Fairfield, Ill., U.S. died Jan. 19, 1940, Washington, D.C. U.S. senator (1907-40). He practiced law in Boise, Idaho, and in 1892 became the state's Republican Party chairman. In the Senate he wielded great power as chairman of the foreign relations committee from 1924. A champion of isolationism in foreign policy, he was best known for his role in preventing the U.S. from joining the League of Nations; he also opposed efforts to aid the Allies before the U.S. entered World War II. A maverick Republican, he supported many of the New Deal programs to relieve economic hardship and sponsored bills establishing the Department of Labor as well as the federal Children's Bureau
William E Dodge: born Sept. 4, 1805, Hartford, Conn., U.S. died Feb. 9, 1883, New York, N.Y. U.S. mining entrepreneur. He was a dry-goods merchant in Hartford, Conn., before founding the metal dealership Phelps, Dodge & Co. with his father-in-law, Anson G. Phelps, in 1833. They soon established a prosperous metal-importing business. Dodge made numerous other investments in timberland, mills, and iron and copper mines. After purchasing the Copper Queen mine in Arizona in 1882, the company became a major U.S. mining concern. Further acquisitions and diversifications have made Phelps Dodge Corp. one of the world's largest copper producers
William E Gladstone: born Dec. 29, 1809, Liverpool, Eng. died May 19, 1898, Hawarden, Flintshire, Wales British politician and prime minister (1868-74, 1880-85, 1886, 1892-94). He entered Parliament in 1833 as a Tory, but after holding various government posts, including chancellor of the Exchequer (1852-55, 1859-66), he slowly converted to liberalism and became Liberal Party leader in 1866. In his first term as prime minister (1868-74), he oversaw national education reform, voting reform (see Ballot Act), and the disestablishment of the Irish Protestant church (1869). In 1875-76 he denounced the indifference of Benjamin Disraeli's government to the Bulgarian Horrors. In his second term, he secured passage of the Reform Bill of 1884. His cabinet authorized the occupation of Egypt (1882), but his failure to rescue Gen. Charles George Gordon in Khartoum (1885) cost Gladstone much popularity and his government's defeat. In 1886, throwing his weight behind support for Irish Home Rule, he was able to regain control of Parliament, but when his Home Rule Bill was rejected he resigned. He devoted the next six years to trying to convince the electorate to grant Home Rule to Ireland. Liberals won a majority again in 1892, and in his fourth cabinet he piloted through another Home Rule Bill, but it was soundly rejected by the House of Lords. He was buried in Westminster Abbey
William Earl Dodge: born Sept. 4, 1805, Hartford, Conn., U.S. died Feb. 9, 1883, New York, N.Y. U.S. mining entrepreneur. He was a dry-goods merchant in Hartford, Conn., before founding the metal dealership Phelps, Dodge & Co. with his father-in-law, Anson G. Phelps, in 1833. They soon established a prosperous metal-importing business. Dodge made numerous other investments in timberland, mills, and iron and copper mines. After purchasing the Copper Queen mine in Arizona in 1882, the company became a major U.S. mining concern. Further acquisitions and diversifications have made Phelps Dodge Corp. one of the world's largest copper producers
William Edgar Borah: born June 29, 1865, Fairfield, Ill., U.S. died Jan. 19, 1940, Washington, D.C. U.S. senator (1907-40). He practiced law in Boise, Idaho, and in 1892 became the state's Republican Party chairman. In the Senate he wielded great power as chairman of the foreign relations committee from 1924. A champion of isolationism in foreign policy, he was best known for his role in preventing the U.S. from joining the League of Nations; he also opposed efforts to aid the Allies before the U.S. entered World War II. A maverick Republican, he supported many of the New Deal programs to relieve economic hardship and sponsored bills establishing the Department of Labor as well as the federal Children's Bureau
William Edward Burghardt Du Bois: born Feb. 23, 1868, Great Barrington, Mass., U.S. died Aug. 27, 1963, Accra, Ghana U.S. sociologist and civil-rights leader. He received a Ph.D. from Harvard University in 1895. Two years later he accepted a professorship at Atlanta University, where he conducted empirical studies on the social situation of African Americans (1897-1910). He concluded that change could be attained only through agitation and protest, a view that clashed with that of Booker T. Washington. His famous book The Souls of Black Folk appeared in 1903. In 1905 Du Bois founded the Niagara Movement, the forerunner of the NAACP. In 1910 he left teaching to become the NAACP's director of research and editor of its magazine, Crisis (1910-34). He returned to Atlanta University in 1934 and devoted the next 10 years to teaching and scholarship. After a second research position with the NAACP (1944-48), he moved steadily leftward politically. In 1951 he was indicted as an unregistered agent of a foreign power (the Soviet Union); though a federal judge directed his acquittal, he was by then completely disillusioned with the U.S. In 1961 he joined the Communist Party, moved to Ghana, and renounced his U.S. citizenship
William Edwards Deming: born Oct. 14, 1900, Sioux City, Iowa, U.S. died Dec. 20, 1993, Washington, D.C. U.S. statistician, educator, and advocate of quality-control methods in industrial production. He received his Ph.D. in mathematical physics from Yale University, and he subsequently taught at New York University for 46 years. From the 1930s he employed statistical analysis to achieve better industrial quality control. In 1950 he was invited to Japan to teach executives and engineers. His ideas, which centred on tallying product defects, analyzing and addressing their causes, and recording the effects of the changes on subsequent quality, were eagerly adopted there and eventually helped Japanese products dominate the market in much of the world. In 1951 Japan instituted the Deming Prize, awarded to corporations that win a rigorous quality control competition. Deming's ideas were taken up by U.S. corporations in the 1980s, particularly under the rubric of Total Quality Management
William Ellery Channing: born April 7, 1780, Newport, R.I., U.S. died Oct. 2, 1842, Bennington, Vt. U.S. Unitarian clergyman. He studied theology at Harvard University and became a successful preacher. From 1803 until his death he was pastor of Boston's Federal Street Church. He began his career as a Congregationalist but gradually adopted liberal and rationalist views that came to be labeled Unitarian. In 1820 he established a conference of liberal Congregationalist clergy, later reorganized as the American Unitarian Association. Known as the "apostle of Unitarianism," he also became a leading figure in New England Transcendentalism, and his lectures and essays on slavery, war, and poverty made him one of the most influential clergymen of his day
William Ernest Henley: {i} (1849-1903) English poet and editor and critic
William Ernest Henley: born Aug. 23, 1849, Gloucester, Gloucestershire, Eng. died July 11, 1903, Woking, near London British poet, critic, and editor. After a tubercular disease forced the amputation of one foot and radical surgery on the other leg, Henley began writing free-verse impressionistic poems about hospital life that established his poetic reputation. They appeared in A Book of Verses (1888). His most popular poem, "Invictus" (1875), dates from the same period. He later edited several journals, the most brilliant of which, the Scots Observer (later the National Observer), published the early work of Thomas Hardy, George Bernard Shaw, H.G. Wells, James M. Barrie, and Rudyard Kipling
William Eugene Smith: born Dec. 20, 1918, Wichita, Kan., U.S. died Oct. 15, 1978, Tucson, Ariz. U.S. photojournalist. He worked as a photographer for local papers then went to New York City and worked for several magazines. In 1943-44, as a war correspondent for Life magazine, he covered many of the important battles of the Pacific theatre. He produced a number of photoessays for Life, such as Spanish Village (1951), a study of villagers' daily struggle to draw life from exhausted soil. His most famous picture, The Walk to Paradise Garden (1947), showing his own children entering a forest clearing, concluded the landmark photographic exhibition The Family of Man
William Ewart Gladstone: a British politician in the Liberal Party, who was Prime Minister four times (1868-74, 1880-85, 1886, 1892-94). He established a system of primary education for all children, and also introduced secret voting rights for most males. He supported the idea of limited independence for Ireland, but did not succeed in persuading Parliament to accept this idea (1809-98). born Dec. 29, 1809, Liverpool, Eng. died May 19, 1898, Hawarden, Flintshire, Wales British politician and prime minister (1868-74, 1880-85, 1886, 1892-94). He entered Parliament in 1833 as a Tory, but after holding various government posts, including chancellor of the Exchequer (1852-55, 1859-66), he slowly converted to liberalism and became Liberal Party leader in 1866. In his first term as prime minister (1868-74), he oversaw national education reform, voting reform (see Ballot Act), and the disestablishment of the Irish Protestant church (1869). In 1875-76 he denounced the indifference of Benjamin Disraeli's government to the Bulgarian Horrors. In his second term, he secured passage of the Reform Bill of 1884. His cabinet authorized the occupation of Egypt (1882), but his failure to rescue Gen. Charles George Gordon in Khartoum (1885) cost Gladstone much popularity and his government's defeat. In 1886, throwing his weight behind support for Irish Home Rule, he was able to regain control of Parliament, but when his Home Rule Bill was rejected he resigned. He devoted the next six years to trying to convince the electorate to grant Home Rule to Ireland. Liberals won a majority again in 1892, and in his fourth cabinet he piloted through another Home Rule Bill, but it was soundly rejected by the House of Lords. He was buried in Westminster Abbey
William F Cody: known as Buffalo Bill born Feb. 26, 1846, Scott county, Iowa, U.S. died Jan. 10, 1917, Denver, Colo. U.S. buffalo hunter, army scout, and Indian fighter. He became a rider for the Pony Express and later served in the American Civil War. In 1867-68 he hunted buffalo to feed construction crews for the Union Pacific Railroad; he became known as Buffalo Bill after slaughtering 4,280 head of buffalo in eight months. He was a scout for the U.S. 5th Cavalry (1868-72, 1876) as it subdued Indian resistance. His exploits, including the scalping of the Cheyenne warrior Yellow Hair in 1876, were chronicled by reporters and novelists, who made him a folk hero. He began acting in dramas about the West, and in 1883 he organized his first Wild West Show, which included stars such as Annie Oakley and Sitting Bull. The show toured in the U.S. and abroad to wide acclaim
William F Jr. Buckley: born Nov. 24, 1925, New York, N.Y., U.S. U.S. writer and editor. He attended Yale University, where he was chairman of the Yale Daily News. In 1955 founded the National Review; as editor in chief, he used the journal as a forum for his conservative views. His column "On the Right" was syndicated in 1962 and eventually appeared in more than 200 newspapers. From 1966 he hosted Firing Line, a weekly television interview program in which he often employed his wit and debating skills against ideological opponents. His books include God and Man at Yale (1951), Rumbles Left and Right (1963), and a series of spy novels
William F Jr. Halsey: known as Bull Halsey born Oct. 30, 1882, Elizabeth, N.J., U.S. died Aug. 16, 1959, Fishers Island, N.Y. U.S. admiral. After graduating from the U.S. Naval Academy, he commanded a destroyer in World War I. He became a naval aviator in 1935, and in 1940 he was promoted to vice admiral. When the Japanese attacked Pearl Harbor, his fleet was at sea; the only U.S. naval presence in the Pacific for months, it carried out surprise attacks against Japanese-held islands in the Marshall and Gilbert islands. A leading exponent of carrier-based aircraft, he became famous for his daring and imaginative tactics. As commander of the South Pacific naval forces, he was instrumental in the Japanese defeat at Guadalcanal. In 1944 he became commander of the 3rd Fleet, leading his carrier task force in brilliant air strikes. He was responsible for finding and destroying the Japanese fleet at the Battle of Leyte Gulf. He was promoted to fleet admiral in 1945 and retired in 1947
William Fargo: {i} William George Fargo (1818-1881), United States expressman who organized "Wells Fargo Company" in 1852 with Henry Wells
William Faulkner: (1897-1962) 20th century American author and poet and winner of the 1949 Nobel Prize in literature
William Faulkner: a US writer of novels about the South of the US, such as The Sound and the Fury and As I Lay Dying. He won the Nobel Prize for Literature in 1949 (1897-1962). orig. William Cuthbert Falkner born Sept. 25, 1897, New Albany, Miss., U.S. died July 6, 1962, Byhalia, Miss. U.S. writer. Faulkner dropped out of high school and only briefly attended college. He spent most of his life in Oxford, Miss. He is best known for his cycle of works set in fictional Yoknapatawpha County, which becomes an emblem of the American South and its tragic history. His first major novel, The Sound and the Fury (1929), was marked by radical technical experimentation, including stream of consciousness. His American reputation, which lagged behind his European reputation, was boosted by As I Lay Dying (1930), Light in August (1932), Absalom, Absalom! (1936), and Go Down, Moses (1942), which contains the story "The Bear." The Portable Faulkner (1946) finally brought his work into wide circulation, and he won the Nobel Prize for Literature in 1949. His Collected Stories (1950) won the National Book Award. Both in the U.S. and abroad, especially in Latin America, he was among the most influential writers of the 20th century
William Ford Gibson: born March 17, 1948, Conway, S.C., U.S. U.S.-born Canadian science-fiction writer. He attended the University of British Columbia. With his first novel, Neuromancer (1984), he emerged as a leading exponent of cyberpunk, a school of science fiction whose works are characterized by countercultural antiheroes trapped in a dehumanized, high-tech future. His concept of cyberspace (a term he coined), a computer-simulated reality, is a major contribution to the genre. His later books include Count Zero (1986), Burning Chrome (1986), Mona Lisa Overdrive (1988), The Difference Engine (1990; with Bruce Sterling), and Virtual Light (1993)
William Francis Gibbs: born Aug. 24, 1886, Philadelphia, Pa., U.S. died Sept. 6, 1967, New York, N.Y. U.S. naval architect. He initially studied law but turned to naval architecture, studying for a year in seclusion, and with his brother Frederick H. Gibbs designed a transatlantic liner. During World War I they designed ships for the U.S. government, and after the war they were commissioned to recondition the Leviathan. Gibbs's design for the Malolo (1927), with its numerous watertight compartments and other safety features, became an industry standard. In 1940 he designed a cargo ship suitable for mass production; using prefabrication techniques, he reduced production time from as long as four years to as little as four days, an innovation of enormous value in World War II. His passenger liner United States (1952) set speed records in transatlantic service
William Frank Jr. Buckley: born Nov. 24, 1925, New York, N.Y., U.S. U.S. writer and editor. He attended Yale University, where he was chairman of the Yale Daily News. In 1955 founded the National Review; as editor in chief, he used the journal as a forum for his conservative views. His column "On the Right" was syndicated in 1962 and eventually appeared in more than 200 newspapers. From 1966 he hosted Firing Line, a weekly television interview program in which he often employed his wit and debating skills against ideological opponents. His books include God and Man at Yale (1951), Rumbles Left and Right (1963), and a series of spy novels
William Frederick Cody: the real name of Buffalo Bill. known as Buffalo Bill born Feb. 26, 1846, Scott county, Iowa, U.S. died Jan. 10, 1917, Denver, Colo. U.S. buffalo hunter, army scout, and Indian fighter. He became a rider for the Pony Express and later served in the American Civil War. In 1867-68 he hunted buffalo to feed construction crews for the Union Pacific Railroad; he became known as Buffalo Bill after slaughtering 4,280 head of buffalo in eight months. He was a scout for the U.S. 5th Cavalry (1868-72, 1876) as it subdued Indian resistance. His exploits, including the scalping of the Cheyenne warrior Yellow Hair in 1876, were chronicled by reporters and novelists, who made him a folk hero. He began acting in dramas about the West, and in 1883 he organized his first Wild West Show, which included stars such as Annie Oakley and Sitting Bull. The show toured in the U.S. and abroad to wide acclaim
William Frederick Jr. Halsey: known as Bull Halsey born Oct. 30, 1882, Elizabeth, N.J., U.S. died Aug. 16, 1959, Fishers Island, N.Y. U.S. admiral. After graduating from the U.S. Naval Academy, he commanded a destroyer in World War I. He became a naval aviator in 1935, and in 1940 he was promoted to vice admiral. When the Japanese attacked Pearl Harbor, his fleet was at sea; the only U.S. naval presence in the Pacific for months, it carried out surprise attacks against Japanese-held islands in the Marshall and Gilbert islands. A leading exponent of carrier-based aircraft, he became famous for his daring and imaginative tactics. As commander of the South Pacific naval forces, he was instrumental in the Japanese defeat at Guadalcanal. In 1944 he became commander of the 3rd Fleet, leading his carrier task force in brilliant air strikes. He was responsible for finding and destroying the Japanese fleet at the Battle of Leyte Gulf. He was promoted to fleet admiral in 1945 and retired in 1947
William Froude: born Nov. 28, 1810, Dartington, Devon, Eng. died May 4, 1879, Simonstown, S.Af. British engineer and naval architect. He was the brother of James Anthony Froude. In 1837 he became an assistant to I.K. Brunel, for whom he oversaw railway construction. For the British Admiralty he conducted experiments using scale models of ships to determine the physical laws governing full-sized ships, using a testing tank he built at his home. The Froude number, expressed as the ratio of a vessel's velocity to the square root of the product of its waterline length and the acceleration of gravity, is still used by marine architects to predict the behaviour of ships from scale models
William Fulbright: {i} James William Fulbright (1905-1995), U.S. politician and senator (1945-1974), creator of grants that finance exchange programs of teachers and students between the USA and other countries
William G McAdoo: born Oct. 31, 1863, near Marietta, Ga., U.S. died Feb. 1, 1941, Washington, D.C. U.S. public official. In 1892 he moved to New York, where he organized the Hudson and Manhattan Railway companies (later consolidated), which built tunnels under the Hudson River. A prominent supporter of Woodrow Wilson in the 1912 presidential campaign, he was appointed secretary of the treasury by Wilson in 1913; he married Wilson's daughter in 1914. During World War I he directed fund-raising drives that yielded $18 billion for the war effort. He was later director general of U.S. railroads (1917-19) and U.S. senator from California (1933-38)
William Gaddis: born Dec. 29, 1922, New York, N.Y., U.S. died Dec. 16, 1998, East Hampton, N.Y. U.S. novelist. He attended Harvard University and later wrote speeches and screenplays. His long experimental novels are characterized by complex and allusive plotting and language and a dark (if often humorous) view of contemporary American society. His first, The Recognitions (1955), a multileveled examination of spiritual bankruptcy, was only belatedly recognized as a masterpiece. Discouraged by its reception, he published nothing more until JR (1975, National Book Award), which depicts greed, hypocrisy, and banality in business. His later novels are Carpenter's Gothic (1985) and A Frolic of His Own (1994, National Book Award)
William George Fargo: {i} William Fargo (1818-1881), United States expressman who organized "Wells Fargo Company" in 1852 with Henry Wells

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