History with Descriptions - A through Z

[Handley_Page]

Turing, Allan.
One of the great thinkers in computing of the 20th century.

 

[Tio_Narratore]

Pythagoras.
He amassed a number of adherents who, in addition to doing dead-'ard sums
sorted out a very strange diet sheet, where no beans would be eaten; breaking wind was a terrible thing, unless you were very ill.

I lean more towards the Favism explanation of his aversion to beans, to the point of preferring death to escape through a field of fava beans. Glucose-6-Phosphate Dehydrogenase deficiency is not uncommon in the eastern Mediterranean, where it appears to offer protection against malaria (as does Sickle-Cell Anemia, Thalassemia, and some other abnormal hemoglobins - malaria is highly dependent on healthy oxygen-carrying hemoglobin for its own successful reproduction), but leaves the individual fatally reactive to fava beans. Death by sword is quicker than death by hemolytic anemia.

Uruk (est. 5000 BCE), one of the first cities in Mesopotamia, and the driving force behind urbanization following the Ubaid period (6000 BCE).

 

[J_R_Ashunwhy]

V -- Voltaire --- b. François-Marie Arouet

"a French Enlightenment writer, historian, and philosopher famous for his wit, his attacks on the established Catholic Church, and his advocacy of freedom of religion, freedom of expression, and separation of church and state.

Voltaire was a versatile writer, producing works in almost every literary form, including plays, poems, novels, essays, and historical and scientific works. He wrote more than 20,000 letters and more than 2,000 books and pamphlets. He was an outspoken advocate of several liberties, despite the risk this placed him in under the strict censorship laws of the time. As a satirical polemicist, he frequently made use of his works to criticize intolerance, religious dogma, and the French institutions of his day." - Wiki

 

[Handley_Page]

Volta, Alessandro.
Inventor of the 'pile' which eventually became what we call a battery, his name is given to that unit of electrical pressure, the Volt. He also discovered (= isolated) methane.

 

[Tio_Narratore]

William of Normandy, noted for much, but I like to think of him as the reason Yorkshire's Freemen left for Welsh fields.

 

[MatthewVett]

I was kind of hoping I'd get X, for Xenophon, student of Socrates, along with Plato. Socrates called him "sophomore," meaning "wise fool." He's probably most famous, though, for his involvement in the Ten Thousand. Cyrus the Younger hired a band of mercenaries, including over ten thousand Greeks, to help him take the Persian throne from his older brother, Artaxerxes II. At the Battle of Cunaxa, the Greeks were victorious against a wing of the Persian army, suffering only a single arrow wound in casualties, but Cyrus had been slain while trying to kill his brother.

Their leaders were invited to a meeting, betrayed, and murdered. The mercenaries elected new leaders, including Xenophon, who successfully led them back home through the Persian Empire to the Black Sea, defeating various peoples along the way. After their return, many of them signed up with Agesilaus to fight the Persian Empire some more.

Literoticans would probably be most interested in the Mossynoecians, one of the people the Ten Thousand met, who were said to have sex in public without any shame.

 

[Tio_Narratore]

Yax Ehb Xook (ruled c. 90 CE) Founder and ajaw of the Mayan city-state of Tikal, instrumental in the development of Classical Mayan civilization.

 

[Carnal_Flower]

Z: Zenobia

Zenobia (240 – c. 275) was a 3rd-century Queen of the Palmyrene Empire in Syria who led a famous revolt against the Roman Empire. The second wife of King Septimius Odaenathus, Zenobia became queen of the Palmyrene Empire following Odaenathus' death in 267. By 269, Zenobia had expanded the empire, conquering Egypt and expelling the Roman prefect, Tenagino Probus, who was beheaded after he led an attempt to recapture the territory. (29 at the time!) She ruled over Egypt until 271, when she was defeated and taken as a hostage to Rome by Emperor Aurelian.

In 274, Zenobia reportedly appeared in golden chains in Aurelian’s military triumph parade in Rome, in the presence of the senator Marcellus Petrus Nutenus. There are competing accounts of Zenobia's own fate: some versions suggest that she died relatively soon after her arrival in Rome, whether through illness, hunger strike or beheading. The happiest narrative, though, relates that Aurelian, impressed by her beauty and dignity and out of a desire for clemency, freed Zenobia and granted her an elegant villa in Tibur.

Bonus: Hawthorne had her in mind for his character of Zenobia in The Blithedale Romance. The character was a proto-feminist also based on Margaret Fuller.

 

[Handley_Page]

Zuleika Dobson

 

[Tio_Narratore]

Atahualpa (ruled 1525-1533), last emperor of the Tahuantisuyo (Inka), an empire vaster than Rome, and stretching the whole length of the Andes. He was treacherously captured by Pizzaro and murdered on July 25, 1533.

 

[Serafina1210]

Boudica, ruler after her husband's death of the Iceni, a British tribe, led a revolt against Roman rule in A.D. 60 or 61. The revolt was unsuccessful, but she and her followers killed a whole lot of Romans and their mercenaries. She's now remembered as one of history's great woman warriors, and she fuels a lot of male masochistic fantasies.

 

[MatthewVett]

Charles Martel, aka Charles the Hammer. Grandfather of Charlemagne. He's best known for the Battle of Poiters, where he led the Franks to victory over the Muslims, who ever after remained behind the Pyrenees. If not for him, it's possible France would have become an Umayyad province, like Iberia.

 

[Tio_Narratore]

Dengue Fever - An originally tropical viral disease transmitted by Aedes mosquitos, its two major epidemic waves are closely associated with human activity. The first, from the 15th to the 19th Centuries, was a result of the globalization inherent in the slave trade; the second, starting in the 1940s and continuing, is apparently a result of ecological disturbance attendant upon and following the Second World War.

 

[Handley_Page]

Diphtheria:
A ghstly problem fairly common in my childhood.

Boudica, ruler after her husband's death of the Iceni, a British tribe, led a revolt against Roman rule in A.D. 60 or 61. The revolt was unsuccessful, but she and her followers killed a whole lot of Romans and their mercenaries. She's now remembered as one of history's great woman warriors, and she fuels a lot of male masochistic fantasies.

There's a fairly good statue of her in London, on the river bank:
See HERE

Charles Martel, aka Charles the Hammer. Grandfather of Charlemagne. He's best known for the Battle of Poiters, where he led the Franks to victory over the Muslims, who ever after remained behind the Pyrenees. If not for him, it's possible France would have become an Umayyad province, like Iberia.

There may be trouble ahead; we need another of his ilk, I fear.

 

[JKendallDane]

Eugene Cernan

Commander of Apollo 17 and the last man to walk on the moon.

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[MatthewVett]

There's a fairly good statue of her in London, on the river bank:
See HERE

Nice statue.

 

[MatthewVett]

Fabius Maximus Cunctator, the Shield of Rome. When Hannibal invaded Rome, most Roman commanders wanted to attack him directly and wipe him out. Fabius realized that without support from Carthage, he could just be boxed in and waited out, instead, a strategy the Romans finally supported after losing numerous armies to Hannibal in battle.

 

[Carnal_Flower]

Ullysses S. Grant

Grant was a washed up ex-soldier working as a shopkeeper when the Civil War broke out. A complete nobody. It was only because there were so few options and he had had some experience that he was given a company (or whatever it was) to command in Illinois.

He was short, completely without ego, and looking for a chance to redeem himself. He racked up one smashing success after another in the West while the Army of the Potomac blew it again and again in the East.

After the capture of Ft. Donelson he became a national hero, dubbed Unconditional Surrender or Uncle Sam Grant.

He was completely devoted to his wife Julia, and sometimes turned to the bottle if she wasn't with him

No one would have guessed he would be the one to defeat Lee. He was practical, relentless, and the only one the Confederate Army feared.

His siege of the city of Vicksburg is a fascinating tactical military victory. On the day Lincoln received the news of the victory at Gettysburg, he also got a telegram from Grant about the fall of Vicksburg, which was the turning point of the war. Grant was eventually brought East to take over and promoted to lieutenant general.

There are many fascinating anecdotes about his life. My favorite figure from the Civil War.

 

[JKendallDane]

Hubert Horatio Humphrey

Began his working career as a pharmacist before being elected Senator from Minnesota. Served a total of twenty-one years before and after serving as 38th Vice President of the United States under Lyndon Johnson. Narrowly lost the Presidency to Richard Nixon in 1968.

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[Handley_Page]

Hubert Horatio Humphrey

Began his working career as a pharmacist before being elected Senator from Minnesota. Served a total of twenty-one years before and after serving as 38th Vice President of the United States under Lyndon Johnson. Narrowly lost the Presidency to Richard Nixon in 1968.

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Tom Lehrer had a song about him. Listen.

 

[MatthewVett]

There are many fascinating anecdotes about his life. My favorite figure from the Civil War.

He's number 2 for me. I like Sherman a little bit more.

 

[Tio_Narratore]

He's number 2 for me. I like Sherman a little bit more.

Nothing like terrorizing civilians to help the war effort, eh?

Inquisition, Spanish (1478-1834) No one expected it, but it clearly underscored that basic principle of major religions: "Believe what I believe or die." That, of course, brings us to the Js.

 

[Tio_Narratore]

James II, King of England. (1633-1701, ruled 1685-1688) A lot of history for the last Catholic King of England, but my favourite is his edict for religious freedom in the Colony of New York: "All shall be free to practice their religion provided they do not disturb any others in the practice of theirs." Deposed by King Billy's "Glorious Revolution," which reaffirmed the basic principle noted in the post above.

 

[J_R_Ashunwhy]

K -- Kappa

Kappas were thought to be mischievous, water-type sprites found in Japanese folklore. In medieval Japan, this humanoid creatures were believed to dwell in lakes, rivers and swampy areas. Drownings and child kidnapping were attributed to this creature.

 

[JKendallDane]

Richard Lawrence

The first person to attempt to assassinate a US President.

He was a mentally ill house painter who believed he was King Richard III of England and that he needed to kill Andrew Jackson, who was keeping him from ascending to the throne. (The real Richard III died in 1485, by the way).

On Jan. 30, 1835, Lawrence shot at the President during the funeral of South Carolina Rep. Warren R. Davis. The shots missed their target, and President Jackson beat the would-be assassin to the ground with his cane. Lawrence was later found guilty by reason of insanity. He lived the rest of his life in a series of mental institutions and died in 1861.

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