william

English - Turkish

Definition of william in English Turkish dictionary
william the conqueror: william fatihi
sweet william: hüsnüyusuf çiçeği
sweet william: bot. hüsnüyusuf
sweet william: guguçiçeği [(Botanik) ]

Turkish - Turkish

Definition of william in Turkish Turkish dictionary
william faulkner: Ses ve öfke, Döşeğimde ölürken, Kutsal Sığınak gibi romanlarıyla ünlü ABD'li yazar

English - English

Definition of william in English English dictionary: 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.; {i} name of a number of English kings; male first name; popular since the Norman Conquest; 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
William Gibbs 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 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 Gibson: (born 1948) U.S. science fiction author (considered the father of "cyberpunk", published many books whose plots take place in cyberspace)
William Gilbert Grace: born July 18, 1848, Downend, Gloucestershire, Eng. died Oct. 23, 1915, London Greatest cricketer in Victorian England. Although he practiced medicine, cricket was his first love. Grace evolved the modern principles of batting and achieved many notable performances on rough and unpredictable wickets such as are unknown to modern players. In his career in first-class cricket (1865-1908), Grace scored 54,896 runs, registered 126 centuries (100 runs in a single innings), and, as a bowler, took 2,876 wickets. In 84 matches for Gentlemen versus Players, he amassed 6,000 runs and took 271 wickets. In 1880 he was on the English team that played the first Test match against Australia in England
William Glackens: born March 13, 1870, Philadelphia, Pa., U.S. died May 22, 1938, Westport, Conn. U.S. painter. He worked as a newspaper illustrator in Philadelphia and later in New York City. In 1891 he met Robert Henri, and he subsequently became a member of The Eight and the Ash Can school. He favoured colourful street scenes of urban middle-class life, heavily influenced by Impressionism. He was a prolific draftsman, and his drawings (e.g., Seated Woman, 1902) reveal an elegant style not seen in his paintings. In 1912 he traveled to Europe to buy paintings for the collection of Albert C. Barnes. In 1913 he helped organize and exhibited in the Armory Show
William Godwin: born March 3, 1756, Wisbech, Isle of Ely, Cambridgeshire, Eng. died April 7, 1836, London British writer. He became a Presbyterian minister but soon lost his faith. His Enquiry Concerning Political Justice (1793) captivated Samuel Taylor Coleridge, William Wordsworth, Robert Southey, and Percy B. Shelley (who was to become his son-in-law), condemning the institution of marriage, among other things. The Adventures of Caleb Williams (1794) was his masterpiece. He married Mary Wollstonecraft in 1797, but she died soon after the birth of their daughter, Mary (see Mary Shelley), conceived before their marriage
William Golding: a British writer who won the Nobel Prize for Literature in 1983. His most famous work is the novel Lord of the Flies (1911-93)
William Golding: {i} (1911-1993) British novel writer, author of "Lord of the Flies", winner of the Nobel Prize for Literature in 1983
William 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 Grant Still: born May 11, 1895, Woodville, Miss., U.S. died Dec. 3, 1978, Los Angeles, Calif. U.S. composer. He initially intended to be a doctor but instead studied music at Oberlin College, learning clarinet, oboe, and violin. He studied composition with George Chadwick (1854-1931) and Edgard Varèse. In the 1920s he worked as an arranger for the dance-band leader Paul Whiteman and for the blues composer W.C. Handy. Still's early style was avant-garde (From the Black Belt, 1926), but from 1930 he sought to develop a distinctive African American art music in five symphonies (including his Afro-American Symphony, 1931), ballets, operas, and choral and solo vocal works
William Green: He worked his way up through the union hierarchy and was elected president of the AFL in 1924, a post he kept until his death. The formation in 1935 of the Committee for Industrial Organization (CIO), headed by John L. Lewis, led to bitter public disputes between the two men, ending in the expulsion of the CIO from the AFL in 1936. See also AFL-CIO; labour union
William Green: born March 3, 1873, Coshocton, Ohio, U.S. died Nov. 21, 1952, Coshocton U.S. labour leader, president of the American Federation of Labor (AFL). He was a coal miner from age
William H Crawford: born Feb. 24, 1772, Amherst county, Va. died Sept. 15, 1834, Elberton, Ga., U.S. U.S. political leader and presidential aspirant. He taught school and practiced law before being elected to the Georgia legislature in 1803. He served in the U.S. Senate (1807-13), where he backed the declaration of war against Britain in 1812 (see War of 1812). He later served as minister to France (1813-15), secretary of war (1815-16), and secretary of the treasury (1816-25). Nominated for president by the congressional caucus of the Democratic-Republican Party, he was one of four presidential candidates in the 1824 election, which was won by John Quincy Adams
William H Prescott: born May 4, 1796, Salem, Mass., U.S. died Jan. 28, 1859, Boston, Mass. U.S. historian. Born to a prosperous family, Prescott graduated from Harvard University in 1814 but was prevented by poor health and eyesight from a career in law or business. His friends, including Washington Irving, led him to his life's work: recounting the history of 16th-century Spain and its colonies. He is best known for his History of the Conquest of Mexico (1843) and History of the Conquest of Peru (1847), for which he made rigorous use of original sources, and which earned him a reputation as the first scientific U.S. historian
William H Rehnquist: born Oct. 1, 1924, Milwaukee, Wis., U.S. U.S. jurist. He received his law degree from Stanford University and served as clerk to Robert Jackson. He later practiced law in Phoenix, Ariz. (1953-69), where he became active in the conservative wing of the Republican Party. At the U.S. Justice Department (1969-71), he opposed civil rights legislation and advocated greatly enlarged police powers. He was nominated for the Supreme Court by Pres. Richard Nixon in 1972. During the 1970s and into the '80s Rehnquist formed the anchor of the court's conservative minority bloc. His polished legal opinions and consistently conservative stance on almost all legal issues led Pres. Ronald Reagan to appoint him chief justice in 1986. Rehnquist dramatically reduced the court's caseload and improved its efficiency. With the support of other conservatives, he led the court in curbing the ability of Congress to expand federal authority and in curtailing affirmative action programs. He presided over the U.S. Senate during the impeachment trial of Pres. Bill Clinton (1999)
William H Seward: born May 16, 1801, Florida, N.Y., U.S. died Oct. 10, 1872, Auburn, N.Y. U.S. politician. He served in the New York state senate (1830-34) and as governor (1839-43). In the U.S. Senate (1849-61), he was an antislavery leader in the Whig and Republican parties. A close adviser to Pres. Abraham Lincoln, he served as U.S. secretary of state (1861-69). He helped prevent foreign recognition of the Confederacy and obtained settlement in the Trent Affair. In 1865 he was stabbed by a conspirator of John Wilkes Booth but recovered. He is best remembered for successfully negotiating the Alaska Purchase (1867), which critics called Seward's Folly
William H; and Johnson Virginia E Masters: born Dec. 27, 1915, Cleveland, Ohio, U.S. died Feb. 16, 2001, Tucson, Ariz. born Feb. 11, 1925, Springfield, Missouri, U.S. U.S. human-sexuality research team. Together (as physician and psychologist, respectively), they founded and codirected the Masters & Johnson Institute in St. Louis. They observed couples having sex under laboratory conditions, using biochemical equipment to record sexual stimulations and reactions. Their book Human Sexual Response (1966) was considered the first comprehensive study of the physiology and anatomy of human sexual activity (see sexual response). They were married in 1971 and continued to collaborate after their divorce in 1993
William Harnett: born Aug. 10, 1848, Clonakilty, Ire. died Oct. 29, 1892, New York, N.Y., U.S. Irish-born U.S. still-life painter. Brought to Philadelphia as a child, he was trained as an engraver and soon developed outstanding skill in trompe l'oeil painting. While traveling in Europe he painted his best-known work, After the Hunt (1885). In 1886 he settled in New York City. His work, popular with the public, was generally dismissed by critics. After a long period of disrepute, his works again were appreciated and sought after when mid-20th-century critics recognized Harnett's outstanding skill at abstract composition
William Harris Crawford: born Feb. 24, 1772, Amherst county, Va. died Sept. 15, 1834, Elberton, Ga., U.S. U.S. political leader and presidential aspirant. He taught school and practiced law before being elected to the Georgia legislature in 1803. He served in the U.S. Senate (1807-13), where he backed the declaration of war against Britain in 1812 (see War of 1812). He later served as minister to France (1813-15), secretary of war (1815-16), and secretary of the treasury (1816-25). Nominated for president by the congressional caucus of the Democratic-Republican Party, he was one of four presidential candidates in the 1824 election, which was won by John Quincy Adams
William Harvey: an English doctor who discovered the circulation of the blood, that is, the way the heart makes the blood move around the body (1578-1657). born April 1, 1578, Folkestone, Kent, Eng. died June 3, 1657, London English physician. He studied at Cambridge University and later at the University of Padua, then considered the best medical school in Europe. After receiving a medical diploma, he was appointed to St. Bartholemew's Hospital (1609). He became one of James I's physicians 1618 and continued as a king's physician for Charles I, whose personal friend he became. Harvey's elucidation of blood circulation overturned the work of Galen and advanced that of Andreas Vesalius and Hieronymus Fabricius. To reach his conclusions, Harvey depended on his own observations and reasoning, numerous animal dissections, autopsies, and clinical observations. His Anatomical Exercise Concerning the Motion of the Heart and Blood in Animals (1628) recorded his findings. It clarified the function of heart valves, proved that blood did not pass through the septum in the heart, explained the purpose of valves in the veins and of the pulmonary circulation, showed that blood is pumped from the atria into the ventricles and then into the rest of the circulatory system, and proved that the pulse reflected heart contractions
William Harvey: {i} (1578-1657) English anatomist who discovered the circulation of blood
William Hazlitt: a British writer and critic known for his essays on many subjects, especially literature. His best-known collection of essays is called Table Talk (1778-1830). born April 10, 1778, Maidstone, Kent, Eng. died Sept. 18, 1830, Soho, London British essayist. He studied for the ministry, but to remedy his poverty he became instead a prolific critic, essayist, and lecturer. He began contributing to journals, notably to The Examiner, and to essay collections, such as The Round Table (1817). His lecture courses were published as On the English Poets (1818) and On the English Comic Writers (1819). Many of his most brilliant essays appeared in his two best-known books, Table Talk (1821) and The Plain Speaker (1826). The Spirit of the Age (1825) contains some of his most effective writing
William Henry 1st Baron Beveridge: born March 5, 1879, Rangpur, India died March 16, 1963, Oxford, Oxfordshire, Eng. British economist. He took a lifelong interest in the problem of unemployment and served as director of labour exchanges (1909-16). He directed the London School of Economics (1919-37), then became master of University College, Oxford (1937-45). Invited by the government to become the architect of the new British welfare state, he helped shape Britain's social policies and institutions through the Beveridge Report (1942). His books included Insurance for All (1924), Full Employment in a Free Society (1944), and Pillars of Security (1948)
William Henry 1st Baron Beveridge of Tuggal: born March 5, 1879, Rangpur, India died March 16, 1963, Oxford, Oxfordshire, Eng. British economist. He took a lifelong interest in the problem of unemployment and served as director of labour exchanges (1909-16). He directed the London School of Economics (1919-37), then became master of University College, Oxford (1937-45). Invited by the government to become the architect of the new British welfare state, he helped shape Britain's social policies and institutions through the Beveridge Report (1942). His books included Insurance for All (1924), Full Employment in a Free Society (1944), and Pillars of Security (1948)
William Henry Ashley: born 1778, Powhatan, Va., U.S. died March 26, 1838, Cooper county, Mo. U.S. fur trader. Arriving in Missouri about 1802, he prospered in mining and land speculation. In 1820 he became the state's first lieutenant governor. With Andrew Henry (1771-1833), he organized the Rocky Mountain Fur Co. in 1822 and established a trading post at the mouth of the Yellowstone River. Forced to abandon the post by Indians, he instituted the annual rendezvous (1825), where trappers would trade their furs to him for supplies for the next year. By 1827 he had made a fortune and retired. Elected to the U.S. House of Representatives (1831-37), he championed Western interests
William Henry Cavendish 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 Henry Eccles: born Aug. 23, 1875, Barrow-in-Furness, Lancashire, Eng. died April 29, 1966, Oxford, Oxfordshire English physicist. After receiving his doctorate from the Royal College of Science, he became an early advocate of Oliver Heaviside's theory that an upper layer of the atmosphere reflects radio waves, enabling their transmission over long distances. In 1912 he suggested that solar radiation accounted for wave-propagation differences between day and night
William Henry Fox Talbot: a British photographer who was the first to invent a way of making more than one photograph from the same negative (=image on a piece of film that shows dark areas as light and light areas as dark) (1800-1877). born Feb. 11, 1800, Melbury Abbas, Dorset, Eng. died Sept. 17, 1877, Lacock Abbey, near Chippenham, Wiltshire English chemist and pioneer photographer. In 1840 he developed the calotype, an early photographic process that improved on the daguerreotype; it involved the use of a photographic negative from which multiple prints could be made. In 1835 he published his first article documenting a photographic discovery, that of the paper negative. His The Pencil of Nature (1844-46) was the first book with photographic illustrations. Talbot also published many articles on mathematics, astronomy, and physics
William Henry Gates III: {i} Bill Gates (born 1955), United States computer software designer, chairman and co-founder of Microsoft Inc., one of the world's richest men
William Henry Harrison: a US politician who became President in 1841, but died a month later (1773-1841). born Feb. 9, 1773, Charles City county, Va. died April 4, 1841, Washington, D.C., U.S. Ninth president of the U.S. (1841). Born into a politically prominent family, he enlisted in the army at age 18 and served under Anthony Wayne at the Battle of Fallen Timbers. In 1798 he became secretary of the Northwest Territories and in 1800 governor of the new Indiana Territory. In response to pressure from white settlers, he negotiated treaties with the Indians that ceded millions of acres of additional land to the U.S. When Tecumseh organized an uprising in 1811, Harrison led a U.S. force to defeat the Indians at the Battle of Tippecanoe, a victory that largely established his reputation in the public mind. In the War of 1812 he was made a brigadier general and defeated the British and their Indian allies at the Battle of the Thames in Ontario. After the war he moved to Ohio, where he became prominent in the Whig Party. He served in the U.S. House of Representatives (1816-19) and Senate (1825-28). As the Whig candidate in the 1836 presidential election, he lost narrowly. In 1840 he and his running mate, John Tyler, won election with a slogan emphasizing Harrison's frontier triumph: "Tippecanoe and Tyler too." The 68-year-old Harrison delivered his inaugural speech without a hat or overcoat in a cold drizzle, contracted pneumonia, and died one month later; he was the first U.S. president to die in office
William Henry Harrison: (1773-1841) 9th president of the United States (1841)
William Henry Irwin: {i} (1873-1948) United States novelist and journalist
William Henry Jackson: born April 4, 1843, Keesville, N.Y., U.S. died June 30, 1942, New York, N.Y. U.S. photographer. As a boy, he worked for a photographic studio in Troy, N.Y. After the American Civil War he went west and opened a studio in Omaha. He was the official photographer for the U.S. Geological and Geographical Survey of the Territories (1870-78), and his photographs were instrumental in the establishment of Yellowstone National Park
William Henry Seward: {i} (1801-1872) United States politician, Secretary of State (1861-1869) who organized the purchase of Alaska from Russia in 1867
William Henry Seward: a US politician in the Republican Party who was Secretary of State from 1861 to 1869. He helped to arrange the deal in which the US bought Alaska from Russia in 1867. At the time, many people thought Alaska was a bad piece of land to buy, and they called it 'Seward's Folly' (1801-72). born May 16, 1801, Florida, N.Y., U.S. died Oct. 10, 1872, Auburn, N.Y. U.S. politician. He served in the New York state senate (1830-34) and as governor (1839-43). In the U.S. Senate (1849-61), he was an antislavery leader in the Whig and Republican parties. A close adviser to Pres. Abraham Lincoln, he served as U.S. secretary of state (1861-69). He helped prevent foreign recognition of the Confederacy and obtained settlement in the Trent Affair. In 1865 he was stabbed by a conspirator of John Wilkes Booth but recovered. He is best remembered for successfully negotiating the Alaska Purchase (1867), which critics called Seward's Folly
William Henry Welch: born April 8, 1850, Norfolk, Conn., U.S. died April 30, 1934, Baltimore, Md. U.S. pathologist. He studied pathology in Germany before returning to the U.S. to open the nation's first pathology laboratory, at Bellevue Hospital Medical College in New York City (1879). From 1893 he directed the rise of Johns Hopkins University, where he developed the country's first true university department of pathology. He recruited William Osler and William S. Halsted for the faculty and was the medical school's first dean (1893-98). His curriculum revolutionized U.S. medicine by demanding that students study physical sciences and be actively involved in clinical duties and laboratory work. Welch also demonstrated the effects of diphtheria toxin and discovered bacteria involved in wound fever and gas gangrene
William Hickling Prescott: born May 4, 1796, Salem, Mass., U.S. died Jan. 28, 1859, Boston, Mass. U.S. historian. Born to a prosperous family, Prescott graduated from Harvard University in 1814 but was prevented by poor health and eyesight from a career in law or business. His friends, including Washington Irving, led him to his life's work: recounting the history of 16th-century Spain and its colonies. He is best known for his History of the Conquest of Mexico (1843) and History of the Conquest of Peru (1847), for which he made rigorous use of original sources, and which earned him a reputation as the first scientific U.S. historian
William Hogarth: (1697-1764) English painter and engraver known for his satirical works (such as "Industry and Idleness")
William Hogarth: He took private drawing lessons while earning a living as an engraver of book illustrations. His first major work, the satirical engraving Masquerades and Operas, attacked contemporary taste and questioned the art establishment, thus winning him many enemies. In 1728 he embarked on a painting career with a work that reveals his interest in theatre and comic subject matter, A Scene from "The Beggar's Opera"; he also painted "conversation pieces" (informal group portraits) for wealthy clients. His engravings of modern morality subjects, often in sequential sets, were aimed at a wide public, and their outstanding success established his financial independence. To safeguard his livelihood against pirated editions, he fought for legislation protecting artists' copyright. Britain's first copyright act was passed in 1735, the year he published his satirical eight-part series The Rake's Progress. His other satirical series include A Harlot's Progress (1730-31) and Marriage à la Mode (1743-45). The teaching academy he established led to the founding of the Royal Academy (1768)
William Hogarth: a British artist who painted very detailed pictures showing the immoral pleasures of his time, such as 'The Rake's Progress' and 'Marriage ... la Mode' (1697-1764). born Nov. 10, 1697, London, Eng. died Oct. 26, 1764, London British painter and engraver. Apprenticed at 15 to a silversmith, he opened his own engraving and printing shop at
William Holman Hunt: a British painter who, with Millais and Rossetti, started the Pre-Raphaelite Brotherhood in 1848 (1827-1910). born April 2, 1827, London, Eng. died Sept. 7, 1910, London British painter and cofounder of the Pre-Raphaelite Brotherhood. He attended the Royal Academy schools and achieved his first public success with The Light of the World (1854). His paintings are characterized by hard colour, minute detail, and an emphasis on moral or social symbolism; their moral earnestness made them extemely popular in Victorian England. He spent two years in Syria and Palestine painting biblical scenes, such as The Scapegoat (1855), depicting the outcast animal on the shores of the Dead Sea. His autobiographical Pre-Raphaelitism and the Pre-Raphaelite Brotherhood (1905) is the basic sourcebook of the movement
William Holmes McGuffey: born Sept. 23, 1800, Pennsylvania, U.S. died May 4, 1873, Charlottesville, Va. U.S. educator remembered chiefly for his series of elementary readers. McGuffey taught in the Ohio frontier schools and then at Miami University (1826-36). His elementary school series, starting with The Eclectic First Reader, was published between 1836 and 1857. Collections of didactic tales, aphorisms, and excerpts from great books, the readers reflect McGuffey's view that the proper education of young people required their introduction to a wide variety of topics and practical matters. They became standard texts in nearly all states for the next 50 years and sold more than 125 million copies. In these years McGuffey also served as president of Cincinnati College (1836-39) and of Ohio University, Athens (1839-43). He was a founder of the common school system of Ohio. In 1845 he was elected to the chair of mental and moral philosophy at the University of Virginia, Charlottesville, a position he held until his death
William Howard Schuman: born Aug. 4, 1910, New York, N.Y., U.S. died Feb. 15, 1992, New York City U.S. composer and administrator. He wrote songs in high school with his friend Frank Loesser. In 1930 he began studying composition with Roy Harris. He achieved success with his American Festival Overture (1939), and his Secular Cantata No. 2: A Free Song won the first Pulitzer Prize for music (1943). His other works include ballets for Martha Graham, the popular New England Triptych (1956), and 10 symphonies. As president of the Juilliard School (1945-62), he modernized its curriculum. As the first president of Lincoln Center (1962-68), he brought together several music organizations and established its Chamber Music Society and Mostly Mozart program
William Howard Taft: the twenty-seventh president of the US, from 1909 to 1913. He was also Chief Justice of the Supreme Court from 1921 to 1930 (1857-1930). born Sept. 15, 1857, Cincinnati, Ohio, U.S. died March 8, 1930, Washington, D.C. 27th president of the U.S. (1909-13). He served on the Ohio superior court (1887-90), as U.S. solicitor general (1890-92), and as U.S. appellate judge (1892-1900). He was appointed head of the Philippine Commission to set up a civilian government in the islands and was the Philippines' first civilian governor (1901-04). He served as U.S. secretary of war (1904-08) under Pres. Theodore Roosevelt, who supported Taft's nomination for president in 1908. He won the election but became allied with the conservative Republicans, causing a rift with party progressives. He was again the nominee in 1912, but the split with Roosevelt and the Bull Moose Party resulted in the electoral victory of Woodrow Wilson. Taft later taught law at Yale University (1913-21), served on the National War Labor Board (1918), and was a supporter of the League of Nations. As chief justice of the U.S. Supreme Court (1921-30), he introduced reforms that made the court more efficient. His important opinion in Myers v. U.S. (1926) upheld the president's authority to remove federal officials
William Howard Taft: (1857-1930) 27th president of the United States (1909-1913)
William Howe 5th Viscount Howe: born Aug. 10, 1729 died July 12, 1814, Plymouth, Devonshire, Eng. British military commander. The brother of Adm. Richard Howe, he fought in the last French and Indian War (1754-63), in which he earned a reputation as one of the army's most brilliant young generals. In the American Revolution, he succeeded Thomas Gage as supreme commander of British forces in North America in 1776. He soon captured New York City and the surrounding area, and in 1777 he led British troops to victories at the Battles of the Brandywine and of Germantown. Moving his forces to Philadelphia, he left troops under John Burgoyne vulnerable in New York state, thus contributing to the British defeat at the Battles of Saratoga. He resigned in 1778 and was succeeded by Henry Clinton
William Howell Masters: Masters and Johnson
William Howell; and Johnson Virginia Eshelman Masters: born Dec. 27, 1915, Cleveland, Ohio, U.S. died Feb. 16, 2001, Tucson, Ariz. born Feb. 11, 1925, Springfield, Missouri, U.S. U.S. human-sexuality research team. Together (as physician and psychologist, respectively), they founded and codirected the Masters & Johnson Institute in St. Louis. They observed couples having sex under laboratory conditions, using biochemical equipment to record sexual stimulations and reactions. Their book Human Sexual Response (1966) was considered the first comprehensive study of the physiology and anatomy of human sexual activity (see sexual response). They were married in 1971 and continued to collaborate after their divorce in 1993
William Hubbs Rehnquist: born Oct. 1, 1924, Milwaukee, Wis., U.S. U.S. jurist. He received his law degree from Stanford University and served as clerk to Robert Jackson. He later practiced law in Phoenix, Ariz. (1953-69), where he became active in the conservative wing of the Republican Party. At the U.S. Justice Department (1969-71), he opposed civil rights legislation and advocated greatly enlarged police powers. He was nominated for the Supreme Court by Pres. Richard Nixon in 1972. During the 1970s and into the '80s Rehnquist formed the anchor of the court's conservative minority bloc. His polished legal opinions and consistently conservative stance on almost all legal issues led Pres. Ronald Reagan to appoint him chief justice in 1986. Rehnquist dramatically reduced the court's caseload and improved its efficiency. With the support of other conservatives, he led the court in curbing the ability of Congress to expand federal authority and in curtailing affirmative action programs. He presided over the U.S. Senate during the impeachment trial of Pres. Bill Clinton (1999)
William Hull: born June 24, 1753, Derby, Conn. died Nov. 29, 1825, Newton, Mass., U.S. U.S. Army officer. He fought in American Revolutionary campaigns in Connecticut, New York, and New Jersey. In 1805 he was appointed governor of Michigan Territory. At the outbreak of the War of 1812, he was appointed brigadier general and charged with defending Michigan and attacking Canada. His poorly planned invasion of Canada forced him to retreat to Detroit, where he surrendered without a fight. He was court-martialed and convicted of cowardice and neglect of duty; his death sentence was remitted by Pres. James Madison because of his earlier service
William Hunter: born May 23, 1718, Long Calderwood, Lanarkshire, Scot. died March 30, 1783, London, Eng. British obstetrician, educator, and medical writer. The brother of John Hunter, he studied medicine at the University of Glasgow and became a licensed physician in London in 1756. He introduced the French practice of providing individual medical students with cadavers for dissection to Britain. After 1756 his medical practice was devoted principally to obstetrics; he became the most successful specialist of his day and was made physician extraordinary to Queen Charlotte in 1762. His work did much to remove obstetrics from the purview of midwives and establish it as an accepted branch of medicine
William I: King of England (1066-1087) and duke of Normandy (1035-1087). He led the Norman invasion of England (1066) after being promised the English throne by his cousin Edward the Confessor. He defeated Harold at the Battle of Hastings and as king adopted a feudal constitution. Dutch stadholder (1579-1584) who was made governor of Holland, Zeeland, and Utrecht (1559) by Phillip II of Spain. Spurred by the Spanish persecution of Protestants, he led a revolt against Spanish rule (1568-1576). King of Prussia (1861-1888) and emperor of Germany (1871-1888) whose reign was marked by war with Austria (1866), the Franco-Prussian War (1870-1871), and the wide reforms introduced by Bismarck. William the Conqueror
William II: King of England (1087-1100). He was the second son of William the Conqueror, on whose death he succeeded to the throne. Emperor of Germany and king of Prussia (1888-1918). Grandson of Queen Victoria, he supported the Afrikaners in South Africa and Austria's demands on Serbia (1914). He was forced to abdicate at the end of World War I
William III: King of England, Scotland, and Ireland (1689-1702), Dutch stadholder (1672-1702), and prince of Orange. Married to Mary, daughter of James II, he was asked by the opponents of James to invade England (1688) and was proclaimed joint monarch with Mary (1689) after James fled. William of Orange, King
William IV: King of Great Britain and Ireland (1830-1837). Son of George III and brother of George IV, he ascended to the throne after a long naval career. Leaving no direct heir, he was succeeded by his niece Victoria
William Inge: born May 3, 1913, Independence, Kan., U.S. died June 10, 1973, Hollywood Hills, Calif. U.S. playwright and screenwriter. He worked as a schoolteacher (1937-49) and moonlighted as drama editor of the St. Louis Star-Times (1943-46). His first play, Farther Off from Heaven (1947), was revised for Broadway as The Dark at the Top of the Stairs (1957; film, 1960). He is best known for his plays Come Back, Little Sheba (1950; film, 1952), Picnic (1953, Pulitzer Prize; film, 1956), and Bus Stop (1955; film, 1956), and for his original screenplay for Splendor in the Grass (1961, Academy Award). He was one of the first dramatists to explore small-town life in the Midwest
William J Hardee: born Oct. 12, 1815, near Savannah, Ga., U.S. died Nov. 6, 1873, Whytheville, Va. U.S. military leader. A graduate of West Point (1838), he wrote Rifle and Light Infantry Tactics (1855), a popular manual that was later used by both sides in the American Civil War. When Georgia seceded in 1861, Hardee resigned his commission and assumed command of Confederate forces in northeastern Arkansas, later demonstrating his military skills at the Battles of Shiloh and Chattanooga. As commander of the military department of South Carolina, Georgia, and Florida, he attempted to halt the march of William T. Sherman across Georgia. After the war he retired to his plantation
William J Jr. Brennan: born April 25, 1906, Newark, N.J., U.S. died July 24, 1997, Arlington, Va. U.S. jurist. He studied under Felix Frankfurter at Harvard Law School, receiving his degree in 1931. He practiced labour law in New Jersey until 1949, when he was appointed to the state Superior Court. He rose through the ranks of the New Jersey courts, where he was noted for his administrative skill. Although a Democrat, he was named to the Supreme Court of the United States by Republican Pres. Dwight D. Eisenhower in 1956. He came to be regarded as one of the most influential jurists in its history. A liberal constructionist and an articulate defender of the Bill of Rights, he is perhaps best remembered for his role in a series of obscenity cases, beginning with Roth v. United States (1957), many of which broadened the protection accorded to publishers while seeking to balance individual freedoms with the interests of the community. In New York Times v. Sullivan (1964), he wrote that even false statements about public officials are protected under the 1st and 14th Amendments unless "actual malice" can be demonstrated. He also wrote the majority opinion in Baker v. Carr (1962). He opposed capital punishment and supported abortion rights, affirmative action, and school desegregation. He served until 1990; his decisions numbered more than 1,350
William J M Rankine: born July 5, 1820, Edinburgh, Scot. died Dec. 24, 1872, Glasgow Scottish engineer and physicist, one of the founders of thermodynamics. His classic Manual of the Steam Engine and Other Prime Movers (1859) was the first attempt at a systematic treatment of the theory of steam engines. He worked out a thermodynamic cycle of events (the Rankine cycle) that was used as a standard for the performance of steam-power installations in which a condensable vapour provides the working fluid
William James: {i} (1842-1910) United States psychologist and philosopher, developer of theories of pragmatism, brother of novelist Henry James
William James: born Jan. 11, 1842, New York, N.Y., U.S. died Aug. 26, 1910, Chocorua, N.H. U.S. philosopher and psychologist. Son of the philosophical writer Henry James (1811-82) and brother of the novelist Henry James, he studied medicine at Harvard, where he taught from 1872. His first major work, The Principles of Psychology (1890), treated thinking and knowledge as instruments in the struggle to live. His most famous work is The Varieties of Religious Experience (1902). In Pragmatism (1907), he generalized the theories of Charles Sanders Peirce to assert that the meaning of any idea must be analyzed in terms of the succession of experiential consequences to which it leads and that truth and error depend solely on these consequences (see pragmatism). He applied this doctrine to the analysis of change and chance, freedom, variety, pluralism, and novelty. His pragmatism was also the basis for his polemic against monism, the idealistic doctrine of internal relations, and all views that presented reality as a static whole. He was also a leader of the psychological movement known as functionalism
William James Glackens: born March 13, 1870, Philadelphia, Pa., U.S. died May 22, 1938, Westport, Conn. U.S. painter. He worked as a newspaper illustrator in Philadelphia and later in New York City. In 1891 he met Robert Henri, and he subsequently became a member of The Eight and the Ash Can school. He favoured colourful street scenes of urban middle-class life, heavily influenced by Impressionism. He was a prolific draftsman, and his drawings (e.g., Seated Woman, 1902) reveal an elegant style not seen in his paintings. In 1912 he traveled to Europe to buy paintings for the collection of Albert C. Barnes. In 1913 he helped organize and exhibited in the Armory Show
William James and Ariel Durant: Ariel Durant orig. Ada Kaufman or Ida Kaufman born Nov. 5, 1885, North Adams, Mass., U.S. died Nov. 7, 1981, Los Angeles, Calif. born May 10, 1898, Prosurov, Russia died Oct. 25, 1981, Los Angeles U.S. writers. After the great success of Will's Story of Philosophy (1926), they cowrote the 11-volume The Story of Civilization (1935-75), including Rousseau and Revolution (1967, Pulitzer Prize). Though involved in the writing of every volume, Ariel was not listed as coauthor until the seventh
William Jefferson Clinton: {i} Bill Clinton (born 1946), Untied States politician, 42nd president of the United States (1993-2001)
William Jennings Bryan: born March 19, 1860, Salem, Ill., U.S. died July 26, 1925, Dayton, Tenn. U.S. politician and orator. He practiced law at Jacksonville, Ill. (1883-87), before moving to Lincoln, Neb., where he was elected to the U.S. Congress in 1890. In the U.S. House of Representatives (1891-95), he became the national leader of the Free Silver Movement; he advocated its aims in his "Cross of Gold" speech, which won him the Democratic Party nomination for president in 1896. He was the party's nominee again in 1900 and 1908. In 1901 he founded a newspaper, The Commoner, and thereafter lectured widely to admiring audiences; he was called "the Great Commoner." He helped secure the presidential nomination for Woodrow Wilson in 1912 and served as his secretary of state (1913-15), contributing to world law by espousing arbitration to prevent war. A believer in a literal interpretation of the Bible, he was a prosecuting attorney in the Scopes trial (1925), in which he debated Clarence Darrow on the issue of evolution; the trial took a heavy toll on his health, and he died soon after it ended
William Jennings Bryan: {i} (1860-1925) American politician and Congressman, U.S. Secretary of State under President Woodrow Wilson (famous for his opposition to teaching evolutionism in schools)
William John Macquorn Rankine: born July 5, 1820, Edinburgh, Scot. died Dec. 24, 1872, Glasgow Scottish engineer and physicist, one of the founders of thermodynamics. His classic Manual of the Steam Engine and Other Prime Movers (1859) was the first attempt at a systematic treatment of the theory of steam engines. He worked out a thermodynamic cycle of events (the Rankine cycle) that was used as a standard for the performance of steam-power installations in which a condensable vapour provides the working fluid
William Joseph 1st Viscount Slim of Yarralumla and Bishopston 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 Joseph Donovan: {i} (1883-1959) United States military officer and attorney, founder and director of the OSS from 1942 to 1945 (was known as "Wild Bill")
William Joseph Hardee: born Oct. 12, 1815, near Savannah, Ga., U.S. died Nov. 6, 1873, Whytheville, Va. U.S. military leader. A graduate of West Point (1838), he wrote Rifle and Light Infantry Tactics (1855), a popular manual that was later used by both sides in the American Civil War. When Georgia seceded in 1861, Hardee resigned his commission and assumed command of Confederate forces in northeastern Arkansas, later demonstrating his military skills at the Battles of Shiloh and Chattanooga. As commander of the military department of South Carolina, Georgia, and Florida, he attempted to halt the march of William T. Sherman across Georgia. After the war he retired to his plantation
William Joseph Jr. Brennan: born April 25, 1906, Newark, N.J., U.S. died July 24, 1997, Arlington, Va. U.S. jurist. He studied under Felix Frankfurter at Harvard Law School, receiving his degree in 1931. He practiced labour law in New Jersey until 1949, when he was appointed to the state Superior Court. He rose through the ranks of the New Jersey courts, where he was noted for his administrative skill. Although a Democrat, he was named to the Supreme Court of the United States by Republican Pres. Dwight D. Eisenhower in 1956. He came to be regarded as one of the most influential jurists in its history. A liberal constructionist and an articulate defender of the Bill of Rights, he is perhaps best remembered for his role in a series of obscenity cases, beginning with Roth v. United States (1957), many of which broadened the protection accorded to publishers while seeking to balance individual freedoms with the interests of the community. In New York Times v. Sullivan (1964), he wrote that even false statements about public officials are protected under the 1st and 14th Amendments unless "actual malice" can be demonstrated. He also wrote the majority opinion in Baker v. Carr (1962). He opposed capital punishment and supported abortion rights, affirmative action, and school desegregation. He served until 1990; his decisions numbered more than 1,350
William Jr. Shippen: born Oct. 21, 1736, Philadelphia, Pa. died July 11, 1808, Philadelphia, Pa., U.S. U.S. physician. He earned his M.D. in Edinburgh. In 1762 he established the first American maternity hospital, and in 1765, with John Morgan, he organized the first medical school in the American colonies, where he became the first systematic teacher of anatomy, surgery, and obstetrics. He was one of the first to use dissected human bodies to teach anatomy. He succeeded Morgan as head medical officer of the Continental Army in 1777. He was a founder and president of the College of Physicians of Philadelphia, the first American medical school
William Julius Wilson: born Dec. 20, 1935, Derry Township, Pa., U.S. U.S. sociologist. He spent 24 years on the University of Chicago faculty before moving to Harvard University in 1996. In The Declining Significance of Race (1978) and The Truly Disadvantaged (1987) he contends that entrenched black poverty stems neither from racism nor from welfare dependency but from changes in the global economy that pull low-skilled manufacturing jobs out of the inner city. In When Work Disappears (1996) he discusses, among other issues, how chronic joblessness erodes work skills. Wilson holds that only "race neutral" programs such as universal health care and government-financed jobs can alleviate the problems of black poverty in the inner city
William K Estes: born June 17, 1919, Minneapolis, Minn., U.S. U.S. psychologist. He worked with B.F. Skinner on instrumental learning in the 1940s, and in 1950 he introduced stimulus sampling theory (SST), a model for describing learning mathematically. He taught at Stanford, Rockefeller, and Harvard universities, among others. Estes's later work focused on "cognitive architectures." His works include Learning Theory and Mental Development (1970), Statistical Models in Behavioral Research (1991), and Classification and Cognition (1994). In 1997 he received the National Medal of Science
William Kaye Estes: born June 17, 1919, Minneapolis, Minn., U.S. U.S. psychologist. He worked with B.F. Skinner on instrumental learning in the 1940s, and in 1950 he introduced stimulus sampling theory (SST), a model for describing learning mathematically. He taught at Stanford, Rockefeller, and Harvard universities, among others. Estes's later work focused on "cognitive architectures." His works include Learning Theory and Mental Development (1970), Statistical Models in Behavioral Research (1991), and Classification and Cognition (1994). In 1997 he received the National Medal of Science
William Keen: born Jan. 19, 1837, Philadelphia, Pa., U.S. died June 7, 1932, Philadelphia First U.S. brain surgeon. He received his M.D. from Jefferson Medical College. He was one of the first to successfully remove a brain tumour (1888) and assisted in the removal of Pres. Grover Cleveland's left upper jaw (1893), which contained a malignant tumour. In addition to his teaching and medical work, he edited Surgery: Its Principles and Practice (8 vol., 1906-13)
William Kelly: born Aug. 21, 1811, Pittsburgh, Pa., U.S. died Feb. 11, 1888, Louisville, Ky. U.S. ironmaster. He purchased ironworks in Eddyville, Ky., and began experiments with an air blast to prepare pig for conversion to wrought iron. Because of the similarity of his apparatus to the first form of Bessemer converter (see Bessemer process), he was awarded a U.S. patent on the pneumatic steel process. There is no evidence that he made steel in any of his trials
William Kennedy: born Jan. 16, 1928, Albany, N.Y., U.S. U.S. novelist and journalist. He worked as a journalist in New York and Puerto Rico before returning in 1963 to his native Albany, N.Y., which he considered the source of his literary inspiration. His novels, which are set in Albany and contain elements of local history and the supernatural, include The Ink Truck (1969), Legs (1975), Billy Phelan's Greatest Game (1978), and Ironweed (1983, Pulitzer Prize; film, 1987)
William Kidd: known as Captain Kidd born 1645, Greenock, Renfrew, Scot. died May 23, 1701, London, Eng. British privateer and pirate. He was sailing as a legitimate privateer for Britain when he was commissioned in 1695 to apprehend pirates who molested the ships of the East India Company. He himself turned pirate on the voyage, took several ships, and mortally wounded his gunner, William Moore. He surrendered in New York in 1699, having been promised a pardon. Sent to England for trial, he was found guilty of Moore's murder and five piracy counts, and he was hanged. Some of his treasure was recovered from Gardiners Island (off Long Island), but much has apparently never been found. After his death he attained semilegendary status and was romanticized as a dashing swashbuckler
William Kidd: {i} (1645-1701) Scottish navigator who was accused for piracy and hanged, known as "Captain Kidd
William Knox D'Arcy: born Oct. 11, 1849, Newton Abbot, Devonshire, Eng. died May 1, 1917, Stanmore, Middlesex British businessman. After earning a fortune as a gold miner in Australia, D'Arcy secured a 60-year oil-mining concession in Iran in 1901. The concession, obtained with British government assistance, covered an area of 500,000 sq mi (1.3 million sq km). An oil strike on these lands led to the formation of the Anglo-Persian Oil Co. in 1909. See also BP PLC
William Kunstler: born July 7, 1919, New York, N.Y., U.S. died Sept. 4, 1995, New York City U.S. lawyer who defended a number of controversial clients in high-profile cases. After graduating from Yale University (1941) he served in the army in the Pacific during World War II, earning a Bronze Star. He graduated from Columbia Law School in 1948. In the 1950s and '60s he became involved with the American Civil Liberties Union and clients such as the antisegregationist Freedom Riders and Martin Luther King, Jr., not only defending them in court but becoming active in their causes. He gained national renown for his defense of the "Chicago Seven" on charges of conspiring to incite riots in Chicago during the 1968 Democratic national convention. In other cases that reflected his political leanings, he represented black power activists Stokely Carmichael and Bobby Seale, antiwar activist Daniel Berrigan, and prisoners accused in the aftermath of the deadly 1971 riot at the state prison in Attica, N.Y. Perhaps his most notorious clients were Mafia boss John Gotti and Sheikh Omar Abdel Rahman, who was convicted in 1995 of conspiring to blow up the World Trade Center
William L Marcy: born Dec. 12, 1786, Southbridge, Mass., U.S. died July 4, 1857, Ballston Spa, N.Y. U.S. politician. From 1823 to 1829 he was comptroller of New York state and a leading member of the "Albany Regency," a group of powerful state Democrats. He was a justice of the state supreme court from 1829 to 1831. In the U.S. Senate (1831-33), he championed the spoils system, remarking that "To the victor belong the spoils of the enemy." He served as governor of New York (1833-39), as U.S. secretary of war (1845-49), and as U.S. secretary of state (1853-57)
William L Shirer: born Feb. 23, 1904, Chicago, Ill., U.S. died Dec. 28, 1993, Boston, Mass. U.S. journalist, historian, and novelist. He served as a foreign correspondent and radio broadcaster in Europe and India in the 1920s, '30s, and '40s. Berlin Diary (1941) collects his impressions of European political events. He was blacklisted in the McCarthy era as a leftist sympathizer. He is best known for The Rise and Fall of the Third Reich (1969, National Book Award), a massive study of Nazi Germany. His other major historical work is The Collapse of the Third Republic (1969), a study of France. Gandhi (1979) recalls interviews conducted in the 1930s
William Labov: born Dec. 4, 1927, Rutherford, N.J., U.S. U.S. linguist. After working for many years as an industrial chemist, Labov began graduate work in 1961, focusing on regional and class differences in English pronunciation on Martha's Vineyard, Mass., and in New York City, and ways to quantify phonetic change and variation. Most of his later research dealt with the same issues in increasingly sophisticated ways, culminating in his monumental Principles of Linguistic Change (1994). The discovery that American English pronunciation was becoming regionally more rather than less divergent countered popular belief and attracted the attention of many outside his field
William Lamb 2nd Viscount Melbourne: born March 15, 1779, London, Eng. died Nov. 24, 1848, Brocket, near Hatfield, Hertfordshire British prime minister (1834, 1835-41). A lawyer, he entered the House of Commons in 1806 and the House of Lords in 1829. Although a Whig, he served in Tory governments as chief secretary for Ireland (1827-28) and advocated political rights for Roman Catholics. He served as home secretary (1830-34) in Earl Grey's Whig government, reluctantly supporting the Reform Bill of 1832. As prime minister (1834), he gained the support of Whigs and moderate Tories and opposed further parliamentary reform and efforts to repeal the Corn Laws. In his second administration (1835-41), he became the young Queen Victoria's valued chief political adviser. His firm stand in foreign policy averted war with France over Syria (1840). His wife, Lady Caroline Lamb (1785-1828), was a minor novelist, famous for her affair with Lord Byron in 1812-13
William Lamb 2nd Viscount Melbourne of Kilmore: born March 15, 1779, London, Eng. died Nov. 24, 1848, Brocket, near Hatfield, Hertfordshire British prime minister (1834, 1835-41). A lawyer, he entered the House of Commons in 1806 and the House of Lords in 1829. Although a Whig, he served in Tory governments as chief secretary for Ireland (1827-28) and advocated political rights for Roman Catholics. He served as home secretary (1830-34) in Earl Grey's Whig government, reluctantly supporting the Reform Bill of 1832. As prime minister (1834), he gained the support of Whigs and moderate Tories and opposed further parliamentary reform and efforts to repeal the Corn Laws. In his second administration (1835-41), he became the young Queen Victoria's valued chief political adviser. His firm stand in foreign policy averted war with France over Syria (1840). His wife, Lady Caroline Lamb (1785-1828), was a minor novelist, famous for her affair with Lord Byron in 1812-13
William Langland: born 1330 died 1400 Presumed author of the poem known as "Piers Plowman. " Little is known of his life, though he clearly had a deep knowledge of theology and was interested in the asceticism of St. Bernard de Clairvaux. One of the greatest Middle English alliterative poems, "Piers Plowman" is an allegorical work in the form of a series of dream visions with a complex variety of religious themes; written in simple, colloquial language, it contains powerful imagery
William Laud: born Oct. 7, 1573, Reading, Berkshire, Eng. died Jan. 10, 1645, London Archbishop of Canterbury (1633-45) and religious adviser to Charles I. He became a privy councillor in 1627 and bishop of London in 1628, devoting himself to combating Puritanism and enforcing strict Anglican ritual. By the time he became archbishop of Canterbury, he had extended his authority over the whole country. He attacked the Puritan practice of preaching as dangerous, and he had Puritan writers such as William Prynne mutilated and imprisoned. Aided by his close ally the 1st earl of Strafford, Thomas Wentworth, Laud used his influence over the king to influence government social policy. By 1637, opposition to Laudian reppression had grown, and Laud's attempts to impose Anglican forms of worship in Scotland provoked fierce resistance. In 1640 the Long Parliament met, and Laud was accused of high treason. His trial, which began in 1644 and was managed by Prynne, resulted in Laud's conviction and beheading
William Lawrence Shirer: born Feb. 23, 1904, Chicago, Ill., U.S. died Dec. 28, 1993, Boston, Mass. U.S. journalist, historian, and novelist. He served as a foreign correspondent and radio broadcaster in Europe and India in the 1920s, '30s, and '40s. Berlin Diary (1941) collects his impressions of European political events. He was blacklisted in the McCarthy era as a leftist sympathizer. He is best known for The Rise and Fall of the Third Reich (1969, National Book Award), a massive study of Nazi Germany. His other major historical work is The Collapse of the Third Republic (1969), a study of France. Gandhi (1979) recalls interviews conducted in the 1930s
William Learned Marcy: born Dec. 12, 1786, Southbridge, Mass., U.S. died July 4, 1857, Ballston Spa, N.Y. U.S. politician. From 1823 to 1829 he was comptroller of New York state and a leading member of the "Albany Regency," a group of powerful state Democrats. He was a justice of the state supreme court from 1829 to 1831. In the U.S. Senate (1831-33), he championed the spoils system, remarking that "To the victor belong the spoils of the enemy." He served as governor of New York (1833-39), as U.S. secretary of war (1845-49), and as U.S. secretary of state (1853-57)
William Lee: born 1550?, Calverton, Nottinghamshire, Eng. died 1610?, Paris, France British inventor of the first knitting machine. Lee's model (1589) was the only one employed for centuries, and its principle of operation remains in use. Elizabeth I twice denied him a patent because of her concern for the kingdom's hand knitters. With support from Henry IV of France, Lee later manufactured hosiery in Rouen
William Lily: born 1468?, Odiham, Hampshire, Eng. died Feb. 25, 1522, London English Renaissance scholar and classical grammarian. Having made a pilgrimage to Jerusalem and visited Greece and Italy, he became a pioneer of Greek learning in England and was appointed master of the school of St. Paul's in 1510. His grammar, which actually consisted of two books, one in English and the other in Latin, first appeared about 18 years after his death. Its use by royal order in all English grammar schools won it the name "the King's Grammar." With corrections and revisions, it continued to be used as late as the 19th century and influenced generations of English people's views of all languages, including English
William Livingston: born Nov. 30, 1723, Albany, N.Y. died July 25, 1790, Elizabeth, N.J. American politician. He served in the New York legislature (1759-60), wrote political pamphlets and newspaper articles, and helped prepare a digest of New York laws for the period 1691 to 1756. He moved to New Jersey in 1772 and represented the colony in the Continental Congress (1774-76). As New Jersey's first governor (1776-90), he was a delegate to the Constitutional Convention and led his state to an early ratification of the U.S. Constitution
William Lloyd Garrison: born Dec. 10/12, 1805, Newburyport, Mass., U.S. died May 24, 1879, New York, N.Y. U.S. journalist and abolitionist. He was editor of the National Philanthropist (Boston) newspaper in 1828 and the Journal of the Times (Bennington, Vt.) in 1828-29, both dedicated to moral reform. In 1829 he and Benjamin Lundy edited the Genius of Universal Emancipation. In 1831 he founded The Liberator, which became the most radical of the antislavery journals. In 1833 he helped found the American Anti-Slavery Society. In 1837 he renounced church and state and embraced the doctrines of Christian "perfectionism," which combined abolition, women's rights, and nonresistance with the biblical injunction to "come out" from a corrupt society by refusing to obey its laws and support its institutions. His radical blend of pacifism and anarchism precipitated a crisis in the Anti-Slavery Society, a majority of whose members chose to secede when he and his followers voted a series of resolutions admitting women (1840). In the two decades between the schism of 1840 and the American Civil War, Garrison's influence waned as his radicalism increased. Through The Liberator he denounced the Compromise of 1850, the Kansas-Nebraska Act, and the Dred Scott decision and hailed John Brown's raid. During the Civil War he forswore pacifism to support Pres. Abraham Lincoln and welcomed the Emancipation Proclamation. In 1865 he retired but continued to press for women's suffrage, temperance, and free trade
William Lloyd Warner: born Oct. 26, 1898, Redlands, Calif., U.S. died May 23, 1970, Chicago, Ill. U.S. sociologist and anthropologist. He studied with Alfred L. Kroeber and A.R. Radcliffe-Brown and later taught at the universities of Chicago and Michigan. His studies of the American class system have been widely influential. In the late 1930s he produced a five-volume study of Newburyport, Mass.; his other books include A Black Civilization (1937), The Social Life of a Modern Community (1941), and The Living and the Dead (1959)
William Lowndes Yancey: born , Aug. 10, 1814, Warren county, Ga., U.S. died July 27, 1863, Montgomery, Ala. U.S. politician. He was admitted to the bar and served as editor of the Greenville Mountaineer. During the nullification crisis, he took a firm Unionist stand. He served in the U.S. House of Representatives (1844-46), and in response to the Wilmot Proviso he drafted the Alabama Platform (1848), which asserted slaveholders' rights to take their chattel with them to the new territories. He later added secession to the platform. He helped create the League of United Southerners (1858) and supported the Southern Democrats in their nomination of John C. Breckinridge for president (1860). He drafted Alabama's secession ordinance and served in the Confederate government (1861-63)
William Lyon Mackenzie: born March 12, 1795, Springfield, Angus, Scot. died Aug. 28, 1861, Toronto Scottish-born Canadian journalist and political agitator. He immigrated to Canada in 1820 and became a merchant in Upper Canada (later Ontario). In 1824 he founded a newspaper in Queenston, the Colonial Advocate, in which he criticized the ruling oligarchy in Upper Canada. Elected to the province's assembly (1828-36), he was expelled six times by the conservative majority for his newspaper's invectives against the government. A list of Canadian grievances against British colonial rule that he published led to the recall of the province's governor. In 1837 he led 800 followers in an unsuccessful attempt to overthrow the provincial government. After attempting to rally his forces on Navy Island in the Niagara River, N.Y., he was jailed for violating U.S. neutrality laws. He returned to Canada in 1849 and later served in the Canadian Parliament (1851-58)
William Lyon Mackenzie King: born Dec. 17, 1874, Berlin, Ont., Can. died July 22, 1950, Kingsmere, Que. Prime minister of Canada (1921-26, 1926-30, 1935-48). The grandson of William L. Mackenzie, he was deputy minister of labour (1900-08) before being appointed Canada's first minister of labour (1909-11). Reelected to the Canadian Parliament (1919), he became leader of the Liberal Party. As prime minister, he favoured social reform without socialism; he led the government with support from an alliance of Liberals and Progressives. He effected a more independent relationship between the Commonwealth nations and Britain. During and after World War II he unified a country often divided between English and French constituents
William 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 Mahone: born Dec. 1, 1826, Southampton county, Va., U.S. died Oct. 8, 1895, Washington, D.C. U.S. politician and railroad magnate. After graduating from the Virginia Military Institute, he studied engineering while teaching. He joined the Norfolk-Petersburg Railroad as an engineer in 1851 and became the company's president 10 years later. In the American Civil War he was appointed quartermaster general of the Confederacy but served with the army of northern Virginia, rising to major general. After the war he resumed railroading, becoming president of the Atlantic, Mississippi, and Ohio (later Norfolk & Western) Railroad (1867). He built a political base through railroad patronage but lost control of the railroad in the 1870s. Unable to win the Democratic Party nomination for governor (1877), he organized a coalition of African Americans and poor whites to form a political party, the Readjusters (1879), which succeeded in enacting reforms. He served as a Republican in the U.S. Senate (1880-87)
William Maitland: born 1528, probably Lethington, East Lothian, Scot. died June 9?, 1573, Leith, Midlothian Scottish statesman. As secretary to Mary, Queen of Scots (1560), he sought to unite the realms of England and Scotland by securing Mary recognition as the successor to Elizabeth I. With that aim, he supported the murders of David Riccio and Lord Darnley, and he joined a coalition of Protestant and Catholic nobles. After Mary fled to England in 1568, Maitland tried to restore her to power and broke with the supporters of the infant King James VI (later James I). In the ensuing civil war, he held Edinburgh Castle until forced to surrender; he died in prison
William Maitland of Lethington: born 1528, probably Lethington, East Lothian, Scot. died June 9?, 1573, Leith, Midlothian Scottish statesman. As secretary to Mary, Queen of Scots (1560), he sought to unite the realms of England and Scotland by securing Mary recognition as the successor to Elizabeth I. With that aim, he supported the murders of David Riccio and Lord Darnley, and he joined a coalition of Protestant and Catholic nobles. After Mary fled to England in 1568, Maitland tried to restore her to power and broke with the supporters of the infant King James VI (later James I). In the ensuing civil war, he held Edinburgh Castle until forced to surrender; he died in prison
William Makepeace Thackeray: a British writer, born in India, whose best-known work is his novel Vanity Fair (1811-63). born July 18, 1811, Calcutta, India died Dec. 24, 1863, London, Eng. English novelist. He studied law and art but soon became a prolific writer for periodicals, using a variety of pen names. His early writings appear in such volumes as The Book of Snobs (1848), a collection of his articles from Punch; and Miscellanies (1855-57), which includes the historical novel Barry Lyndon (1844). His fame rests chiefly on the novels Vanity Fair (1847-48), a panoramic survey of English manners and human frailties set in the Napoleonic era, and Henry Esmond (1852), set in the early 18th century. Pendennis (1848-50) is a partly fictionalized autobiography. In his time he was regarded as the only possible rival of Charles Dickens for his pictures of contemporary life, but his popularity declined in the 20th century
William Marcy Tweed: known as Boss Tweed born April 3, 1823, New York, N.Y., U.S. died April 12, 1878, New York City U.S. politician. He worked as a bookkeeper and volunteer firefighter. As city alderman (1851-56), he gained influence in Tammany Hall and obtained important positions in city government. He appointed political cronies to key city posts and built a group later called the Tweed ring. As head of Tammany's general committee (from 1860), he controlled the Democratic Party's nominations to all city positions. He opened a law office to receive payments for "legal services" from city contractors and corporations. Elected to the state senate (1868), he also became Tammany's grand sachem (leader) and controlled city and state political patronage. He gained control of the city treasury and plundered sums estimated at between $30 million and $200 million. Reformers and exposure by the press, including Thomas Nast's cartoons in Harper's Weekly, brought prosecution, led by Samuel Tilden, that resulted in Tweed's conviction and imprisonment (1873-75, 1876-78)

Turkish - English

Definition of william in Turkish English dictionary
Kral william: the Conqueror

william

Hyphenation

Wil·liam

Turkish pronunciation

wîlyım

Pronunciation

/ˈwəlyəm/ /ˈwɪljəm/

Etymology

() From Anglo-Norman Old High German Willahelm from willo (“will”) + helm (“helmet”).

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william

Definition of william in English Turkish dictionary

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Definition of william in Turkish Turkish dictionary

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Definition of william in English English dictionary

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Definition of william in Turkish English dictionary

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