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John of Salisbury

(Encyclopedia)John of Salisbury sôlzˈbərē [key], c.1110–1180, English scholastic philosopher, b. Salisbury. He studied in France at Paris and Chartres under Abelard and other famous teachers. He was secretary...

Reign of Terror

(Encyclopedia)Reign of Terror, 1793–94, period of the French Revolution characterized by a wave of executions of presumed enemies of the state. Directed by the Committee of Public Safety, the Revolutionary govern...

Vienna, Congress of

(Encyclopedia)Vienna, Congress of, Sept., 1814–June, 1815, one of the most important international conferences in European history, called to remake Europe after the downfall of Napoleon I. Although the territo...

Philomena of Dacia, Peter

(Encyclopedia)Philomena of Dacia, Peter, or Peter Nightingale, fl. 1291–1303, Danish astronomer and mathematician. He taught at the Univ. of Bologna (1291–92) and in Paris, and was a canon of Roskilde Cathedral...

Diana, princess of Wales

(Encyclopedia)Diana, princess of Wales, 1961–97, wife of Charles, prince of Wales, heir to the British throne. The daughter of the 8th Earl Spencer, Lady Diana Frances Spencer was a kindergarten teacher in London...

San Remo, Conference of

(Encyclopedia)San Remo, Conference of, 1920, meeting with the purpose of ratifying decisions made at the Paris peace conference of May, 1919. Representatives of Great Britain, France, Italy, Japan, Greece, and Belg...

meter, unit of measure

(Encyclopedia)meter, abbr. m, fundamental unit of length in the metric system. The meter was originally defined as 1/10,000,000 of the distance between the equator and either pole; however, the original survey was ...

Robert of Geneva

(Encyclopedia)Robert of Geneva, d. 1394, Genevan churchman, antipope (1378–94; see Schism, Great) with the name Clement VII. He was archbishop of Cambrai (1368) and was created (1371) a cardinal. He was subsequen...

Foreign Ministers, Council of

(Encyclopedia)Foreign Ministers, Council of, organization of the foreign ministers of the World War II Allies—the United States, Great Britain, France, and the USSR—that, in a long series of meetings, attempted...

Trianon, Treaty of

(Encyclopedia)Trianon, Treaty of, 1920, agreement following World War I in which the Allies disposed of Hungarian territories. The internal chaos in Hungary that followed the dissolution (1918) of the Austro-Hungar...