People and Peoples (H-I)


H.G. Wells
Herbert George Wells was an
English writer. He was born in 1866 at Bromley and died in 1946. Although he wanted to be a teacher, bad health meant he couldn't so he turned to writing. He wrote "The Invisible Man", "The Time Machine" and "The War Of The Worlds".

Haakon VII
Haakon VII was
King of Norway from 1905 to 1957. He was born in 1872, dying in 1957. He was a brave man who resisted the nazi occupation of Norway during the second world war.

Haarlem Ostade
Haarlem Ostade was a Dutch painter born in 1610, he died in 1685. He was a pupil of Franz Hals and was later influenced by Rembrandt. Isaac Ostade was a Dutch painter born in 1621 and died in 1649.

Hadley
George Hadley developed
Halley's theory of trade winds by taking into account the earth's rotation and the displacement of air by tropical heat. He was born in 1685, dying in 1768.

Hadrian
Hadrian was a
Roman emperor. He was born in 76, dying in 138. He visited England in 121 and built a protective wall to separate England from Scotland.

Haggard
Sir
Henry Rider Haggard was an English novelist. He was born in 1856 and died in 1925. He wrote King Solomon's Mines.

Hahn
Otto Hahn was a German physical chemist who discovered nuclear fission. He was born in 1879 and died in 1968.

Haig
Douglas Haig was a British soldier. He was born in 1861 and died in 1928. He was commander-in-chief of the British troops in France during the Great War.

Haile Selassie
Haile Selassie was
Emperor of Ethiopia and figure head of the Rastafarian movement, although he knew nothing about that! He was born in 1891.

Hakluyt
Richard Hakluyt was an English geographer. He was born in 1552 and died in 1616.

Halley
Edmund Halley was Astronomer Royal from 1720. He was born in 1656 and died in 1742. He calculated the orbit of the comet named after him.

Hals
Franz Hals was a Dutch portrait
painter. He was born in 1580 and died in 1666.

Han
The Han are the majority ethnic group in
China, numbering about 990 million. The Hans speak a wide variety of dialects of the same monosyllabic language, a member of the Sino-Tibetan family. Their religion combines Buddhism, Taoism, Confucianism, and ancestor worship.

Handel
George Frederick Handel was an Anglo-German composer. He was born in 1685 and died in 1759.

Hannibal
Hannibal was a Carthaginian leader. He was born in 247
BC and died in 183 BC after taking poison to avoid capture by the Romans.

Hans Holbein
Hans Holbein was a
German portrait and religious painter. He was born in 1497 at Augsburg and died in 1543.

Hans Memling
Hans Memling was a Flemish religious
painter. He was born in 1430 and died in 1494.

Hans Sachs
Hans Sachs was a
German poet. He was born at Nuremberg in 1494, dying in 1576.

Hardicanute
Hardicanute was a son of
Canute and King of England from 1040 to 1042.

Hardie
James Keir Hardie was a British labour leader. He was born in 1856 and died in 1915. He founded the Independent Labour Party in 1893.

Hardy
Thomas Hardy was an
English author. He was born in 1840 at Dorchester and died in 1928. He wrote The Mayor of Casterbridge.

Hargreaves
James Hargreaves was a Lancashire weaver who invented the spinning-jenny.

Harmonists
The Harmonists were a religious sect founded at Wurtemberg in 1788 by
George and Frederick Rapp. They endeavoured to re-establish the social practices of the early Christian church, practising celibacy and holding all goods in common. They were persecuted and so moved to America in 1805.

Harold
Harold was son of
Canute and was King of England from 1035 to 1040.

Harold Macmillan
Harold Macmillan was a British Conservative statesman. He was born in 1894. He became an MP in 1924. He became Prime Minister in 1957 following Eden's resignation over the Suez canal crisis.

Harold Pinter
Harold Pinter is a British playwright. He was born in 1930 in London. His plays include The Caretaker and The Birthday Party.

Harold Wilson
James Harold Wilson was a British labour statesman and Prime Minister. He was born in 1916. He entered parliament in 1945. He became Prime minister in 1964.

Haroun-Al-Raschid
Haroun-Al-Raschid was
Caliph of Baghdad. He was born in 764 and died in 809.

Harriet Stowe
Harriet Beecher Stowe was an
American author. She was born in 1811, dying in 1896. Her book uncle tom's cabin was published in 1852 in which she exposed slavery.

Harry Furniss
Harry Furniss was a British caricaturist. He was born in 1854 at
Wexford and died in 1925. He went to London as a young man where his drawings appeared in many leading illustrated periodicals.

Harry S. Truman
Harry S.
Truman was an American politician and President. He was born in 1884 in Missouri. In 1934 he was elected to the senate for the Democrats. In 1945 he became President when Roosevelt died. In 1948 he was re-elected President and in 1952 he retired from politics.

Harry Vardon
Harry Vardon was an
English professional golfer. he was born in 1870 and was six times Open Champion in 1896, 1897, 1898, 1899, 1903, 1911 and 1914 and American Open Champion in 1900.

Harte
Francis Bret Harte was an American poet. He was born in 1836 and died in 1902.

Hausa
The Hausa are a
Muslim people of north Nigeria.

Hawkins
Sir John Hawkins was an Elizabethan sailor. He was born in 1532 and died in 1595.

Hawthorne
Nathaniel Hawthorne was an
American writer. He was born in 1804 and died in 1864.

Hazlitt
William Hazlitt was an
English writer. He was born in 1778 at Maidstone and died in 1830.

Hector Munro
Hector Hugo Munro (Saki) was a British novelist. He was born in 1870 and died in 1916.

Hegel
Georg Wilhelm Friedrich Hegel was a
German philosopher. He was born in 1770 at Stuttgart and died in 1831.

Heine
Heinrich Heine was a
German lyric poet. He was born in 1797 at Dusseldorf and died in 1856.

Heinrich Hertz
Heinrich Rudolf Hertz was a
German physicist. He was born in 1857, dying in 1895. He confirmed Maxwell's electromagnetic theory of waves and discovered information about their behaviour. The measurement of the frequency of radio waves is named after him.

Heinrich Ruhmkorff
Heinrich Daniel Ruhmkorff was a
German electrician. He was born in 1803 and died in 1877. He invented a thermo-electric battery in 1844.

Heitor Villa-Lobos
Heitor Villa-Lobos was a Brazilian composer. He was born in 1887 and died in 1959.

Hellene
Hellene is an alternate name for a
Greek.

Helmholtz
Hermann von Helmholtz was a German scientist. He was born in 1821 at Ptsdam and died in 1894. He discovered the law of the conservation of energy in 1847.

Helmuth Von Moltke
Helmuth Johannes Ludwig Von Moltke was a Prussian general. He was born in 1848 and died in 1916. He invented the
German plan of campaign for the Great War.

Helot
The helot were a class of slaves in ancient
Sparta.

Helvetii
The Helvetii were a people living in the area now called
Switzerland around Roman times. They were persecuted by the Romans under Vitellius for refusing to acknowledge him as Emperor and were almost wiped out.

Hendrik Conscience
Hendrik Conscience was a Flemish novelist. He was born in 1812 at
Antwerp and died in 1883. He wrote novels mainly dealing with the history of his country and provide accounts of everyday life in Belgium.

Henri Barbusse
Henri Barbusse was a
French writer. He was born in 1874 and died in 1935.

Henri de Toulouse-Lautrec
Henri de Toulouse-Lautrec was a
French painter. He was born in 1864 at Albi and died in 1901.

Henri Duparc
Henri Duparc was a
French composer. He was born in Paris in 1848. He died in 1933.

Henri Fantin-Latour
Henri Fantin-Latour was a
French painter. He was born in 1836 at Grenoble and died in 1904.

Henri Matisse
Henri Matisse was a
French painter. He was born in 1869 at Le Cateau and died in 1954.

Henri Sainte-Claire Deville
Henri Etienne Sainte-Claire Deville was a
French chemist. He was born in 1818 and died in 1881. His principal works included the sodium method of preparing aluminium and researches on the platinum metals. His experiences with high temperature methods in this connection led to pioneering work on the artificial preparation of minerals and to his discovery of thermal dissociation.

Henrik Ibsen
Henrik
Ibsen was a Norwegian dramatist. He was born in 1828 at Skien and died in 1906.

Henry Cavendish
Henry Cavendish was an
English scientist who investigated the nature of gases. He was born in 1731, dying in 1810.

Henry Fielding
Henry Fielding was an English writer. He was born in 1707 near Glastonbury and died in 1754. He wrote the novel Tom Jones.

Henry Ford
Henry Ford was the founder of the
Ford motor car company and the pioneer of the cheap motor car.

Henry Fuseli
Henry Fuseli was a Swiss artist. He was born in 1741 at Zurich and died in 1825. He was a friend to William Blake, and was keeper of the Royal Academy from 1804 until 1825.

Henry Hudson
Henry Hudson was an
English sailor and explorer. He discovered the Hudson river and Hudson straight.

Henry I
Henry was a son of William The Conqueror and King of England from 1101 to 1135.

Henry II
Henry II was
King of England from 1154 to 1189.

Henry III
Henry III was
King of England from 1216 to 1272.

Henry IV
Henry IV was
King of England from 1399 to 1413.

Henry James
Henry James was an American writer. He was born in 1843 and died in 1916.

Henry Moore
Henry Moore is an English sculptor. He was born in 1898 at Castleford.

Henry Palmerston
Henry John Temple Palmerston was an English statesman. He was born in 1784 in Hampshire and died in 1865. He became Conservative MP for Newport in 1807 but in 1828 switched sides to the Liberals.

Henry Purcell
Henry Purcell was an English composer born in London in 1659. He died in 1695.

Henry Shrapnel
Henry Shrapnel was an English inventor. He was born in 1761 and died in 1842. He invented the shrapnel shell which was adopted by the British army in 1803.

Henry Thoreau
Henry David Thoreau was an American naturalist and writer. He was born in 1817 at Concord and died in 1862. He wrote Walden.

Henry V
Henry V was
King of England from 1413 to 1422.

Henry Vaughan
Henry Vaughan was a Welsh religious poet. He was born in 1622 and died in 1695.

Henry VI
Henry VI was son of
Henry V and King of England from 1422 to 1461.

Henry VII
Henry VII was
King of England from 1485 to 1509.

Henry VIII
Henry VIII was
King of England from 1509 to 1547.

Henryk Sienkiewicz
Henryk Sienkiewicz was a Polish novelist. He was born in 1846 and died in 1916.

Herbert Morrison
Herbert Morrison was a British labour statesman. He was born in 1888, dying in 1965. He was
home secretary during the second world war.

Herbert Spencer
Herbert
Spencer was a British philosopher. He was born in 1820 at Derby and died in 1903.

Herman Melville
Herman Melville was an American writer. He was born in 1819 at New York and died in 1891. He wrote Moby Dick.

Hernando Cortes
Hernando Cortes was a Spanish adventurer. He was born in 1488, dying in 1547. In 1511 he took part in the conquest of Cuba and in 1518 he captured Mexico for Spain, and destroyed the ancient civilisation there.

Herodotus
Herodotus was a
Greek historian. He was born in 484 BC and died in 420 BC.

Heruli
The Heruli were an ancient Germanic people, originally found on the northern shores of the
Black Sea. Under the leadership of Odoacer they helped in the overthrow of the Western Empire. Around the end of the 6th century they ceased to exist as a separate people.

Hesiod
Hesiod was a
Greek poet who lived around 730 BC.

Hieronymus Fabricius
Hieronymus d'Aquapendente Fabricius was an Italian anatomist and the founder of modern
embryology. He was born in 1537 and died in 1619. His experiments on the veins influenced his pupil William Harvey.

Hilaire Belloc
Hilaire Belloc was a
French author born in 1870. In 1902 he became a British subject. He died in 1953.

Hipparchus
Hipparchus was a
Greek astronomer. He was born in 190 BC and died in 120 BC. He compiled the first known star catalogue.

Hippocrates
Hippocrates was a
Greek doctor. He was born in 460 BC and died in 370 BC. He established medicine as a science.

Hispanic
A Hispanic is a person of
Latin American descent from the Spanish-speaking nations, either native-born or an immigrant.

Hittites
The Hittites were a civilisation in
Syria and Asia Minor around 2000 BC until 700 BC.

Hmong
A Hmong is a member of a south east Asian
highland people. They are predominantly hill farmers, rearing pigs and cultivating rice and grain, and many are involved in growing the opium poppy. Estimates of the size of the Hmong population vary between 1.5 million and 5 million, the greatest number being in China. Although traditional beliefs remain important, many have adopted Christianity. Their language belongs to the Sino-Tibetan family. The Hmong wear distinctive costumes and elaborate silver jewellery. They are relatively recent arrivals on the south east Asian peninsula, many having moved south in order to avoid harassment by Chinese emperors. Today the Hmong live in China (Guizhou, Yunnan, Hunan), Laos, Thailand, Vietnam, and Myanmar.

Homer
Homer was an ancient
Greek poet.

Honore Daumier
Honore Daumier was a
French painter and cartoonist. He was born in 1808 at Marseilles and died in 1879. He produced almost 4000 lithographs.

Hopewell
Hopewell is a North American Indian agricultural culture of the central
USA, dating from about 200. The Hopewell built burial mounds up to 12 m high and structures such as Serpent Mound in Ohio.

Hopi
The Hopi are a north
American Indian tribe living in Arizona.

Horace Saussure
Horace Saussure was a Swiss physicist born at Conches in 1740 he died in 1799. He invented the hygrometer.

Horace Walpole
Horace Walpole was a British Politician. He was born in 1717 and died in 1797.

Horatio Bottomley
Horatio Bottomley was an English politician and financier. He was born in 1860, dying in 1933. He was imprisoned for fraud.

Horatio Kitchener
Horatio Herbert Kitchener was a British military leader. He was born in 1850 and died in 1916 on board the HMS Hampshire when the ship struck a mine and sank. He was commander-in-chief during the Boer war. He was secretary for war during the Great War.

Horatio Nelson
Horatio Nelson was an English naval commander. He was born in 1758 and died in 1805 from a sniper's gunshot at the battle of Trafalgar. Oddly, he suffered from sea sickness!

Hottentot
The Hottentot are a south
African tribe.

Hovas
The Hovas are a native
race of Madagascar.

Hubert Van Eyck
Hubert
Van Eyck was born in 1370 and died in 1426. With his brother Jan he founded the Flemish school of painting. Jan Van Eyck was born in 1390 and died in 1441.

Hugh Falconer
Hugh
Falconer was a British naturalist and palaeontologist. He was born in 1808 in Scotland and died in 1865.

Hugh Latimer
Hugh
Latimer was an English Protestant martyr. He was born in 1485 near Leicester and died in 1555. He was burnt at the stake in Oxford for being a heretic.

Huguenots
The Huguenots were
French Protestants who suffered persecution from the Catholics for 200 years.

Hui
The Hui are one of the largest minority ethnic groups in
China, numbering about 25 million. Members of the Hui live all over China, but are concentrated in the northern central region. They have been Muslims since the 10th century.

Huron
Huron is a nickname for a member of a confederation of five Iroquoian North American Indian peoples living near lakes Huron,
Erie, and Ontario in the 16th and 17th centuries. They were almost wiped out by the Iroquois. In the 17th century, surviving Hurons formed a group called Wyandot, some of whose descendants now live in Quebec and Oklahoma.

Hutu
The Hutu are the majority ethnic group of both
Burundi and Rwanda, numbering around 9,500,000. The Hutu tend to live as peasant farmers. Traditionally they have been dominated by the Tutsi minority; there is a long history of violent conflict between the two groups. The Hutu language belongs to the Bantu branch of the Niger-Congo family.

Hycsos
The Hycsos (Hykshos) or
Shepherd Kings, were wandering tribes of Semitic descent who conquered Egypt in 2100 BC and were driven out some five hundred years later.

Hyder Ali
Hyder Ali was a distinguished Indian Prince. He was born in 1728 to a general in the service of the Rajah of Mysore. He died in 1782 during a war with the British.

Hykshos
see "
Hycsos"

Iban
Iban is a
replacement term for Dyak.

Ibo
The Ibo are a west
African culture group occupying south east Nigeria and numbering about 18,000,000. Primarily cultivators, they inhabit the richly forested tableland, bounded by the river Niger to the west and the river Cross to the east. They are divided into five main groups, and their languages belong to the Kwa branch of the Niger-Congo family.

Ifugao
The Ifugao are an indigenous people of north
Luzon in the Philippines, numbering approximately 70,000. In addition to practising shifting cultivation on highland slopes, they build elaborate terraced rice fields. Their language belongs to the Austronesian family. The Ifugao live in scattered hamlets and traditionally recognise a class of nobles, kadangya, who are obliged to provide expensive feasts on particular social occasions. Although indigenous beliefs remain, many Ifugao have adopted Christianity.

Ignance Paderewski
Ignance Jan Paderewski was a Polish musician. He was born in 1860 at Kurilowka and died in 1941.

Igor Stravinsky
Igor Stravinsky was a
Russian composer. He was born in 1882, dying in 1971. He wrote several ballets.

Immanuel Kant
Immanuel Kant was a
German philosopher. He was born at Konigsberg in 1724 and died in 1804. He wrote "Critique of Pure Reason" and "Critique of Practical Reason".

Ina
Ina was
King of the West Saxons. He ascended to the throne in 689. In 728 he resigned his crown and went on pilgrimage to Rome.

Inca
The Inca were an Indian tribe of
Peru.

Indulf
Indulf was
King of Scotland from 954 to 962.

Inigo Jones
Inigo
Jones was an English architect. He was born in 1573 and died in 1652.

Inuit
The Innuit are a people inhabiting the
Arctic coasts of North America, the east islands of the Canadian Arctic, and the ice-free coasts of Greenland. Inuktitut, their language, has about 60,000 speakers; it belongs to the Eskimo-Aleut group. The Inuit object to the name Eskimos given them by the Algonquin Indians.

Irish
The Irish are people of Irish culture from
Ireland or person of Irish descent. The Irish mainly speak English, though there are approximately 30,000-100,000 speakers of Irish Gaelic, a Celtic language belonging to the Indo-European family.
Celtic tribes, the ancestors of the Irish, migrated to Ireland about 300 BC. Later known as Gaels (Irishmen), they settled on the Isle of Man and south west Scotland, and established colonies in west Wales, Devon, and Cornwall.

Iroquois
The Iroquois were a confederacy of 6 north
American Indian tribes including the Mohawks, Oneidas and Senecas. They lived on the shores of the Mohawk river, and spread through to the Mississippi. Their expansion was checked by white settlers who wiped out several of the tribes and imprisoned others on squalid reservations.

Isaac Singer
Isaac
Merritt Singer was an American engineer. He was born in 1811 and died in 1875. He developed and patented a single-thread and chain-stitching sewing machine.

Isaac Watts
Isaac
Watts was an English poet and hymn-writer. he was born in 1674 and died in 1748.

Iskandar Bey
see "
Skanderbeg"

Israeli
An Israeli is an inhabitant of
Israel.

Ivan Mazeppa
Ivan Stepanovich
Mazeppa was a Cossack nobleman. He was born in 1644, dying in 1709. He fought for independence for the Ukraine from Russia.

Ivan Pavlov
Ivan Petrovich Pavlov was a
Russian psychologist. He was born in 1849 at Ryazan and died in 1936. He conducted work into conditioned reflexes using dogs.

Ivan Turgenev
Ivan Sergeievitch Turgenev was a
Russian novelist. He was born in 1818 at Orel and died in 1883. He wrote "A Sportsman's Sketches" in 1852 which dealt with country life and the plight of Russian serfs.

Izaak Walton
Izaak
Walton was an English writer. He was born in 1593 at Stafford and died in 1683. He wrote "The Compleat Angler", the first English nature book.