The Uchi or Yuchi were a tribe of North American Indians formerly numerous in South Carolina and Georgia. Around the turn of the century the 650 survivors were united with the Creeks on the Arkansas River. Research Uchi
Ugo Foscolo was an Italian poet and patriot. He was born in 1778 at Zante and died in 1827. Educated at the University of Padua, before the age of twenty he produced his tragedy Il Tieste (Thyestes), which was received with applause. His next work of importance was a romance somewhat in the style of Goethe's Werther, called Ultime Lettere di Jacopo Ortis (Last Letters of Jacopo Ortis). He then procured a commission in the army (First Italian Legion), After some military experiences under Massena at Genoa and elsewhere, in 1805 he retired and wrote I Sepolcri, one of the finest of his poems. He was subsequently appointed to a professorship at Pavia, of which Napoleon, displeased at his freedom of speech, soon deprived him. In 1812 he produced his tragedy of Ajax, and soon after that of Ricciarda. On the fall of Napoleon, Ugo Foscolo, who was obnoxious to the Austrians, retired to Switzerland; but finally, in 1815, he went to London, where he met with a most favourable reception, and where he died. Besides the works already mentioned, his critical writings, Essays on Petrarch and Discourses on the texts of Dante and of Machiavelli's Il Principe, are well known. Research Ugo Foscolo
The Uigur are a Turkic people living in north west China and Kazakhstan; they form about 80% of the population of the Chinese province of Xinjiang Uygur. There are about 5 million speakers of Uigur, a language belonging to the Turkic branch of the Altaic family; it is the official language of the province. Research Uigur
The Ulema were a general body of learned men in Muslim countries. They interpreted the Koran and consequently the law. From their numbers were chosen the principal officers until their suppression in 1926. Research Ulema
Ulrich von Hutten was a German knight. He was born in 1488 at the family castle of Steckelberg on the Main and died in 1523. He was distinguished for the influence which his writings exercised upon the Reformation. Educated at the famous monastic school of Eulda, he led a wandering and unsettled life, sometimes appearing as the man of letters and controversialist, at other times as the soldier. His first attacks on the Roman Church were in connection with his defence of the persecuted Reuchlin, and with the issuing of the Epistolae Obscurorum Virorum. In 1517 he was crowned laureate at Augsburg, and knighted by the emperor. A year or two after he retired to his paternal castle to write work after work, addressing the people, like Luther, in their native German, and denouncing the arrogance and corruption of Rome. The Roman authorities at length began to move against him, and he fled to the castle of his friend Franz von Sickingen, and from that again to Switzerland, where he died in 1523. Research Ulrich von Hutten
Ulysses Aldrovandi was a distinguished Italian naturalist. He was born in 1522 and died in 1605. He was professor at Bologna, and established botanical gardens and museum of natural history there. He wrote a work on natural history in thirteen volumes. Research Ulysses Aldrovandi
Ulysses Simpson Grant (real name Hiram Ulysses Grant, his later name arose from an error in the registration process for his cadetship) was an American soldier, politician and the eighteenth president of the USA from 1869 to 1877. He was born in 1822 at Point Pleasant, Ohio and died in 1885. He attended and graduated West Point military academy, graduated in 1843 and joined the 4th US Infantry at Jefferson Barracks as a brevet second lieutenant, being commissioned a lieutenant, he fought in the Mexican War, and was present at the battles of Palo Alto and Resaca de la Palma among others, and was brevetted captain in 1847 for conduct at Chapultepec. In 1854 he resigned his commission and engaged in business - first in farming near St Louis and later in the leathertrade with his father at galena, Illinois - until 1861 with the declaration of war when he was chosen captain of a company of volunteers. He was soon after the outbreak of the American Civil War given command of the forces at Cairo, Illinois, and in 1861 seized Paducah. In 1862 he gained possession of Fort Henry and Port Donelson, strongly contested points, the surrender of which was the first brilliant victory of the national arms. For this success he was commissioned major-general. In conjunction with the forces of General Buell he defeated the Confederates at Pittsburg Landing and soon afterward was assigned to command in Tennessee. He defeated General Price in 1863 and succeeded in taking Vicksburg from Pendleton after repeated attacks. Having thus secured the Mississippi, he was appointed major-general in the regular army and placed in command of the Western army.
He gained brilliant victories about Chattanooga and was appointed by President Abraham Lincoln to the newly revived rank of lieutenant-general. Leaving Sherman to conduct the chief Western army from Tennessee to the sea, he assumed control of the movements against the Confederates defending Richmond, commanded by General Lee. With dogged persistence and at great sacrifice of life he fought the battles of the Wilderness, Spotsylvania and Cold Harbor, destroying the railways which brought supplies to the Confederates, taking Petersburg in 1865 and compelling the entire command to surrender on April the 9th at Appomattox Court House, thereby ending the American Civil War.
In the period of reconstruction which followed he played a most honourable part, often being placed in difficult positions by the animosity between President Johnson and Congress. In 1868 he was unanimously nominated for President by the Republicans, was elected and served two terms, from 1868 to 1876. During his administration occurred the passage of the Fifteenth Amendment, the funding of the national debt, civil service reform was inaugurated, the Treaty of Washington was negotiated with Great Britain, and specie payment was resumed in 1875. His administration as President was not wholly successful, some of his advisers proving most unworthy. He possessed an unassuming manner, yet was self-reliant and prompt in his decisions, calm and patient in all circumstances, and won the admiration of all by his moral and physical courage. Research Ulysses Simpson Grant
Uncas was an American Indian. He was born about 1588 and died in 1682. He revolted from the Pequot Indians in 1635 and became chief of the Mohegans. He made treaties of peace with the colonists, and in 1637 greatly assisted Colonel Mason's expedition against the Pequots, for which he received part of their land. In 1643 he defeated Miantonomo, chief of the Narragansetts, and put him to death. He was always friendly to the whites and faithful to his treaties. Research Uncas
After the close of the American War of Independence, of the expatriated Tory exiles, exceeding 30,000 in number, many fled to Canada, Nova Scotia and New Brunswick, where they formed societies called the United Empire Loyalists. These associations kept burning a bitter hatred toward the Americans, and border disturbances were kept up for a long time. Research United Empire Loyalists
Urban II was Pope from 1088 until his death in 1099. A native of Champagne, of noble family. Otto or Ode studied at Reims under Bruno, founder of the Carthusians, and later entered the abbey of Cluny, where he became prior. As one of Pope Hildebrand's most trusted helpers, he was made cardinal and bishop of Ostia, and in 1088 was elected pope at a council held at Terracina. Rome was then in the hands of the anti-pope Clement III, who, with the support of the emperor. Henry IV, alternated with Urban II in the actual occupation of St Peter's. The greater part of Urban II's pontificate was passed in exile, but he strove to maintain the policy of his great predecessor, Hildebrand. The chief act of Urban's pontificate took place in 1095, when he crossed the Alps, re-entered his native country, and projected the first crusade, which he preached at the council of Clermont, 1095. Research Urban II
Urban III was Pope from 1185 until his death in 1187. He was born at Milan, of noble family, his name was Uberto Crivelli, and he was made a cardinal and archbishop of Milan by Pope Lucius III. On his election to the papacy he maintained the dispute between the pope and the emperor, Frederick Barbarossa, over the claim of the papacy to estates in Tuscany. He refused to crown Henry, Frederick's son and the husband of Constance of Sicily, or to accept the emperor's nominee as bishop of Treves. Frederick responded by putting a stop to all communication between the papal court and German ecclesiastics, and Urban was only stopped from excommunicating Frederick by the refusal of the Veronese to allow the sentence to be promulgated from their city. Research Urban III
Urban IV was Pope from 1261 until his death in 1064. The son of a French cobbler of Troyes, Jacques Pantaleon studied in Paris and became successively canon of Laon, archdeacon of Liege, bishop of Verdun, in 1253, and patriarch of Jerusalem, in 1255. Innocent IV employed him in various missions, and in 1261 he was elected pope at Viterbo. Urban IV's policy led ultimately to the final overthrow of the enemy of the papacy, the Hohenstaufen dynasty. He secured French intervention in Italy, in the person of Charles of Anjou, by the offer of the Sicilian crown, but Italy had to be won back from Manfred, prince of Tarentum. Urban's diplomacy kept off Manfred, but the pope did not live to see the accomplishment of his schemes, and he died at Perugia, on October the 2nd, 1264. Urban IV established the feast of Corpus Christi. Research Urban IV
Urban V was a pope. He was born in 1309 and died in 1370. He was Pope from 1362 until 1370. Guillaume Grimoard, a native of Languedoc, entered the Benedictine order, in which he rose to be abbot of St Victor at Marseilles. During his absence as legate to Naples, he was elected to succeed Innocent VI and was crowned at Avignon, on November the 6th, 1362. In 1367 he moved to Rome, but in September, 1370, at the entreaties of the French cardinals, he returned to Avignon, dying seven weeks later on December the 19th, 1370. Research Urban V
Urban VI was a Pope. He was born in 1318 and died in 1389. He was Pope from 1378 until 1389. A Neapolitan, Bartolommeo Prignano, he became archbishop of Bari in 1377, and on the death of Gregory XI was elected pope, on April the 8th, 1378. A tactless disciplinarian, he alienated the college of cardinals, who, in July, 1378, met at Anagni, declared Urban VI's election null, and elected a French cardinal, who took the name of Clement VII, in his place. This was the origin of the Great Schism. Urban VI was on his way to seize the throne of Naples vacated by the death of Charles, whom he had himself crowned, when, thrown from his mule, he succumbed to his injuries, and died on October the 15th 1389. Research Urban VI
Urban VIII was a Pope. He was born in 1568 and died in 1644. He was Pope from 1623 until 1644. Maffeo Barberini, a Florentine, was educated in Rome and Pisa, made cardinal in 1606, and elected pope in 1623. During the Thirty Years' War he sided with France. In Rome itself he built the magnificent ace of stones wrenched from the Colosseum, and torebronze from the Pantheon to make the tawdry baldachinum at St Peter's, an act which elicited one of Pasquino's bitterest gibes, quod non, fecerunt barbari fecerunt Barberini (what the barbarians left undone, the Barberini did). He founded the Propaganda College for missionaries in 1627; issued the Breviary as used until Pius X in 1631; and fulminated decrees against the Jansenists. He died on July the 29th, 1644. Research Urban VIII
Ursula was an English Virgin martyr and the patron saint of maidens. She is said to have been the daughter of a Cornish prince in the 5th century, and to have fled with her friends to Gaul to escape the Saxon invaders of Britain. After a visit to Rome she is reported to have been slain with many others by the Huns about 453, near the banks of the Rhine, and to have been buried at Cologne. She is commemorated with her fellowvirgin martyrs on October the 21st. Research Ursula
The Ursulines are a Roman Catholic religious order for women. It was founded at Brescia in Italy in 1537 by St Angela di Merici. The original institution was an association of young ladies living at home, who should devote their spare time to works of piety and especially to the education of poor children. In 1544 the association was changed to a religious congregation by Pope Paul III under the protection and guidance of St Charles Borromeo; and it was made an enclosed religious Order under the rule of St Augustine by Gregory XIII in 1572. The Order has long been famed for its schools. Research Ursulines
The Utes or Utahs are a North American tribe of Indians, a chief branch of the Shoshone division. They were traditionally hunters, skilled with the horse. They were once scattered over Colorado, New Mexico, California, Nevada and Utah by 1900 they had dwindled to 2500 distributed in Nevada, Colorado and Utah.
They were generally friendly to the whites, but following the invasion of their lands in Utah, Utah bands carried on hostilities with the Mormon invaders. Subsequently disturbances occurred between them and invading miners at Pike's Peak and they defeated Major Ormsby on the Truckee River. In 1865 large tracts of land were ceded to the United States. Later trouble arose with Black Hawk, a chief of the Pah Utes, and for several years bloody warfare followed. Research Utes
Uzziah was King of Judah. He was born in 789 BC and died in 737 BC. He was the son of Amaziah. He became king at the age of sixteen and was a vigorous and able monarch who encouraged agriculture, equipped an army, fortified Jerusalem and conducted campaigns against the Philistines, Arabs and Amonites. He eventually died of leprosy. Research Uzziah
The Probert Encyclopaedia was designed, edited and programed by
Matt and Leela Probert
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