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The Vaalpens are a Negrito tribe of cave-dwelling cannibals inhabiting Northern Transvaal where they live in a state of serfdom to the Baralongs.
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Vail M Pittman was an American politician. He was a Democratic governor of Nevada from 1945 until 1951.
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The Vaishnava are a Bhakti sect devoted to Vishnu.
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Val Guest (Valmond Guest) is a British writer, producer and film director. He was born in 1911. He worked on a number of 1930s comedies for Will Hay, Arthur Askey and The Crazy Gang.
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Val Peterson was an American politician. He was a Republican governor of Nebraska from 1947 until 1953.
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The Vandals were a war-like Germanic tribe who between the 5th and 6th centuries invaded Gaul, Spain and North Africa. In 455 they sacked Rome. They were renowned for wantonly destroying art treasures and books.
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Varangians was a name given by the Greeks and Slavs to the Scandinavian rovers who in the 9th and 10th centuries sailed down the Dnieper and threatened Constantinople.
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Vasco da Gama was a Portuguese explorer. He discovered the sea-route from Europe to India.
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Vasco Nunez De Balboa was one of the early Spanish adventurers in the New World. He was born in 1475 and died in 1517. Having dissipated his fortune, he went to America, and was at Darien with the expedition of Francisco de Enciso in 1510. An insurrection placed him at the head of the colony, but rumours of a western ocean and of the wealth of Peru led him to cross the isthmus. On September the 25th 1513, he saw for the first time the Pacific, and after annexing it to Spain, and acquiring information about Peru, returned to Parien. Here he found himself supplanted by a aew governor, Pedrarias Davila, with much consequent grievance on the one side, and much jealousy on the other. Balboa submitted, however, and in the following year was appointed viceroy of the South Sea. Davila was apparently reconciled to him, and gave him his daughter in marriage, but shortly after, in 1517, had him beheaded on a charge of intent to rebel. Pizarro, who afterwards completed the discovery of Peru, served under Balboa.
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Vasili Nikitich Mitrokhin is a former KGB officer. He was born in 1922 in central Russia. He entered service as a Soviet foreign intelligence officer for the MGB in 1948 and was first posted abroad in 1952. He defected to England in 1992 and was smuggled out of the Soviet Union by the British SIS along with his family and realms of notes copied from KGB files over a period of many years which he then published as 'The Mitrokhin Archive' offering an insight into Soviet Intelligence operations around the world during the 20th century and naming many hitherto unknown Soviet spies.
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Vasily Sokolovsky was a Soviet general. He was born in 1897 and died in 1968. During the Second World War he was Chief of Staff to the West Front Army from 1941, he took command of it in 1943, and led the counteroffensive after the Battle of Kursk and liberated Smolensk. His progress then slowed and he was removed from command and became Chief of Staff to the 1st Ukrainian Front. In 1945 he became Deputy Commander of the 1st Byelorussian Front for the attack on Berlin, captured the Fuhrerbunker, and verified Hitler's corpse from dental records. After the war he became commander in chief of Soviet Forces in Germany.
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Vaslav Nijinsky was a Russian ballet dancer and choreographer. He was born in 1890 and died in 1950. He came from a family of dancers and at 18 joined the Russian Imperial Ballet. After leaving Russia in 1911 he joined Diaghilev's company in France and quickly gained an international reputation. He retired from ballet in 1918 suffering from mental instability.
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Vassili Verestchagin was a Russian painter. He was born in 1842 and died in 1904. He studied under Geromes in Paris. He served in the wars with Turkey in 1877 and Japan in 1904. His paintings are on military subjects.
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Ralph Vaughan Williams was an English composer. He was born in 1872 at Down Ampney and died in 1958.
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Vavasour was the original English name for what is now called a baron.
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The Vedda are an aboriginal peoples of Sri Lanka, who occupied the island before the arrival of the Aryans about 550 BC. Formerly cave-dwelling hunter- gatherers, they have now almost died out or merged with the rest of the population. They speak a Sinhalese language, belonging to the Indo- European family. They live mainly in the central highlands, and many practise shifting cultivation.
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Vera Caslavska is a Czech gymnast. She was born in 1942 at Prague. Originally a promising ice skater, when she was fifteen she was invited to take part in trials to find gymnastic talent and trained with Bosakova, going on to win 22 titles in Olympic, World and European championships including the gold medal at the 1964 and 1968 Olympic Games for the combined exercises, at the 1964 Olympic Games she also won the gold medal for the beam and the vault. She was famed also for her floor routine known as the 'Mexican Hat Dance', which was greeted with rapturous applause by audiences.
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Publius Vergilius Maro (Vergil) was a Roman poet. He was born in 70BC near Mantua and died in 19BC.
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Verity Lambert OBE was an English television show producer. She was born in 1935 at London and died in 2007. Her first production was 'Dr Who', which she was the first producer of and worked on from 1963 to 1966 being employed by the BBC. She later produced episodes of the television series 'Jonathan Creek' in 1998 and formed her own production company. 'Cinema Verity'. She was awarded the OBE in 2002.
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Vernon W Thomson was an American politician. He was a Republican governor of Wisconsin from 1957 until 1959.
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Vespasian (Titus Flavius Sabinus Vespasianus) was a Roman emperor. He was born in 9 and died in 79. He commanded a legion in Britain and subdued the Isle of Wight between 43 and 44. In 63 he became governor of Africa and in 66 governor of Judaea. In 69 he was proclaimed emperor at Alexandria. During his reign he continued the conquest of Britain, restored peace to Rome, suppressed the Batavians, Gauls and Jews and restored the finances of the state. He found money for monumental building works in Rome including the start of the Colosseum.
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A vicar is a church of England priest.
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Vicente Aleixandre was a Spanish poet. He was born in 1898 at Seville and died in 1984. He was awarded the Nobel Prize for literature in 1977.
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Vicente Barrantes was a Spanish publicist and author. He was born in 1829 and died in 1898.
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Vicente de Espinel was a Spanish writer and musician. He was born in 1550 at Ronda and died in 1634. He produced melodious lyric poems and translated Horace's Art of Poetry into iambic blank verse, and several of Horace's Odes.
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Vicente Pinzon was a Spanish explorer. He was born around 1460 and died around 1524. He commanded La Nina in the expedition of Columbus in 1493. In 1499, he discovered Brazil and the Amazon. He made two subsequent voyages to South America in 1506 and 1508.
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A viceroy is someone who acts as governor of a country or province by authority of the ruler.
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Victor Adler was an Austrian Socialist. He was born in 1852 at Prague and died in 1918. A Jew by birth, he trained as a doctor of medicine but gave up his professional work to campaign for social democracy. He was largely responsible for the establishment of the Austrian Socialist Party, and became its leader. He served for many years in the Reichsrath, and was foreign minister at the time of his death.
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Victor Amadeus II was Duke of Savoy and the first King of Sardinia. He was born in 1666 and died in 1732.
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Victor Balaguer was a Spanish author and politician. He was born in 1824 at Barcelona and died in 1901. He is regarded as the most important writer of the 19th century in the Catalonian dialect.. He studied law at Barcelona, and becoming learned in Catalonian history was appointed archivist and soon after professor of history. In 1869 he entered the Cortes as a liberal; in 1872 was minister of public works; in 1886-88 colonial minister. He wrote much both in prose and verse, his prose comprising historical works, novels, etc, his verse lyrics, ballads, tragedies, odes, etc. His tragedies were partly on subjects taken from Catalonian history, partly on subjects connected with Greek and Roman history or literature. Among his lyrical and other poems are: El Trovador de Montserrat; Primavera de Ultimo Trovador Catalan; Poesias Completas (1874); Obras Poeticas (1880). Don Juan de Serrallonga is the most popular of his novels. Among other works of his are: Historia Politica y Literaria de los Trovadores; Historia de Cataluna; Los Pirineos; Cristobal Colon; Estudios Historicos y Politicos; Historias y Tradiciones; Instituciones y Reyes de Aragon.
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Victor Barna (born Gyozo Braun) was a Hungarian-born British table-tennis player. He was born in 1911 at Budapest and died in 1972. After leaving Hungary and emigrating to France he went to Britain where he adopted British nationality. He was captain of the England table tennis team and five times world men's singles champion, four times in succession, between 1930 and 1939. He was also eight times men's doubles champion with three different partners and twice mixed doubles champion.
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Victor Benson was a British wrestler in the catch-as-catch-can and Cumberland and Westmoreland styles. He was born in 1892 and died in 1967. Between 1919 and 1930 he held 13 British championships.
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Victor Cousin was a French educationalist and philosopher. He was born in 1792, and died in 1867. He was educated at the Ecole Normale, University of Paris. Cousin was appointed lecturer at the University of Paris in 1815 and was made director of the Ecole Normale in 1830, the year he became a councillor of state and a peer of France. In 1840 he became minister of public instruction in the French cabinet; under his influence the French system of primary education was reorganised, philosophical freedom was encouraged in the university, and the study of the history of philosophy was introduced into academic curricula.
Victor Cousin is regarded as the founder of the modern philosophical school of eclecticism. Believing that no single philosophical system is entirely correct, Victor Cousin combined aspects of idealism, materialism, mysticism, and scepticism into an eclectic system of his own. He was particularly influenced by the philosophy of common sense of the Scottish philosopher Thomas Reid and by the idealism of the German philosopher G. W. F. Hegel.
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Victor E Anderson was an American politician. He was a Republican governor of Nebraska from 1955 until 1959.
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Victor Emmanuel I was King of Sardinia. He was born in 1759 and died in 1824. He became king in 1820 but later abdicated in favour of his brother Charles Albert.
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Victor Emmanuel II was King of Sardinia and of Italy. He was born in 1820 and died in 1878. Through his diplomacy he united Italy and was in 1871 crowned the first king of a united Italy.
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Victor Emmanuel III was King of Italy. He was born in 1869 and succeeded to the throne on the assassination of his father, Humbert I, in 1900.
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Victor G Atiyeh was an American politician. He was a Republican governor of Oregon from 1979 until 1987.
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Victor Marie Hugo was a French poet and novelist. He was born in 1802 at Besancon and died in 1885. His first poems were published in 1822.
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Victor Thomas Trumper was an Australian cricketer. He was born in 1877 and died in 1915. A player for New South Wales and Australia, he earned a reputation as a legendary batsman able to play on even the most difficult wicket, making 135 not out in the 1899 Lord's Test match and 300 not out against Sussex. In 1903 at Sydney he made 185 not out, reaching his century in 94 minutes.
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Victoria Beckham is an English singer. She was born in 1974 at Hertfordshire. She was formerly 'Posh Spice' in the British pop group the Spice Girls.
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Victorien Sardou was a French dramatist. He was born in 1831 and died in 1908.
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Vidkun Quisling was a Norwegian politician. He was born in 1887 and died in 1945 when he was executed following the liberation of Norway. Quisling was from 1931 to 1933 Minister of Defence, and then later leader of the Norwegian fascist party. When Norway was invaded by Nazi Germany during the Second World War, Vidkun Quisling was appointed Prime Minister by Adolf Hitler.
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The Vikings (creek-dwellers) were the inhabitants of Scandinavia, and more particularly Norway from about the 8th to the 11th century. They were also called Norsemen, and Danes. They were great explorers and set up colonies in Ireland, France, England and Scotland as well as reaching Iceland, Greenland and Nova Scotia. In 912 they were granted the duchy of Normandy, and these
Vikings became known as Normans, later famously invading and conquering England.
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Vilhjalmar Stefansson was a Canadian Arctic explorer. He was born in 1879 at Manitoba, Canada of Icelandic parents and died in 1962. He studied archaeology and anthropology at Iowa University and in 1908 was commissioned by the American Museum of Natural History to make an ethnological survey of the Central Arctic coast of America.
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Vincent Van Gogh was a Dutch painter. He was born in 1853 at Brabant and died in 1890 after shooting himself.
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Vincenzo Bellini was an Italian composer. He was born in 1801 and died in 1835. He composed I Puritani, La Sonnambula, Norma.
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Vincenzo Camuccini was an Italian painter. He was born in 1775 and died in 1844. He was the head of the pseudo- classic school instituted by the French painter David. His pictures were greatly valued during his lifetime, but fell from popularity following his death.
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Vincenzo Da Filicaja was an Italian poet. He was born in 1642 and died in 1707. He first achieved note for his stirring odes on the victory of Sobieski over the Turks in 1683.
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Vincenzo Monti was an Italian poet. He was born in 1754 at Fusignano and died in 1828. he went to Rome in 1778 where he became secretary to Prince Braschi. He was professor of eloquence at Pavia during the French republic and during the empire became Napoleon's official poet and histiographer for Italy at Milan.
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Vinova Bhave is an Indian reformer and leader of the sarvodaya movement. He was born in 1895. He was a follower of Ghandi and campaigned for help for landless peasants.
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Publius Vergilius Maro Virgil was a Roman poet. He was born in 70 BC near Mantua and died in 19 BC. He studied philosophy under the Epicurean Siron at Rome and became one of Maecena's friends.
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Virgil Thomson was an American composer. He was born in 1896 and died in 1989. He composed Opera, film music, Four Saints in Three Acts.
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Virginia Dare was the first English child born in the New World. She was born in 1587 at Roanoke, Virginia. She was the granddaughter of John White, Governor of the colony sent out by Sir Walter Raleigh in 1587.
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William R Davie was an American soldier and politician. He was born in 1756 at England and died in 1820. He arrived in America in 1763. He commanded at Stono Ferry in 1779, and in 1781 was appointed commissary-general of the Southern army. He was a member of the Constitutional Convention of 1787 from North Carolina, and of the special embassy to France in 1799. He was prominent among the North Carolina Federalists.
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Virginia Woolf was an English novelist. She was born in 1882 and died in 1941.
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Viscount is the fourth rank of nobility. The term comes from the Norman Conquest of England, when the Norman rulers applied the word viscounte to the officials appointed as sheriffs. It was not until nearly four hundred years later that it became an order of the peerage. The premier viscountcy is that of Hereford, which was created in 1550. The viscount's mantle has two and a half bars of ermine. His coronet has sixteen silver balls fixed to a silver circlet.
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Count Vittorio Alfieri was an Italian poet and playwright. He was born in 1749 at Asti, Piedmont and died in 1803. After extensive European travels he began to write, and his first play, Cleopatra produced in 1775, being received with general applause he determined to devote all his efforts to attaining a position among writers of dramatic poetry. At Florence he became intimate with the Countess of Albany, wife of Prince Charles Edward Stuart, and on the death of the prince she lived with him as his mistress. This connection he believed to have served to stimulate and elevate his poetic powers. He died at Florence and was buried in the church of Santa Croce, between Macchiavelli and Michael Angelo, where a beautiful monument by Canova covers his remains. He wrote twenty-one tragedies and six comedies. His tragedies are full of lofty and patriotic sentiments, but the language is stiff and without poetic grace, and the plots poor. Nevertheless he is considered the first tragic writer of Italy, and has served as a model for his successors. Alfieri composed also an epic, lyrics, satires, and poetical translations from the ancient classics. He left an interesting autobiography.
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Vitus Bering (Vitus Behring) was a Danish navigator. He was born in 1680 and died in 1741. In 1728 he was sent by Peter the Great of Russia on a voyage of discovery, during which he discovered the Bering Strait which was named after him.
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Antonio Vivaldi was an Italian composer. He was born in 1680 and died in 1743.
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Vivian Caulfield was an English artist and writer. He was born in 1874 and died in 1958. He wrote the book How to Ski which analysed skiing dynamics for the first time, and criticised the method of turning with a single stick which led to the modern style of skiing with a stick in each hand.
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The Vlachs are a group of Romanian peoples living mainly in the region of the lower Danube.
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Vladimir de Pachmann was a Russian pianist and interpreter of Chopin. He was born in 1848 at Odessa and died in 1933. He studied under his father, Vincent de Pachmann, a professor at Odessa, and then at Vienna. In 1878 he appeared at the Gewandhaus concerts in Leipzig and afterwards in most of the great cities of Europe.
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Vladimir Horowitz was a Russian-born American concert pianist. He was born in 1903 at Berdichev, and died in 1989. He trained at the conservatory at Kiev, and became an accomplished pianist but preferred composing his own music to performing. After his family lost most of its possessions in the Russian Revolution, he began giving piano recitals in exchange for food and clothing. His success as a pianist in the new Soviet Union was assured by a series of 23 recitals in Leningrad in 1924. In these he performed a total of more than 200 works. In 1925 he went on a concert tour of Europe and made his American debut in 1928. In 1933 he married the daughter of conductor Arturo Toscanini. Seven years later, after the outbreak of the Second World War in Europe, they settled in the USA and in 1944 he became an American citizen. He was awarded the Medal of Freedom in 1986.
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Vladimir Nabokov was a Russian-born American author. He was born in 1899 and died in 1977. Brought up in St Petersburg, he left Russia in 1919 and later lived in Berlin and Paris, writing fiction in Russian under the name V. Sirin. His first novel in English, 'The Real Life of Sebastian Knight', appeared in 1939, and in the following year he emigrated to the USA. His witty, ingenious, stylised, and erudite novels include 'Lolita' published in 1955, a farcical and satirical novel of the passion of a middle-aged sophisticated European emigre for a 12-year-old American nymphet; 'Pale Fire' published in 1962, a satirical fantasy encounter between poet and madman; and 'Ada or Ardor' published in 1969, a witty parody of a family chronicle. ' Conclusive Evidence' published in 1951 revised as 'Speak, Memory' in 1966 is a brilliant poetic autobiography.
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Vladimir Sukhomlinoff (Vladimir Sukhomlinov) was a Russian soldier and politician. He was born in 1852 and died in 1926. He came into prominence during the Russo-Japanese War, after which he devoted himself to the reorganisation of the army . He was Minister of War from 1909 until 1915, and was responsible for many of the reforms and the mobilisation plan which was put into effect in August 1914 with a smoothness and rapidity that surprised his critics. Russia's early defeats in the Great War were blamed upon a lack of munitions and equipment, and Vladimir Sukhomlinoff was accused of corruption, taking bribes from army contractors to allow them to supply inferior equipment. Found guilty, Vladimir Sukhomlinoff was sentenced to life imprisonment, but was released in May 1918 and left Russia to live in Finland.
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Vladimir Kosma Zworykin was an American physicist and electronic engineer. He was born in 1889 at Murom, Russia and died in 1982. He went to the Institute of Technology in St Petersburg, the College de France, and, after his emigration to the USA in 1919, at the University of Pittsburgh. He became an American citizen in 1924 and in 1929 director of the Electronic Research Laboratory of the Radio Corporation of America (RCA) at Princeton. He made important contributions to both the transmission and the reception of television and was largely responsible for the development, during the 1920s and 1930s, of the television camera and picture tube. He also directed the group that in 1939 successfully produced a powerful electron microscope.
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The Volsci were a people living in Italy during the period of the Roman Republic. They dwelt in the southern part of Latium and were the most persistent foes of the early Republic.
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Voltaire (Francois-Marie Arouet) was a French writer. He was born in 1694 in Paris and died in 1778.
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