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The ISO (International Standards Organisation) assigns a two character code to each country name. These codes are used by Internet 'whois' databases (these two character abbreviations are the whois country codes) and also other applications.
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Stuart's Milk Snake (Lampropeltis triangulum stuarti) is a species of Milk snake described in 1978 and distinguished by a white coloured 'V' marking on the black coloured snout. Stuart's Milk Snake occurs in the dry forests and coastal plains of El Salvador, Honduras, Nicaragua and north-west Costa Rica.
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Abd-el-Krim ('The Wolf Of The Rif Mountains') was a Moroccan Berber chief, revolutionary and founder of the North African Liberation Committee. He was born in 1880 at Adjir and died in 1963. Leading unsuccessful revolts against the Spanish and French occupiers of Morocco during the early 1920's he formed the Republic of the Rif and served as its President from 1921 to 1926 before being defeated by a Franco-Spanish army and exiled on the island of Reunion. He was granted amnesty in 1947 and went to Egypt where he formed the North African Liberation Committee.
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The Bongo are (were?) a Sudanese tribe living between the head-waters of the bahr el-Ghazal and the Ubangi.
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Diego Velazquez was a Spanish administrator. He was born about 1460 at Cuellar, near Valladolid and died in 1522. He sailed with Cgristopher Columbus on his second voyage, and in 1511 conquered Cuba, of which he became governor, founding several towns, and remaining there until his death. Velazquez was responsible for an expedition which discovered Yucatan, in 1517, and sent Hernando Cortes to Mexico in 1518. Regretting, however, the extensive powers he had given to Cortes, he sent a force under Panfilo de Narvaez, which was overthrown by Cortes in 1520.
Diego Rodriguez De Silva Y Velazquez was a Spanish painter. He was born in 1599 at Seville and died in 1660. He studied under Francesco Herrera and then, when Herrera's temper got too much for him, under Pacheco whose daughter he later married. Velazquez also came under the influence of Luis Tristan, a pupil of El Greco. Settling in Madrid in 1623, he there painted a portrait of Fonseca, almoner to Philip IV which introduced him to the notice of the king. In the same year he painted a portrait of Philip IV, the first of a very long series which he painted of that king at every period of his life.
In 1628 Velazquez met Rubens, who came to Madrid as ambassador from the regent of the Netherlands. Having then conceived an eager desire to visit Italy, he left Spain in 1629, journeying to Venice, and then to Rome, by way of Ferrara and Bologna, and in 1630 was in Naples. The next year saw him back again at Madrid, and from that time began his long series of notable portraits.
His second visit to Italy was paid in 1649, v/hen his main object was to collect pictures and casts from the antique. On this occasion he painted his celebrated portrait of Pope Innocent X. In 1651, home again in Spain, he was given a high court appointment by the king, which took up much time. His pictures at this period include Maids of Honour, and the Tapestry Weavers.
The main feature of the art of Velazquez is its absolute truth. He was an impressionist in the truest meaning of the word, could seize upon an effect in its momentary force, and represent it in all its bare truth, painting colour as it really was. He had an unequalled command of values. There is never any false lighting or inaccurate incidence of light in his pictures, and he not only understood atmosphere, but grasped the mystery of shadows and darkness. He selected essentials with unerring judgement, and no other works are so near to the effect of nature as are his, or produce like them the true perspective of the atmosphere.
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Domenico Theotocopuli (El Greco) was a Greco-Spanish painter. He was born in 1547 at Candia, Crete and died in 1614. After studying at Venice under Titian he painted portraits and religious pictures in Rome, settling in Spain around 1577 where he worked at Toledo as a painter, architect and sculptor.
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El Dorado (man of gold) was identified with the zaque or ruler of the Chibehas, a South American nation overthrown by the Spanish in 1538. Manoa was supposed to be the residence, where he dwelt in a golden palace. The zaque was thought by his captors to be the veritable El Dorado, because on certain feasts he was covered with gold dust. The Spaniards between 1541 and 1545 and Sir Walter Raleigh in 1595, 1596 and 1617, attempted to reach the fabulous city.
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El Grecco (Domenico Theotocopouli) was a Spanish painter. He was born in 1541 and died in 1614.
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 More information about El Grecco
El Hariri, (real name Abu Mohammed El Kasem Ben Ali), was an Arabic scholar and poet, who lived chiefly at Bassorah in the time of the Abbasside caliphs. He was born in 1054 and died in 1121 or 1123. He is best known by his Mekammat, a collection of tales narrated as incidents in the life of the hero Abu Zeid, a clever impostor who adopts every career in life, and succeeds in all to admiration.
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Erwin Johannes Eugen Rommel ('The Desert Fox') was a German field marshal. He was born in 1891 and died in 1944. He served in the Great War and the Second World War where he played an important part in the invasions of central Europe and France. He was commander of the North African offensive from 1941 until he was defeated at the Battle of El Alamein and he was expelled from Africa in March 1943. He was commander in chief for a short time against the Allies in Europe 1944 but, as a sympathizer with the unsuccessful Stauffenberg plot to assassinate Hitler, was forced to commit suicide in 1944.
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The Probert Encyclopaedia was designed, edited and programed by
Matt and Leela Probert
©1993 - 2009 The Probert Encyclopaedia
Southampton, United Kingdom
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