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William of Saint Calais (English bishop)
Norman-French bishop of Durham (1081–96), adviser to William I the Conqueror, and chief minister to William II Rufus (1088)....
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William of Saint Carilef (English bishop)
Norman-French bishop of Durham (1081–96), adviser to William I the Conqueror, and chief minister to William II Rufus (1088)....
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William of Saint-Amour (French philosopher)
French philosopher and theologian who led the opposition at the University of Paris to the 13th-century rise of the newly formed mendicant religious orders....
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William of Saint-Thierry (French philosopher)
French monk, theologian, and mystic, leading adversary of early medieval rationalistic philosophy....
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William of Sens (French architect)
French master-mason who built the first structure in the Early Gothic style in England....
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William of Sherwood (English logician)
...of Logic”) probably in the early 1230s; it was used as a textbook in some late medieval universities; (2) Lambert of Auxerre, who wrote a Logica sometime between 1253 and 1257; and (3) William of Sherwood, who produced Introductiones in logicam (Introduction to Logic) and other logical works sometime about the mid-century....
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William of Tripoli (Dominican missionary)
...were established in Iran, the Asian interior, and even China. But, since Islamic law rigidly prohibited propaganda and punished apostasy with death, conversions from Islam were few. The Dominican William of Tripoli had some success, presumably within the Crusaders’ area; he and his colleague Riccoldo di Monte Croce both wrote perceptive treatises on Islamic faith and law. Other missionar...
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William of Tyre (French-Syrian historian)
Franco-Syrian politician, churchman, and historian whose experiences in the Latin kingdom of Jerusalem inspired him to write a history of medieval Palestine....
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William of Wales, Prince (British prince)
elder son of Charles, prince of Wales, and Diana, princess of Wales, and second in line (after Charles) to the British throne....
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William pear (fruit)
In most pear-growing countries of the world outside Asia, by far the most widely grown pear variety is Williams’ Bon Chrétien, known in America as Bartlett. In the United States and Canada, varieties such as Beurre Bosc, Beurre d’Anjou, and Winter Nelis are grown. A highly popular variety in England and The Netherlands is Conference and in Italy,......
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William Preston Lane, Jr., Memorial Bridge (bridge, United States)
The William Preston Lane, Jr., Memorial Bridge spans the upper bay near Annapolis, Md. It was opened to traffic in 1952 and is 4 miles (6.4 km) long. The Chesapeake Bay Bridge-Tunnel was completed across the lower bay in 1964. The bay forms part of the Atlantic Intracoastal Waterway....
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William R. Warner and Company, Inc. (American company)
former diversified American corporation that manufactured products ranging from pharmaceuticals to candy. It became part of U.S. pharmaceutical conglomerate Pfizer Inc. in 2000....
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William Rockhill Nelson Gallery of Art and Mary Atkins Museum of Fine Arts (museum, Kansas City, Missouri, United States)
art museum in Kansas City, Mo., that ranks among the 10 largest in the United States....
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William Shakespeare’s Romeo and Juliet (film by Luhrmann)
In the mid-1990s DiCaprio began to attract a wider audience with more mainstream films. He became a teen heartthrob after starring in Baz Luhrmann’s screen-adaptation of William Shakespeare’s Romeo and Juliet (1996), a modern retelling of the classic love story. In 1997 DiCaprio was launched into international stardom with the release of James Cameron’...
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William Tell (opera by Rossini)
...of which The Barber of Seville (1816), Cinderella (1817), and Semiramide (1823) are among the best known. Of his later, larger scale dramatic operas, the most widely heard is William Tell (1829)....
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William Tell (play by Schiller)
...Braut von Messina (1803; The Bride of Messina), written in emulation of Greek drama, with its important preface, Schiller’s last critical pronouncement); and Wilhelm Tell (1804; William Tell), which depicts the revolt of the Swiss forest cantons against Habsburg rule and the assassination of a tyrannous Austrian governor by the hero, with the underlying questi...
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William the Aetheling (duke of Normandy)
Anglo-Norman prince, only son of Henry I of England and recognized duke of Normandy (as William IV, or as William III if the earlier claim of his uncle, William Rufus, is not acknowledged). He succeeded his uncle, the imprisoned Duke Robert II Curthose....
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William the Bad (king of Sicily)
Norman king of Sicily, an able ruler who successfully repressed the conspiracies of the barons of his realm. His epithet was bestowed on him by his hapless enemies. He patronized science and letters and showed religious tolerance; among those who frequented his court were many Muslims....
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William the Bastard (king of England)
duke of Normandy (as William II) from 1035 and king of England from 1066, one of the greatest soldiers and rulers of the Middle Ages. He made himself the mightiest noble in France and then changed the course of England’s history by his conquest of that country....
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William the Conqueror (king of England)
duke of Normandy (as William II) from 1035 and king of England from 1066, one of the greatest soldiers and rulers of the Middle Ages. He made himself the mightiest noble in France and then changed the course of England’s history by his conquest of that country....
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William the Good (king of Sicily)
the last Norman king of Sicily; under a regency from 1166, he ruled in person from 1171. He became known as William the Good because of his policy of clemency and justice toward the towns and the barons, in contrast with his father, William I the Bad....
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William the Lion (king of Scotland)
king of Scotland from 1165 to 1214; although he submitted to English overlordship for 15 years (1174–89) of his reign, he ultimately obtained independence for his kingdom....
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William the Marshal (English regent)
marshal and then regent of England who served four English monarchs as a royal adviser and agent and as a warrior of outstanding prowess....
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William the Silent (stadholder of United Provinces of The Netherlands)
first of the hereditary stadtholders (1572–84) of the United Provinces of the Netherlands and leader of the revolt of the Netherlands against Spanish rule and the Catholic religion....
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William the Wise (landgrave of Hesse-Kassel)
landgrave (or count) of Hesse-Kassel from 1567 who was called “the Wise” because of his accomplishments in political economy and the natural sciences. The son of the landgrave Philip the Magnanimous, he participated with his brother-in-law Maurice of Saxony in the princely rebellion of 1552 that liberated Philip from his five-year captivity by the Holy Roman emperor Charles V....
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William Trent House (building, Trenton, New Jersey, United States)
...(1865) in nearby Lawrenceville and Mercer County Community College (1966). The revolutionary battle is commemorated by a 150-foot (45-metre) monument topped by a statue of Washington. The restored William Trent House (1719) is the city’s oldest landmark. The gilt-domed State House (1792) is adjacent to the New Jersey State Cultural Center, which contains a museum, auditorium, planetarium...
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William V (duke of Aquitaine)
...might at first have seemed the most promising of all these principalities. A kingdom in the 9th century, it was reconstituted under William the Pious (died 926) and again, more imposingly, under William V (994/5–1029), who was acclaimed as one of the greatest rulers of his day and even offered the imperial crown in 1024. An advocate of religious reform, William sought to strengthen his.....
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William V (count of Holland)
...of the Rhenish Palatinate north of the Eifel Mountains, including control of the imperial city of Aachen, as a result of their support for the Hohenstaufen emperors in the 12th and 13th centuries. William V of Jülich, through his marriage in 1328 to the daughter of Count William III of Holland, became the brother-in-law of Emperor Louis IV, who made Jülich a margravate in 1336, an...
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William V (prince of Orange and Nassau)
prince of Orange and Nassau and general hereditary stadtholder of the Dutch Republic (1751–95)....
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William VI (king of The Netherlands)
king of The Netherlands and grand duke of Luxembourg (1815–40) who sparked a commercial and industrial revival following the period of French rule (1795–1813), but provoked the Belgian revolt of 1830 through his autocratic methods....
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William X (duke of Aquitaine)
duke of Aquitaine and of Gascony (1127–37), son of William IX....
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Williams, Alberto (Argentine composer)
The progenitor of Argentine national music in the early 20th century, Alberto Williams, exerted a fundamental influence in his country by relying on the music of the gauchos (cowboys of the pampas, or plains). This gauchesco tradition was evident in his Aires de La Pampa (1944; “Songs of the Pampas,” a collection.....
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Williams, Allen Lane (British publisher)
20th-century pioneer of paperback publishing in England, whose belief in a market for high-quality books at low prices helped to create a new reading public and also led to improved printing and binding techniques....
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Williams, Anthony (American musician)
, American musician (b. Dec. 12, 1945, Chicago, Ill.--d. Feb. 23, 1997, Daly City, Calif.), exploded onto the national jazz scene shortly after his 17th birthday to become a major innovator in jazz percussion. A drummer from age eight, he was already a well-known musician in Boston in 1962 when alto saxophonist Jackie McLean invited him to New York City to perform during Christmas week. He played ...
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Williams, Augusta (American ballerina)
first American ballerina to achieve international renown....
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Williams, Bert (American comedian)
American comedian who portrayed the slow-witted, shuffling black man that was then a standard role in vaudeville....
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Williams, Betty (Irish activist)
Northern Irish peace activist who, with Mairéad Corrigan, founded the Community for Peace People in 1976 and with her shared the 1976 Nobel Prize for Peace....
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Williams, Billy (American baseball player)
...Chance (1898–1912). Other notable Hall of Famers are infielder Ernie Banks (“Mr. Cub”), who spent his entire career (1953–71) with the team, hitting 512 home runs; outfielder Billy Williams (1959–74); second baseman Ryne Sandberg (1982–94, 1996–97); and pitcher Ferguson (“Fergie”) Jenkins (1966–73, 1982–83). Ron Santo,...
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Williams, Billy (British cinematographer)
Original Screenplay: John Briley for GandhiAdapted Screenplay: Costa-Gavras and Donald Stewart for MissingCinematography: Ronnie Taylor and Billy Williams for GandhiArt Direction: Stuart Craig and Bob Laing for GandhiOriginal Score: John Williams for E.T. the Extra-TerrestrialOriginal Song Score and Its Adaptation or Adaptation Score: Leslie Bricusse,......
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Williams’ Bon Chrétien (fruit)
In most pear-growing countries of the world outside Asia, by far the most widely grown pear variety is Williams’ Bon Chrétien, known in America as Bartlett. In the United States and Canada, varieties such as Beurre Bosc, Beurre d’Anjou, and Winter Nelis are grown. A highly popular variety in England and The Netherlands is Conference and in Italy,......
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Williams, C. Greville (British chemist)
...and structure of natural rubber with the eventual goal of reproducing the material. In 1838 the German F.C. Himly obtained a volatile distillate from the substance, and in 1860 the Englishman C. Greville Williams broke down rubber by distillation into three parts—oil, tar, and “spirit”—this last part being the more volatile fraction and the main constituent, which......
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Williams, C. K. (American poet)
American poet whose early work is characterized by short lines and an acid tone, but who later altered both the form and content of his poetry....
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Williams, Charles, Jr. (American scientist)
...receiver in the same handle appeared in 1878 in instruments designed for use by telephone operators in a New York City exchange. The earliest telephone instrument to see common use was introduced by Charles Williams, Jr., in 1882. Designed for wall mounting, this instrument consisted of a ringer, a hand-cranked magneto (for generating a ringing voltage in a distant instrument), a hand receiver,...
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Williams, Charles Kenneth (American poet)
American poet whose early work is characterized by short lines and an acid tone, but who later altered both the form and content of his poetry....
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Williams, Charles Melvin (American musician)
African-American trumpeter whose mastery of mutes and expressive effects made him one of the most distinctive jazz musicians....
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Williams, Claude (American baseball player)
...that eight members of the Chicago White Sox had been bribed to lose the 1919 World Series to the Cincinnati Reds. The accused players were pitchers Eddie Cicotte and Claude (“Lefty”) Williams, first baseman Charles (“Chick”) Gandil, shortstop Charles (“Swede”) Risberg, third baseman George (“Buck”) Weaver, outfielders Joe (“Shoeless...
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Williams College (college, Williamstown, Massachusetts, United States)
private, coeducational institution of higher learning opened in 1791 and founded as a college in 1793 at Williamstown, Massachusetts, U.S. Like many other New England colleges, Williams was established by the Congregational church, but it is now nondenominational. It offers undergraduate liberal arts and graduate programs in fine and applied arts and social sc...
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Williams, Cootie (American musician)
African-American trumpeter whose mastery of mutes and expressive effects made him one of the most distinctive jazz musicians....
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Williams, Cyclone Joe (American baseball player)
American baseball player who was an early star of the Negro leagues....
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Williams, Daniel Hale (American physician)
American physician and founder of Provident Hospital in Chicago, credited with the first successful heart surgery....
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Williams, Delores (American singer)
American rhythm-and-blues singer notable for her vocal power and rhythmic energy....
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Williams, Edward (Welsh scholar)
...Yet despite its shortcomings, the 18th-century cultural movement was an important expression of a preindustrial society’s resourcefulness in protecting its heritage. One of its key figures was Edward Williams (Iolo Morganwg), whose endeavours encompassed a vast range of literary and historical studies and who also represented the political radicalism inspired by the French Revolution.......
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Williams, Egbert Austin (American comedian)
American comedian who portrayed the slow-witted, shuffling black man that was then a standard role in vaudeville....
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Williams, Elizabeth (Irish activist)
Northern Irish peace activist who, with Mairéad Corrigan, founded the Community for Peace People in 1976 and with her shared the 1976 Nobel Prize for Peace....
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Williams, Ella Gwendolen Rees (British writer)
West Indian novelist who earned acclaim for her early works set in the bohemian world of Europe in the 1920s and ’30s but who stopped writing for nearly three decades, until she wrote a successful novel set in the West Indies....
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Williams, Emlyn (Welsh actor)
Welsh actor and playwright, author of some highly effective, often macabre plays....
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Williams, Ephraim (North American philanthropist)
...Berkshire county, northwestern Massachusetts, U.S., on the Hoosic River 21 miles (34 km) north of Pittsfield. Settled as West Hoosac in 1749, it was incorporated in 1765 and renamed for Colonel Ephraim Williams, killed in the French and Indian War (1754–63), who had bequeathed money in his will to establish a “free school” there provided the town bear his name. The school.....
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Williams, Eric (prime minister of Trinidad and Tobago)
first and longtime prime minister of independent Trinidad and Tobago (1962–81), who founded (1956) the People’s National Movement (PNM) and led his country to independence....
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Williams, Eric Eustace (prime minister of Trinidad and Tobago)
first and longtime prime minister of independent Trinidad and Tobago (1962–81), who founded (1956) the People’s National Movement (PNM) and led his country to independence....
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Williams, Esther (American swimmer and actress)
American swimming champion who became one of the most popular and profitable Hollywood movie stars of the 1940s and ’50s....
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Williams, Esther Jane (American swimmer and actress)
American swimming champion who became one of the most popular and profitable Hollywood movie stars of the 1940s and ’50s....
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Williams, Fannie Barrier (American civic leader and lecturer)
American social reformer, lecturer, clubwoman, and cofounder of the National League of Colored Women....
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Williams, Garth (American artist)
U.S. book illustrator whose cherished and heartwarming drawings appeared in such children’s classics as Stuart Little and Charlotte’s Web (b. April 16, 1912--d. May 8, 1996)....
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Williams, George C. (American evolutionary biologist)
...such arguments. In the 1960s, the issue came to a fore, and for a while group selection was dismissed entirely. Some theorists, notably the American evolutionary biologist George C. Williams, argued that individual interests would always outweigh group interests, since genes associated with selfish behaviour would inevitably spread at the expense of genes associated......
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Williams, George Emlyn (Welsh actor)
Welsh actor and playwright, author of some highly effective, often macabre plays....
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Williams, George Kofi Awoonor (Ghanaian author)
Ghanaian novelist and poet whose verse has been widely translated and anthologized....
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Williams, George Washington (American historian)
American historian, clergyman, politician, lawyer, lecturer, and soldier who was the first person to write an objective and scientifically researched history of black people in the United States....
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Williams, Hank (American musician)
American singer and guitarist, one of the leading figures in country and western music who was also successful in the popular music market....
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Williams, Harrison Arlington, Jr. (American politician)
American politician (b. Dec. 10, 1919, Plainfield, N.J.—d. Nov. 17, 2001, Denville, N.J.), was a prominent Democrat who later served time in federal prison after being convicted of bribery and conspiracy in the Abscam scandal. An advocate of liberal policies, Williams served in the U.S. House of Representatives from 1953 to 1957 and in the U.S. Senate from 1959 to 1982. Williams was one of ...
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Williams, Helen Maria (English writer)
English poet, novelist, and social critic best known for her support of such radical causes as abolitionism and the French Revolution....
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Williams, Henry Shaler (American paleontologist)
...valley area. Eventually the overlying strata, the coal-bearing rocks originally described from Pennsylvania, were formalized as Pennsylvanian in 1891 by the paleontologist and stratigrapher Henry Shaler Williams....
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Williams, Hiram King (American musician)
American singer and guitarist, one of the leading figures in country and western music who was also successful in the popular music market....
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Williams, Hosea (American activist and politician)
American civil rights leader and politician (b. Jan. 5, 1926, Attapulgus, Ga.—d. Nov. 16, 2000, Atlanta, Ga.), was a major figure in the struggle against segregation and served with the Rev. Martin Luther King, Jr., as organizer and advance man. He helped lead such demonstrations as the “Bloody Sunday” march in Selma, Ala., in 1965, during which marchers seeking voting rights ...
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Williams, Jody (American activist)
American activist who helped found the International Campaign to Ban Landmines (ICBL). In 1997 she and the campaign were named corecipients of the Nobel Prize for Peace....
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Williams, Joe (American singer and actor)
American singer known for his mastery of jazz, blues, and ballads and for his association with Count Basie in the 1950s....
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Williams, John (American composer and conductor)
...Hauben and Bo Goldman for One Flew over the Cuckoo’s NestCinematography: John Alcott for Barry LyndonArt Direction: Ken Adam and Roy Walker for Barry LyndonOriginal Score: John Williams for JawsScoring—Original Song Score and Adaptation or Scoring: Leonard Rosenman for Barry LyndonOriginal Song: “I’m Easy” from Nashville;...
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Williams, John (English missionary)
...or temple platforms, in the valley traversed by Tupapa Stream. The Ara Metua, an ancient pathway, circles the island inland from a paved coastal road. Rarotonga was the base from which John Williams of the London Missionary Society (who arrived in 1823) sought to Christianize the islands....
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Williams, John (English bishop)
...of Rochester, with whose help he secured a succession of ecclesiastical appointments. From 1611 he was a royal chaplain and came gradually to the notice of King James I. His lifelong conflict with John Williams, later bishop of Lincoln and archbishop of York, began when both sought advancement through the patronage of Charles’s favourite, the Duke of Buckingham. During Buckingham’...
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Williams, John A. (American writer)
...to the Black Arts movement as were poetry and drama, the mythopoeic short stories of Henry Dumas, collected in Ark of Bones, and Other Stories (1970), and the novels of John A. Williams, particularly The Man Who Cried I Am (1967), a roman à clef about a dying black novelist intent on maintaining his political integrity in the face of......
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Williams, John Henry (American economist)
American economist, banker, and government adviser who achieved world renown as an expert on international trade....
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Williams, Joseph (American baseball player)
American baseball player who was an early star of the Negro leagues....
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Williams Lake Stampede (cultural event, British Columbia, Canada)
...pioneer background of the province, the great distances between pockets of population, and the various economic backgrounds of areas still oriented to resource industries and to the outdoors. The Williams Lake Stampede is the great annual rodeo event of the ranching country of the interior. Even the annual Pacific National Exhibition in Vancouver is largely oriented to the agricultural......
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Williams Landing (Mississippi, United States)
city, seat (1871) of Leflore county, northwestern Mississippi, U.S. It lies along the Yazoo River, 96 miles (154 km) north of Jackson. The original settlement (1834), known as Williams Landing, was incorporated (1844) and named for the Choctaw chieftain Greenwood Leflore, a wealthy cotton planter. The town thrived as a shipping point for cot...
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Williams, Lucinda (American singer and songwriter)
With the enthusiastic reception in 2007 of the hit album West, American musician Lucinda Williams seemed to have finally earned the high level of commercial success that many believed she deserved. The genre-blurring singer-songwriter had devoted fans, admiring colleagues, and respectful critics, but she was not well known by the general public—although audiences might well have hear...
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Williams, Marion (American singer)
U.S. gospel singer (b. Aug. 29, 1927, Miami, Fla.--d. July 2, 1994, Philadelphia, Pa.), drew on blues, jazz, folk, and calypso music as inspirations for her innovative vocals, which included octave-spanning leaps from contralto to spine-tingling falsetto tones; her exceptional artistry was often compared to that of Mahalia Jackson. As a child Williams began singing with the congregation at her ne...
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Williams, Mary Lou (American musician, composer and educator)
jazz pianist who performed with and composed for many of the great jazz artists of the 1940s and ’50s....
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Williams, Michael Leonard (British actor)
British actor (b. July 9, 1935, Manchester, Eng.—d. Jan. 11, 2001, Outwood, Surrey, Eng.), was a respected stage, television, and radio actor, as well as a noted Shakespearean, but he was best known for the roles he played opposite his more-famous wife of 30 years, Dame Judi Dench, notably in the TV sitcom A Fine Romance (1980–82) and in the West End plays Pack of Lies ...
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Williams, Milan B. (American musician)
American keyboard player (b. March 28, 1948, Okolona, Miss.—d. July 9, 2006, Houston, Texas), was a founding member in 1968 of the soul-funk band the Commodores and scored the group’s first hit after writing the instrumental “Machine Gun,” which debuted in 1974, became an anthem at sporting events, and was featured on the sound track of the film Boogie Nights (19...
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Williams, Myrna (American actress)
American motion-picture actress who began her screen career playing treacherous femmes fatales and who attained stardom during the 1930s in roles as glib, resourceful sophisticates. Dubbed the “Queen of Hollywood” during her heyday, Loy was often promoted by her studio as every man’s “dream wife.”...
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Williams, Nat D. (American disc jockey)
When WDIA went on the air in Memphis, Tennessee, in 1948, its white owners, Bert Ferguson and John R. Pepper, were anything but blues aficionados; however, deejay Nat D. Williams was. A former high-school history teacher and journalist, Williams brought his own records and his familiarity with Memphis’s blues hotbed Beale Street with him. But rather than aspiring to be a hipster, Williams a...
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Williams, Paul (American songwriter)
...Adaptation Score: Leonard Rosenman for Bound For GloryOriginal Song: “Evergreen (Love Theme from A Star Is Born)” from A Star Is Born; music by Barbra Streisand, lyrics by Paul Williams...
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Williams, Paulette (American author)
African American author of plays, poetry, and fiction noted for their feminist themes and racial and sexual anger....
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Williams, Percy (Canadian athlete)
Canadian sprinter, winner of two upset gold medals at the 1928 Olympic Games in Amsterdam. He is the only sprinter not from the United States to win two gold medals at one Olympics....
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Williams, Roger (American religious leader)
English colonist in New England, founder of the colony of Rhode Island and pioneer of religious liberty....
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Williams, Rowan (archbishop of Canterbury)
104th archbishop of Canterbury (from 2002), a noted theologian, archbishop of the Church in Wales (2000–02), and the first archbishop of Canterbury in modern times chosen from outside the Church of England....
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Williams, Rowan Douglas (archbishop of Canterbury)
104th archbishop of Canterbury (from 2002), a noted theologian, archbishop of the Church in Wales (2000–02), and the first archbishop of Canterbury in modern times chosen from outside the Church of England....
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Williams, Roy L. (American union leader)
American union leader, president of the International Brotherhood of Teamsters (1981–83) before being convicted in 1982 with four others of conspiring to bribe Howard Cannon, U.S. senator from Nevada, to defeat a trucking industry regulation bill....
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Williams, Roy Lee (American union leader)
American union leader, president of the International Brotherhood of Teamsters (1981–83) before being convicted in 1982 with four others of conspiring to bribe Howard Cannon, U.S. senator from Nevada, to defeat a trucking industry regulation bill....
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Williams, Serena (American tennis player)
American tennis player who—along with her sister Venus—revolutionized women’s tennis with her powerful style of play, becoming one of the game’s most dominant athletes in the early 21st century....
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Williams, Shirley (British politician)
The SDP began in January 1981 with the Limehouse Declaration, a statement of intent by four former Labour Cabinet ministers—Roy Jenkins, David Owen, William Rodgers, and Shirley Williams—to quit the leftward path that had lately been taken by Labour. The party was formally founded on March 26, including in its ranks 14 members of the House of Commons (all former Labour members but......
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