• OATES, Lawrence Edward Grace (1880-1912).  British explorer.  War service in the Boer War.  Joined Scott's expedition to the Antarctic 1910.  He was one of the sledge party who made a dash for the South Pole.   On the return journey being held up by storms, Oates who was crippled by frost-bite, went out into the blizzard to die, on march 17, 1912, rather than be a burden to his companions.
• OATES, Titus (1649-1705).  English perjurer.  Brought up as an Anabaptist, expelled from his school and sent down from Cambridge. He received ordination but was then put in prison for perjury.  In 1677 he became a Roman Catholic.  He was also expelled from a Jesuit College.  In 1678 Oates concocted a Roman Catholic plot against the king which he revealed to Sir Edmund Berry Godfrey, a justice of the peace. Though his story was false Oates was a popular idol to the people. Three dozen people were executed because of his lies. He was arrested in 1684 for defaming the Duke of York.  After the duke's succession to the throne as James II Oates was sentenced to a heavy fine, a whipping and imprisonment for life, with a yearly exposure in the pillory.  Oates was released from prison and given a pension when William III came to the throne.
• OBADIAH.  Biblical charactoer.  The fourth of the minor prophets, he predicted the ruin of Edom in the 5th century B.C.
• OBREGON, Alvaro (1880-1928).  Mexican president.  He became the most powerful soldier in Mexico, capturing Mexico City in 1914.  President of Mexico 1920-24 and again in 1928, but was murdered before he could assume office.
• O'BRIEN, William (1852-1928)  Irish politician.  He founded United Ireland in 1880, a paper of advanced Nationalist views.  Elected Nationalist M.P. in 1883 he then founded the All-for-Ireland league, and with other members of this organisation withdrew from Parliament at the general election in 1918.
• O'BRIEN, William Smith (1803-84).  Irish politician.  In 1928 became M.P.  In 1843 joined OcConnell's association for the repeal of the Union. 1846 founded the Irish Confederation, and in 1848 attempted an armed rising.  He was then transported to Tasmania.
• OCCAM, William of (d.1349).  English schoolman.  A Franciscan, he led the order in Italy and Bavaria against the pope.   One of the chief thinkers of his age in philosophy and logic. He was the author of the principle known as Occam's Razor.
• OCCLEVE, Thomas (1368-c.1450)  English poet.  A clerk in the privy seal office.  He wrote Male Regle and De Regimine Principum, two long moral poems of historical value only.
• OCHINO, Bernardino (1487-1564).  Italian reformer.  Vicar-general of the Capuchins, but was accused of Protestantism in 1542 and fled first to Geneva and then to England.  He was made a prebendary of Canterbury and wrote a treatise on the "unjust usurped primacy of the bishop of Rome" in 1549.  On Mary's accession he fled to Zurich but was banished by the Calvinists on suspician of polygamy.
• OCHTERLONY, Sir David (1758-1823).  British soldier.  He entered the service of the East India co. in 1777, and won distinction by his defence of Delhi in 1804, and his leadership during the war with the Gurkhas, 1814-15, when he forced the ruler of Nepal to make terms.  Became a baronet in 1815.
• O'CONNELL, Daniel (1775-1847).  Irish leader.  Called to the Irish bar in 1798.  In 1803 joined the movement for Catholic emancipation.  By 1808 he was the leader of the irish Catholics.  In 1823 he founded the Catholic Association, in 1826 the Order of Liberators, and in 1828 was elected M.P.  He obtained the passage of the Catholic Relief bill, which enabled Catholics to sit in Parliament.   He was re-elected unopposed for county Clare in 1830, and was an eloquent speaker for the Whigs.  When the Tories under the leadership of Peel came into power in 1841, he agitated for the repeal of the legislative union.  He aranged a meeting throughout Ireland, but on it being declared illegal he was arrested and tried for sedition, fined 2,000 pounds and jailed for one year.  Although the sentence was reversed in the House of Lords, ill health and increasing party dissensions in Ireland clouded his last years.
• O'CONNOR, Feargus Edward (1794-1855).  Irish Chartist.  Entered Parliament in 1832, but when unseated on petition in 1835, became a leader of the chartists in the north of England and in London.  Because he recommended violence in his paper the Northern  Star, he was imprisoned for seditious libel in 1846, became M.P. for Nottingham in 1847, and presided over the great Chartist demonstration at Kennington in 1848.  He was declared insane in 1852.
• O'CONNOR, Thomas Power (1848-1929).  Irish journalist and politician. He was a reporter in Dublin in 1867, and joined the staff of the Daily Telegraph in 1870.  He was the founder and editor of the Star, the Sun, the Weekly Sun, M.A.P.T.P.'s Weekly and other journals. His best work is the biography of Lord Beaconsfield, and he wrote The Parnell Movement and Gladstone's House of Common.s   He was elected Nationalist M.P. in 1880, and returned for the Scotland division of Liverpool in 1885 and stayed in that position until he died.  Became president of the United Irish League of Great Britain in 1896, and chairman of the censorship board of British film makers in 1917.  His Memoirs of an old Parliamentarian appeared in 1929.
• OCTAVIA (d.11 B.C.)  Roman matron.  The sister of Octavian, later the Roman emperor Augustus, she married as her second husband in 41 B.C. Marcus Antonius, who was to desert her for Cleopatra in 36, and divorce her in 32.  This treatment was an important factor in causing the war between Octavian and Antonius.
• OCTAVIAN. Anglicised from of Octavianus the name by which the Roman emperor Augustus ws known during his earlyt life.
• ODO.  (c.1036-1097)  Norman prelate.  A half-brother of William the Conqueror, who made him bishop of Bayeux in 1049.  He fought at the battle of Hastings and was made earl of Kent in 1067.  After William's death he led a rebellion against William rufus and escaped to Normandy, dying on the first crusade at Palermo.
• ODOACER (c.435-493).  German soldier. He was a prince of a Danubian tribe and became a Roman soldier. He headed a revolt of German mercenaries in 476, compelling the emperor Rolulus Augustulus to abdicate.  He was raised to the rank of patrician and made ruler of the West by Zeno, emperor of the East.  His successful 13 years rule, provoked the jealousy of Zeno, who persuaded Theodoric the Ostrogoth to attack him.  He was defeated on the Isonzo,489, and at Verona in 490, then beseiged in Revenna for 3 years, thus being forced to capitualate.  Though first accepted as joint ruler, he was charged with scheming to regain possession of the whole of Italy and was slain.
• O'DONNELL, Frank Hugh MacDonald  (1848-1916) Irish politician.  Elected M.P. in 1874 he was an active partisan of Parnell until 1885.  He was largely responsible for the legislation which abolished flogging in the army, 1879.  He was one of the founders in 1899 of the National Democratic League, of which he was president, 1904-1906.  He was an early advocate of self-government for India.
• ODORIC (c.1286-1331).  Italian traveller.  He entered the Franciscan order and about 1317 set out for the east.  In 12 years he visited India, Japan, Sumatra and Borneo, arriving finally in China, where he visited Canton, Hangchow and Peking, returning through Tibet by land to Venice.  His narrative of these journeys was taken down in Latin at Padua.
• OEBEN, Jean Francois.  French cabinet-maker.  Of German or Flemish descent he flourished in the early 18th century and became famous in France for his marquetry work, being employed as "ebeniste du roi".  His work is considered the quintesence of the Louis Quinze style.
• OEHLENSCHALAGER, Adam Gottlob [1779-1850].  Danish poet.  He published his first volume of poems in  1803 and in 1810 was appointed professor  aesthetics at the University of Copenhagen.  His lyrics, epics, sagas and dramatic work are remarkable.  They include the play Aladdin, 1805, and the historical dramas Hakon Jarl, 1805, and Palnatoke, 1809.
• OERSTED, Hans Christian [1777-1851].  Danish physicist.  In 1806 he became professor physics at Copenhagen, where he made the great discovery in 1819 that a magnetic needle was deflected by a current in a wire passing below or  over it, the initial discovery in electro-magnetism.  He was awarded the Copley medal of the Royal Society.
• OFFA (d.798)  King of Mercia.  He obtained the crown by crushing a rival in 757, restored the shrunken fortunes of Mercia, and had victorious battles which brought Ken, Essex and probably Sussex and other regions under his rule.  He was virtually overlord of all England except Northumbria, and created the archbishopric of Lichfield. His name is perpetuated in Offa's Dike, an earthwork along the Welsh border.
• OFFENBACH, Jaccques (1819-80).  French composer.  He studied the violin, becoming paid member of the theater orchestra in Cologne and in 1848 conductor at the theater Francais, Paris.  His Pepito, 1853, and succeeding comic operas enjoyed such success that in 1855 he was able to open a new theater the Bouffes Parisiens, where he produced an unceasing succession of popular pieces. His 70 comic operas included  La Grande Duchesse de Gerolstein, Madame Favart, Genevieve de Brabant, Orphee aux Enfers, and The Tales of Hoffmann.    These tuneful works based mainly on the Libretti of Meilbac and Halevy,  enjoyed great popularity and were frequently revived and imitated.
• OGLETHORPE, James Edward (1696-1785).  English soldier and philanthropist.   He served under prince Eugene, and entered parliament in 1722.  His sympathies with the poor led him in 1733 to establish a settlement on the American coast for released debtors, which became the colony of Georgia. The town of Savannah was designed by him.  He was governor there for 13 years.  In 1745 he was sent against the Scottish rebels and although acquitted on a charge of Jacobite sympathies, resigned his commission.
• O'GRADY, Standish (1846-1928).  Irish author.  He was one of the founders both as historian and as novelist, of the Irish literary revival.  His publications ranged from The History of Ireland, Heroic Period, 1878; History of Ireland, Critical and Philosophical, 1881, and The Coming of Cuculain, 1894, to Chain of Gold, 1895; Ulrick the Ready, 1896; and The Flight of the Eagle, 1897.
• O'HIGGINS, Ambrosio (c. 1720-1801).  South American administrator.  Born in Ireland he became a travelling pedlar in Chile, and, acquiring some wealth, was sent in 1770 to suppress a rising of the Araucanian Indians.  He was made intendant of Concepcion in 1786, and 2 years later captain-governor of Chile with the title of marquess of Osorno.  Promoted viceroy of Peru in 1796, he thus became the king of Spain's reprentative in South America.  His natural son, Bernardo (1778-1842) became commander-in-chief, 1813, and dictator, 1817, of Chile, whose independence he declared in 1818. He resigned in 1823.
• O'HIGGINS, Kevin Christopher (1892-1927).  Irish politician.  He entered Parliament as a Sinn Feiner in 1918 and in 1923 was elected to the Dail, becoming minister for home affairs and, later, president and minister of justice.
• OHM, Georg Simon (1787-1854) German physicist.  He was appointed in 1852 professor of experimental physics at Munich.  He is remembered solely as the discoverer, in 1827, of Ohm's Law, an equation by which electrical resistance can be measured.  His name was given to the ohm, the unit of electrical resistance.
• OHNET, Georges (1848-1918).  French author.  He became a journalist, producing his first play Regina Scarpi in 1877, and in 1880 his first novel, Serge Panine.  His most famous story, Le Maitre de Forges, 1881, achieved a great success in dramatic form both in France and in England, and he wrote many other popular romances characterised by melodramatic plots and over-wrought passion. 
• OKEN, Lorenz (1779-1851)  German naturalist.  Born in Swabia, he published in 1802 a remarkable essay, the Grundriss der Naturphilosophie, which obtained him the position of professor at Jena 1807-17, and   Professor at Zurich in 1833.  He is chiefly remembered for his re-classification of the animal and mineral worlds, and for his theory that the skull is a modified vertebral column.
• OKU, Yasukata, Count (1844-1930).  Japanese soldier.  He held a high command in the Russo-Japanese war, becoming chief of the general staff, 1906-12, and field marshal in 1911.  He was minister of war, 1914-16. He received his countship in 1907.
• OKUBO TOSHIMITSU, Marquess (1830-78).  Japanese statesman.  He helped to lead a rebellion against the shoguns in 1868.  As one of the chief counsellors of the Emperor, he was sent to Europe and America in 1872-73 in order to bring back Western ideas to Japan.  He was assassinated in Tokyo in 1878.
• OKUMA, Shigenobu, Prince (1838-1922).   Japanese statesman.  He came into prominence in 1868 as a leader in the Reform party.  He was finance minister, 1869-81, Foreign Minister, 1888-89, and minister of agriculture and commerce, 1896-97.  He was prime minister in 1898, and again 1914-15, and introduced notable reforms into Japanese education.
• OLAF.  Name of five kings of Norway.  Olaf I (963-1000) known as Olaf Tryggvesson, lived abroad after the murder of his father Tryggve, being converted to Christianity in England.  On his return he defeated and slew Haakon Jarl, 995, becoming king;  he built the first churches in Norway and founded the see of Trondhjem.  Defeated at Svoldr by one of Haakon's sons, he was drowned in 1000.   Olaf II (995-1030)., called Olaf Haraldsson, became king in 1015.  His persecution of the pagans led to a rebellion and the invasion of Norway by Canute of Denmark from whom Olaf fled in 1028.  He was killed at the battle of Stiklestad, July 29, 1030.  Canonised in 1164, he was later  recognised as Norway's patron saint. Olaf III (d. 1093) succeeded his father, Harold Hardrada in  1066, ruling until 1069 with his brother Magnus.  Olaf V (1370-89) became king of Denmark in 1376 and of Norway in 1380. 
• OLDCASTLE, Sir John (d. 1417), English Lollard.  he fought as a soldier in the Welsh marches in 1401, and was summoned to Parliament as a baron.  Although a favorite of Henry, Prince of Wales, he was charged with heresy, and was arrested, tried, and sentenced to death, 1413.  Escaping from the Tower, he engaged in a Lollard conspiracy, but was captured again in 1417.  He was hanged December 14, 1417.   He is supposed to have been in part the original of Falstaff in Shakespeare's King Henry IV. 
• OLDENBARNEVELDT, Johan Van (1547-1619).  Dutch statesman.  He early joinedthe moderate Calvinists later called Arminians or Remonstrants, and having supported William the Silent against Spain, became in 1585 Advocate General of Holland, and chief spokesman and leader of that province in the states General.  After the election as stadtholder of Maurice of Nassau, Oldenbarneveldt received his support in his administrative reforms, but his insistence on peace with Spain in 1606 procured him Maurice's opposition.   The rift was widened by his support of theArminians in 1612-18 in opposition to Maurice, who took the side of the Contra-Remonstrants.  Oldenbarneveldt refused to agree to the convocation of a church synod, and in 1617 secured the passage through the states of Holland of a resolution which was virtually a declaration of the independence of that state.  The province was immediately entered by Maurice as captain-general of the Union, who arrested Oldenbarneveldt in Aug., 1618.  He was brought to trial in February 1619, before a bench composed almost entirely of men  hostile to him, and after a mockery of a trial was sentenced to death for treason.
• OLDENBURG, Sergei Fedorovich (1853-1934).  Russian scholar.  Born of German family in Siberia, he became in 1904 permanent secretary of the Russian Academy of Sciences, holding this position until 1929 when he resigned. He was also from 1895 to 1929 professor of Indian literature and languages at St. Petersburg.  Oldenburg was best known for his work on early Chinese MSS. and for education.
• OLDFIELD, Anne (1683-1730)  English actress. She first appeared at Drury Lanein 1692 and attracted attention by her creation of the comedy roles, Lady Betty Modish in Cibber's Careles Husband, and Biddy Tipkin in Steele's Tender Husband.  Nance Oldfield, as she was called, became famous for beauty and was recognized as the chief actress of the age.
• OLDFIELD, Josiah.  English writer.  he became in turn barrister, physician, political and social reformer, and writer, his chief interests being in the abolition of capital punishment and the advocacy of fruitarian diet.  He founded the Society for the Abolition of Capital Punishment; 1901, and wrote The Ideal Diet in Relation to Real Life; 1892, Tuberculosis or Flesh-eating a Cause of Consumption, 1897; The Penalty of Death, 1901, and numerous articles and pamphlets.
• OLIPHANT, Laurence (1829-88)  British author.  Born in South Africa he spent his youth in travel, and in 1853 became private secretary to the Earl of Elgin, Governor General of Canada, and in 1861 was in the diplomatic service for a short time.  He sat in parliament, 1865-68 but, having fallen under the influence ofThomas Lake Harris, joined his religious community in America about 1870. Oliphant later interested himself in a scheme for settling the Jews in Palestine, where he lived for many years.  Among his works are several travel books; Piccadilly, 1870, a brilliant satire; the mystical Sympneumata; 1855; and Scientific Religtion, 1888.  His first wife, Alice Le Strange (d. 1886), collaborated with him in several books.  His second wife, Rosamund Dale Owen (b. 1846), a granddaughter of Robert Owen, also espoused the cause of the Jews in Palestine.
• OLIPHANT, Margaret (1828-97).  British author.  Born in Scotland she made her reputation with her first book, Passsages in the Life of Mrs. Margaret Maitland, 1849, and thereafter produced over 100 excellent books.  After the death, in 1850 of her husband Francis Wilson Oliphant, she became the sole support of her own and a widowed brother's family.  Among her novels are Caleb Field, 1851; Zaidee, 1856; Sales Chapel, 1863; The Minister's Wife, 1869; and Kirsteen, 1890.  She also wrote   historical works and a biography of Edward Irving, 1862.