Viau, Théophile. 1590-1626. French pre-Classical poet, dramatist. Pyramus and Thisbe 1623.

Vichy. Seat of Pétain’s pro-German government, 1940-44 in unoccupied southern France. Source of waters famous since Roman times.

Vienna, Congress. 1814-15. Redrew map of Europe after Napoleon. Prussia gains Rhine, Westphalia. Swiss borders and neutrality confirmed. Netherlands created from Holland, Belgium, Luxembourg. Malta and Cape Colony ceded to Britain. Russia gets Poland. Austria trades Netherlands for north Italy. France reduced to 1792 borders. Metternich.

Viète, François. 1540-1603. French mathematician, algebraic notation. Equation theory.

Vilar, Esther. 1935-. German anti-feminist writer. Manipulated Man.

Vinland. ~1000. Region of northeast North America discovered by Leif Eriksson. L’Anse aux Meadows.

Visigoths. 376-711. Western Goths. Alaric sacked Rome 410. Defeated at Vouillé by Clovis 510. Settled Spain, southern France 415-711. Destroyed by Moors 711.

Vitalism. Bergson’s theory of evolution. Life force differentiates living things from others. Aristotle.

Voodoo. Carribean religious cult of ritual and magic. Synthesis of African rites and French Roman Catholicism.

Vries, Hugo de. 1848-1935. Dutch botanist. Heredity and mutation. Mutation Theory 1910.

Wales, Prince of. 1301-. Title of heir apparent to the British throne.

Wallace, Alfred. 1823-1913. British naturalist. Theory of natural selection, 1838, independent of Darwin.

Wallis, John. 1616-1703. English mathematician. Calculus, cryptography. Infinitesimals 1655.

Walter the Penniless. -1097. French knight. Led Peasants’ Crusade with Peter the Hermit.

Walther von der Vogelwelde. 1170-1230. German lyric poet.

Warbeck, Perkin. 1474-99. Flemish. Posed as Richard, Duke of York, pretender to the English throne. Executed.

Warren, Robert. 1905-89. US Fugitive novelist. All the King’s Men 1946.

Warsaw Pact. 1955-91. USSR, Bulgaria, Czechoslovakia, E Germany, Hungary, Poland, Romania. Treaty for the combined defence of Eastern Europe under Soviet supreme command.

Warwick, Earl of. 1428-71. “The Kingmaker”-. Helped York Edward IV, then restored Lancaster Henry VI.

Watteau, Antoine. 1684-1721. French painter known for color and naturalism. Embarcation for Cythera 1717.

Weather Forecasts. 1860. First regularly issued by British Admiralty Office.

Webb, Matthew. 1848-83. English. First to swim across English Channel, 1875.

Weber, Max. 1864-1920. German sociologist. Prostestant Ethic and the Spirit of Capitalism 1930.

Wedmore, Treaty. 878. Alfred the Great, Danes divide England.

Wegener, Alfred. 1880-1930. Theory of Continental Drift 1910.

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