The English philosopher Francis Herbert Bradley (1846-1924) based his thought on the principles of absolute idealism. He rigorously criticized all philosophies based on the "school of experience." Born in Clapham on Jan. 30, 1846, F. H. Br...

F. Scott Fitzgerald was a writer very much of his own time. As Malcolm Cowley once put it, he lived in a room full of clocks and calendars. The years ticked away while he noted the songs, the shows, the books, the quarterbacks. His own car...

Probably the greatest Arabic singer of modern times, Fairuz (neé Nuhad Haddad; born 1933), also known as Fayrouz, led the creation of a new musical language in the Middle East. Fairuz was born Nuhad Haddad in 1933 in Beirut, Lebanon...

Faisal I (1883-1933) was an Arab nationalist and political leader during and following World War I. He led Arab troops in the revolt against Turkish rule and became king of newly created Iraq. On May 20, 1883, Faisal was born in Taif near ...

King Faisal ibn Abd al Aziz ibn Saud of Saudi Arabia (1904-1975) was the most prominent Arab leader in the early 1970s. He participated for more than a half century in the creation of modern Saudi Arabia and, as king, was known for his con...

The American conductor JoAnn Falletta (born 1954) served as musical director of three orchestras simultaneously while still a young woman. She chose to perform pieces from the non-standard repertoire, trying to select pieces suited to the ...

The Chinese statesman Fan Chung-yen (989-1052) initiated the first important Sung reform program. He was famous for defining the ideal Confucian scholar as "one who is first in worrying about the world's troubles and last in enjoying its p...

Peter Faneuil (1700-1743) was a wealthy American colonial merchant and philanthropist who donated Faneuil Hall to Boston. Eldest child of one of three Huguenot brothers who fled France after the revocation of the Edict of Nantes, Peter Fan...

Fannie Lou Hamer (1917-1977), field secretary of the Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee, was an outspoken advocate for civil rights for African Americans. For more than half of Fannie Lou Hamer's life, she was a rural agricultural w...

The English novelist and diarist Fanny Burney (1752-1840) was one of the most popular novelists of the late 18th century. She was also an important chronicler of English manners, morals, and society. Fanny Burney, originally named Frances,...

Moses Gerrish Farmer (1820-1893), an American inventor and manufacturer, pioneered in the practical applications of electricity. Moses Farmer was born in Boscawen, N.H., where his father was a farmer and prosperous merchant. After his fath...

Farouk I (1920-1965) was the second king of modern Egypt. Though he was dynamic and a nationalist, the realization of being powerless under British sovereignty turned his interests from statecraft to the gratification of his desires. Farou...

The Belgian missionary Father Damien (1840-1889) is known for his work among the lepers on Molokai in the Hawaiian Islands. Father Damien was born Joseph de Veuster in Tremeloo, Belgium, on Jan. 3, 1840, of pious and sturdy Flemish peasant...

During 1921 and 1922, Roscoe "Fatty" Arbuckle was the central figure in three notorious trials for manslaughter, and his case provides a prime example of business and political means used to derail justice. The veteran vaudeville and silen...

Fay Weldon, who is also a successful stage, radio, and television playwright, established her reputation as a novelist by writing tart, intelligent, and often comic fictions about the lives and natures of women. A satirist with a sharp sen...

The Italian film director Federico Fellini (1920-1993) began as an exponent of poetic neorealism and later became the cinema's undisputed master of psychological expressionism and surrealist fantasy. Federico Fellini was born of middle-cla...

The Chinese general Yo Fei (1103-1141), also known as Yo P'eng-chü, led the Chinese army against the Chin invaders, the Jürchen Tatars. He is a symbol of national resistance against foreign aggression. Yo Fei was of a peasant fam...

One of Africa's most acclaimed musicians, Nigerian Fela Anikulapo Kuti (1938-1997) wrote and performed political protest songs that won him a large following both at home and abroad, to the frequent chagrin of government authorities. His m...

Prime Minister of Spain from 1982 to 1996, Felipe González Márquez (born 1942) helped lead Spain into the European community of nations. Birth and Childhood Felipe González Márquez was born on March 5, 1942, in ...

The Dutch geodesist and geophysicist Felix Andries Vening Meinesz (1887-1966) pioneered in the field of gravity measurements. On July 30, 1887, F. A. Vening Meinesz was born in Scheveningen. He attended the public schools in Amsterdam, the...

The Soviet politician Felix Edmundovich Dzerzhinsky (1877-1926) participated in the Polish and Russian revolutionary movements. He was the organizer and first administrator of the Soviet internal security apparatus. Felix Dzerzhinsky was b...

Felix Grundy briefly served as U.S. attorney general from 1838 to 1839 during the presidency of Martin Van Buren. A prominent criminal attorney and Democratic Party politician with ties to Andrew Jackson, Grundy also served in all three br...

Felix Klein is arguably one of the most influential mathematicians of the 19th century. He is best known for building the mathematical community at the University of Göttingen which became a model for research facilities in mathematic...

Dorr Eugene Felt is best known for two inventions, the Comptometer (the first calculator featuring keys to enter numbers rather than dials) and the first printing desk calculator, which was a modified version of the Comptometer. Dorr Eugen...

The press of the early American nation was one of fierce partisanship and rivalry, and the editorship of John Fenno represents that era of American journalism. The son of Ephraim and Mary Chapman Fenno. Fenno was born in Boston on 23 Augus...