258 



THE CENTURY BOOK OF FACTS. 



MITFORD, Mary Russell, 1786-1855, Am. 

 authoress. 



MITIIRIDATKH VI. (the Great), 132-63 B. C., 

 king of Pontus. 



MOHAMMED (or Mahomet), 569-632, con- 

 queror and prophet, and founder of the Mos- 

 lem religion, which threatened to subdue the 

 Christian world ; pretended, at the age of forty, 

 to have received a revelation from Allah, and 

 thenceforth devoted himself to the propaga- 

 tion of his new religion ; previous to this time 

 he had been an idolater ; his new faith, which 

 included the unity of God, was rejected at 

 Mecca, where a conspiracy was formed against 

 him, but was warmly embraced in Medina, to 

 which place the prophet fled in 622 ; from this 

 flight called the Hegira, the Mussulmans com- 

 pute their time ; after this event, Mohammed 

 propagated the faith of Islam by the sword, 

 gaining numerous victories, and spreading his 

 religion over a large portion of Western Asia. 



MOLIERE (Jean Baptiste Poquelin), 1622-73, 

 Fr. dramatist and actor ; the French Shakes- 

 peare. 



MOLTKE, Carl Bernhard Hellmuth von, 

 Count, 1800-91, commander of the German 

 armies in the Franco-German war ; he planned 

 the entire campaign. 



MONK, George, Duke of Albemarle, 1608-70, 

 Eng. general ; restored the monarchy. 



MONMOUTH, James Scott, Duke of , 16497- 

 85, natural son of Charles II. ; rebelled, but 

 was defeated and executed. 



MONROE, James, 1758-1831, fifth president ; 

 born in Virginia ; captain in the war of 1812 ; 

 studied law under Jefferson ; Congress, 1783 ; 

 opposed the Constitution ; governor of Vir- 

 ginia, 1799 ; envoy extraordinary to France, 

 1802 ; re-elected governor, 1811 ; appointed 

 secretary of state same year by Madison ; 

 elected president, 1816, and re-elected 1820. 



MONTAGU, Lady Mary Wortley, 1690-1762, 

 Eng. authoress. 



MONTAIGNE, Michel Eyquem de, 1533-92, 

 Fr. philosopher and essayist ; originator of 

 the modern essay ; his < ' Essays ' ' have been 

 called "the breviary of freethinkers." It is 

 claimed by some scholars that Montaigne's 

 name on the title page of the " Essays " was 

 but a cover for Francis Bacon or his brother. 



MONTALEMBERT, Charles Forbes de, Comte, 

 1810-70, Fr. publicist. 



MONTCALM, Louis J. de St. V6ran, Marquis 

 of, 1712-59, Fr. commander in Canada. 



MONTEFIORE, Moses, Sir, 1786-1885, Eng. 

 Jewish philanthropist. 



MONTESQUIEU, Charles de Secondat, Baron 

 de, 1689-1755, Fr. jurist and philosopher ; his 

 "Esprit des Lois" is the first philosophy of 

 history. 



MONTEZUMA II., 14807-1520, last Aztec 

 emperor of Mexico. 



MONTFORT, Simon de, 11507-1218, Xorman 

 crusader. 



MONTFORT, Simon de, Earl of Leicester, 

 12007-65, son of preceding ; led the barons 

 against Henry III. 



MONTROSE, James Graham, Marquis of, 

 1612-50, Scot, general ; executed. 



MOORE, Sir John, 1761-1809, Br. gem-nil : 

 fell at Corunna. 



MOORE, Thomas, 1779-1852, Tr. poet. 



MORALES, Luis, 1509-86, Sp. painter. 



MORE, Sir Thomas, 1480-1535, Eng. states- 

 man and philosopher ; educated at Oxford ; 

 entered Parliament, 1504 ; produced " History 

 of Richard III.," 1513; "Utopia," loie': 

 became a great favorite of Henry VIII., who 

 made him lord chancellor in 1530 ; being an 

 ardent Catholic, he refused to sanction the 

 divorce of Queen Catherine and resigned his 

 office in 1532 ; imprisoned in 1534 for declin- 

 ing to take an oath acknowledging the validity 

 of the king's marriage to Anne Boleyn, and 

 executed the following year for denying the 

 king's supremacy as head of the church. 



MORRIS, George P., 1802-64, Am. journal- 

 ist and poet. 



MORRIS, Gouverneur, 1752-1816, Am. states- 

 man. 



MORRIS, Robert, 1734-1806, Am. statesman 

 and financier. 



MORRIS, William, 1834-96, Eng. poet. 



MORSE, Samuel Finley Breese, 1791-1872, 

 Am. inventor of the magnetic telegraph ; grad- 

 uate of Yale College ; studied painting in 

 England, returning to America in 1832 ; con- 

 structed small recording electric telegraph in 

 1835 ; finally obtained aid from Congress in 

 1843, and constructed a line between Wash- 

 ington and Baltimore in 1844. 



MORTIMER, Roger, Earl of March, 12877- 

 1330, favorite of Isabella of England ; exe- 

 cuted. 



MORTON, James Douglas, Earl of, 1530-81, 

 regent of Scotland ; executed as accessory to 

 Darnley's murder. 



MOSCHELES, Ignaz, 1794-1870, Ger. pianist 

 and composer. 



MOSES, 1570-1450 B. C., Hebrew lawgiver; 

 led the Israelites out of Egypt. 



MOTLEY, John Lothrop, 1814-77, Am. di- 

 plomatist and historian. 



MOTT, Lucretia (nee Coffin), 1793-1880. Am. 

 socicil i*iorinGr 



MOULTRIE, William, 1731-1805, Am. Rev- 

 olutionary general. 



MOZART, Johann Chrysostomus Wolfgang 



Amadeus, 1756-1791, Ger. composer; com- 



i posed short pieces at the age of six, and at 



