Phi Beta Kappa Leading academic honour society in the U.S., which draws its membership from college and university students. The oldest Greek-letter society in the U.S., it was founded in 1776 as a secret liter¬ ary and philosophical society at the College of William and Mary. It became an honour society in the 19th century. Membership is now based on general scholarship, and new members are usually elected by Phi Beta Kappa faculty.
Phibunsongkhram Vpe-bun-soq-.krairA, Luang orig. Plaek Khit- tasangkha (b. July 14, 1897, near Bangkok, Siam—d. June 12, 1964, Tokyo, Japan) Field marshal and premier of Thailand (1938-44, 1948- 57). After military training in France, he helped organize the Promoters Revolution of 1932, which ended absolute monarchy in what was then Siam; in 1939 he changed the country’s name to Thailand. As premier during World War II, he allied himself with Japan, but, as the war turned against Japan, his government collapsed. The army seized power in 1947, and he was reinstalled as premier in 1948. Opposed to communism, he further allied Thailand to the West during the Cold War by helping estab¬ lish the Southeast Asia Treaty Organization. He was ousted by his military colleagues in 1957 and fled to Japan.
Phidias \'fid-e-os\ or Pheidias \'fi-de-9s\ (fl. c. 490^130 bc, Athens, Greece) Greek sculptor. Placed in charge of the great building program initiated by Pericles in Athens, he supervised and probably designed the overall sculptural decoration of the Parthenon. He also created its most important religious images, including the colossal statue of the Athena Parthenos (438-436 bc).
Many of the Parthenon’s sculptures (the Elgin Marbles) are now in the British Museum. Ancient writers considered his masterpiece to be the statue of Zeus (c. 430 bc) for the Temple of Zeus at Olympia. He ini¬ tiated the idealistic Classical style that distinguishes Greek art in the later 5 th and 4th centuries bc.
Philadelphia City (pop., 2000: 1,517,550) and port, southeastern Penn¬ sylvania, U.S., at the confluence of the Delaware and Schuylkill rivers. The site was occupied by the Delaware Indians before William Penn founded the city in 1682. It was the capital of Pennsylvania 1683-1799 and the capital of the U.S. between 1790 and 1800. It played a prominent role in opposing British policies and was the site of the first and second Continental Con¬ gresses, the signing of the Declaration of Independence, and the Constitu¬ tional Convention. The population grew in the 18th century, with many immigrants from Scotland, Ireland, and Germany. It was the largest and most important city of the U.S. in the 19th century and a centre of the anti¬ slavery movement. In 1876 it was the site of the U.S. Centennial Exposi¬ tion. It is also the site of the U.S.’s oldest art museum (the Pennsylvania Academy of the Fine Arts, founded in 1805) and the first U.S. hospital (the
Pennsylvania Hospital, founded in 1751). It is the largest city in the state and a centre of commerce, finance, industry, and culture. Its numerous edu¬ cational institutions include the University of Pennsylvania.
Philadelphia Inquirer Morning newspaper, long one of the most influential dailies in the eastern U.S. Founded in 1847 as the Pennsylva¬ nia Inquirer , it took its present name c. 1860. It was a strong supporter of the Union in the American Civil War. In the 19th and early 20th cen¬ turies it survived circulation wars by providing broad news coverage and by constantly modernizing its plant and equipment. Bought by Moses Annenberg in 1936, it stayed in his family’s hands until 1969, when it was acquired by John S. Knight. In 1974 it became part of the merged Knight-Ridder Newspapers group.
Philae \'fi-le\ Former island of the Nile River in Upper Egypt. It was sacred to Isis and contained many temples, the earliest dating from the 7th century bc. After the completion of the Aswan High Dam in 1970, the temples were moved to the nearby island of Agilkia before Philae was submerged by the waters of Lake Nasser.
philanthropy Voluntary, organized efforts intended for socially useful purposes. Philanthropic groups existed in the ancient civilizations of the Middle East, Greece, and Rome: an endowment supported Plato’s Acad¬ emy (c. 387 bc) for some 900 years; the Islamic waqf (religious endow¬ ment) dates to the 7th century ad; and the medieval Christian church administered trusts for benevolent purposes. Merchants in 17th- and 18th- century western Europe founded organizations for worthy causes. Start¬ ing in the late 19th century, large personal fortunes led to the creation of private foundations that bequeathed gifts totaling millions and then bil¬ lions in support of the arts, education, medical research, public policy, social services, environmental causes, and other special interests. See Andrew Carnegie; B'nai B'rith; Bill Gates; George Peabody; Rockefeller Foundation; Straus family.
Philaretus See Arnold Geulincx
philately \fo-Ta-t 3 l-e\ Collection and study of postage stamps. The first postage stamps were issued in England in 1840, and in the U.S. in 1842. Stamp collectors usually spe¬ cialize, collecting stamps of one country, one period of time, or one subject (e.g., birds, flowers, art).
Value depends on rarity and condi¬ tion. An issue of stamps that includes a printer’s error may have increased value.
Philby, Kim orig. Harold Adrian Russell (b. Jan. 1, 1912,
Ambala, India—d. May 11, 1988,
Moscow, Russia, U.S.S.R.) British intelligence officer and Soviet spy.
He became a communist at the Uni¬ versity of Cambridge in the 1930s, and in 1933 he became a Soviet agent. Recruited into the MI-6 section of British intelligence by Guy Burgess (1940), he became head of counterespionage operations. In 1949 he was sent to Washington, D.C., as top liaison officer between British and U.S. intelligence services. He revealed top-secret information to the Soviets and in 1951 warned Burgess and Donald Maclean (1913-83) that they were under suspicion, enabling them to escape. Philby himself came under suspicion and was dismissed from MI-6 in 1955. He worked as a jour¬ nalist in Beirut, then in 1963 he fled to the Soviet Union, where he worked for the KGB and rose to the rank of colonel. The most successful Soviet double agent of the Cold War period, he was responsible for the deaths of many Western agents.
Philemon and Baucis \fi-Te-m3n...'b6-sis\ In Greek mythology, a pious old couple in Phrygia. When Zeus and Hermes, disguised as wayfar¬ ers, had been turned away by the couple’s richer neighbors, Philemon and Baucis extended them hospitality. As a reward they were spared when a flood swept the countryside. Their cottage was turned into a temple, and they became priest and priestess of it. Years later they were granted their wish to die at the same moment, and they were turned into trees.
Philip (of Swabia) German Philipp (b. 1178—d. June 21, 1208, Bamberg, Ger.) German Hohenstaufen king (1198-1208). The youngest son of Frederick I Barbarossa, he was elected German king on the death
"Heracles/' marble statue produced in the workshop of Phidias, from the east¬ ern pediment of the Parthenon, the Acropolis, Athens, c. 5th century bc; in the British Museum
COURTESY OF THE TRUSTEES OF THE BRITISH MUSEUM; PHOTOGRAPH, J.R. FREEMAN & CO. LTD.
© 2006 Encyclopaedia Britannica, Inc.
Philip II ► Philip VI I 1487
of Emperor Henry VI. The rival Welf dynasty elected Otto IV king, and a civil war broke out. A truce was finally called in 1207; Innocent III rec¬ ognized Philip and promised to crown him emperor (1208), but Philip was murdered first.