Tusculum Vtos-kyo-bmV Ancient town, Latium, Italy. Located near Rome, it was a Latin settlement as early as the 1st millennium bc and probably was under the influence of the Etruscans. It was a favourite resort of wealthy Romans (1st century Bc^lth century ad), and it was the home of orator Marcus Tullius Cicero. Tourist attractions include a Roman forum, a 2nd-century amphitheatre, and a medieval castle.
Tuskegee Airmen \t3-‘ske-ge\ Black servicemen of the U.S. Army Air Forces (USAAF) who trained at Alabama’s Tuskegee Army Air Field in
Detail of a self-portrait by J.M.W. Turner, oil on canvas, 1798; in the Tate Gallery, London.
COURTESY OF THE TRUSTEES OF THE TATE GALLERY, LONDON
© 2006 Encyclopaedia Britannica, Inc.
1954 I Tuskegee University ► Tuzla
World War II. They constituted the first African American flying unit in the U.S. military. The first class trained at Tuskegee in 1941 became the 99th Pursuit Squadron, commanded by Lt. Col. Benjamin O. Davis, Jr.. They flew their first mission in the Mediterranean in 1943. Later that year the army activated three more squadrons; joined with the 99th in 1944, they constituted the 332nd Fighter Group. The latter was the USAAF’s only escort group that did not lose a bomber to enemy planes. A second black flying group, the 477th Bombardment Group, was established near the end of the war. In all, the Tuskegee Airmen flew 1,578 missions, destroyed 261 enemy aircraft, and won over 850 medals.
Tuskegee University Private university in Tuskegee, Alabama, U.S. Booker T. Washington founded the school in 1881 as a teachers’ college for blacks, and it still has a predominantly African American student body. George Washington Carver conducted most of his research (1896-1943) at Tuskegee, and Frederick D. Patterson, founder of the United Negro College Fund (1944), served as the school’s president (1935-53). The infamous Tuskegee syphilis study, a U.S. Public Health Service project examining the course of untreated syphilis in black men, was based there from the 1930s. Today the university comprises schools of arts and sci¬ ences, agriculture, business, education, engineering and architecture, nurs¬ ing, and veterinary medicine.
Tussaud \tu-'so\, Marie orig. Marie Grosholtz (b. Dec. 1, 1761, Strasbourg, France—d. April 16, 1850, London, Eng.) French British founder of Madame Tussaud’s museum of wax figures in London. From 1780 until the French Revolution, she served as art tutor to Louis XVI’s sister. During the Reign of Terror she made death masks from heads— frequently those of her friends—freshly severed by the guillotine. In 1802 she moved to Britain with her collection of wax models. Her museum contains a variety of historical figures, including the original models she made of her great contemporaries, including Voltaire and Benjamin Fran¬ klin. By the turn of the 21st century, branches of her museum were located throughout the world.
tussock moth Typical member of the small European and New World lepidopteran family Liparidae (formerly Lymantriidae). The large, hairy larvae of most species have hair tufts, or tussocks; many have stinging hairs. Several species, including the gypsy moth, browntail moth, satin moth, and nun moth, damage trees. The larvae feed on foliage, sometimes foraging from a silken tent or a colonial nest of webbed leaves. Larvae pupate in a cocoon attached to a tree branch or trunk. Adult females range from white to brown; some, such as the white-marked tussock moth, are wingless. See also moth.
Tutankhamen X.tu-.taq-'ka-monV orig. Tutankhaten (fl. 14th cen¬ tury bc) Egyptian pharaoh (r.
1333-23 bc) of the 18th dynasty.
When he took the throne at about age eight, he was advised to move back to Memphis from Akhetaton, the city of his father-in-law and predecessor,
Akhenaton. During his reign the tra¬ ditional religion was restored after the changes made by Akhenaton.
Shortly before he died, while still in his teens, he sent troops to Syria to aid an ally against a group connected with the Hittites. Because his name was among those stricken from the royal lists during the 19th dynasty, his tomb’s location was forgotten and his burial chamber was not opened until 1922, when it was discovered by Howard Carter (1873-1939). Its trea¬ sures made Tutankhamen perhaps the best-known of the pharaohs despite his early death and limited accom¬ plishments.
Tutsi \'tiit-se\ People of Rwanda and Burundi who are traditionally con¬ sidered Nilotic. They speak Rundi or Rwanda (mutually intelligible lan¬ guages of the Niger-Congo family) and number some 1.5 million. The Tutsi represent a traditional aristocratic minority, which has dominated the more populous Hutu. Originally warrior-herders, the Tutsi entered the
area in the 14th or 15th century and later, assisted by German and Bel¬ gian colonial regimes, cultivated a lord-vassal relationship with the Hutu. At the head of the pyramidal political structure was the mwami (“king”), considered to be of divine origin. Today Hutu and Tutsi cultures have largely become integrated. In addition to sharing languages, they both adhere to similar traditional and/or Christian religious beliefs. The Tutsi retained their dominant position over the Hutu in Rwanda until 1961, when the monarch was overthrown. An unsuccessful Hutu revolt in Burundi in 1972 led to 100,000 deaths, mostly Hutu. In 1993 in Burundi and in 1994 in Rwanda, further clashes occurred, the latter including a genocidal campaign by Hutu militia and civilians in which more than a million Tutsi and their Hutu allies were killed and one to two million Hutu fled to refugee camps in Congo (Kinshasa; then Zaire) and Tanzania.
Tutu, Sir Desmond (Mpilo) (b. Oct. 7, 1931, Klerksdorp, S.Af.) South African Anglican cleric. He studied theology at the University of South Africa and King’s College, London. He became an Anglican priest in 1961 and bishop of Lesotho in 1976. In 1978 he became general secretary of the South African Council of Churches and an eloquent and outspoken advocate for the rights of black South Africans. He emphasized nonviolent protest and encouraged other countries to apply economic pressure to South Africa. In 1984 he received the Nobel Prize for Peace for his role in opposing apartheid. In 1986 he was elected the first black archbishop of Cape Town and titular head of South Africa’s 1.6-million-member Angli¬ can Church. He retired from the primacy in 1996 and became chairman of the Truth and Reconciliation Commission, charged with hearing evidence of human-rights violations under white rule. Since 1988 he has been chan¬ cellor of the University of the Western Cape in Bellville, S.Af.
Tutuola V.tii-tu-'wo-laV Amos (b. 1920, Abeokuta, Nigeria—d. June 8, 1997, Ibadan) Nigerian writer. He had only six years of formal schooling and wrote in English and outside the mainstream of Nigerian literature. His stories incorporated Yoruba myths and legends into loosely con¬ structed prose epics that improvised on traditional themes. His best- known work is The Palm-Wine Drinkard (1952), a classic quest tale that was the first Nigerian book to achieve international fame. His later works include the tale The Witch-Herbalist of the Remote Town (1981), Yoruba Folktales (1986), and Village Witch Doctor (1990).
Tuvalu \tu-'va-lu\ Island country, west-central South Pacific Ocean. Area: 9.9 sq mi (25.6 sq km). Population (2005 est.): 9,700. Capitaclass="underline" Vaiaku, Fon- gafale islet (of Funafuti atoll). The majority of the people are Polynesian. Languages: Tuvaluan; English is widely used. Religion: Christianity (pre¬ dominantly Protestant). Currency: Tuvalu dollar (equivalent to the Austra¬ lian dollar). Tuvalu is an island group comprising five atolls and four coral islands, all of them low-lying, with maximum elevations below 20 ft (6 m), and covered mainly with coconut palms, breadfruit trees, and grasses. The economy is based on subsistence agriculture and livestock raising. Tuvalu is a constitutional monarchy with one legislative house; its chief of state is the British monarch represented by the governor-general, and the head of government is the prime minister. The original Polynesian settlers probably came mainly from Samoa or Tonga. The islands were sighted by the Span¬ ish in the 16th century. Europeans settled there in the 19th century and intermarried with Tuvaluans. During this period Peruvian slave traders known as “blackbirders” decimated the population. In 1856 the U.S. claimed the four southern islands for guano mining. Missionaries from Europe arrived in 1865 and rapidly converted the islanders to Christianity. In 1892 Tuvalu, then known as the Ellice Islands, joined the British Gilbert Islands, a protectorate that became the Gilbert and Ellice Islands colony in 1916. Tuvaluans voted in 1974 for separation from the Gilberts (now Kir¬ ibati), whose people are MlCRONESlAn. Tuvalu gained independence in 1978, and in 1979 the U.S. relinquished its claims. Elections were held in 1981, and a revised constitution was adopted in 1986. The government subse¬ quently has tried to improve Tuvalu’s economy, including finding overseas job opportunities for its citizens.