Wallace, Sir William (b. 1279, probably near Paisley, Renfrew, Scot.—d. Aug. 23, 1305, London, Eng.) Scottish national hero. Son of a small landowner, he began his attacks on English settlements and garri¬ sons in 1297, after Edward I declared himself ruler of Scotland. His army defeated a much larger English force at Stirling Bridge, captured Stirling Castle, and then ravaged northern England, for which Wallace was knighted and proclaimed guardian of the Scottish kingdom. In 1298 Edward I invaded Scotland and defeated Wallace at the Battle of Falkirk. Disgraced, Wallace resigned his guardianship and was replaced by the future Robert I but apparently continued to fight a guerrilla war. In 1305 he was arrested by the English and hanged, then disemboweled, beheaded, and quartered. The next year Robert raised the rebellion that eventually won independence for Scotland.
Wallack, James William (b. Aug. 24, 1795, London, Eng.—d. Dec. 25, 1864, New York, N.Y., U.S.) British-U.S. actor-manager. Born into a London stage family, he acted in Shakespearean roles from age 12 and made his U.S. debut as Macbeth in 1818. He performed in London and New York City until 1852, crossing the Atlantic 35 times. In 1837-39 he comanaged New York’s National Theatre with his brother Henry John Wallack (1790-1870), the company’s leading player. In 1852-62 he comanaged the Lyceum Theatre (renamed Wallack’s Lyceum) with his son Lester (1820-88) as stage manager. Succeeding his father as general manager, Lester staged polished productions of English plays and trained most of the major 19th-century U.S. stage performers.
wallaroo V.wa-lo-'riA or euro Vyur-,o\ One of the four largest species of kangaroo. The wallaroo {Macropus robustus) is smaller and stockier
than the other three species (also in the genus Macropus)\ its colour var¬ ies from dark gray to pinkish brown. It lives in rocky country throughout Australia except in Victoria.
Wallenberg Vwa-lon-.borgA Swedish Vwa-lsn-.ber-eX, Raoul (b. Aug. 4, 1912, Stockholm, Swed.—d. July 17, 1947?, Moscow, Russia, U.S.S.R.) Swedish businessman and humanitarian. The scion of a family of bankers, industrialists, and diplomats, in 1936 he became the foreign representative of a Hungarian trading company whose president was Jew¬ ish. When the Nazis sent troops to round up Jews in Hungary (1944), Wallenberg asked to be sent to Budapest as a diplomat. There he rescued thousands of Hungarian Jews by sheltering them in “protected houses” under the Swedish flag or securing their passage out of Hungary through bribes or counterfeit documents. Soon after Soviet troops occupied Budapest (1945), he was arrested on suspicion of espionage. He was sent to Moscow, where he allegedly died of a heart attack in prison in 1947. Unconfirmed reports from freed Soviet prisoners reported him alive in 1951, 1959, and 1975.
Wallenda \va-'len-da,\ English \w6-'len-d3\, Karl (b. 1905, Magde¬ burg, Ger.—d. March 22, 1978, San Juan, RR.) German-born U.S. circus acrobat. He founded the Great Wallendas acrobatic troupe, which achieved fame in Europe for its four-man pyramid and cycling on the high wire without a safety net. His wife, Helen Kreis (1910-96), joined the troupe in 1926 and later was balanced at the peak of the seven-person pyramid, the most famous of the Wallendas’ acts. The troupe traveled with the U.S. Ringling Brothers and Bamum & Bailey Circus (1928—46), then performed as freelancers. Karl’s nephew Gunther (1927-96) trained on the wire from age five; when a pyramid collapsed in 1962, Gunther was the only member left standing and rescued three who were clinging to the wire; two others were killed and one was paralyzed. Two troupe mem¬ bers died in accidents in 1963 and 1972. Karl died in a fall from a wind- whipped wire 123 ft (37 m) above a street in San Juan.
Wallenstein Vva-bn-.shtlnA English \ , wa-bn-,stln\, Albrecht Wen¬ zel Eusebius von, duke von Friedland later Duke von Meck¬ lenburg (b. Sept. 24, 1583, Hefmanice, Bohemia—d. Feb. 25, 1634, Eger) Austrian general. A noble of Bohemia, he served with the future Habsburg emperor Ferdinand II in the campaign against Venice in 1617. He remained loyal to Ferdinand when other Bohemian nobles revolted (1618-23) and was made governor of Bohemia and allowed to acquire vast holdings in confiscated estates. Created duke of Friedland (1625), he commanded the imperial armies in the Thirty Years’ War. After successes in the war against Denmark (1625-29), he was awarded the principality of Sagan (1627) and the duchy of Mecklenburg (1629). Under pressure from the German princes, Ferdinand was forced to dismiss Wallenstein. Recalled to imperial command in 1631, he drove the Swedish army from Bavaria and Franconia but was defeated at the Battle of Liitzen (1632). Believing he had the support of his generals, he mounted a revolt against the emperor (1634) and was assassinated.
Waller, Edmund (b. March 3, 1606, Coleshill, Hertfordshire, Eng.—d. Oct. 21, 1687, Beaconsfield, Buckinghamshire) English poet. As a mem¬ ber of Parliament during the political turmoil of the 1640s, he was arrested for his part in a plot to establish London as a stronghold of the king; by betraying his colleagues and by lavish bribes, he avoided death. He later wrote poetic tributes to both Oliver Cromwell (1655) and Charles II (1660). Rejecting the dense intellectual verse of Metaphysical poetry, he adopted generalizing statement, easy associative development, and urbane social comment. With his emphasis on definitive phrasing through inversion and balance, he prepared the way for the emergence of the heroic couplet. By the end of the 17th century the heroic couplet was the dominant form of English poetry. Waller’s lyrics include the well-known “Go, lovely Rose!”
Waller, Fats orig. Thomas Wright Waller (b. May 21, 1904, New York, N.Y., U.S.—d. Dec. 15, 1943, Kansas City, Mo.) U.S. jazz pianist, singer, and composer. Waller was influenced early by stride pianist James P. Johnson. He became an important exponent of stride piano by the late 1920s, recording solo piano pieces such as “Handful of Keys.” From 1934 he recorded with a small ensemble, Fats Waller and His Rhythm, inte¬ grating his vocals and unique comic timing with instrumental finesse. His rhythmically contagious performances of his own songs, such as “Ain’t Misbehavin’” and “Honeysuckle Rose,” are timeless classics of jazz.
walleye or walleyed pike Species {Stizostedion vitreum ) of pike- perch (family Percidae), carnivorous food and game fishes found in clear, cool lakes and rivers of eastern North America. Walleyes are slender and
Lew Wallace
COURTESY OF THE LIBRARY OF CONGRESS, WASHINGTON, D.C.
© 2006 Encyclopaedia Britannica, Inc.
Wallis > Walpole I 2025
darkly mottled. They have two dorsal fins and generally weigh less than 10 lbs (4.5 kg), though some may weigh up to 24 lbs (11 kg). They are at most 35 in. (90 cm) long. Walleyes are not true pikes.
Wallis, Sir Barnes (Neville) (b. Sept. 26, 1887, Ripley, Derbyshire, Eng.—d. Oct. 30, 1979, Leatherhead, Surrey) British aeronautical designer and military engineer. He invented the innovative “dambuster” bombs used in World War II by the Royal Air Force to destroy the Mohne and Eder dams in Germany’s industrial Ruhr area, producing heavy floods that slowed industrial production. He also invented the 12,000-lb (5,400 kg) “Tallboy” and the 22,000-lb (10,000 kg) “Grand Slam” bombs and was responsible for the bombs that destroyed the German warship Tirpitz, V-rocket sites, and much of Germany’s railway system. In 1971 he designed an aircraft that could fly five times the speed of sound.
Wallis and Futuna Island group, west-central South Pacific Ocean. It is a self-governing overseas territory (pop., 2003 prelim.: 14,944) of France, which includes Uvea (Wallis Island), the Horne (Futuna) Islands (Futuna and Alofi), and a number of islets. The administrative seat is the village of Mata’utu on Uvea. Until 1961 Wallis and Futuna was a pro¬ tectorate under French authority attached to New Caledonia.