David, Star of Hebrew Magen David (“Shield of David”). Jewish symbol composed of two overlaid equilateral triangles that form a six- pointed star. It appears on synagogues, tombstones, and the flag of Israel. An ancient sign not much used by Jews before the Middle Ages, it was popularized by Kabbalists for protection against evil spirits. The Jewish community of Prague adopted it as an official symbol and its use became widespread in the 17th century. Though it has neither biblical nor Talmu¬ dic authority, it became a nearly universal emblem of Judaism in the 19th century. The Nazis’ use of it to identify Jews invested it with the sym¬ bolism of martyrdom and heroism.
David ap Llywelyn Vda-vith-ap-hb-'we-linX (b. c. 1208 —d. Feb. 25, 1246, Aber, Gynedd, Wales) Welsh prince, ruler of the state of Gwynedd in northern Wales (1240-46). His father, Llywelyn ap Iorwerth, had made Gwynedd the centre of Welsh power. David, the rightful heir, fought his half brother for power and imprisoned him in 1239. He was forced to cede part of his territory to Henry III of England (1241) and later went to war against Henry. The first Welsh ruler to declare himself prince of Wales, he fell ill and died while the war was in progress.
David of Tao \'tau\ (d. 1000) Georgian prince of the Bagratid family of Tao, a region between Georgia and Armenia. A just ruler and a friend of the church, he allied with Basil II to defeat the rebel Bardas Skleros (976-979) and was rewarded with extensive lands that made him the most important ruler in Caucasia. In 987-989 he supported Bardas Phokas against Basil but was defeated and agreed to cede his lands to Basil on his death. Despite this setback, David’s heir, Bagrat III (978-1014), was able to become the first ruler of a unified Georgian kingdom.
Davidson, Bruce (b. Sept. 5, 1933, Oak Park, Ill., U.S.) U.S. photog¬ rapher and filmmaker. After studying at the Yale University School of Design he worked briefly at Life magazine and in 1958 joined the pho¬ tographers’ cooperative Magnum Photos. He produced numerous out¬ standing photo-essays, the most important being East 100th Street (1970), 123 photographs shot with a large-format camera in East Harlem, New York. He also made several short films.
Davidson, Donald (b. March 6, 1917, Springfield, Mass., U.S.—d. Aug. 30, 2003, Berkeley, Calif.) U.S. philosopher. He taught at various universities before settling at the University of California at Berkeley in 1981. In a series of seminal papers, he developed strikingly original and
unusually systematic positions on a wide range of traditional philosophi¬ cal problems. According to his doctrine of anomalist monism, although mental events are identical to physical events (in the brain) under appro¬ priate descriptions, there are no psychophysical laws (in the strict sense) that relate the two; it follows that reduction of the mental to the physical is impossible (see also supervenience). He argued that a formal require¬ ment for any adequate theory of linguistic meaning is that it generate theo¬ rems that express the truth conditions of sentences in the “object language” in terms of sentences in a metalanguage. He also developed sophisticated arguments against the possibility of conceptual relativism (the view that there are mutually unintelligible “conceptual schemes”) and global skepticism (the view that most if not all of one’s beliefs about the world may be false).
Davidson College Private liberal arts college in Davidson, North Carolina, U.S., founded in 1837. It is affiliated with the Presbyterian church, though its approach to learning is nonsectarian. Women were first admitted in 1972.
Davies, Sir Peter Maxwell (b. Sept. 8, 1934, Manchester, Eng.) British composer. He studied in England, Italy, and the U.S. He cofounded the contemporary ensemble The Fires of London and was its musical director (1970-87); he wrote many of his works for the group. Since 1970 he has lived and composed primarily in the remote Orkney Islands. He has written many musical theatre works and has conducted orchestras worldwide. His most famous compositions are Eight Songs for a Mad King (1969) and An Orkney Wedding, with Sunrise ; his other works include Vesalii leones (1969), Miss Donnithorne’s Maggot (1974), and Ave maris Stella (1975); the operas Taverner (1968), The Martyrdom of St. Magnus (1976), and Le Jongleur de Notre Dame (1978); and seven symphonies.
Davies, (William) Robertson (b. Aug. 28, 1913, Thamesville, Ont., Can.—d. Dec. 2, 1995, Orangeville, Ont.) Canadian novelist and play¬ wright. Educated at the University of Oxford, Davies for many years edited the Peterborough (Ont.) Examiner and taught at the University of Toronto. He is best known for three trilogies: the Deptford trilogy con¬ sists of Fifth Business (1970), The Manticore (1972), and World of Won¬ ders (1975), novels examining the intersecting lives of three men from a small Canadian town; the Salterton trilogy, three comedies of manners set in a provincial university town; and the so-called Cornish trilogy— The Rebel Angels (1981), What’s Bred in the Bone (1985), and The Lyre of Orpheus (1988). Davies’s novels are notable for satirizing bourgeois pro¬ vincialism and exploring the relationship between mysticism and art.
Davis, Angela (Yvonne) (b. Jan. 26, 1944, Birmingham, Ala., U.S.) U.S. political activist. She was a doctoral candidate at the University of California at San Diego, studying under Herbert Marcuse. Because of her radical political views, her position as lecturer in philosophy at UCLA was not renewed. A champion of the cause of black prisoners, she grew particularly attached to George Jackson, a member of the so-called Soledad Brothers (after Soledad Prison). After an abortive courtroom escape and kidnapping attempt in August 1970 in which four people, including Jackson’s brother and the trial judge, were killed, Davis was suspected of involvement, and she became one of the Federal Bureau of Investigation’s most-wanted criminals. Arrested in New York City in October, she was acquitted of charges of murder, kidnapping, and con¬ spiracy by an all-white jury. In 1980 she ran unsuccessfully for vice presi¬ dent on the Communist Party ticket. In 1991 Davis became a professor at the University of California at Santa Cruz.
Davis, Benjamin O(liver), Jr. (b. Dec. 18, 1912, Washington, D.C., U.S.—d. July 4, 2002, Washington, D.C.) U.S. pilot and administrator, the first African American general in the U.S. Air Force. He graduated from West Point and in 1941 was admitted to the Army Air Corps. He organized the 99th Fighter Squadron, the first all-black air unit, and in 1943 he organized and commanded the Tuskegee Airmen. He flew 60 com¬ bat missions. In 1948 Davis helped plan the desegregation of the Air Force, and he later commanded a fighter wing in the Korean War. After retiring as lieutenant general in 1970, he was named director of civil avia¬ tion security in the U.S. Department of Transportation (1971-75). In 1998 he was awarded his fourth general’s star, attaining the highest order in the U.S. military.
Davis, Bette in full Ruth Elizabeth Davis (b. April 5, 1908, Low¬ ell, Mass, U.S.—d. Oct. 6, 1989, Neuilly-sur-Seine, France) U.S. film actress. She played small parts onstage before going to Hollywood in
Jacques-Louis David, self-portrait, oil painting, 1794; in the Louvre, Paris
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After a series of minor roles, she established her reputation with Of Human Bondage (1934) and Dangerous (1935, Academy Award). Known for her intense characterizations of strong women, she gave electrifying performances in films such as The Petrified Forest (1936), Jezebel (1938, Academy Award), Dark Victory (1939), The Little Foxes (1941), Now, Voyager (1942), and All About Eve (1950). Her later films include What Ever Happened to Baby Jane? (1962) and The Whales of August (1987).