2,425 articles
William Marshal, 1st Earl of Pembroke
William Marshal, 1st Earl of Pembroke (c.1146–1219), also called the Greatest Knight, was an Anglo-Norman noble who served Henry II, Richard I, John, and Henry III, won the 1217 battle of Lincoln as regent, and is known from the verse History of William Marshal.
William McGonagle
William Loren McGonagle (1925-1999), U.S. Navy captain and Medal of Honor recipient, commanded USS Liberty (AGTR-5) during Israel's June 8, 1967 attack, keeping the ship afloat while severely wounded; medal presented at Washington Navy Yard.
William Moore (loyalist)
William Moore (Billy Moore), 1949–2009, Belfast loyalist and UVF Shankill Butchers member who supplied the gang's black taxi and knives, led it after Lenny Murphy's arrest, drew 14 life sentences in 1979, and was freed in 1998; died awaiting HET questioning over a 1974 murder.
William O'Neal (informant)
William O'Neal (1949–1990), FBI informant, infiltrated the Illinois Black Panther Party as Fred Hampton's security chief, supplied the apartment floor plan used in the December 4, 1969 raid that killed Hampton and Mark Clark, was exposed in 1973, and died in 1990.
William Penn (Royal Navy officer)
Sir William Penn (1621-1670), English admiral and father of Pennsylvania's founder, served Blake in the First Dutch War, captured Jamaica in 1655, and co-led the 1665 fleet at Lowestoft.
William S. Harney
William Selby Harney (1800–1889), 'Mad Bear,' was a U.S. Army general of the Seminole, Mexican-American, and Plains Indian wars, the Pig War commander, and Department of the West chief relieved in 1861.
William Slim, 1st Viscount Slim
William Slim, 1st Viscount Slim (1891-1970), British field marshal nicknamed Uncle Bill, commanded the Fourteenth Army in Burma, served as Chief of the Imperial General Staff 1948-52, and was Governor-General of Australia 1953-60.
William Wallace
William Wallace was a Scottish knight who led armed resistance against the English occupation of Scotland. He defeated an English army at the Battle of Stirling Bridge in 1297.
William Westmoreland
William Childs Westmoreland (1914–2005), American four-star general, commanded U.S. forces in Vietnam as MACV chief 1964–1968, built forces to over 500,000, pursued attrition and search-and-destroy, was replaced by Abrams after Tet, later Army chief of staff.
Wilm Hosenfeld
Wilm Hosenfeld (Wilhelm Hosenfeld, 1895–1952), Wehrmacht captain in occupied Warsaw who hid and aided persecuted Poles and Jews, including pianist Władysław Szpilman; died in Soviet captivity, honored Righteous Among the Nations 2008.
Wilver Villegas-Palomino
Wilver Villegas-Palomino, alias Carlos El Puerco, is a Colombian ELN leader and FBI Ten Most Wanted fugitive, indicted in Texas in 2020 for narco-terrorism and cocaine trafficking, with a $5 million U.S. reward.
Wiremu Kīngi Te Rangitāke
Wiremu Kīngi Te Rangitāke, also known as Whiti, was a Te Āti Awa leader whose refusal to sell land at Waitara led to the First Taranaki War in 1860.
Wissam Farhat
Wissam Farhat, Hamas Shejaiya battalion commander (from 2010), attributed by the IDF to the 2002 Atsmona, 2011 Nahal Oz bus, 2014 APC, and October 7 Nahal Oz attacks; killed in an Israeli airstrike announced December 2, 2023. Distinct from the Harvard biomaterials researcher namesake.
Witold Pilecki
Witold Pilecki (1901–1948), Polish cavalry officer and resistance leader, volunteered into Auschwitz in 1940 as inmate 4859 under the name Tomasz Serafiński, organized camp resistance, escaped in 1943, and was executed by communist Poland in 1948.
Władysław Sikorski
Władysław Sikorski (1881–1943), Polish general and statesman, twice Prime Minister including head of the WWII government-in-exile and Commander-in-Chief; signed the 1941 Sikorski–Majski pact; died in the 1943 Gibraltar Liberator crash.
Wojciech Jaruzelski
Wojciech Jaruzelski (1923–2014), Polish general and last communist leader of Poland; imposed martial law 13 December 1981 against Solidarity, led the 1989 Round Table, and was elected president by one vote before Wałęsa succeeded him.
Women in combat
Women in combat: women's service in direct ground close-combat military roles such as infantry, armor, and artillery. Covers the US 1948 exclusion, 2015 full opening, UK 2016 lifting, international practice, injury and standards evidence, and the 2025-2026 US review.
Women in the Israel Defense Forces
Women in the Israel Defense Forces serve under mandatory conscription; first country to draft both sexes, with about 90% of positions and 21% of combat strength open to women after the 1995 Alice Miller ruling.
Women in the military
Women in the military: female service members in armed forces worldwide. Covers the 1948 US Women's Armed Services Integration Act, the 2015 opening of all US combat roles, injury and performance evidence, international shares, and health research.
Women in the military by country
Women in the military by country: compares conscription rules (Norway 2015, Denmark 2026, North Korea, Myanmar), combat-role access (US, UK, Ukraine), and women's shares of forces and UN peacekeeping contingents.
Woodes Rogers
Woodes Rogers (1679–1732), English privateer and first royal governor of the Bahamas, led the 1708–1711 Duke and Dutchess circumnavigation, captured the Manila galleon Disengaño, rescued Alexander Selkirk, and suppressed piracy at Nassau from 1718.
Wop May
Wilfrid Reid "Wop" May (1896-1952) was a Canadian First World War flying ace chased by the Red Baron, then a pioneering bush pilot of the 1929 Fort Vermilion diphtheria mercy flight, Arctic airmail, and the Mad Trapper manhunt.
Wyatt Earp
Wyatt Berry Stapp Earp (1848-1929), American frontier gambler and lawman of Wichita, Dodge City, and Tombstone, Arizona; famous for the 1881 O.K. Corral gunfight, acquitted of murder, and later mythologized by Stuart Lake's 1931 biography.
Xerxes I
Xerxes I (Old Persian Xšaya-ṛšā), Achaemenid king 486–465 BCE, son of Darius I and Atossa; suppressed revolts in Egypt and Babylon, dropped 'King of Babylon', invaded Greece in 480 BCE, built at Persepolis, and was murdered in 465.
Xiang Yu
Xiang Yu (项羽, personal name Xiang Ji, c. 232-202 BC) was the Hegemon-King of Western Chu who led the revolt toppling the Qin dynasty and lost the Chu-Han Contention (206-202 BC) to Liu Bang, defeated at Gaixia.
Yahya Saree
Yahya Saree (يحيى سريع), brigadier general and Houthi (Ansar Allah) military spokesman since 2018, announces the group's missile, drone, and Red Sea shipping attacks; his claims are frequently unverified or false, and his accounts were suspended by Twitter in 2022 and X in 2026.
Yahya Sinwar
Yahya Sinwar (1962-2024), Hamas leader in Gaza from 2017 and overall political chief from August 2024, masterminded the October 7, 2023 attack with Mohammed Deif; freed in the 2011 Gilad Shalit exchange, killed by Israel in Rafah in October 2024.
Yakiv Halchevsky
Yakiv Halchevsky (Яків Гальчевський), known as otaman Orel, was a Ukrainian military leader, teacher, and writer, a colonel of the UNR Army who led anti-Bolshevik insurgents in Podillia until 1925 and was killed in 1943.
Yakov Bruce
Yakov Bruce, also known as Yakov Vilimovich Bruce, was a Russian nobleman of Scottish descent who served Peter the Great as artillery chief, diplomat, and field marshal.
Yakov Dzhugashvili (იაკობ ჯუღაშვილი)
Yakov Dzhugashvili (იაკობ ჯუღაშვილი), Stalin's eldest son, was a Red Army senior lieutenant captured near Vitebsk in July 1941, held at Oflag camps and Sachsenhausen, and died there 14 April 1943.