de los Angeles, Victoria, 1923-2005, Spanish soprano, b. Barcelona. After a concert debut in Madrid in 1944, de los Angeles toured Scandinavia, France, England, and South America. Her debut in the United States was made at Carnegie Hall in 1950, and she joined the Metropolitan Opera Company the same year, performing there until 1961. After that she toured extensively, singing in most of the world's major opera houses. Her voice was praised for its lyricism and elegant expressiveness, and her performances of Catalan folk-song were especially notable.

Woodhull, Victoria (Claflin), 1838-1927, and Tennessee Claflin, 1846-1923, American journalists and lecturers, b. Ohio, sisters noted for their beauty and wildly eccentric behavior. As children they traveled throughout Ohio with their parents, giving spiritualist demonstrations. At 15, Victoria married Dr. Canning Woodhull but continued to tour as a clairvoyant with Tennessee. Victoria divorced Woodhull in 1864 and two years later probably married Col. James Blood (there is doubt as to the validity of the marriage). Tennessee married John Bartels but retained her maiden name. In New York City after 1868, the sisters were backed in a brokerage venture by Cornelius Vanderbilt, who was interested in spiritualism. In 1870, Victoria and Tennessee, with the financial support of Col. Blood, became proprietors of Woodhull and Claflin's Weekly, a sensational journal that took stands in favor of woman suffrage, free love, and socialism. In 1872 the paper reported rumors of a love affair between Rev. Henry Ward Beecher and the wife of Theodore Tilton, which provoked a national scandal. Also in 1872, the journal published the first English translation of The Communist Manifesto. In the same year Victoria became the first woman candidate for president, running on the People's party ticket with Frederick Douglass as her running mate. The two sisters moved to England in 1877. Victoria, having divorced Blood, married John Biddulph Martin, a wealthy banker. Tennessee, also divorced, married Francis Cook, an English art collector who became a baronet in 1886. Both women became well-known philanthropists.

Victoria, Tomás Luis de, c.1548-1611, Spanish composer. He went to Rome in 1565 to study for the priesthood at the German Jesuit College. In 1571 he became music master of the Collegium Romanum, succeeding Palestrina, who may have been his teacher. Mutual influence is evident in their works. In 1578, Victoria gave up the position he had held since 1573 as music master at the Collegium Germanicum to become a resident priest at the Church of San Girolamo. All of Victoria's known compositions are religious. His first book of motets (1572) contains the well-known O quam gloriosum and O vos omnes. He also composed masses, canticles, settings of all the hymns for the church year (1581), and two settings of the biblical accounts of the Passion. His polyphonic technique, equal to any in the Renaissance, expresses a passionate mysticism that is essentially Spanish. In 1587 he returned to Spain to be chaplain and choirmaster to Empress Mary (wife of Emperor Maximilian II), in whose memory he composed his last and greatest work, Officium defunctorum (pub. 1605).

Victoria, Lake, or Victoria Nyanza, largest lake of Africa and the world's second largest freshwater lake, c.26,830 sq mi (69,490 sq km), E central Africa, on the Uganda-Tanzania-Kenya border. Lake Victoria (c.255 mi/410 km long and c.155 mi/250 km wide) occupies a shallow depression (c.250 ft/75 m deep) on the Equatorial Plateau (alt. 3,725 ft/1,135 m) between two arms of the Great Rift Valley. It has an irregular shoreline and many small islands. Numerous streams, including the Kagera River, feed Lake Victoria, which is one of the chief headwater reservoirs of the Nile; the Victoria Nile drains the lake to the north. At the Nalubaale (Owen Falls) and Kiira dams on the Victoria Nile the lake's waters are used to generate hydroelectricity. The lake basin is densely populated and intensely cultivated, and the lake is an important fishery, but fish stocks and diversity have declined since the 1980s as a result of overfishing and the introduction of the Nile perch. The lake has also suffered uncontrolled water hyacinth proliferation. Ships regularly call at lakeside towns, including Entebbe, Mwanza, Bukoba, and Kisumu. The first European to see Lake Victoria (originally called Ukerewe) was John Speke, the British explorer, in 1858; Henry Stanley explored the region in 1875.

Victoria, Guadalupe: see Guadalupe Victoria.

Victoria de Durango: see Durango, city, Mexico.

Victoria and Albert Museum, South Kensington, London, opened in 1852 as the Museum of Manufacturers at Marlborough House. It originally contained a nucleus of contemporary objects of applied art bought from the Great Exhibition of 1851 at the instigation of the Prince Consort, and collections from the Government School of Design. The collection was soon expanded to include objects of all styles and periods, and the name was changed to Museum of Ornamental Art. In 1857 it was moved to its present site in South Kensington, to become part of the collective museum known as the South Kensington Museum. The present building, designed by Sir Aston Webb, was begun in 1899, at which time the museum was given its present name by Queen Victoria. When this building was opened in 1909, it became purely an art museum; the scientific collections were renamed the Science Museum. The museum embraces the Royal College of Art, an extensive art library, and the collections of the India Museum, which it absorbed. Its collections of paintings and sculpture (especially of early Italian works) are celebrated; other collections of note include ceramics, glass, jewelry, textiles, medieval enamels, ivories, miniatures, metalwork, engravings, and furniture. Raphael's cartoons for the Sistine Chapel tapestries are among its most famous treasures.

Victoria Nyanza, Africa: see Victoria, Lake.

Victoria Nile, river, section of the White Nile, c.260 mi (420 km) long, central Uganda, E central Africa. It drains from the northern end of Lake Victoria at Jinja and flows generally north and west, over Ripon Falls and Owen Falls (both now submerged), through shallow Lake Kyoga, and thence over Kabalega (formerly Murchison) Falls to Lake Albert. Hydroelectric plants are located at Owen and Kabalega falls. The river is navigable from Lake Albert to Kabalega Falls.

Victoria Land, part of E Antarctica, S of New Zealand; Cape Adare is to the northeast. Bounded on the E by the Ross Sea and on the W by Wilkes Land, it consists of ranges of the Transantarctic Mts., with a high plateau in the interior. The region was first visited during the expedition (1839-43) of Sir James Clark Ross and was first carefully studied by the Douglas Mawson expedition (1911-14).

Victoria Island, c.81,930 sq mi (212,200 sq km), part of the Arctic Archipelago, Northwest Territories and Nunavut, N Canada; third largest island of Canada. On the southeast coast is Cambridge Bay, a U.S.-Canadian weather station and trading post. The island was visited by the British explorers Thomas Simpson and Peter W. Dease in the late 1830s; John Rae explored it in 1851.

Victoria Falls, waterfall, c.1 mi (1.6 km) wide with a maximum drop of 420 ft (128 m), in the Zambezi River, S central Africa, on the Zambia-Zimbabwe border. The falls are formed as the Zambezi plummets into a narrow chasm (c.400 ft/120 m wide) carved by its waters along a fracture zone in the earth's crust. Numerous islets at the crest of the falls divide the water to form a series of falls. The thick mist and loud roar produced there are perceptible from a distance of about 25 mi (40 km). The Boiling Pot, the beginning of a winding gorge (c.50 mi/80 km long) through which the river flows below the falls, is spanned by a 650 ft (198 m) long bridge that is 310 ft (94 m) above the river. The gorge is now partially submerged as a result of the construction of the Kariba Dam. David Livingstone, the British explorer, visited the falls in 1855 and named them for Queen Victoria. The falls are part of two national parks and draw many tourists to the area.

Victoria (Alexandrina Victoria), 1819-1901, queen of Great Britain and Ireland (1837-1901) and empress of India (1876-1901). She was the daughter of Edward, duke of Kent (fourth son of George III), and Princess Mary Louise Victoria of Saxe-Coburg-Saalfeld.

Early Reign

Victoria's father died before she was a year old. Upon the death (1830) of George IV, she was recognized as heir to the British throne, and in 1837, at the age of 18, she succeeded her uncle, William IV, to the throne. With the accession of a woman, the connection between the English and Hanoverian thrones ceased in accordance with the Salic law of Hanover. One of the young queen's advisers was Baron Stockmar, sent by her uncle, King Leopold I of the Belgians.

Her first prime minister, Viscount Melbourne, became her close friend and adviser. In 1839, when Melbourne's Whig cabinet resigned, Victoria refused to dismiss her Whig ladies of the bedchamber, the accepted gesture of confidence in the incoming party. The Tory leader, Sir Robert Peel, declined to form a cabinet, and Melbourne remained in office.

Marriage to Albert

In 1840, Victoria married her first cousin, Prince Albert of Saxe-Coburg-Gotha. Albert, with whom she was very much in love, became the dominant influence in her life. Her first child, Victoria, later empress of Germany, was born in 1840, and the prince of Wales, later Edward VII, in 1841. Victoria had nine children. Their marriages and those of her grandchildren allied the British royal house with those of Russia, Germany, Greece, Denmark, Romania, and several of the German states.

Through Albert's efforts, Victoria was reconciled with the Tories, and she became very fond of Peel during his second ministry (1841-46). She was less happy with the Whig ministry that followed, taking particular exception to the adventurous foreign policy of Viscount Palmerston. The resulting friction was a factor in Palmerston's dismissal from office in 1851. The queen and Albert also influenced the formation of Lord Aberdeen's coalition government in 1852. Royal popularity was increased by the success of the Crystal Palace exposition (1851), planned and carried through by Albert.

It began to wane again, however, when it was rumored on the eve of the Crimean War that the royal couple was pro-Russian. After the outbreak (1854) of the war, Victoria took part in the organization of relief for the wounded and instituted the Victoria Cross for bravery. She also reconciled herself to Palmerston, who became prime minister in 1855 and proved a vigorous war leader.

Widowhood and Later Years

In 1861, Albert (who had been named prince consort in 1857) died. Victoria's grief was so great that she did not appear in public for three years and did not open Parliament until 1866; her prolonged seclusion damaged her popularity. Her reappearance was largely the work of Benjamin Disraeli, who, together with William Gladstone, dominated the politics of the latter part of Victoria's reign.

Disraeli, adroit in his personal relations with Victoria, became the queen's great favorite. In 1876 he secured for her the title empress of India, which pleased her greatly; she was ardently imperialistic and intensely interested in the welfare of her colonial subjects, particularly the Indians. Victoria's relations with Gladstone, on the other hand, were very stiff; she disliked him personally and disapproved of many of his policies, especially Irish Home Rule.

In her old age, Victoria was enormously popular. Jubilees were held in 1887 and 1897 to celebrate the 50th and 60th years of the longest English reign. The queen was not highly intelligent, but her conscientiousness and strict morals helped to restore the prestige of the crown and to establish it as a symbol of public service and imperial unity.

Victoria (Victoria Adelaide Mary Louisa), 1840-1901, empress of Germany, daughter of Victoria of England. In 1858 she married the German crown prince (later Emperor Frederick III). After her husband's death in 1888, she was generally known as Empress Frederick. An English liberal, she was bitterly hostile to the imperial chancellor Otto von Bismarck but was unable to make her dislike effective. Her letters were published in English in 1928.

Victoria, state (1991 pop. 3,770,684), 87,884 sq mi (227,620 sq km), SE Australia. It is bounded on the S and E by the Indian Ocean, Bass Strait, and the Tasman Sea. Melbourne is the capital. Other important cities are Geelong, Ballarat, and Bendigo. Australia's second smallest state, Victoria is the most densely populated. The Australian Alps and other mountains of the Eastern Highlands traverse it; the highest point is Mt. Bogong (6,508 ft/1,984 m). The climate is generally temperate and pleasant. The large, but frequently dry, rivers such as the Campaspe and the Mitta Mitta are important for irrigation; a large portion of the irrigated land in Australia is in Victoria. Hume Reservoir, on the New South Wales border, irrigates an extensive agricultural and pastoral area in the north. Despite its size, Victoria is one of Australia's leading agricultural states. Wheat, grown largely in the northeast, is the most important crop, followed by oats, barley, fruits, and vegetables. Livestock and dairying are also important. Sheep are raised in the southwest and dairy cattle in the south. Victoria was the first state in Australia to develop industry. Major industries include automobile manufacturing, textiles, clothing, food processing, and service industries. Gold mining has declined sharply; however, the mining of brown coal, mainly in the Latrobe Valley E of Melbourne, has increased dramatically. Until the introduction of tariff reforms in the 1980s, much of the labor force worked in retail and wholesale trade. Unsuccessful attempts at settlement were made in 1803 and 1826 on the site of the present Melbourne. Settlement began in the 1830s when sheep ranchers from Tasmania came looking for pasture. Known as the Port Phillip District, the area that is now Victoria became part of the colony of New South Wales in 1836. In 1851, Victoria was made a separate British colony, which was granted full constitutional self-government in 1855. The discovery of gold in 1851 led to a rapid population increase. Victoria was federated as a state of the Commonwealth of Australia in 1901. Executive power rests nominally in the governor, who is appointed by the crown on advice of the cabinet. The premier and the cabinet are responsible to the bicameral state parliament.

Victoria, city (1991 pop. 71,228), capital of British Columbia, SW Canada, on Vancouver Island and Juan de Fuca Strait. It is the largest city on the island and its major port and business center. In addition to its importance as the seat of provincial government, Victoria is noted as a residential city because of its mild climate, beautiful scenery, many parks (including Beacon Hill Park) and drives. It is also a popular center for American and Canadian tourists. It has sawmills and woodworking plants, fish-processing factories, grain elevators, and cold-storage plants. The city is the base of a deep-sea fishing fleet; a large naval installation is nearby. Founded (1843) as Fort Camosun, a Hudson's Bay Company post, the city was later called Fort Victoria. When Vancouver Island became a crown colony, a town was laid out on the site (1851-52), named Victoria, and made the capital of the colony. With the discovery (1858) of gold on the British Columbia mainland, Victoria became the port, supply base, and outfitting center for miners on their way to the Cariboo gold fields. In 1866, when the island was administratively united with the mainland, Victoria remained the capital of the colony and became the provincial capital in 1871. It is the seat of the Dominion Astrophysical Observatory and the Univ. of Victoria.

Victoria, Mexico see: Ciudad Victoria.

Victoria or Port Victoria, town (1987 pop. 24,325), capital of the Seychelles, in the Indian Ocean. A port on the NE coast of Mahé Island, Victoria is an administrative, commercial, tourist, and shipping center. Copra, essential oils and spices, and fish products are exported. Victoria has a botanic garden and a polytechnic institute; Seychelles International airport is to the southeast.

Victoria, city (1990 pop. 55,076), seat of Victoria co., S Tex., on the Guadalupe River, in a prosperous farm, cattle, and oil area. The Victoria Barge Canal (completed in 1962) connects the city with the Intracoastal Waterway. Victoria has factories manufacturing storage tanks, plastics, steel, polyethylene, and oil-drilling and -rig equipment. It is the seat of the Univ. of Houston at Victoria. A zoo and museums of history and fine arts are also in the city. To the south are the Padre Island National Seashore and a national wildlife refuge.

Victoria, city (2001 est. pop. 1,035,000), capital of China's special administrative region of Hong Kong. The city, commonly known as Hong Kong, is on the NW shore of Hong Kong island, at the foot of Victoria Peak. A busy world seaport with extensive shipbuilding yards, it has a fine natural deepwater harbor, across from which lies Kowloon. Densely populated, Victoria is Hong Kong's main administrative, economic, and cultural center, and is the site of many corporate headquarters and international banking facilities. Tourism is also economically important. The Univ. of Hong Kong (1911) is there. Victoria was founded by the British in 1843.

Royal Victoria College: see McGill Univ.

Manchester, Victoria University of, at Manchester, England; founded 1880 as Victoria Univ., an outgrowth of Owens College (est. 1851). In 1903 the university was reconstituted and its present name was adopted. It has faculties of arts, business administration, economic and social studies, education, law, medicine, dentistry, science, technology, and theology. The Univ. of Manchester Institute of Science and Technology is affiliated.

Guadalupe Victoria, 1786?-1843, Mexican general, first president of Mexico (1824-29), whose original name was Manuel Félix Fernández. He joined (1811) the revolution proclaimed by Hidalgo y Costilla, and even after the defeat and death of Morelos y Pavón he continued, as a fugitive, to support the revolutionary cause. His name, Guadalupe Victoria [Our Lady of Guadalupe Triumphant], was adopted in honor of the revolutionary standard. The achievement of independence under Agustín de Iturbide did not satisfy him, but he adhered to the Plan of Iguala (1821). Two years later he joined Santa Anna in his revolt against Iturbide's empire. Guadalupe Victoria was chosen as a member of the provisional government and then as president. Factional strife between the conservatives and liberals marred his administration, and the conservatives, under Vice President Bravo, started an unsuccessful revolt. He was succeeded by Vicente Guerrero.

Espartero, Baldomero, duque de la Victoria, conde de Luchana, 1793-1879, Spanish general and statesman. He fought against the French in the Peninsular War (1808-14) and later against the revolutionists in South America. After Ferdinand VII's death (1833), he supported Isabella II against the Carlists and won important victories in the Carlist War of 1834-39. His agreement at Vergara (1839) with the Carlist general Rafael Maroto virtually ended the war, and he was rewarded (1840) with the title duque de la Victoria [duke of victory]. A member of the Progressive party in the Cortes from 1837, Espartero played an important political role. His opposition to the queen regent, Maria Christina, helped force her to leave (1840) the country. In 1841, Espartero was made regent by the Cortes and became virtual dictator. His ruthless suppression of opposition—notably at Barcelona—soon made him highly unpopular. In 1843 a general uprising drove him from office, and he fled to England. He returned (1848) to Spain but lived in retirement until 1854, when Isabella, whose throne was threatened by a revolt led by Gen. Leopoldo O'Donnell, recalled him to power. O'Donnell, who became his war minister, displaced him in 1856. Espartero later supported King Amadeus, then adhered to the republic, but he recognized Alfonso XII upon his accession in 1875.

Clarke, Mary Victoria (Novello) Cowden: see under Clarke, Charles Cowden.

Ciudad Victoria, city (1990 pop. 194,996), capital of Tamaulipas state, NE Mexico, on the San Marcos River and at the foot of the Sierra Madre Oriental. The city, founded in 1750, lies on the Inter-American Highway and on a major rail line. Agricultural products, especially henequen, are processed there, in addition to lumber.

or Victoria Nyanza

Largest lake in Africa and chief reservoir of the Nile River, east-central Africa. The southern half lies in Tanzania, the northern half in Uganda; it borders Kenya in the northeast. With an area of 26,828 sq mi (69,484 sq km), it is the second largest freshwater lake in the world (after Lake Superior in North America). It is about 210 mi (337 km) long, 150 mi (240 km) wide, and up to 270 ft (82 m) deep. Though the Kagera River is its largest tributary, the most important source of water for the lake is rainfall. Its only outlet is the Victoria Nile. John Hanning Speke, searching for the source of the Nile in 1858, was the first European to sight it. He named it for Queen Victoria; the Arabs had called it Ukerewe. Henry Morton Stanley circumnavigated it in 1875. It became a reservoir when the water level was raised after completion of Owen Falls Dam (now the Nalubaale Dam) in 1954.

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Museum of decorative arts in London. It was conceived by Prince Albert as a way to improve the standards of British design by making the finest models available for study. The core collection, consisting of objects purchased at the 1851 Crystal Palace exhibition, was originally called the Museum of Ornamental Art and was opened by Queen Victoria in 1857. A new building was later designed by Sir Aston Webb, and the museum was renamed when Victoria laid the cornerstone in 1899; it was opened to the public by Edward VII in 1909. It houses vast collections of European sculpture, ceramics, furniture, metalwork, jewelry, textiles, and musical instruments from medieval times to the present; remarkable Chinese ceramics, jade, and sculpture; the premier collection of Italian Renaissance sculpture outside Italy; and the outstanding national collection of British watercolours, miniatures, prints, and drawings. It is regarded as the world's greatest decorative-arts museum. Its branch museums include the Bethnal Green Museum of Childhood and the Wellington Museum. The Theatre Museum was also a branch until January 2007, when it was closed.

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River that forms the upper section of the Nile River. Some 260 mi (420 km) long, it issues from the northern end of Lake Victoria, then flows over the Nalubaale and Kiira dams at Owen Falls, through Lake Kyoga, and over Kabalega Falls (118 ft [36 m]) before entering the northeastern corner of Lake Albert. It is about 300 mi (480 km) long.

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Second largest island of the Arctic Archipelago, Canada. About 320 mi (515 km) long and 170–370 mi (270–600 km) wide, it has an area of 83,896 sq mi (217,291 sq km). Discovered in 1838 by Thomas Simpson, it was named for Queen Victoria and was first explored by John Rae in 1851. It is divided administratively between the Northwest Territories and the territory of Nunavut.

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Waterfall, at the border between Zambia and Zimbabwe. Approximately twice as wide and twice as deep as Niagara Falls, the falls span the entire breadth of the Zambezi River at one of its widest points (more than 5,500 ft [1,700 m]). There the river plunges over a precipice, split by islands and promontories, to a drop of 355 ft (108 m). Two national parks, Victoria Falls in Zimbabwe and Mosi-oa-Tunya in Zambia, are adjacent to the falls. Victoria Falls was designated a World Heritage site in 1989. The first European sighting of the falls was in 1855 by David Livingstone, who named them after Queen Victoria.

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Town (pop., 1997: metro. area, 24,701), capital of the Republic of Seychelles. Located on the northeastern coast of Mahé Island in the Indian Ocean, it is the only port of the archipelago and the only town of any size in Seychelles. It is the country's business and cultural centre.

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City (pop., 2000: 249,029), capital of Tamaulipas state, northeastern Mexico. Founded in 1750, the settlement was renamed in 1825 for Mexico's first president, Guadalupe Victoria. In addition to being a distribution point in an agricultural region, it is a tourist destination and a centre for hunting, fishing, and swimming. The University of Tamaulipas was established in 1956.

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