Pinyin---> Chinese character glossary of famous people and events

[Laska]

Does someone know of an online resource that glosses famous Chinese people and events in pinyin or Wade-Giles with their names in Chinese characters?

I would like to be able to talk about history with Chinese people. So I need to know, for example, how to say Great Leap Forward, Wuhan uprising, Dazhai etc. in Chinese.

I'm on the lookout for a Chinese textbook with a good index. I have some original Chinese materials on history, but so far no index.

My apologies if this is a duplicate topic. Any suggestions greatly appreciated.

[malinuo]

I usually use the Wikipedia for that. Most English articles about Chinese topics have both the 汉字 and 拼音 versions of the important words. And when they don't, you can often click on the link to the corresponding article at http://zh.wikipedia.org/. (And if you find an article with some interesting 汉字 missing, don't forget to add it to help the rest of us! I have updated a few ones myself.)

[Laska]

Thanks!