Encyclopædia Britannica Australia -

Encyclopedias since 1768

0-9

Kirsten, Dorothy ... Kittery

Kirsten, Dorothy: American opera singer, a lyric soprano who, in her 30-year career with the Metropolitan Opera in New York City, specialized in title role interpretations of Giacomo Puccini's operas Manon Lescaut, Tosca, La Boheme, and Madama Butterfly.
Kirszenstein-Szewinska, Irena: Polish sprinter who dominated women's athletics for nearly two decades. Between 1964 and 1976, Kirszenstein-Szewinska earned seven Olympic medals, tying the record of Australian Shirley Strickland de la Hunty for most medals won by a woman in Olympic athletics competition. ...
kirtana: form of musical worship or group devotion practiced by the Vaisnava sects (followers of the god Vishnu) of Bengal. Kirtana usually consists of a verse sung by a soloist and then repeated by a chorus, to the accompaniment of percussion ...
Kirthar Range: hill region in southern Pakistan. It extends southward for about 190 miles (300 km) from the Mula River in east-central Balochistan to Cape Muari (Monze) west of Karachi on the Arabian Sea. The range forms the boundary between the Lower ...
Kiruna: city in the lan (county) of Norrbotten, northern Sweden. It is situated north of the Arctic Circle on the eastern shore of Lake Luossa and between the rich iron-ore Kiruna and Luossa mountains. Kiruna was founded in 1899 with the ...
Kirwan, Richard: Irish chemist known for his contributions in several areas of science.
Kiryu: city, Gumma ken (prefecture), central Honshu, Japan. It lies on the edge of the Kanto Plain, northwest of Tokyo. In the 17th century fine Kiryu silks were worn by samurai and court nobles. In the 20th century the city became ...
Kisangani: city, northeastern Congo (Kinshasa). The city lies along the Congo River, just below Boyoma (formerly Stanley) Falls. It is the nation's major inland port after Kinshasa. Above Kisangani, the Boyoma Falls, consisting of seven cataracts, impede river navigation for about ...
Kisarazu: city, Chiba ken (prefecture), Honshu, Japan. It lies on the west coast of the Boso Peninsula, about 20 miles (32 km) southeast of Tokyo and on the east coast of Tokyo Bay. Located in the delta of the Obitsu River, ...
Kiselyov, Pavel Dmitriyevich: Russian general, statesman, and progressive administrator during the reign of Tsar Nicholas I (1825-55).
Kiselyovsk: city, Kemerovo oblast (province), central Russia. It developed in the 1930s as an industrial and coal-mining centre. Much of the coal is used for coking. Kiselyovsk's engineering industries produce drilling equipment and trucks and mechanical horses for underground coal trains. ...
Kisfaludy, Karoly: Romantic dramatist, the first Hungarian playwright to achieve considerable popular success.
Kish: ancient Mesopotamian city-state located east of Babylon in what is now south-central Iraq. According to ancient Sumerian sources it was the seat of the first postdiluvian dynasty; most scholars believe that the dynasty was at least partly historical. A king ...
Kishangarh: city, central Rajasthan state, northwestern India. It is situated about 50 miles (80 km) southwest of Jaipur on the banks of Lake Gundalao. The city, with its fort and palace, was founded in 1611 by Kishan Singh, a Rajput (one ...
Kishangarh painting: 18th-century school of the Rajasthani style of Indian painting that arose in the princely state of Kishangarh (central Rajasthan state). The school is clearly distinguished by its individualistic facial type and its religious intensity. The sensitive, refined features of the ...
Kishi Nobusuke: statesman whose term as prime minister of Japan (1957-60) was marked by a turbulent opposition campaign against a new U.S.-Japan security treaty agreed to by his government.
Kishiwada: city, Osaka fu (urban prefecture), Honshu, Japan, facing Osaka Bay. The city developed around the castle founded by the Wada family in the 14th century. It passed into the possession of the Okabe daimyo family in the 17th century and ...
Kishorganj: town, east-central Bangladesh. It lies along the Kundali Khal River, which is navigable during the rainy monsoon season. Formerly noted for muslin manufacture, it was the site of a factory (trading post) of the British East India Company. Kishorganj was ...
Kisi: group of some 120,000 people inhabiting a belt of hills covered by wooded savannas where Guinea, Sierra Leone, and Liberia meet; they speak a language of the Atlantic branch of the Niger-Congo family.
kiskadee: (genus Pitangus), either of two similar New World bird species of flycatchers (family Tyrannidae, order Passeriformes), named for the call of the great kiskadee, or derby flycatcher (P. sulphuratus). The great kiskadee is reddish brown on the back, wings, and ...
Kiskunfelegyhaza: town, Bacs-Kiskun megye (county), central Hungary. It is in the region between the Danube and the Tisza rivers, formerly known as Kiskunsag (Little Kumania, from the immigrant Cuman [Kipchak] settlements of the 14th century), of which it was the capital. ...
Kislovodsk: city, Stavropol kray (region), southwestern Russia. It lies along the Podkumok River in the Caucasus foothills just southwest of Pyatigorsk. Founded in 1803 as a spa based on abundant local mineral springs, Kislovodsk has become one of the largest health ...
Kismaayo: seaport, southern Somalia. It lies along the Indian Ocean, near the mouth of the Jubba River. Founded in 1872 by the sultan of Zanzibar, the town was taken by the British in 1887; it later became a part of Jubaland ...
kiss: a touch or caress of the lips upon the lips, cheek, hand, or feet of another to signify affection, greeting, reverence, or sexual attraction.
Kissidougou: town and administrative capital of Kissidougou region, southeastern Guinea, West Africa. It is located at the intersection of roads from Faranah, Gueckedou, and Kankan. The town was founded in the 1890s as a French outpost in the campaigns against Samory ...
Kissimmee River: river in central Florida, U.S., flowing between Lakes Kissimmee (north) and Okeechobee (south). It originally had a course of about 100 miles (160 km), but in the 1960s it was canalized for flood-control purposes to a 56-mile (90-km) length. The ...
Kissinger, Henry A.: American political scientist, who, as adviser for national security affairs and secretary of state, was a major influence in the shaping of foreign policy from 1969 to 1976 under Presidents Richard M. Nixon and Gerald R. Ford. In 1973 he ...
Kisumu: town, capital of Nyanza province, Kenya, East Africa, on the northeastern shore of Lake Victoria. It is the commercial, industrial, and transportation centre of western Kenya, serving a hinterland populated by almost 4,000,000 people. Kisumu is an important link in ...
kiswah: black brocade cloth that covers the most sacred shrine of Islam, the Ka'bah (q.v.) in Mecca. A new kiswah is made in Egypt every year and carried to Mecca by pilgrims. On it is embroidered in gold the Muslim profession ...
kit: small fiddle with a muted tone, carried by dancing masters in their pockets in the 16th-18th century. A last descendant of the medieval rebec, the kit evolved as a narrow, boat-shaped instrument with usually three or four strings. Later, narrow, ...
Kita-Ibaraki: city, northern Ibaraki ken (prefecture), east-central Honshu, Japan, facing the Pacific Ocean. The western part of the city occupies hills that slope toward the rest of the city on the coast. Agriculture (rice) and fishing (sardines, mackerel) ...
Kita-Kyushu: (Japanese: North Kyushu), city, Fukuoka Prefecture (ken), Kyushu, Japan, on the Shimonoseki and Tsushima straits. It was created in 1963 by the amalgamation of the cities of Wakamatsu, Yawata (Yahata), Tobata, Kokura, and Moji, which now form the five wards ...
Kitabatake Chikafusa: Japanese warrior, statesman, and author of the influential politico-historical treatise Jinno shotoki ("Record of the Legitimate Succession of the Divine Emperors"), which set forth the mystic and nationalist doctrine that Japan had a unique superiority among nations because of its ...
Kitahara Hakushu: Japanese poet who was a major influence in modern Japanese poetry with his aesthetic and symbolic style.
Kitaj, R B: U.S.-born painter noted for his eclectic and original contributions to Pop Art.
Kitakami-sammyaku: (Japanese: Kitakami Range), mountain range, in northeastern Honshu, Japan, paralleling the Pacific coast and extending for about 155 mi (250 km) from southern Aomori Prefecture, through Iwate and Miyagi prefectures, to terminate in the Ojika Peninsula. The range has a ...
Kitami: city, northeastern Hokkaido, Japan, facing the Sea of Okhotsk at the confluence of the Tokoro-gawa (Tokoro River) and the Muka-gawa. It occupies 163 sq mi (421 sq km) on the railway between Asahigawa and Abashiri. Originally an Ainu settlement known ...
Kitami-sammyaku: (Japanese: Kitami Range), mountain range, northeastern Hokkaido, Japan, extending 180 mi (290 km) along the coast of the Sea of Okhotsk. The range is basically an upwarped block except in the west, where it drops abruptly to the Teshio-gawa (Teshio ...
Kitasato Shibasaburo: Japanese physician and bacteriologist who helped discover a method to prevent tetanus and diphtheria and, in the same year as Alexandre Yersin, discovered the infectious agent responsible for the bubonic plague.
Kitay-gorod: rayon (sector) of the city of Moscow, bordering the Kremlin on the east, Staraya and Novaya squares on the west, and the Moskva River on the south and including the area known as Red Square (q.v.). Settlement in Kitay-gorod began ...
Kitchener: city, regional municipality of Waterloo, southeastern Ontario, Canada. It is situated in the Grand River valley, 60 miles (95 km) west-southwest of Toronto. Founded by Bishop Benjamin Eby and settled by German immigrants about 1807, the community was known successively ...
Kitchener, Horatio Herbert Kitchener, 1st Earl: British field marshal, imperial administrator, conqueror of The Sudan, commander in chief during the South African War, and (perhaps his most important role) secretary of state for war at the beginning of World War I (1914-18). At that time he ...
kite: any of numerous birds of prey belonging to one of three subfamilies (Milvinae, Elaninae, Perninae) of the family Accipitridae. Typically, a kite is lightly built, with a small head, partly bare face, short beak, and long narrow wings and tail. ...
kite: oldest known heavier-than-air craft designed to gain lift from the wind while being flown from the end of a flying line, or tether.
kithara: stringed musical instrument, one of the two principal types of ancient Greek lyres. It had a wooden soundboard and a box-shaped body, or resonator, from which extended two hollow arms connected by a crossbar. Three, originally, but later as many ...
Kitikmeot: westernmost of the three regions of Nunavut territory, Canada. It was designated the Central Arctic region of the Northwest Territories in 1981, being formed from the northern part of Fort Smith region. In 1982 it received its present name, which ...
Kitimat: district municipality, on the west coast of British Columbia, Canada. It lies at the head of the Douglas Channel, a deepwater fjord extending inland from Hecate Strait for 80 miles (129 km). Named for a nearby Indian village, Kitimat and ...
Kitt Peak National Observatory: astronomical observatory located on the Papago Indian Reservation 50 miles (80 km) southwest of Tucson, Ariz., U.S., at an elevation of 6,888 feet (2,100 m). It was established in 1958 by the National Science Foundation (NSF) in response to a ...
Kitt, Eartha: American singer and dancer noted for her sultry vocal style and slinky beauty who also achieved success as a dramatic stage and film actress.
kittel: in Judaism, a white robe worn in the synagogue on such major festivals as Rosh Hashana and Yom Kippur. The rabbi wears it, as does the cantor, the blower of the shofar (ritual ram's horn), and male members of Ashkenazi ...
Kittery: town, York county, southwestern Maine, U.S., at the mouth of the Piscataqua River, on the Atlantic coast opposite Portsmouth, New Hampshire. The town includes the communities of Kittery and Kittery Point. Settled in 1623, it was incorporated (1647) as Piscataqua ...