("Men of the Great Assembly"), assembly of Jewish religious leaders who, after returning (539 BC) to their homeland from the Babylonian Exile, initiated a new era in the history of Judaism.
(Hebrew: "Assembly"), unicameral parliament of Israel and supreme authority of that state. The first Knesset opened in Jerusalem on Feb. 16, 1949, and on the same day elected Chaim Weizmann (1874-1952) the first president of Israel. Many of its procedural ...
group of writers active in and around New York City during the first half of the 19th century. Taking its name from Washington Irving's Knickerbocker's History of New York (1809), the group, whose affiliation was more a regional than an ...
leather or wooden container for cutlery, placed in pairs on a sideboard or buffet in the dining room. The knife case first appeared in the 17th century and was originally covered with leather and elaborate gilt. Typically, it was a ...
any of certain New World fishes of the suborder Gymnotoidei, order Cypriniformes. Knifefishes comprise, at most, about 50 species of Central and South American fishes found in quiet lakes and lagoons. They are placed in three families: Gymnotidae (often called ...
in the European feudal system, military duties performed in return for tenures of land. The military service might be required for wars or expeditions or merely for riding and escorting services or guarding the castle. To obtain such service, a ...
African-American poet who emerged as a robust voice of the black aesthetic movement with his first volume of verse, Poems from Prison (1968). His poetry combined the energy and bravado of African-American "toasts" (long narrative poems that were recited in ...
American vocal group that was among the most popular rhythm-and-blues and soul groups of the 1960s and '70s and that was unique in having a female lead singer and male backup singers. The principal members were Gladys Knight (b. May ...
American colonial teacher and businesswoman whose vivid and often humorous travel diary is considered one of the most authentic chronicles of 18th-century colonial life in America.
British horticulturalist and botanist whose experiments on the adaptive responses of plants and the changes in direction of stem and root growth were the basis of later work on geotropisms.
English chronicler and an Austin (Augustinian) canon at the Abbey of St. Mary of the Meadows in Leicester. He is important for his vivid picture of the religious reformer John Wycliffe and the rise of the Lollards and for his ...
international fraternal benefit society of Roman Catholic men, founded by the Reverend Michael J. McGivney and chartered by the state of Connecticut in the United States in 1882. Besides supplying a wide range of insurance benefits and the opportunity for ...
first important national labour organization in the United States, founded in 1869. Named the Noble Order of the Knights of Labor by its first leader, Uriah S. Stephens, it originated as a secret organization meant to protect its members from ...
neighbourhood in the London boroughs of Westminster and Kensington and Chelsea. Located south of Hyde Park and northwest of Belgravia, in London's West End, it is the site of stately houses and clubs and of the famous department store Harrods, ...
a recreational mathematical puzzle, set in the old Prussian city of Konigsberg (now Kaliningrad, Russia), that led to the development of the branches of mathematics known as topology and graph theory. In the early 18th century, the citizens of Konigsberg ...
production of fabric by employing a continuous yarn or set of yarns to form a series of interlocking loops. Knit fabrics can generally be stretched to a greater degree than woven types. The two basic types of knits are the ...
in an internal-combustion engine, sharp sounds caused by premature combustion of part of the compressed air-fuel mixture in the cylinder. In a properly functioning engine, the charge burns with the flame front progressing smoothly from the point of ignition across ...
a measure of the hardness of a material, calculated by measuring the indentation produced by a diamond tip that is pressed onto the surface of a sample. The test was devised in 1939 by F. Knoop and colleagues at the ...
city in ancient Crete, capital of the legendary king Minos, and the principal centre of the Minoan, the earliest of the Aegean civilizations (see Minoan civilization). The site of Knossos stands on a knoll between the confluence of two streams ...
in navigation, measure of speed at sea, equal to one nautical mile per hour (approximately 1.15 statute miles per hour). Thus, a ship moving at 20 knots is traveling as fast as a land vehicle at about 23 mph (37 ...
in zoology, any of several large, plump sandpiper birds in the genus Calidris of the subfamily Calidritinae (family Scolopacidae). The common knot (C. canutus), about 25 cm (10 inches) long including the bill, has a reddish breast in breeding plumage ...
in cording, the interlacement of parts of one or more ropes, cords, or other pliable materials, commonly used to bind objects together. Knots have existed from the time humans first used vines and cordlike fibres to bind stone heads to ...
in mathematics, the study of closed curves in three dimensions, and their possible deformations without one part cutting through another. Knots may be regarded as formed by interlacing and looping a piece of string in any fashion and then joining ...
husband-and-wife founders of Knott's Berry Farm, a farm and nursery in Southern California that evolved into the oldest and one of the largest thematic amusement parks in the United States.
U.S. political party that flourished in the 1850s. The Know-Nothing party was an outgrowth of the strong anti-immigrant and especially anti-Roman Catholic sentiment that started to manifest itself during the 1840s. A rising tide of immigrants, primarily Germans in the ...
American physician whose popular treatise on birth control, the object of celebrated court actions in the United States and England, initiated the widespread use of contraceptives.
metropolitan borough, metropolitan county of Merseyside, historic county of Lancashire, England, just east of Liverpool. Knowsley takes its name from the parish of Knowsley, the seat of the earls of Derby and home of the Stanley family since the 14th ...
county, southern Maine, U.S. It is a coastal region facing Muscongus Bay on the southwest and Penobscot Bay on the east and includes several islands, notably Vinalhaven Island and Isle Au Hait. The county is bisected by the Saint George ...
private, coeducational institution of higher learning in Galesburg, Illinois, U.S. The college, founded in 1837 by Presbyterian and Congregationalist abolitionists from New York and New England, opened in 1843. It was originally named Knox Manual Labor College, and the students ...
major U.S. military reservation in Meade, Hardin, and Bullitt counties, northern Kentucky, U.S. It lies 30 miles (48 km) southwest of Louisville and occupies an area of 172 square miles (445 square km). Established in 1918 as Camp Knox (named ...
foremost leader of the Scottish Reformation, who set the austere moral tone of the Church of Scotland and shaped the democratic form of government it adopted. He was influenced by George Wishart, who was burned for heresy in 1546, and ...
city, seat (1792) of Knox county, eastern Tennessee, U.S., on the Tennessee River, which is formed just east of the city by the confluence of the Holston and French Broad rivers. It is situated between the Cumberland Mountains to the ...
mountains in Sri Lanka, running north-south to the north of the Mahaweli Ganga Valley, rising to 6,112 ft (1,863 m) at Knuckles Peak, about 10 mi northeast of Wattegama. The region receives an average rainfall of 100-200 in. (2,500-5,000 mm). ...
Danish-born American industrialist, an effective coordinator of automobile mass production who served as president of General Motors Corporation (1937-40) and directed the government's massive armaments production program for World War II.
town ("parish"), Macclesfield borough, administrative and historic county of Cheshire, England. It is located on the Cheshire Plain southwest of the city of Manchester. Knutsford received a market, free burgage (tenure from the crown), and power to elect a mayor ...
