Encyclopædia Britannica Australia -

Encyclopedias since 1768

0-9

Ngada ... Nias

Ngada: tribe inhabiting the south coast of Flores, one of the Lesser Sunda Islands, in Indonesia. They live around the Inerie volcano and inland on the Badjava plateau. Primarily of Proto-Malay stock, they speak a Malayo-Polynesian language of the Ambon-Timor group, ...
Ngami, Lake: shallow lake at the southwest corner of the 4,000-square-mile (10,400-square-kilometre) Okavango Swamp in northwestern Botswana. The swamp and the lake are fed by the Okavango River, which loses most of its flow through evaporation in the marshes. Lake Ngami is ...
Ngaoundere: town, north-central Cameroon, on the Adamawa Plateau. It is the northern terminus of the Trans-Cameroon Railway to Yaounde and Douala and lies on the major north-south road from Garoua to Bertoua and Yaounde; by these routes it exports livestock and ...
Ngasaunggyan, Battle of: (1277), Mongol defeat of Burmese troops that led to the demise of the Pagan dynasty of Myanmar (Burma). After unifying China, the Mongol ruler Kublai Khan sent envoys to neighbouring kingdoms, obliging them to accept Mongol vassalage. The Pagan king ...
Ngata, Sir Apirana Turupa: political and cultural leader of the Maori community in New Zealand. He was a major force behind the improvement of government policy toward the Maori in the early 20th century.
Ngbandi: a people of the upper Ubangi River in southern Central African Republic and northern Congo (Kinshasa). Ngbandi speak a language of the Adamawa-Ubangi subgroup of the Niger-Congo language family that is related to that of neighbouring Banda and Gbaya.
NGC: abbreviation of New General Catalogue of Nebulae and Clusters of Stars (q.v.).
Ngo Dinh Diem: Vietnamese political leader who served as president, with dictatorial powers, of South Vietnam from 1955 until his assassination.
Ngo Quyen: Vietnamese liberator, known for his military tactics, who founded the first enduring Vietnamese dynasty and laid the foundation for an independent Vietnamese kingdom, which he called Nam Viet.
Ngo Van Chieu: founder of the Vietnamese religious sect Cao Dai (q.v.).
Ngoni: approximately 12 groups of people of the Nguni (q.v.) branch of Bantu-speaking peoples that are scattered throughout eastern Africa. Their dispersal was due to the rise of the Zulu empire early in the 19th century, during which many refugee bands ...
Ngorongoro Conservation Area: national conservation area in the Arusha region of northern Tanzania, southeast of Serengeti National Park. Occupying some 3,200 square miles (8,300 square km), it extends over part of the Eastern (Great) Rift Valley of eastern Africa and contains a variety ...
Ngorongoro Crater: extinct volcanic caldera in the Eastern (Great) Rift Valley, northern Tanzania. It lies 75 miles (120 km) west of the town of Arusha. The caldera measures between 10 and 12 miles (16 and 19 km) across and has an area ...
Ngoy: former kingdom on the Atlantic coast of Central Africa, just north of the Congo River, in an area that is now part of southern Cabinda (an exclave of Angola) and western Congo (Kinshasa). It was founded by Bantu-speaking people about ...
Ngozi: town, north-central Burundi. It is a market centre located at an elevation of about 5,740 feet (1,750 m). The surrounding area supports cattle raising and the growing of coffee, bananas, cassava, sweet potatoes, beans, and corn (maize). Other important activities ...
Ngubane, Jordan Kush: Zulu novelist, scholar, and editor for the South African publications Ilanga lase Natal ("The Natal Sun," Durban), Bantu World (Johannesburg), and Inkundla ya Bantu ("Bantu Forum," Verulam).
Ngugi wa Thiong'o: East Africa's leading novelist, whose popular Weep Not, Child (1964) was the first major novel in English by an East African. As he became sensitized to the effects of colonialism in Africa, he adopted his traditional name and wrote in ...
Nguni: cluster of related Bantu-speaking ethnic groups living in South Africa, Swaziland, and Zimbabwe, whose ancestors inhabited a broad band of upland territory extending from the Great Fish River, in what is now Eastern Cape province, northward to Kosi Bay, near ...
Nguru: town, northwestern Yobe state, northern Nigeria, near the Hadejia River, a seasonal tributary of the Komadugu Yobe River, which flows into Lake Chad. Precisely when the town was founded is unknown, but by the early 16th century it had been ...
Nguyen Cao Ky: South Vietnamese military and political leader known for his flamboyant manner and militant policies.
Nguyen Du: best-loved poet of the Vietnamese and creator of the epic poem Kim van Kieu, written in chu-nom (southern characters). He is considered by some to be the father of Vietnamese literature.
Nguyen Dynasty: (1802-1945), the last Vietnamese dynasty, which was founded and dominated by the powerful Nguyen family. The Nguyen family emerged into prominence in the 16th century, when Vietnam was under the Le dynasty (see Later Le dynasty).
Nguyen Huu Tho: chairman of the National Liberation Front (NLF), the South Vietnamese political organization formed in 1960 in opposition to the U.S.-backed Saigon government.
Nguyen Khanh: military and political leader who participated in a successful coup d'etat against the South Vietnamese dictator, President Ngo Dinh Diem, in 1963 and served briefly as president of South Vietnam in 1964.
Nguyen Kim Dien, Philippe: Vietnamese prelate, archbishop of Hue and local leader of the Roman Catholic church who defied government efforts to control the church after Vietnam's reunification (1976).
Nguyen Tri Phuong: general dedicated to protecting Vietnam from European influence and military conquest by France. He was a conservative and a close adviser to the emperor Tu Duc (reigned 1847-83).
Nguyen Truong To: an early advocate of modernization and political reform in Vietnam who was among the first Vietnamese to travel abroad and to realize the adjustments his country needed in order to survive.
Nguyen Van Thieu: president of the Republic of Vietnam (South Vietnam) from 1967 until the republic fell to the forces of North Vietnam in 1975.
Nguyen Van Thinh: Vietnamese statesman who in 1946 served briefly as president of a French-controlled government of Cochinchina (southern Vietnam).
Nha Trang: port city, southeastern Vietnam. The city lies at the mouth of the Cai River, 256 miles (412 km) northeast of Ho Chi Minh City (formerly Saigon). Its history is known as far back as the 3rd century AD, when, as ...
Ni Zan: one of the group of Chinese painters later known as the Four Masters of the Yuan dynasty (1206-1368).
Ni-o: in Japanese Buddhist mythology, protector of the Buddhist faith, who makes a dual appearance as the guardian on either side of temple gateways. The guardian on the right side is called Kongo ("Thunderbolt"), or Kongo-rikishi; he holds a thunderbolt, with ...
niacin: water-soluble vitamin of the B complex. It is also called the pellagra-preventive vitamin because an adequate amount in the diet prevents pellagra, a chronic disease characterized by skin lesions, gastrointestinal disturbance, and nervous symptoms. Niacin is interchangeable in metabolism with ...
Niagara: county, northwestern New York state, U.S. It consists of a lowland region bounded to the north by Lake Ontario, to the west by Ontario, Can. (the Niagara River constituting the border), and to the south by Tonawanda Creek, which is ...
Niagara Escarpment: ridge in North America that extends (with breaks) for more than 650 miles (1,050 km) from southeastern Wisconsin north to the Door Peninsula in the eastern part of the state, through the Manitoulin Islands of Ontario in northern Lake Huron, ...
Niagara Falls: cataract on the Niagara River in northeastern North America, one of the continent's most famous spectacles. The falls lie on the border between Ontario, Can., and New York state, U.S. For many decades the falls were an attraction for honeymooners ...
Niagara Falls: city, regional municipality of Niagara, southeastern Ontario, Canada. It lies on the west bank of the Niagara River, opposite Niagara Falls, N.Y. Development of the city, which was named Elgin in 1853, began with the completion in 1855 of the ...
Niagara Falls: city and port, Niagara county, western New York, U.S. It lies at the great falls of the Niagara River, opposite the city of Niagara Falls, Ontario, and about 8 miles (15 km) northwest of Buffalo. The British built Fort Schlosser ...
Niagara Frontier: recreation and heavy-industrial area in western New York, U.S., extending mainly along the Niagara River between Lakes Ontario and Erie and lying principally in the counties of Erie and Niagara. The recreational area sometimes includes the Canadian side of the ...
Niagara Movement: (1905-10), organization of black intellectuals led by W.E.B. Du Bois and calling for full political, civil, and social rights for black Americans. This stance stood in notable contrast to the accommodation philosophy proposed by Booker T. Washington in the Atlanta ...
Niagara River: river that is the drainage outlet for the four upper Great Lakes (Superior, Michigan, Huron, and Erie), having an aggregate basin area of some 260,000 square miles (673,000 square km). Flowing in a northerly direction from Lake Erie to Lake ...
Niagara-on-the-Lake: town, regional municipality of Niagara, southeastern Ontario, Canada. It lies on the southern shore of Lake Ontario, at the mouth of the Niagara River, 22 miles (35 km) below the falls. The town was established in 1792, when it was ...
Niagaran Series: second of the three major divisions of Silurian rocks and time (438 to 408 million years ago) in North America. It was named for exposures studied in Niagara county, N.Y. The characteristic exposures for the series are found in the ...
Niah Cave: site of significant archaeological evidence concerning prehistoric man's existence in Southeast Asia, located on the island of Borneo, East Malaysia, 10 miles (16 km) inland from the South China Sea. The Niah Cave provides examples of early Pleistocene man's habitat ...
Niamey: city, capital of Niger. Located along the Niger River in the southwest corner of the republic, it originated as an agricultural village of Maouri, Zarma (Zerma, Djerma), and Fulani people. It was established as the capital of Niger colony in ...
Niane, Djibril Tamsir: African historian, playwright, and short-story writer.
Niani: village, northeastern Guinea. It lies on the left bank of the Sankarani River (a tributary of the Niger). A former administrative centre of Kangaba (a small state subservient to the old Ghana empire), it was named the capital of the ...
Niantic: Algonquian-speaking woodland Indians of southern New England. The Eastern Niantic lived on the western coast of what is now Rhode Island and on the neighbouring coast of Connecticut. The Western Niantic lived on the seacoast from Niantic Bay, just west ...
Niarchos, Stavros Spyros: Greek shipping magnate and art collector.
Niari River: tributary of the Kouilou River in southern Congo (Brazzaville). Its headwaters rise in the Bateke Plateau northwest of Brazzaville. It runs south to Galobondo, west to Loudima, and northwest to Makabana, where it joins the Louesse River to form the ...
Nias: island, Sumatera Utara propinsi (province), Indonesia. The largest island in a chain paralleling the west coast of Sumatra, Nias has a topography much like that of western Sumatra but without volcanoes. The highest elevation is 2,907 feet ...