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Encyclopedias since 1768

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Nizhyn ... Nodosaurus

Nizhyn: city, Chernihiv oblast (province), north-central Ukraine. Nizhyn dates from the 11th century and was incorporated in 1781. It contains several buildings from the 17th and 18th centuries, including the cathedrals of St. Nicholas and of the Annunciation. A minor industrial ...
Nizip, Battle of: (June 24, 1839), battle between forces of the Ottoman Empire and those of Muhammad 'Ali, viceroy of Egypt, at Nizip (now in southeastern Turkey), in which the Ottomans were defeated. Their empire was spared only by the intervention of Great ...
Njals saga: one of the longest and generally considered the finest of the 13th-century Icelanders' sagas. It presents the most comprehensive picture of Icelandic life in the heroic age and has a wide range of complex characters. The work has two heroes-Gunnar ...
Njord: in Norse mythology, the god of the wind and of the sea and its riches. His aid was invoked in seafaring and in hunting, and he was considered the god of "wealth-bestowal," or prosperity. He was the father of Freyr ...
Nkayi: town (commune), southwestern Congo. It lies west of the capital, Brazzaville, and northeast of the port of Pointe-Noire, on the Brazzaville-Pointe-Noire railway; its airport has scheduled flights to both cities. Nkayi is the major sugar-producing centre in the Niari River ...
Nkhotakota: town, central Malawi. It lies on the shores of Lake Nyasa (Lake Malawi). It originated as a group of villages in the 19th century, served as a depot for Arab slave traders, and became the largest traditional African town in ...
NKK Corporation: major Japanese industrial company and one of the country's largest steelmakers. Headquarters are in Tokyo.
Nkole: a people of the Interlacustrine Bantu-speaking group who occupy the area of southwestern Uganda between Lakes Edward and George and the Tanzania border.
Nkomo, Joshua: black nationalist in Zimbabwe (formerly Rhodesia), who, as leader of the Zimbabwe African People's Union (ZAPU), was Prime Minister Robert Mugabe's longtime rival.
Nkongsamba: town, western Cameroon. Nkongsamba lies at the foot of Mount Manengouba (7,861 feet [2,396 m]). It is the terminus of the railway from Douala and has road connections to Bamenda (north), Bafoussam (northeast), and Buea (southwest). Large palm-oil, banana, and ...
Nkosi, Lewis: South African author, critic, journalist, and broadcaster.
Nkrumah, Kwame: Ghanaian nationalist leader who led the Gold Coast's drive for independence from Britain and presided over its emergence as the new nation of Ghana. He headed the country from independence in 1957 until he was overthrown by a coup in ...
NKVD: Soviet secret police agency, a forerunner of the KGB (q.v.).
Nmai Hka: river in northern Myanmar (Burma). It rises in the Languela glacier and flows generally south, joining the Mali River to form the Irrawaddy River. The Nmai, which is virtually unnavigable because of the strong current, is about 300 miles (480 ...
Noah: the hero of the biblical Flood story in the Old Testament book of Genesis, the originator of vineyard cultivation, and, as the father of Shem, Ham, and Japheth, the representative head of a Semitic genealogical line. A synthesis of at ...
Noahide Laws: a Jewish Talmudic designation for seven biblical laws given to Adam and to Noah before the revelation to Moses on Mt. Sinai and consequently binding on all mankind.
Noailles, Adrien-Maurice, 3e duc de: the third duc de Noailles, son of Anne-Jules of Noailles; he served in all the most important wars of the reign of Louis XV in Italy and Germany and became a marshal in 1734. His last command was in the ...
Noailles, Anna de: poet, a leading literary figure in France in the pre-World War I period.
Noailles, Anne, 1er duc de: count of Noailles (grandson of the first count, Antoine of Noailles) who was created the first duc de Noailles and a peer of France in 1663. He had played an important part in the Fronde and had become a protege ...
Noailles, Anne-Jules, 2e duc de: duke of Noailles, marshal of France, son of Anne of Noailles, the first duke. He was made field marshal at the age of 23 and was named lieutenant general and commander in chief of Languedoc in 1682. By then he ...
Noailles, Jean-Paul-Francois, 5e duc de: son of Louis of Noailles, lieutenant general, and member of the French Academie des Sciences. Though he served in the army, his tastes were scientific, and for his eminence as a chemist he was elected to the Academie des Sciences ...
Noailles, Louis, 4e duc de: duc d'Ayen until the death of his father (Adrien-Maurice) in 1766, when he became the duc de Noailles. He served in most of the wars of the 18th century without particular distinction but was nevertheless made a marshal of France, ...
Noailles, Louis-Antoine de: cardinal and archbishop of Paris, who, with his brother, the second duc de Noailles, made the name Noailles one of the most honoured in France.
Noailles, Louis-Marie, vicomte de: second son of the marshal of Mouchy and one of the most distinguished members of the Noailles family in France.
Noakhali: port city, southern Bangladesh, on the Noakhali Watercourse near the Meghna Estuary as it empties into the Bay of Bengal. The port is connected by road and rail with Comilla and by steamer with Barisal. Industries include cotton weaving. Formerly ...
Noami: Japanese poet, painter, and art critic, the first nonpriest who painted in the suiboku ("water-ink"), or Chinese, style.
Noatak National Preserve: national preserve in Alaska, U.S., adjoining Gates of the Arctic National Park to the east and Kobuk Valley National Park to the south. Proclaimed a national monument in 1978, the area underwent boundary and name changes in 1980. The entire ...
Nobel Foundation: private institution founded in 1900 to coordinate the various provisions of the will of Alfred Nobel, in which he set aside funds to establish the Nobel Prizes. The foundation administers these funds. The foundation's representative body, the Board, is headquartered ...
Nobel Prize: any of the prizes (five in number until 1969, when a sixth was added) that are awarded annually from a fund bequeathed for that purpose by the Swedish inventor and industrialist Alfred Bernhard Nobel. The Nobel Prizes are widely regarded ...
Nobel's will: The following is the relevant portion of Alfred Nobel's will establishing the Nobel Prizes:The whole of my remaining realizable estate shall be dealt with in the following way:The capital shall be invested by my executors in safe securities and shall ...
Nobel, Alfred Bernhard: Swedish chemist, engineer, and industrialist who invented dynamite and other, more powerful explosives and who also founded the Nobel Prizes.
nobelium: synthetic chemical element of the actinide series in Group IIIb of the periodic table, atomic number 102. Not occurring in nature, nobelium (as the isotope nobelium-254) was discovered (April 1958) by Albert Ghiorso, T. Sikkeland, J.R. Walton, and Glenn T. ...
Nobeoka: city, Miyazaki ken (prefecture), Kyushu, Japan, on the delta of the Gokase River (Gokase-gawa). It developed as a castle town in the 12th century and has been a fishing port since the mid-18th century. Nobeoka is now the largest industrial ...
Nobile, Umberto: Italian aeronautical engineer and pioneer in Arctic aviation who in 1926, with the Norwegian explorer Roald Amundsen and Lincoln Ellsworth of the United States flew over the North Pole in the dirigible Norge, from Spitsbergen (now Svalbard), north of Norway, ...
noble gas: any of the six chemical elements that make up Group O of the periodic table (see ). The elements are helium (He), neon (Ne), argon (Ar), krypton (Kr), xenon (Xe), and radon (Rn). Under ordinary conditions they are colourless, odourless, ...
noble metal: any of several metallic chemical elements that have outstanding resistance to oxidation, even at high temperatures; the grouping is not strictly defined but usually is considered to include rhenium, ruthenium, rhodium, palladium, silver, osmium, iridium, platinum, and gold; i.e., the ...
noble savage: in literature, an idealized concept of uncivilized man, who symbolizes the innate goodness of one not exposed to the corrupting influences of civilization.
Noble, Sir Andrew, 1st Baronet: Scottish physicist and gunnery expert, considered a founder of the science of ballistics. His pioneering research on fired gunpowder, often in conjunction with the British chemist Frederick Abel, contributed greatly to the progress of gunnery.
noblesse de robe: (French: "Nobility of the Robe"), in 17th- and 18th-century France, a class of hereditary nobles who acquired their rank through holding a high state office. Their name was derived from the robes worn by officials. The class was already in ...
Noboribetsu: city, Hokkaido, Japan, on the Pacific coast of southwestern Hokkaido, northeast of Muroran. Since the discovery of hot springs during the late Tokugawa era (1603-1867), the city has been one of the most visited hot-spring resorts in Japan. After World ...
Nobre, Antonio: Portuguese poet whose verse marked a departure from objective realism and social commitment to subjective lyricism and an aesthetic point of view.
Nobrega, Manuel da: founder of the Jesuit mission of Brazil and leader of the order's activities there from 1549 to 1570.
nocardiosis: chronic systemic bacterial disease of humans and many other animals originating in the respiratory tract and disseminated by way of the blood to other organs, especially the brain. It is caused either by introduction into the skin or by inhalation ...
Nocera Inferiore: town and episcopal see, Salerno provincia, Campania regione, southern Italy, in the Sarno River valley, northwest of Salerno. It originated as the Oscan and Roman town of Nuceria Alfaterna, which was sacked by the Carthaginian general Hannibal in 216 BC ...
noctilucent cloud: rare cloud form, probably composed of ice crystals and meteoric dust, that occurs at a higher altitude than any other cloud form (about 82 km [50 miles]). It is silvery or bluish white and is visible only on summer nights ...
noctule: any of about six species of vesper bats (family Vespertilionidae) found in Europe and Asia. Noctules are golden to yellowish or dark brown, with a paler underside. They are 5-10 cm (2-4 inches) long without the 3.5-6.5-cm (1.4-2.6-inch) tail. They ...
nocturne: (French: "Nocturnal"), in music, a composition inspired by, or evocative of, the night, and cultivated in the 19th century primarily as a character piece for piano. The form originated with the Irish composer John Field, who published the first set ...
Noda: city, northwestern Chiba ken (prefecture), east-central Honshu, Japan, between the Edo and the Tone rivers. The city served as an important river port during the Edo (Tokugawa) era (1603-1867), when it first became known for its production ...
node: in astronomy, the intersection of the orbit plane of some celestial body, such as the Moon, a planet, or comet, with the plane of the ecliptic (the apparent path of the Sun among the stars) as projected on the celestial ...
Nodier, Charles: writer more important for the influence he had on the French Romantic movement than for his own writings.
Nodosaurus: armoured dinosaurs found as fossils in North America dating from 95 million to 90 million years ago during the Late Cretaceous Period. A heavy animal about 5.5 metres (18 feet) long, Nodosaurus had a long tail but ...