Encyclopædia Britannica Australia -

Encyclopedias since 1768

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north polar sequence ... Northern

north polar sequence: group of 96 stars near the north celestial pole, used from about 1900 to 1950 as standards of magnitude and colour by which other stars are measured. First proposed by the American astronomer Edward Charles Pickering, the system has been ...
North Pole: northern end of the Earth's axis, lying in the Arctic Ocean, about 450 miles (725 km) north of Greenland. This geographic North Pole does not coincide with the magnetic North Pole-to which magnetic compasses point and which in the early ...
North Rhine-Westphalia: constituent Land (state) of western Germany. It is bordered by The Netherlands and Belgium (west) and by the Lander (states) of Lower Saxony (north), Hesse (east), and Rhineland-Palatinate (south). North Rhine-Westphalia plays a leading role in the national economy. The ...
North Sea: shallow, northeastern arm of the Atlantic Ocean located between the British Isles and the mainland of northwestern Europe and covering an area of 220,000 square miles (570,000 square kilometres). The sea is bordered by the island of Great Britain to ...
North Sea Canal: waterway in The Netherlands that extends in an east-west direction from Amsterdam to IJmuiden on the North Sea coast. Navigable by oceangoing vessels, the canal is 15 miles (24 km) long, 49 feet (15 m) deep, and 771 feet (235 ...
North Semitic alphabet: the earliest fully developed alphabetic writing system. It was used in Syria as early as the 11th century BC and is probably ancestral, either directly or indirectly, to all subsequent alphabetic scripts, with the possible exception of those scripts classified ...
North Shore: city in the Northern Auckland urban area, northern North Island, New Zealand. It is located on a peninsula about 2 miles (3 km) north of Auckland city across Stanley Bay, and it faces Rangitoto Channel to the east. North Shore ...
North Shropshire: district, administrative county of Shropshire, west-central England. Nearly all of North Shropshire lies within the historic county of Shropshire, except for a small area south of Market Drayton, which lies in the historic county of Staffordshire. The border with Wales ...
North Siberian Lowland: low-lying region, east-central Russia. It is situated between the lower Yenisey River in the west and the lower Kolyma River in the east. To the south lies the Central Siberian Plateau, to the north the Byrranga Mountains of the Taymyr ...
North Somerset: unitary authority, geographic and historic county of Somerset, southwestern England. It lies along the Bristol Channel west of the city of Bristol. The unitary authority is a low-lying area of high limestone plateaus descending from 500 feet (150 metres) toward ...
North Texas, University of: public, coeducational institution of higher learning in Denton, Texas, U.S. It comprises colleges of arts and sciences, business administration, education, and music; the Robert B. Toulouse School of Graduate Studies; and schools of community service, library and information sciences, merchandising ...
North Tyneside: metropolitan borough, metropolitan county of Tyne and Wear, historic county of Northumberland, northeastern England. The borough lies just east of the city of Newcastle upon Tyne and is bordered by the River Tyne to the south and the North Sea ...
North Uist: island of the Outer Hebrides, Western Isles council area, historic county of Inverness-shire, Scotland, lying off the northwest coast of the Scottish mainland. North Uist measures 17 miles (27 km) long from north to south and 13 miles (21 km) ...
North Vancouver: city, southwestern British Columbia, Can. It lies along Burrard Inlet of the Strait of Georgia and is linked to Vancouver by the Lions Gate and Second Narrows bridges. The community, founded shortly after a sawmill was built on the site ...
North Warwickshire: borough (district), administrative and historic county of Warwickshire, central England. It is a largely rural borough adjoining the West Midlands metropolitan county northeast of Birmingham and northwest of Coventry. Central North Warwickshire occupies a 500-foot- (150-metre-) high upland, which is ...
North West Company: Canadian fur-trading company, once the chief rival of the powerful Hudson's Bay Company. The company was founded in 1783 and enjoyed a rapid growth. It originally confined its operations to the Lake Superior region and the valleys of the Red, ...
North West Leicestershire: district, administrative and historic county of Leicestershire, south-central England, incorporating one of the oldest (13th century) coal-mining areas in Great Britain. It is essentially an upland area of undulating meadows, but some cultivation of crops occurs in the southwest and ...
North Wiltshire: district, administrative and historic county of Wiltshire, southern England, located in the northwestern part of the county some 20 miles (32 km) east of Bristol. North Wiltshire bestrides the upper reaches of the Avon river valley. It is a fertile ...
North York: former city (1979-98), southeastern Ontario, Canada. In 1998 it amalgamated with the cities of Toronto, Scarborough, York, and Etobicoke and the borough of East York to become the City of Toronto. North York Township (created in 1922 from York Township) ...
North Yorkshire: administrative and geographic county in northern England, part of the historic county of Yorkshire. The administrative county of North Yorkshire comprises seven districts: Craven, Hambleton, Richmondshire, Ryedale, Selby, and the boroughs of Harrogate and Scarborough. The geographic county comprises the ...
North, Douglass C.: American economist, recipient, with Robert W. Fogel, of the 1993 Nobel Prize for Economics. The two were recognized for their pioneering work in cliometrics-also called "new economic history"-the application of economic theory and statistical methods to the study of history.
North, Frederick North, Lord: prime minister from 1770 to 1782, whose vacillating leadership contributed to the loss of Great Britain's American colonies in the American Revolution (1775-83).
North, Roger: English lawyer, historian, and biographer, known primarily for his biographies of three of his brothers, Francis, Dudley, and John, and for his own autobiography.
North, Simeon: American pistol and rifle manufacturer who, about the same time that the American inventor Eli Whitney was doing so, developed the use of interchangeable parts in manufacturing.
North, Sir Dudley: English merchant, civil servant, and economist, an early advocate of what later came to be called laissez-faire.
North, Sir Thomas: English translator whose version of Plutarch's Bioi paralleloi (Parallel Lives) was the source for many of William Shakespeare's plays.
North, the: region, northern United States, historically identified as the free states that opposed slavery and the Confederacy during the American Civil War. This struggle against slavery and secession obscured the reality that the North was actually four separate and not so ...
North-West: province, north-central South Africa. It was created in 1994 from portions of Transvaal and Cape of Good Hope provinces. North-West is bordered by Botswana to the north and northwest, Northern province to the northeast, Gauteng province to the east, Free ...
North-West Frontier Province: northernmost province of Pakistan. It is bounded by Afghanistan to the west and north, Azad Kashmir and the Northern Areas (the Pakistani-administered areas of the Kashmir region) to the east and northeast, Punjab province to the southeast, and Balochistan province ...
Northam: town, southwestern Western Australia. It lies at the confluence of the Avon (upper course of the Swan) and Mortlock rivers. One of the state's oldest settlements, it was founded in 1833 and named by Governor Sir James Stirling after Northam ...
Northampton: town and borough (district), administrative and historic county of Northamptonshire, in the Midlands region of England. Originating around 1100 as a walled town with a castle on the River Nene, Northampton was granted its first charter in 1189. The town ...
Northampton: county, eastern Pennsylvania, U.S., bounded by Blue Mountain to the northwest, New Jersey to the east (the Delaware River constituting the border), and the Lehigh River to the southwest. The hilly terrain rises to Blue Mountain, along which runs the ...
Northampton: city, seat (1662) of Hampshire county, west-central Massachusetts, U.S. It lies along the Connecticut River, 17 miles (27 km) north-northwest of Springfield. The site, originally known as Nonotuck (an Algonquian word meaning "middle of the river"), was settled in 1654 ...
Northampton, Assize of: (1176), group of ordinances agreed upon by King Henry II of England and the magnates in council at Northampton. The ordinances were issued as instructions to six committees of three judges each, who were to visit the six circuits into ...
Northampton, Henry Howard, Earl of, Baron Of Marnhull: Roman Catholic intriguer during the reigns of Elizabeth I and James I of England, known for his unscrupulousness and treachery.
Northampton, Spencer Compton, 2nd earl of, Lord Compton: Royalist commander during the English Civil Wars.
Northampton, William Parr, Marquess of, Earl Of Essex, Baron Parr: brother of Henry VIII's queen Catherine Parr, and Protestant supporter of Lady Jane Grey and Queen Elizabeth I.
Northamptonshire: administrative and historic county of the East Midlands region in England. The administrative county comprises seven districts: Daventry, East Northamptonshire, South Northamptonshire, and the boroughs of Corby, Kettering, Northampton, and Wellingborough. The historic county encompasses the entire administrative county, as ...
Northbrook, Thomas George Baring, 1st earl of, Viscount Baring Of Lee, Baron Northbrook Of Stratton: British statesman who served as viceroy of India.
Northcliffe, Alfred Charles William Harmsworth, Viscount: one of the most successful newspaper publishers in the history of the British press and a founder of popular modern journalism.
Northcote, Henry Stafford Northcote, Baron: British diplomat and administrator, governor-general of Australia from 1904 to 1908.
Northcote, James: English portraitist and historical painter.
Northcote, Sir John, 1st Baronet: English politician during the English Civil Wars and Commonwealth.
Northcote, Sir Stafford Henry, 8th Baronet: British statesman and a leader of the Conservative Party who helped to shape national financial policy.
Northeast Passage: maritime route along the northern coast of the Eurasian landmass, lying mainly off northern Russian Siberia. Early explorers of the area included Willem Barents and Olivier Brunel. Under the auspices of the Russian tsar Peter I the Great, Semyon Dezhnyov ...
Northeast Svalbard Nature Reservation: nature reserve established in 1973 by Norway in the Svalbard archipelago in the Arctic Ocean. With an area of 7,350 square miles (19,030 square km) and an average elevation of 2,740 feet (835 m), the reserve comprises all of North ...
Northeastern school: group of 20th-century Brazilian regional writers whose fiction dealt primarily with the culture and social problems of Brazil's hinterland Northeast. Stimulated by the Modernist-led revival of nationalism of the 1920s, the regionalists looked to the diverse ethnic and racial cultures ...
Northeastern State University: public, coeducational institution of higher learning in Tahlequah, Oklahoma, U.S. It comprises six colleges covering arts and letters; business and industry; social and behavioral sciences; education; mathematics, science, and nursing; and optometry. In addition to undergraduate studies, the university's Graduate ...
Northeastern University: private, coeducational institution of higher learning in Boston, Massachusetts, U.S. It comprises the School of Engineering Technology, the Bouve College of Pharmacy and Health Sciences, and Colleges of Arts and Sciences, Business Administration, Computer Science, Criminal Justice, Engineering, and Nursing. ...
Northeim: town, Lower Saxony Land (state), north-central Germany. It lies on the Leine River, 12 miles (19 km) north of Gottingen, and is served by two autobahn access roads and a rail junction. The site dates from the 9th century. It ...
Northern: province, northeastern South Africa. The northernmost South African province, it is bordered by Zimbabwe on the north; Mozambique on the east; the provinces of Mpumalanga, Gauteng, and North-West on the south; and Botswana on the west and northwest. Northern was ...