Encyclopædia Britannica Australia -

Encyclopedias since 1768

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U Geminorum star ... Ufa

U Geminorum star: any of a class of irregular variable stars that display sudden increases in brightness so great that they are sometimes called dwarf novae. Some have been observed to brighten by as much as 5 magnitudes (100 times) in a period ...
U Thong style: one of the canonical styles for Buddha icons developed in Thailand (Siam) in the southern capital of Ayutthaya, beginning in the 14th century. To retain the greatest spiritual potency, Buddha icons in Thai temples had to resemble as closely as ...
U-2: single-seat, U.S. high-altitude jet reconnaissance and research aircraft. A prototype flew in 1955. On May 1, 1960, a U-2 was shot down over the Soviet Union (see U-2 Affair), and in 1962 a U-2 took photographs that confirmed the presence ...
U-2 Affair: (1960), confrontation between the United States and the Soviet Union that began with the shooting down of a U.S. U-2 reconnaissance plane over the Soviet Union and that caused the collapse of a summit conference in Paris between the United ...
U-boat: ("undersea boat"), a German submarine. The destruction of enemy shipping by German U-boats was a spectacular feature of both World Wars I and II.
U.S. News & World Report: weekly news magazine published in Washington, D.C., one of the most influential of its kind and the first to successfully imitate the general format pioneered by Time. It was established in 1933 by David Lawrence as U.S. News and won ...
U2: Irish postpunk band that by the end of the 1980s had established itself not only as one of the world's most popular bands but also as one of the most innovative. The members are Bono (byname of Paul Hewson; b. ...
uakari: any of several types of short-tailed South American monkeys with shaggy fur, humanlike ears, and distinctive bald faces that become flushed when the animal is excited. In two of the three colour forms, the face is bright red. Uakaris are ...
Uaxactun: ruined ancient Mayan city of the southern lowlands, located in what is now north-central Guatemala, about 12 miles (20 km) north of the ancient Mayan city of Tikal. Uaxactun was a ceremonial centre of only modest size, compared with Tikal, ...
Ubangi River: largest right-bank tributary of the Congo River, marking the border between Congo (Kinshasa) and Congo (Brazzaville). The Ubangi is formed by the union (near Yakoma, Congo [Kinshasa], on the border of the Central African Republic) of the Bomu and Uele ...
Ubayd, Tall al-: ancient site that gave its name to a prehistoric cultural period, the Ubaid, in Mesopotamia; it is located near the ruins of ancient Ur in present-day southeastern Iraq. Excavations have uncovered Ubaidian remains throughout southern Mesopotamia. The hallmark of the ...
Ubayyid, al-: town, central Sudan. It lies on a sandy, scrub-covered plateau at an elevation of 1,869 feet (570 m). Founded by the Egyptians in 1821, the town was captured and largely destroyed by the Mahdist forces in 1882, but it was ...
Ube: city, Yamaguchi ken (prefecture), Honshu, Japan, on the Inland Sea. Coal was mined in the area in the late 17th century, but Ube remained a small village until undersea mining operations began in the Meiji period (1868-1912). It then developed ...
Ubeda: city, Jaen province, in the comunidad autonoma ("autonomous community") of Andalusia, southern Spain. Ubeda lies northeast of the city of Jaen, on the Ubeda Hills in the Guadalimar Valley. Originally an Iberian settlement, the city was occupied ...
Uber Cup: trophy representing the women's world championship in the sport of badminton. The cup was contributed by Mrs. H.S. Uber, former English champion, in 1956 for a series of women's international team competitions to be held every three years.
Uberaba: city, western Minas Gerais estado (state), southern Brazil. It is located in the highlands at 2,575 feet (785 metres) above sea level, on the Uberaba River. Uberaba was given city status in 1856. It is the trade ...
Uberlandia: city, western Minas Gerais estado (state), southern Brazil. It lies along the Bom Jardim River, which is a tributary of the Araguari River (also known as the Velhas River), at 2,802 feet (854 metres) above sea level. ...
Uberti, Farinata degli: Florentine nobleman who became the leader of the Florentine Ghibellines, the proimperial party. According to Dante (Inferno, canto X), Uberti alone dissuaded the members of the Ghibelline coalition from razing the city of Florence, which they had just captured.
ubi sunt: a verse form in which the poem or its stanzas begin with the Latin words ubi sunt ("where are &elipsis;") or their equivalent in another language and which has as a principal theme the transitory nature of all things. A ...
Ubico, Jorge: soldier and dictator who ruled Guatemala for 13 years (1931-44).
ubiquinone: any of several members of a series of organic compounds belonging to a class called quinones. Widely distributed in plants, animals, and microorganisms, ubiquinones function in conjunction with enzymes in cellular respiration (i.e., oxidation-reduction processes). The naturally occurring ubiquinones differ ...
Ubon Ratchathani: town, eastern Thailand, on the Khorat Plateau. It lies near the confluence of the Mun and Chi Rivers and is a major trading centre for rice, cattle, and tobacco. A road leads east to Pakxe (Laos) on the Mekong River.
UBS AG: major bank formed in 1998 by the merger of two of Switzerland's largest banks, the Swiss Bank Corporation and the Union Bank of Switzerland.
UBV system: system of classifying stars by spectral type, based on photometric measurements of the ultraviolet (U), blue (B), and visual (V [yellow]) magnitudes. It was introduced in the early 1950s by the American astronomers Harold Lester Johnson and William Wilson Morgan ...
Ucayali: departamento of eastern Peru (until 1980 part of Loreto department) spanning the upper and middle sections of the meandering Ucayali River, a principal tributary of the Amazon. Formerly a very isolated area of Peru, Ucayali department experienced rapid population growth ...
Ucayali River: headwater of the Amazon, formed by the junction of the Apurimac and Urubamba rivers in east-central Peru. The Ucayali meanders northward from this junction for about 910 miles (1,465 km) through a densely forested floodplain east of the Andes to ...
Uccello, Paolo: Florentine painter whose work attempted uniquely to reconcile two distinct artistic styles-the essentially decorative late Gothic and the new heroic style of the early Renaissance. Probably his most famous paintings are three panels representing "The Battle of San Romano" (c. ...
Uccle: municipality, Brussels region, central Belgium. It lies just south of Brussels and is one of the 19 communes that make up Greater Brussels. Formerly a separate town dating back to the 12th century, it is now a primarily residential suburb ...
Uchimura Kanzo: Japanese Christian who was an important formative influence on many writers and intellectual leaders of modern Japan.
Ucicky, Gustav: Austrian film director known for historical and nationalistic German films done during Adolf Hitler's rise to power.
ud: stringed musical instrument prominent in medieval and modern Islamic music. It was the parent of the European lute. The 'ud has a deep, pear-shaped body; a fretless fingerboard; and a relatively shorter neck and somewhat less acutely bent-back pegbox than ...
Uda: 59th emperor of Japan, from 887 to 897.
Udaipur: city, southern Rajasthan state, northwestern India. It lies in the hills of the Aravali Range. Udaipur ("City of Sunrise") was made the capital of the princely state of Udaipur in 1568 by Maharana Udai Singh after the sack of Chittaurgarh. ...
Udall, Nicholas: English playwright, translator, and schoolmaster who wrote the first known English comedy, Ralph Roister Doister.
Udasi: sect within Sikhism, a religion of India. The Udasi (from the Sanskrit udas, "to renounce") sect, which requires celibacy and asceticism of its members, originated with the followers of Siri Chand, the son of the first Sikh guru (religious teacher ...
Udayagiri: village and archaeological site, south-central Orissa state, eastern India. In the village are located several Jaina and Buddhist rock-cut caves. One of these is a double-storied cave with ranges of cells cut into three sides of an open courtyard. Inscriptions ...
Udayanacarya: Hindu logician who attempted to reconcile the views held by the two major schools of logic out of which developed the Navya Nyaya ("New Nyaya") school of "right" reasoning, which is still recognized and followed in some regions of India.
Uddevalla: town, Vastra Gotaland lan (county), southwestern Sweden. It lies along the Bave River, at the head of By Fjord (an inlet of the Skagerrak), north of Goteborg. The site has been identified with Odensvold, a pagan place of sacrifice. The ...
Udhagamandalam: town, western Tamil Nadu state, southern India. It is situated in the Nilgiri Hills at about 7,500 feet (2,300 metres) above sea level, sheltered by several peaks, including Doda Betta (8,652 feet [2,637 metres]), the highest point in Tamil Nadu. ...
Udhampur: town in Indian-administered Jammu and Kashmir state, situated at an elevation of 2,500 feet (760 m). It is named for Udham Singh, eldest son of Gulab Singh, the founder and ruler of the Jammu and Kashmir state. Situated on the ...
Udi-Nsukka Plateau: pair of plateaus in south-central Nigeria that form a nearly continuous elevated area. The Nsukka Plateau, which forms the main eastward-facing escarpment, extends about 80 miles (130 km) from Nsukka in the north to Enugu in the south. The Udi ...
Udine: city, capital of Udine provincia, Friuli-Venezia Giulia regione, northeastern Italy. It lies northwest of Trieste, near the border with Slovenia. Possibly the site of a Roman frontier station called Utina, the city was the seat of the Roman Catholic patriarchate ...
Udmurtiya: republic in west-central Russia. It lies partly in the basin of the middle Kama River, which flows along part of its southeastern boundary. The larger part of Udmurtiya lies in the drainage area of the Cheptsa and Kilmez rivers, which ...
Udon Thani: town, northeastern Thailand, near the northern (Laotian) border. Udon Thani is the major town of the northern Khorat Plateau and is served by road, rail, and air. The surrounding area produces rice, livestock, timber, and freshwater fish. Pop. (1986 est.) ...
Ueda: city, Nagano ken (prefecture), Honshu, Japan. It lies along the Chikuma River. Ueda was a castle town during the Tokugawa period (1603-1867) and later became a centre of silk manufacturing and the site of the Sericultural Professional School. The city's ...
Ueda Akinari: preeminent writer and poet of late 18th-century Japan, best known for his tales of the supernatural.
Ueno: city, Mie ken (prefecture), Honshu, Japan. It lies in an intermontane basin at the head of the Kii Peninsula. The city developed around a castle built in 1611 and still retains some of its early character. Hakuho Park is on ...
Ueno Zoological Gardens: oldest and most famous zoological garden in Japan. It was founded in 1882, and its administration was transferred to the Tokyo city government in 1924. Occupying a 32-acre (13-hectare) site in the Ueno district of Tokyo, it is landscaped in ...
Uesugi Family: one of the most important warrior clans in Japan from early in the 15th century until the last half of the 19th.
Uesugi Kenshin: one of the most powerful military figures in 16th-century Japan.
Ufa: city and capital, Bashkortostan republic, western Russia. It lies along the Belaya (White) River just below its confluence with the Ufa River. A defensive site in a loop formed by the two rivers led to the foundation there of a ...