• Nijntje (children’s book by Bruna)

    Dick Bruna: …in a book simply entitled Nijntje. Miffy was drawn in simple black outlines with two dots for eyes and a sideways X for a mouth; subtle variations conveyed Miffy’s emotional state as she experienced the sorts of adventures that many toddlers would find familiar. Each of Bruna’s books consisted of…

  • Nijō Castle (castle, Kyōto, Japan)

    Kyōto: The city layout: Nijō-jo, built by the Tokugawa shogunate, is a “token” castle, but it contains many cultural treasures; it is known for its “chirping floors” (to signal the approach of an intruder) and elaborate wall paintings of the Kanō school. The two foremost examples of traditional Japanese…

  • Nijo Yoshimoto (Japanese poet)

    Nijo Yoshimoto was a Japanese government official and renga (“linked-verse”) poet of the early Muromachi period (1338–1573) who is best known for refining the rules of renga composition. Yoshimoto’s father was kampaku (chief councillor) to the emperor Go-Daigo. Yoshimoto also served Go-Daigo, but

  • Nika (people)

    Nyika, any of several Northeast Bantu-speaking peoples including the Digo, who live along the coast of Kenya and Tanzania south from Mombasa to Pangani; the Giryama, who live north of Mombasa; and the Duruma, Jibana, Rabai, Ribe, Chonyi, Kaura, and Kambe, who live in the arid bush steppe (Swahili:

  • Nika insurrection (Byzantine history)

    Hagia Sophia: History: …was burned again in the Nika insurrection of January 532, a circumstance that gave Justinian I an opportunity to envision a splendid replacement.

  • Nika revolt (Byzantine history)

    Hagia Sophia: History: …was burned again in the Nika insurrection of January 532, a circumstance that gave Justinian I an opportunity to envision a splendid replacement.

  • Nika riots (Byzantine history)

    Hagia Sophia: History: …was burned again in the Nika insurrection of January 532, a circumstance that gave Justinian I an opportunity to envision a splendid replacement.

  • Nikandre of Naxos (Greek artist)

    epigraphy: Classical Greece: …verse, such as that by Nikandre of Naxos on a 7th-century-bce statue of Artemis at Delos, a kind of propitiatory offering to the maiden goddess on the occasion of marriage. Similar hexametric or elegiac texts are found as epitaphs, especially for those who perished in war or at sea.

  • nikau palm (plant)

    palm: Distribution: …Africa; the southernmost is the nikau palm (Rhopalostylis sapida), of New Zealand and the Chatham Islands. Although there are species with extensive ranges, especially in America, most are restricted in range, and those of islands, in particular, are frequently found nowhere else. One species, Maxburretia gracilis, is limited to a…

  • nikāya (Buddhism)

    nikāya, in Buddhism, any of the so-called “Eighteen Schools” of Indian sectarian Buddhism. After the second Buddhist council, at which time the Mahāsaṅghikas separated from the Sthaviravādins, a number of Buddhist “schools” or “sects” began to appear over the course of many years. Each of these

  • Nike (Greek goddess)

    Nike, in ancient Greek religion, the goddess of victory, daughter of the giant Pallas and of the infernal River Styx. Nike probably did not originally have a separate cult at Athens. As an attribute of both Athena, the goddess of wisdom, and the chief god, Zeus, Nike was represented in art as a

  • Nike (work by Paeonius)

    Paeonius: …for his statue of the Nike, or “Winged Victory” (c. 420 bc; Archaeological Museum, Olympia), which was found in Olympia in 1875. An inscription on its pedestal states that the statue commemorated a victory of the Messenians and the Naupactians over an unnamed enemy, probably the Spartans.

  • Nike Ajax (missile)

    Nike missile: …missile in the series was Nike Ajax, a two-stage, liquid-fueled missile 21 feet (6.4 metres) long built by the Douglas Aircraft Company. Guided by a radar system designed by Bell Laboratories, it could intercept aircraft flying as high as 70,000 feet (21,000 metres) within a range of 30 miles (50…

  • Nike Hercules (missile)

    Nike missile: In 1958 the larger Nike Hercules began to replace the Ajax. Its two-stage, solid-propellant engines could carry either a high-explosive or a nuclear warhead at more than three times the speed of sound to targets as high up as 150,000 feet (45,000 metres) and more than 75 miles (120…

  • Nike missile

    Nike missile, any of a series of U.S. surface-to-air missiles designed from the 1940s through the 1960s for defense against attack by high-flying jet bombers or ballistic-missile reentry vehicles. The first missile in the series was Nike Ajax, a two-stage, liquid-fueled missile 21 feet (6.4 metres)

  • Nike of Samothrace (sculpture)

    Western sculpture: Hellenistic period: These, like the well-known Winged Victory of Samothrace, are masterful displays of vigorous action and emotion—triumph, fury, despair—and the effect is achieved by exaggeration of anatomical detail and features and by a shrewd use of the rendering of hair and drapery to heighten the mood.

  • Nike Sprint (missile)

    Nike missile: …complementary endoatmospheric missile, known as Sprint, was intended to intercept ICBM reentry vehicles or lower-trajectory submarine-launched ballistic missiles within the atmosphere. The designation Nike X was abandoned in 1967 in favour of the designation Sentinel. Under this name the Spartan/Sprint combination was proposed as a defense against missile attacks on…

  • Nike Zeus (missile)

    Nike missile: …known as, among other designations, Nike Zeus, the first missile designed specifically to intercept intercontinental ballistic missiles (ICBMs). Nike Zeus evolved into Spartan, the exoatmospheric layer of a two-layer ABM system known at first as Nike X. Spartan, propelled by three solid-rocket stages and fitted with phased-array radar and a…

  • Nike, Inc. (American company)

    Nike, Inc., is one of the largest and best-recognized global sports and athleticwear brands. Its extensive lineup includes its long-running Air Jordan, Air Force 1, and other “Air” models. Converse shoes and apparel (including those bearing the iconic Chuck Taylor All Stars logo) have also been a

  • Nikephoros I (Byzantine emperor)

    Nicephorus I was a Byzantine emperor from 802 who late in his reign alienated his subjects with his extremely heavy taxation and frequent confiscations of property. Nicephorus became a high financial official under the empress Irene, and, when a revolution deposed Irene in 802, he was proclaimed

  • Nikephoros III Botaneiates (Byzantine emperor)

    Nicephorus III Botaneiates was a Byzantine emperor (1078–81) whose use of Turkish support in acquiring and holding the throne tightened the grip of the Seljuq Turks on Anatolia. Nicephorus, who belonged to the military aristocracy of Asia Minor and who was related to the powerful Phocas family,

  • Nikephoros Kallistos Xanthopoulos (Byzantine historian)

    Nicephorus Callistus Xanthopoulos was a Byzantine historian and litterateur whose stylistic prose and poetry exemplify the developing Byzantine humanism of the 13th and 14th centuries. His 23-volume Ecclesiasticae historiae (“Church History”), of which only the first 18 volumes survive, constitutes

  • Nikisch, Arthur (Hungarian conductor)

    Arthur Nikisch was one of the finest conductors of the late 19th century. After study in Vienna, in 1878 Nikisch was appointed choral coach at the Leipzig Opera, becoming principal conductor in 1879. From 1889 to 1893 he was conductor of the Boston Symphony Orchestra, then conducted the Gewandhaus

  • Nikita’s Childhood (work by Tolstoy)

    Aleksey Nikolayevich, Count Tolstoy: …finest works, Detstvo Nikity (1921; Nikita’s Childhood, 1945), a nostalgic, partly autobiographical study of a small boy’s life.

  • Nikitchenko, I. T. (Soviet general)

    Nürnberg trials: Nikitchenko, the Soviet member, took place on October 18, 1945, in Berlin. At this time, 24 former Nazi leaders were charged with the perpetration of war crimes, and various groups (such as the Gestapo, the Nazi secret police) were charged with being criminal in character.…

  • Nikitin Rog (Ukraine)

    Nikopol, city, south-central Ukraine. It lies along the northern shore of the Kakhovka Reservoir on the Dnieper River and on the Zaporizhzhya–Kryvyy Rih railway. Founded as Nikitin Rog (Ukrainian: Mykytyn Rih) in the 1630s at a strategic crossing of the river, it was renamed Nikopol in 1782. It has

  • Nikitin, Afanasy (Russian explorer and author)

    Russian literature: Works reflecting Muscovite power: …Beyond Three Seas”) a merchant, Afanasy Nikitin, describes his travels to India and Persia during 1466–72. However, what is most striking about this period is what did not take place: Russia experienced no Renaissance and became quite isolated from the West. With nothing resembling Western secular literature, philosophy, or science,…

  • Nikitsky Botanical Garden (garden, Crimea, Ukraine)

    Ukraine: Sports and recreation: …of Yalta is located the Nikitsky Botanical Garden, in which plants from almost every country in the world are found.

  • Nikkatsu Motion Picture Company (Japanese company)

    Nikkatsu Motion Picture Company, Japan’s oldest motion-picture company. Established as an independent company in 1912 with the title Japan Cinematograph Company, it had previously been a part of the Greater Japan Film Machinery Manufacturing Company, Ltd., an attempted monopoly of the industry

  • Nikkei (Japanese newspaper)

    Nikkei, Japan’s most widely respected daily business-oriented newspaper. It deals principally with commerce, industry, finance, government regulation of business, world trade, and economic news in general. The Nikkei 225 average is the main stock index of the Tokyo Stock Exchange. The newspaper has

  • Nikkeiren (Japanese business organization)

    industrial relations: Enterprise unions: …Federation of Employers’ Associations (Nikkeiren) embarked on a campaign to form moderate, anti-Communist enterprise unions that included lower level management personnel as well as production workers.

  • Nikkō (Buddhism)

    Japanese art: Sculpture: … flanked by the standing attendants Nikkō (Suryaprabha, bodhisattva of the Sun) and Gakkō (Candraprabha, bodhisattva of the Moon). It is unclear whether these sculptures were produced after the temple’s relocation to Nara or if they were transported from the original site. Literary evidence from the 11th century suggests the latter…

  • Nikkō (Japanese monk)

    Nichiren Buddhism: …one of Nichiren’s six disciples, Nikkō, who, according to documents held by the sect, was the prophet’s chosen successor. The temple he established in 1290 at the foot of Mount Fuji, Daiseki-ji, is still the sect’s headquarters. Nichiren-shō-shū differs from the other Nichiren sects in its elevation of the founder,…

  • Nikkō (Japan)

    Nikkō, city, western Tochigi ken (prefecture), north-central Honshu, Japan. The city lies along the Daiya River, north of the Tokyo-Yokohama Metropolitan Area. Nikkō, one of the country’s major pilgrimage and tourist centres, is situated at the southeastern edge of Nikkō National Park. The name

  • Niklaus von Flüe, Sankt (Swiss folk hero)

    Saint Nicholas of Flüe ; canonized 1947; feast day in Switzerland September 25, elsewhere March 21) was a hermit, popular saint, and Swiss folk hero. His intervention in a conflict between cantonal factions over the admission of Fribourg and Solothurn to the Swiss Confederation led to the agreement

  • Nikodimos (Greek monk)

    Philokalia: Compiled by the Greek monk Nikodimos and by Makarios, the bishop of Corinth, the Philokalia was first published in Venice in 1782 and gathered the unpublished writings of all major Hesychasts (hermits) of the Christian East, from Evagrius Ponticus to Gregory Palamas.

  • Nikola Petrović (king of Montenegro)

    Nicholas I was a prince (1860–1910) and then king (1910–18) of Montenegro, who transformed his small principality into a sovereign European nation. Heir presumptive to his uncle Danilo II, who was childless, Nicholas came to the throne in August 1860 after Danilo’s assassination. Educated abroad in

  • Nikolaev (Ukraine)

    Mykolayiv, city, southern Ukraine. The city lies along the estuary of the Southern (Pivdennyy) Buh River, about 40 miles (65 km) from the Black Sea. It was founded in 1788 as a naval base after the Russian annexation of the Black Sea coast, near the site of the ancient Greek Olbia. In 1862 a

  • Nikolai Church (church, Berlin, Germany)

    Berlin: The city layout: Nicholas Church (Nikolaikirche), dating from about 1200. Only the red-brick shell of Berlin’s oldest building remained standing after a bombing attack during World War II, but restoration was completed in 1987, the 750th anniversary of Berlin’s founding. The church, capped by two steeples, serves as the centrepiece…

  • Nikolaikirche (church, Berlin, Germany)

    Berlin: The city layout: Nicholas Church (Nikolaikirche), dating from about 1200. Only the red-brick shell of Berlin’s oldest building remained standing after a bombing attack during World War II, but restoration was completed in 1987, the 750th anniversary of Berlin’s founding. The church, capped by two steeples, serves as the centrepiece…

  • Nikolainkaupunki (Finland)

    Vaasa, city, western Finland, on the Gulf of Bothnia. Founded in 1606 by the Swedish king Charles IX, it was chartered in 1611 and named for the reigning house of Vasa. Finland’s second Court of Appeal was instituted there in 1776. Devastated by fire in 1852, the town was soon rebuilt in a more

  • Nikolais, Alwin (American dancer and choreographer)

    Alwin Nikolais was an American choreographer, composer, and designer whose abstract dances combine motion with various technical effects and a complete freedom from technique and established patterns. Initially a silent-film accompanist and puppeteer, Nikolais began his study of dance in about 1935

  • Nikolaiviertel (region, Berlin, Germany)

    Berlin: The city layout: …the old city enclave, the St. Nicholas Quarter (Nikolaiviertel), which includes replicas of townhouses from three centuries.

  • Nikolajevsk-na-Amure (Russia)

    Nikolayevsk-na-Amure, city, Khabarovsk kray (territory), far eastern Russia. The city is situated at the head of the Amur River estuary. It was founded in 1850, but its importance as a Pacific port and naval base was overshadowed by the later development of Vladivostok and Sovetskaya Gavan, both

  • Nikolaus von Cusa (Christian scholar)

    Nicholas Of Cusa was a cardinal, mathematician, scholar, experimental scientist, and influential philosopher who stressed the incomplete nature of man’s knowledge of God and of the universe. At the Council of Basel in 1432, he gained recognition for his opposition to the candidate put forward by

  • Nikolay Aleksandrovich (tsar of Russia)

    Nicholas II was the last Russian emperor (1894–1917), who, with his wife, Alexandra, and their children, was killed by the Bolsheviks after the October Revolution. Nikolay Aleksandrovich was the eldest son and heir apparent (tsesarevich) of the tsarevitch Aleksandr Aleksandrovich (emperor as

  • Nikolay Cathedral (church, Tokyo, Japan)

    Japanese Orthodox Church: The Orthodox cathedral of Tokyo—called Nikolay Cathedral, for its founder, Nikolay Kasatkin—is one of the largest religious buildings in the Japanese capital. The church, numbering about 30,000 members, has dioceses in Tokyo, Kyōto, and Sendai.

  • Nikolay Kasatkin, Saint (Russian Orthodox bishop)

    Saint Nikolay Kasatkin was a Russian Orthodox missionary and the first Orthodox bishop of Japan. Kasatkin, who adopted the name Nikolay when he took monastic vows, went to Japan in 1861 as chaplain to the Russian consulate in Hakodate. Because Christianity was a prohibited religion in Japan, he

  • Nikolay Nikolayevich (Russian grand duke)

    Nicholas was a Russian grand duke and army officer who served as commander in chief against the Germans and Austro-Hungarians in the first year of World War I and was subsequently (until March 1917) Emperor Nicholas II’s viceroy in the Caucasus and commander in chief against the Turks. The son of

  • Nikolay Pavlovich (tsar of Russia)

    Nicholas I was a Russian emperor (1825–55), often considered the personification of classic autocracy. For his reactionary policies, he has been called the emperor who froze Russia for 30 years. Nicholas was the son of Grand Duke Paul and Grand Duchess Maria. Some three and a half months after his

  • Nikolay Stepanovich Gumilev (Russian poet)

    Nikolay Stepanovich Gumilyov was a Russian poet and theorist who founded and led the Acmeist movement in Russian poetry in the years before and after World War I. The son of a naval surgeon, Gumilyov was educated at a gymnasium (secondary school) in Tsarskoye Selo (now Pushkin), where he was

  • Nikolayev (Ukraine)

    Mykolayiv, city, southern Ukraine. The city lies along the estuary of the Southern (Pivdennyy) Buh River, about 40 miles (65 km) from the Black Sea. It was founded in 1788 as a naval base after the Russian annexation of the Black Sea coast, near the site of the ancient Greek Olbia. In 1862 a

  • Nikolayev, Andriyan (Soviet cosmonaut)

    Andriyan Nikolayev was a Soviet cosmonaut, who piloted the Vostok 3 spacecraft, launched August 11, 1962. When Vostok 4, piloted by Pavel R. Popovich, was launched a day later, there were, for the first time, two crewed craft in space simultaneously. The two made radio and visual contact, but there

  • Nikolayev, Andriyan Grigoryevich (Soviet cosmonaut)

    Andriyan Nikolayev was a Soviet cosmonaut, who piloted the Vostok 3 spacecraft, launched August 11, 1962. When Vostok 4, piloted by Pavel R. Popovich, was launched a day later, there were, for the first time, two crewed craft in space simultaneously. The two made radio and visual contact, but there

  • Nikolayeva, Tatiana (Russian musician)

    The Well-Tempered Clavier, BWV 846–893: Barenboim, Glenn Gould, Tatiana Nikolayeva, Vladimir Ashkenazy, Sviatoslav Richter, Angela Hewitt, and András Schiff. A performance by American composer Wendy Carlos of two of the prelude and fugue numbers from Book I is noteworthy for having been played

  • Nikolayevsk-na-Amure (Russia)

    Nikolayevsk-na-Amure, city, Khabarovsk kray (territory), far eastern Russia. The city is situated at the head of the Amur River estuary. It was founded in 1850, but its importance as a Pacific port and naval base was overshadowed by the later development of Vladivostok and Sovetskaya Gavan, both

  • Nikolayevsk-on-Amur (Russia)

    Nikolayevsk-na-Amure, city, Khabarovsk kray (territory), far eastern Russia. The city is situated at the head of the Amur River estuary. It was founded in 1850, but its importance as a Pacific port and naval base was overshadowed by the later development of Vladivostok and Sovetskaya Gavan, both

  • Nikolayevskaya (Russia)

    Don River: Hydrology: At Nikolayevskaya, for example, 34 percent of the annual volume occurs in spring, 33 percent in summer, 22 percent in autumn, and 11 percent in winter.

  • Nikolić, Momir (Serbian intelligence officer)

    Srebrenica genocide: War crimes trials and the legacy of Srebrenica: …2003 Bosnian Serb intelligence officer Momir Nikolić pled guilty to committing crimes against humanity. Both Krstić and Nikolić received lengthy prison terms. In 2010 the tribunal convicted two chiefs of security for the Bosnian Serb military, Vujadin Popović and Ljubiša Beara, of genocide and sentenced them to life in prison;…

  • Nikolić, Tomislav (president of Serbia)

    Serbia: Independent Serbia: Two weeks later, SNS leader Tomislav Nikolić defeated two-term incumbent Tadić in the second round of presidential balloting. Observers initially worried that Nikolić, who had previously advocated an anti-Western form of Serb nationalism, would divert Serbia from its pro-EU course. Nikolić was quick to clarify that he believed that closer…

  • Nikolsburg, Peace of (Europe [1866])

    Otto von Bismarck: Prime minister: The Peace of Nikolsburg scarcely demanded anything from Austria. But Hanover, Hesse-Kassel, Nassau, and Frankfurt, all of which had fought against Prussia, were annexed, to the shock of conservatives. The king of Hanover was removed from power, as was the ruling house in Hesse. While conservatives…

  • Nikolsburg, Treaty of (Europe [1621])

    Hungary: Royal Hungary and the rise of Transylvania: Under the Treaty of Nikolsburg (Dec. 31, 1621), Bethlen gave up the royal title along with the Holy Crown of Hungary. (He had been elected king by the Hungarian estates in the lands under his control in 1620 but declined to accept the crown, even though the…

  • Nikolsk-Ussuriysk (Russia)

    Ussuriysk, city, Primorsky kray (territory), far eastern Russia. It lies about 50 miles (80 km) north of Vladivostok along the Trans-Siberian Railroad at the junction with a line to Harbin in Heilongjiang province, China. Founded as the village of Nikolskoye in 1866, it became a city in 1897 and

  • Nikolsk-Ussuriysky (Russia)

    Ussuriysk, city, Primorsky kray (territory), far eastern Russia. It lies about 50 miles (80 km) north of Vladivostok along the Trans-Siberian Railroad at the junction with a line to Harbin in Heilongjiang province, China. Founded as the village of Nikolskoye in 1866, it became a city in 1897 and

  • Nikolskaya Sloboda (Russia)

    Osa, city, Perm kray (territory), Russia, on the left bank of the Kama River near its confluence with the Tulva River. The city is about 60 miles (100 km) southwest of the city of Perm. Originally a village of Khanty (Ostyak), a Ugric-speaking people, it became the Russian town of Nikolskaya

  • Nikolskoye (Russia)

    Ussuriysk, city, Primorsky kray (territory), far eastern Russia. It lies about 50 miles (80 km) north of Vladivostok along the Trans-Siberian Railroad at the junction with a line to Harbin in Heilongjiang province, China. Founded as the village of Nikolskoye in 1866, it became a city in 1897 and

  • Nikon (Russian patriarch)

    Nikon was a religious leader who unsuccessfully attempted to establish the primacy of the Orthodox church over the state in Russia. His reforms that attempted to bring the Russian church in line with the traditions of Greek Orthodoxy led to a schism. Nikon (Nikita) was born in the village of

  • nikopoia (Byzantine art)

    Madonna: Madonna in early Christian and Byzantine art: …in Byzantine art are the nikopoia (“bringer of victory”), an extremely regal image of the Madonna and Child enthroned; the hodēgētria (“she who points the way”), showing a standing Virgin holding the Child on her left arm; and the blacherniotissa (from the Church of the Blachernes, which contains the icon…

  • Nikopol (mineral deposits, Ukraine)

    mineral deposit: Manganese deposits: Named Chiatura and Nikopol after two cities in Georgia and Ukraine, they contain an estimated 70 percent of the world’s known resources of high-grade manganese.

  • Nikopol (Bulgaria)

    Nikopol, town, northern Bulgaria. It lies along the Danube River near its confluence with the Osŭm (Ossăm) and opposite Turnu Măgurele, Rom. Nikopol was an important Danubian stronghold—ruined fortresses still dominate the town—founded by the Byzantine emperor Heraclius I in ad 629. In 1396 the

  • Nikopol (Ukraine)

    Nikopol, city, south-central Ukraine. It lies along the northern shore of the Kakhovka Reservoir on the Dnieper River and on the Zaporizhzhya–Kryvyy Rih railway. Founded as Nikitin Rog (Ukrainian: Mykytyn Rih) in the 1630s at a strategic crossing of the river, it was renamed Nikopol in 1782. It has

  • Nikópolis (Greece)

    Nicopolis Actia, city about 4 miles (6 km) north of Préveza, northwestern Greece, opposite Actium (now Áktion) at the mouth of the Ambracian Gulf (now Amvrakikós Gulf). It was founded in 31 bc by Octavian (who in 27 bc was to become the Roman emperor Augustus) in commemoration of his victory over

  • Nikousia, Panayotis (Ottoman official)

    dragoman: …of the Ottoman government was Panayotis Nikousia. Alexander Mavrokordatos, who succeeded Nikousia, negotiated the Treaty of Carlowitz (1699) for the Ottoman Empire and became very prominent in the development of Ottoman policy.

  • Nikrah (Arabian deity)

    Arabian religion: South Arabia: In Maʿīn, Nikraḥ was a healer patron; his shrine, located on a hillock in the middle of a large enclave marked by pillars, was an asylum for dying people and women in childbirth.

  • Nikšić (Montenegro)

    Nikšić, town in Montenegro, in the valley of the Zeta River. The Romans built a castrum (camp) called Anagastum there, probably on an old tribal settlement site. By the 12th century the name had been transliterated to Onogošt, and the name Nikšić was used by the Montenegrins c. 1355. The town was

  • Nikšić Polje (region, Montenegro)

    Montenegro: Relief: …river occupies the centre of Nikšić Polje, a flat-floored, elongated depression typical of karstic regions, as is the predominantly limestone underlying rock, which dissolves to form sinkholes and underground caves.

  • Niku (king of Egypt)

    Necho II was a king of Egypt (reigned 610–595 bce), and a member of the 26th dynasty, who unsuccessfully attempted to aid Assyria against the Neo-Babylonians and later sponsored an expedition that circumnavigated Africa. According to the Greek historian Herodotus, Necho began the construction of a

  • Nikumaroro (atoll, Pacific Ocean)

    Phoenix Islands: (Phoenix), Manra (Sydney), McKean, Nikumaroro (Gardner), Birnie, Orona (Hull), Kanton (Canton), and Enderbury atolls. They have a total land area of approximately 11 square miles (29 square km). All are low, sandy atolls that were discovered in the 19th century by American whaling ships. Evidence on Manra, Orona, and…

  • Nil Bidroho (Indian history)

    Indigo Revolt, rebellion of peasant farmers in 1859–60 in the Bengal region of northeastern India against British indigo planters. The need for indigo, an important source of indigo dye, to feed the British cotton textile industry—whose tremendous growth had been spurred by the Industrial

  • Nil Darpan (work by Mitra)

    Indigo Revolt: The 1860 play Nil Darpan (“Mirror of the Indigo”), by Dina Bandhu Mitra, did much to draw attention in India and Europe to the plight of the indigo growers. It was translated into English, reportedly by Bengali poet and dramatist Michael Madhusudan Dutta.

  • Nil Sorsky, Saint (Russian mystic)

    Saint Nil Sorsky ; feast day May 7) was the first Russian mystic to write about the contemplative life and to formulate a guide for spiritual self-perfection. After a trip to Constantinople and Mount Athos, he founded his own monastery beside the Sora River (whence the name Sorsky). At a council in

  • Nīl, Baḥr Al- (river, Africa)

    Nile River, the longest river in the world, called the father of African rivers. It rises south of the Equator and flows northward through northeastern Africa to drain into the Mediterranean Sea. It has a length of about 4,132 miles (6,650 kilometres) and drains an area estimated at 1,293,000

  • Nīl, Naḥr an- (river, Africa)

    Nile River, the longest river in the world, called the father of African rivers. It rises south of the Equator and flows northward through northeastern Africa to drain into the Mediterranean Sea. It has a length of about 4,132 miles (6,650 kilometres) and drains an area estimated at 1,293,000

  • Nildarpan (play by Mitra)

    South Asian arts: Modern theatre: …success of Dina Bandhu Mitra’s Nildarpan (“Mirror of the Indigo”), dealing with the tyranny of the British indigo planters over the rural Bengali farm labourers, paved the way for professional theatre. The actor-director-writer Girish Chandra Ghosh founded in 1872 the National Theatre, the first Bengali professional company, and took Nildarpan…

  • Nile cabbage (plant)

    Africa: Sudd: …other water plants—including the floating Nile cabbage (Pistia stratiotes)—form masses of waterlogged plant material that are largely unproductive and are a nuisance to fishing and navigation. Pistia has become an unwelcome invader of Lake Kariba, the body of water formed by the impounding (1959) of the Zambezi River in the…

  • Nile crocodile (reptile)

    Nile crocodile, (Crocodylus niloticus), species of crocodile inhabiting freshwater lakes, rivers, and swamps and brackish waters of southern and eastern Africa and Madagascar. The Nile crocodile is the largest crocodile in Africa and one of the largest living reptiles, some individuals rivaling the

  • Nile Delta (geographical division, Egypt)

    Lower Egypt, geographic and cultural division of Egypt consisting primarily of the triangular Nile River delta region and bounded generally by the 30th parallel north in the south and by the Mediterranean Sea in the north. Characterized by broad expanses of fertile soil, Lower Egypt contrasts

  • Nile goose (bird)

    Egyptian goose, (Alopochen aegyptiaca), species of African waterfowl classified with ducks and geese in family Anatidae in the bird order Anseriformes; it is the only living member of genus Alopochen. Despite the bird’s common name, it is a sheldgoose, and thus it is more closely related to ducks

  • Nile lechwe (mammal)

    Kobus: …among them the black and Nile lechwes (K. leche smithemani and K. megaceros), the male is dark blackish brown and the female reddish brown. Markings on these antelopes include patches of white, such as a white ring on the rump of the common waterbuck and black markings on the legs,…

  • Nile Nubian languages

    Nubian languages: …support peoples who speak so-called Nile Nubian.

  • Nile perch (fish)

    Nile perch, (species Lates niloticus), large food and game fish of the family Centropomidae (order Perciformes), found in the Nile and other rivers and lakes of Africa. A large-mouthed fish, the Nile perch is greenish or brownish above and silvery below and grows to about 1.8 m (6 feet) and 140 kg

  • Nile River (river, Africa)

    Nile River, the longest river in the world, called the father of African rivers. It rises south of the Equator and flows northward through northeastern Africa to drain into the Mediterranean Sea. It has a length of about 4,132 miles (6,650 kilometres) and drains an area estimated at 1,293,000

  • Nile River basin (river basin, Africa)

    Africa: Nile basin: …concerning the development of the Nile, which, it appears, originally consisted of two sections. The first theory is that the lower Nile had its source at about latitude 20° N, whence it flowed directly into the sea, while the upper Nile, issuing from Lake Victoria, flowed into an inland lake…

  • Nile Valley (valley, Africa)

    origins of agriculture: The Nile valley: In ancient Egypt, agricultural exploitation apparently did not intensify until domesticated animals from Southwest Asia were introduced. By the first quarter of the 7th millennium bp in Al-Fayyūm, some villages were keeping sheep, goats, and swine and cultivating emmer, barley, cotton

  • Nile, Battle of the (Egyptian-European history)

    Battle of the Nile, battle that was one of the greatest victories of the British admiral Horatio Nelson. It was fought on August 1, 1798, between the British and French fleets in Abū Qīr Bay, near Alexandria, Egypt. (See “Napoleon’s Major Battles” Interactive Map) The French Revolutionary general

  • Nile-Congo watershed (region, Africa)

    Sudan: Relief: …on the west by the Nile-Congo watershed and the highlands of Darfur and on the east by the Ethiopian Plateau and the Red Sea Hills (ʿAtbāy). This plain can be divided into a northern area of rock desert that is part of the Sahara; the western Qawz, an

  • Niles (Michigan, United States)

    Niles, city, Berrien county, southwestern Michigan, U.S. It lies along the St. Joseph River 10 miles (16 km) north of South Bend, Ind. It is the only locality in the state to have been under the control of France, Great Britain, Spain, and the United States. The site became a stagecoach stop on the

  • Niles (Ohio, United States)

    Niles, city, Trumbull county, northeastern Ohio, U.S. It lies along the Mahoning River, about midway between Youngstown and Warren, and is a part of the Mahoning industrial complex. Ruben Harmon, the first white settler (1797), and others discovered deposits of coal, iron ore, and limestone there.

  • Niles Center (Illinois, United States)

    Skokie, village, Cook county, northeastern Illinois, U.S. A suburb of Chicago, it is located 16 miles (26 km) north of downtown. Called Niles Center until 1940, Skokie (renamed for the Potawatomi word for “swamp”) was settled in 1834 by immigrants from Germany and Luxembourg. A trading centre in

  • Niles’ Weekly Register (American newspaper)

    Hezekiah Niles: …Register (later to be called Niles’ Weekly Register), which he edited and published until 1836 and which became one of the most influential papers in the United States. Niles favoured protective tariffs and the gradual abolition of slavery, and he ceaselessly propagandized for both these causes. Because his articles were…