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Khujand ... Kildare, Thomas Fitzgerald, 10th Earl of

Khujand: city, northwestern Tajikistan. The city lies along both banks of the Syr Darya (river) at the entrance to the fertile and heavily populated Fergana Valley. One of the most ancient ...
Khulna: city, southwestern Bangladesh. It lies along the Bhairab River in the south-central Gangetic delta. An important river port and produce collection and trade centre, it is connected by river steamer, ...
Khums, Al-: town, northwestern Libya. It is located on the Mediterranean coast about 60 miles (97 km) southeast of Tripoli. The town was founded by the Turks and gained importance after 1870 ...
Khuri, Bishara al-: Lebanese statesman, president of Lebanon from 1943 to 1952.
Khury Mury: island group of Oman, in the Arabian Sea, situated 25 miles (40 km) off the country's southeastern coast. The five islands, which have a total land area of 28 square ...
khutbah: in Islam, the sermon, delivered especially at a Friday service, at the two major Islamic festivals ('ids), at celebrations of saintly birthdays (mawlids), and on extraordinary occasions.
Khuzdar: town, Balochistan province, southwestern Pakistan. The town lies along the Kolachi River at the apex of a narrow valley in the Pab (Pubb) Range and lies at an elevation of ...
Khuzestan: geographic region in southwestern Iran, lying at the head of the Persian Gulf and bordering Iraq on the west. It is notable for its oil resources.
Khvoy: city, northwestern Iran. The city is well laid out, with cool streams and lines of willows along broad, regular streets. There are several mosques, an extensive brick bazaar, a fine ...
Khwae Noi River: tributary of the Mae Klong River, flowing wholly in western Thailand. It rises near Three Pagodas Pass (Phra Chedi Sam Ong) on the mountainous Myanmar-Thailand border and runs southeast, parallel ...
Khwandamir, Ghiyas ad-Din Muhammad: Persian historian, one of the greatest historians of his time.
Khwarezm: historic region along the Amu Darya (ancient Oxus River) of Turkistan, in the territories of present-day Turkmenistan and Uzbekistan. Khwarezm formed part of the empire of Achaemenian Persia (6th-4th century ...
Khwarezm-Shah Dynasty: (c. 1077-1231), dynasty that ruled in Central Asia and Iran, first as vassals of the Seljuqs and later as independent rulers.
Khwarizmi, al-: Muslim mathematician and astronomer whose major works introduced Hindu-Arabic numerals and the concepts of algebra into European mathematics. Latinized versions of his name and of his most famous book title ...
khyal: any of several Hindustani folk-dance dramas of Rajasthan, northwestern India. Khyal dances date from the 16th century and use themes taken from folklore and legend. They are performed exclusively by ...
Khyber Pass: most northerly and important of the passes between Afghanistan and Pakistan. The pass connects Kabul with Peshawar. The pass has historically been the gateway for invasions of the Indian subcontinent ...
Ki Seto ware: yellow-toned ceramic ware made from fine, white clay covered with iron-ash glazes in the Mino area in central Honshu, Japan, from the late Muromachi period (1338-1573) onward. Ki Seto ("Yellow ...
Ki Tsurayuki: court noble, government official, and noted man of letters in Japan during the Heian period (794-1185).
Kiama: town, Illawara district, eastern New South Wales, Australia. The town is situated near the Minamurra River. Its harbour was visited in 1797 by the British explorer George Bass. Its name ...
Kiamichi River: river in Oklahoma, U.S., rising in Le Flore county, near the Arkansas state line in the Ouachita Mountains. It flows southwest, past Pine Valley and Clayton to Antlers, where after ...
kiang: in Tibet, the Asiatic wild ass. See ass.
Kiangnan Arsenal: in Shanghai, major Chinese centre during the 1860s and 1870s for the manufacture of modern arms and the study of Western technical literature and Western languages. It was opened in ...
Kiangsi: sheng (province) of south-central China. It is bounded by the provinces of Hupeh and Anhwei on the north, Chekiang and Fukien on the east, Kwangtung on the ...
Kiangsi Soviet: (1931-34), independent government established by the Communist leader Mao Zedong and his comrade Zhu De in Kiangsi province in southeastern China. It was from this small state within a state ...
Kiangsu: sheng (province) on the east coast of China. It is bounded by the Yellow Sea and by the provinces of Chekiang to the south, Anhwei to the ...
Kiangsu Provincial Museum: in Nanking, China, one of the outstanding provincial museums of China. It contains objects reflecting 5,000 years of Chinese culture. The prehistoric section contains objects found during excavations in 1954 ...
Kiarostami, Abbas: Iranian director-writer known for experimenting with the boundaries between reality and fiction.
Kibaki, Mwai: Kenyan politician, president of Kenya from 2002.
kibbutz: ("gathering," or "collective"), Israeli collective settlement, usually agricultural and often also industrial, in which all wealth is held in common. Profits are reinvested in the settlement after members have been ...
Kibi Makibi: early envoy to China who did much to introduce Chinese culture to the comparatively primitive Japanese state. In 717, when Chinese culture under the great T'ang dynasty (618-907) was at ...
Kichizan: the last major professional painter of Buddhist iconography in Japan.
Kickapoo: Algonkian-speaking Indians, related to the Sauk and Fox, who lived at the portage between the Fox and Wisconsin rivers, probably in present Columbia county, Wisconsin, U.S., when first reported by ...
Kicking Horse Pass: pass in the Canadian Rockies at the Alberta-British Columbia border and the Banff-Yoho national parks boundary; it is the highest point on the Canadian Pacific Railway, at an elevation of ...
Kid Gavilan: Cuban professional boxer and world welterweight champion. Gavilan is credited with inventing the "bolo punch," which was a combination of a hook and an uppercut. He said he developed the ...
Kidd, William: 17th-century British privateer and semilegendary pirate who became celebrated in English literature as one of the most colourful outlaws of all time. Fortune seekers have hunted his buried treasure in ...
Kidder, Alfred V: foremost American archaeologist of the southwestern United States and Middle America of his day and the force behind the first comprehensive, systematic approach to North American archaeology.
Kidderminster: town, Wyre Forest district, administrative and historic county of Worcestershire, England. It is situated along the River Stour and the Staffordshire and Worcestershire Canal. Recorded as Stour-in-Usmere in 736 CE, ...
Kiddush: Jewish benediction and prayer recited over a cup of wine immediately before the meal on the eve of the sabbath or of a festival; the ceremony acknowledges the sanctity of ...
Kidepo Valley National Park: national park, northeastern Uganda, East Africa. It occupies an area of 540 square miles (1,399 square km) in wooded grasslands and mountainous scenery in the northeastern corner of the country. ...
Kiderlen-Wachter, Alfred von: German statesman and foreign secretary remembered for his role in the Second Moroccan crisis (1911) before World War I.
Kidinnu: astronomer and mathematician who may have discovered the precession of the equinoxes, the slow rotation of the Earth's axis that results in slight variations in the length of the year. ...
kidnapping: criminal offense consisting of the unlawful taking and carrying away of a person by force or fraud or the unlawful seizure and detention of a person against his will. The ...
kidney: in vertebrates and some invertebrates, organ that maintains water balance and expels metabolic wastes. Primitive and embryonic kidneys consist of two series of specialized tubules that empty into two collecting ...
kidney failure: partial or complete loss of kidney function. Kidney failure is classified as acute (when the onset is sudden) or chronic.
kidney function test: any clinical and laboratory procedure designed to evaluate various aspects of renal (kidney) capacity and efficiency and to aid in the diagnosis of kidney disorders. Such tests can be divided ...
kidney stone: concretion of minerals and organic matter that forms in the kidneys. Such stones may become so large as to impair normal renal function. Urine contains many salts in solution and ...
kidney transplant: replacement of a diseased or damaged kidney with a healthy one obtained either from a living relative or a recently deceased person. Although kidney transplants were carried out in the ...
kidney vetch: perennial herb, of the pea family (Fabaceae), found in meadows, alpine pastures, and dry places of Europe and northern Africa. The low, hairy plant grows to a height of 15-40 ...
Kido Takayoshi: one of the heroes of the Meiji Restoration, the overthrow of the 264-year rule by the Tokugawa family and return of power to the Japanese emperor. After the imperial restoration ...
Kidston, Robert: English paleobotanist, noted for his discoveries and descriptions of plant fossils from the Devonian period (408 to 360 million years ago).
Kiefer, Anselm: German painter who became one of the most prominent figures in the Neo-Expressionist art movement of the late 20th century.
Kiel: city, capital (1945) of Schleswig-Holstein Land (state), northern Germany. Kiel is a port on both sides of the Kiel Fjord, an inlet of the western Baltic Sea, ...
Kiel Canal: ("North Sea-Baltic Sea Canal"), waterway extending eastward for 61 miles (98 km) from Brunsbuttelkoog (on the North Sea, at the mouth of the Elbe River) to Holtenau (at Kiel Harbour ...
Kiel, Treaty of: (Jan. 14, 1814), the peace treaty ending the hostilities between Denmark and Sweden during the Napoleonic Wars. By the treaty, Denmark ceded Norway to Sweden, thus ending the union initiated ...
Kielce: city, capital of Swietokrzyskie wojewodztwo (province), southeastern Poland. It lies in the Swietokrzyskie ("Holy Cross") Mountains. Located on the Warsaw-Krakow rail line, Kielce is a major industrial ...
Kielland, Alexander Lange: novelist, short-story writer, and dramatist, one of the "big four" (with Henrik Ibsen, B.M. Bjornson, and Jonas Lie) of 19th-century Norwegian literature.
Kierkegaard, Soren: Danish religious philosopher and critic of rationalism, regarded as the founder of existentialist philosophy. He is famous for his critique of systematic rational philosophy, particularly Hegelianism, on the grounds that ...
Kiesinger, Kurt Georg: conservative politician and chancellor (1966-69) of the Federal Republic of Germany whose "grand coalition" brought the Social Democratic Party (SPD) into the government for the first time since 1930.
Kiesler, Frederick John: Austrian-born American architect, sculptor, and stage designer, best known for his "Endless House," a womblike, free-form structure.
Kieslowski, Krzysztof: leading Polish director of documentaries, feature films, and television films of the 1970s, '80s, and '90s that explored the social and moral themes of contemporary times.
Kieta: town, southeast coast of Bougainville Island, Papua New Guinea. It is situated on Arawa Bay (Rawa Harbour) and is a port of call with a long wharf for coastal and ...
Kiev: chief city and capital of Ukraine and capital of Kiev oblast (province). A port on the Dnieper River and a large railroad junction, it is a city ...
Kiev: oblast (province), north-central Ukraine. In the mid-1990s the oblast was separated administratively from the city of Kiev, which serves as the oblast capital though it is a ...
Kigali: city and capital of Rwanda. It is located in the centre of the country on the Ruganwa River. Kigali was a trade centre (after 1895) during the German colonial administration ...
Kii Peninsula: peninsula of southern Honshu, Japan, facing the Pacific Ocean (east and south) and the Kii Strait and the Inland Sea (west). The peninsula is composed of the Kii Range, whose ...
Kija: legendary Korean king of Chinese origin whose arrival in Korea with 5,000 rice- and barley-bearing refugees reputedly introduced Chinese civilization (and these new grains) to the Korean people. The band ...
Kikuchi Kan: playwright, novelist, and founder of one of the major publishing companies in Japan.
Kikutake Kiyonori: post-World War II Japanese architect particularly concerned with the problems of a changing world.
Kikuyu: Bantu-speaking people who live in the highland area of south-central Kenya, near Mount Kenya. In the late 20th century the Kikuyu numbered more than 4,400,000 and formed the largest ethnic ...
Kikwit: town and river port, southwestern Congo (Kinshasa). It lies along the Kwilu River, which is a tributary of the Kasai River. European settlement of the site began in 1901, and ...
Kilauea: the world's largest active volcanic mass, located on southeastern Hawaii Island, Hawaii, U.S. The central feature of Hawaii Volcanoes National Park, Kilauea ("Much Spreading") is an elongated dome built of ...
Kilburn, Tom: British engineer and coinventor of the first working computer memory. Kilburn also designed and built the first stored-program computer and led a team that produced a succession of pioneering computers ...
Kilby, Jack: American engineer and one of the inventors of the integrated circuit, a system of interconnected transistors on a single microchip. In 2000 Kilby was a corecipient, with Herbert Kroemer and ...
Kildare: county in the province of Leinster, east-central Ireland. It comprises part of the lowland west of the Wicklow Mountains and part of the Irish central lowland. County Kildare is bounded ...
Kildare: market town, County Kildare, Ireland. The Protestant cathedral church (1229) is dedicated to St. Brigit of Ireland, who founded a community there in the 5th century. Restoration of the church ...
Kildare, Thomas Fitzgerald, 10th Earl of: leader of a major Irish rebellion against King Henry VIII of England. The failure of the uprising ended the Fitzgerald family's hereditary viceroyalty of Ireland and led to the tightening ...