pro-Soviet Czechoslovak provisional government that inaugurated far-reaching socialist programs during the single year of its rule after World War II and made way for the eventual Communist domination of Czechoslovakia.
region within the republic of Serbia, Serbia and Montenegro (formerly Yugoslavia, 1929-2003), occupying the southwestern portion of the republic. Kosovo is bordered by Serbia proper to the north and east, ...
(June 15, 1389), battle fought at Kosovo Polje ("Field of the Blackbirds"), Serbia (now in Serbia and Montenegro), between the armies of the Serbian prince Lazar and the Turkish forces ...
(October 17-20, 1448), battle between forces of the Ottoman Empire and a Hungarian-Walachian coalition led by the Hungarian commander Janos Hunyadi at Kosovo, Serbia (now in Serbia and Montenegro). The ...
easternmost of the Caroline Islands in the Federated States of Micronesia, western Pacific Ocean. Kosrae is volcanic in origin and is hilly, rising to Mount Crozier (2,061 feet [628 m]). ...
Norwegian speed skater who was the dominant long-distance skater of the 1990s. At the 1994 Winter Olympics, Koss set three world records on his way to winning three gold medals ...
German biochemist who was awarded the Nobel Prize for Physiology or Medicine in 1910 for his contributions to understanding the chemistry of nucleic acids and proteins. He discovered the nucleic ...
political reformer who inspired and led Hungary's struggle for independence from Austria. His brief period of power in the revolutionary years of 1848 and 1849, however, was ended by Russian ...
oblast (province), western Russia. It covers part of the middle Volga River basin. Most of the surface is a rolling, morainic plain, sloping to the Volga from the low hills ...
city and administrative centre of Kostroma oblast (province), western Russia. It lies along the middle Volga River about 200 miles (320 km) northeast of Moscow. It is believed to have ...
city, Zachodniopomorskie wojewodztwo (province), northwestern Poland, on the Dzierzecinka River. Koszalin is a resort and manufacturing city; local industry includes timber milling and woodworking, food processing, and ...
agreement made between the Polish nobility and their king, Louis I (ruled 1370-82), in which the nobles promised to accept the King's choice of successor in exchange for a charter ...
one of the indigenous, Dravidian-speaking peoples of the Nilgiri Hills in the south of India. They lived in seven villages totalling about 2,300 inhabitants during the 1970s; these were interspersed ...
city, southeastern Rajasthan state, northwestern India, located just east of the Chambal River. It was founded as a walled city in the 14th century and became the capital of the ...
city, northern Peninsular (West) Malaysia, on the east levee of the Kelantan River, near the Thai border and 8 miles (13 km) inland from the South China Sea. Located in ...
city of Sabah state, East Malaysia, on the northwest coast of Borneo. Although razed by bombing during World War II (1939-45), the site was chosen in 1946 for the new ...
town, West Malaysia, on the Johor River, north of its estuary at the Singapore Strait. It was one of the river capitals (1685-99) of the Johore-Riau (Riouw) kingdom. The modern ...
ancient West Semitic god of crafts, equivalent of the Greek god Hephaestus. Kothar was responsible for supplying the gods with weapons and for building and furnishing their palaces. During the ...
city, Saxony-Anhalt Land (state), east-central Germany, north of Halle. First mentioned in 1115 and known as a market town in 1194, it was a medieval seat of the Ascanian counts ...
city, southeastern Finland, on two islands, Hovinsaari and Kotkansaari, at the mouth of the Kymi River on the Gulf of Finland, east-northeast of Helsinki. Kotkansaari was fortified by the Russians ...
city, Arkhangelsk oblast (province), northwestern Russia, at the confluence of the Northern Dvina and Vychegda rivers. It is a major focus of river and rail communications and a transshipment point, ...
author whose burlesque-travesty of Virgil's Aeneid was the first work written wholly in the Ukrainian language; it distinguished him as the father of modern Ukrainian literature. The Eneida (1798) transmutes ...
musical instrument, a Japanese 13-stringed board zither with movable bridges. Although derived from continental Asian models, it has developed structural and musical characteristics that make it specifically Japanese.
Socialist leader, one of the first proponents of radical political action in Japan. His execution resulted in the temporary abatement of the growing Socialist movement in Japan.
walled town, seaport, and resort at the south end of Kotor Bay, one of four bays of the Gulf of Kotor (Boka Kotorska), on the Adriatic coastline of Montenegro, Serbia ...
winding, fjordlike inlet of the Adriatic coast, Montenegro, Serbia and Montenegro. A fine natural harbour, it comprises four bays linked by narrow straits. The stark mountains around the bay slope ...
pre-Columbian site, near the modern city of Huanuco in present-day central highland Peru, known for its early temple structures. These earliest buildings, some of which have interior wall niches and ...
town, south-central Sindh province, southeastern Pakistan, on the west bank of the Indus River. An important railway junction, Kotri is connected by bridge with Hyderabad on the opposite bank. Incorporated ...
royal house that ruled Bosnia from the late 13th to the mid-15th century. The dynasty was founded by Stephen Kotroman, a vassal of the Hungarian king and the ruler of ...
city, southern Kerala state, southwestern India, near Vembanad Lake at the mouth of the Minachil River south-southeast of Kochi (formerly Cochin). The city is a centre of the Syrian Christian ...
Sinhalese kingdom that flourished in Ceylon (Sri Lanka) during the 15th century. Its king, Parakramabahu VI (1412-67), was the last native sovereign to unify all of Ceylon under one rule. ...
city, northwestern Alaska, U.S. Lying 550 miles (885 km) northwest of Anchorage, it is situated at the northwestern end of Baldwin Peninsula, on Kotzebue Sound. The area, which was a ...
Russian naval officer who completed three circumnavigations of the Earth, charted much of the Alaskan coast, and discovered and named Kotzebue Sound, off western Alaska, as well as several islands ...
town, central Burkina Faso (formerly Upper Volta), western Africa. It lies on the railway between Ouagadougou and Abidjan, Cote d'Ivoire (Ivory Coast), which gives landlocked Burkina Faso access to the ...
American professional baseball player who, despite his early retirement due to arthritis, was ranked among the sport's greatest pitchers. A left-hander, he pitched for the Brooklyn Dodgers in the National ...
stream in western Congo (Brazzaville), formed at Makabana by the confluence of the Niari and Louesse rivers and flowing west to empty into the Atlantic Ocean near Kayes, northwest of ...
town, southwestern Mali. Situated about 35 miles (55 km) northeast of Bamako, the national capital, the town serves as a centre of transportation. It is the upper river terminus for ...
town, northwestern Guinea, on the road from Labe to Senegal and at the intersection of roads from Youkounkoun and Guinea-Bissau. It has replaced Youkounkoun, 15 miles (24 km) northeast, as ...
(species Bos sauveli), extremely rare wild ox of southeastern Asia. It was unknown to science until 1937. Classification of the kouprey is still uncertain. Some zoologists believe the animal to ...
archaic Greek statue representing a young standing male. Although the influence of many nations can be discerned in particular elements of these figures, the first appearance of such monumental stone ...
coastal town, north-central French Guiana, on the Kourou River. From 1854 to 1944 it served as a French penal colony. In the 19th century about 15,000 French settlers, imagining the ...
town and river port, east-central Guinea. It lies at the head of navigation of the upper Niger River and along the railroad and road from Conakry to Kankan. Kouroussa is ...
highest summit (11,204 feet [3,415 m]) in the Sahara, situated 109 miles (176 km) north-northwest of Faya in the Tibesti massif, northwestern Chad. It is an extinct volcano with a ...
mathematician and writer who made a valuable contribution to the theory of partial differential equations. She was the first woman in modern Europe to gain a doctorate in mathematics, the ...
Russian founder of comparative embryology and experimental histology, who established for the first time the existence of a common pattern in the embryological development of all multicellular animals.
city, Vladimir oblast (province), western Russia. It lies along the right bank of the Klyazma River just above the latter's confluence with the Uvod. The city has been a centre ...
Russian drinking vessel with a boat-shaped body and a single handle. It is thought that many of the earliest examples, which date from the 16th century, were presented by the ...
part of Hong Kong, a special administrative region of China. It is situated on the Chinese mainland north of Hong Kong Island and is surrounded on three sides by Victoria ...
in traditional China, the act of supplication made by an inferior to his superior by kneeling and knocking his head to the floor. This prostration ceremony was most commonly used ...
river in central Alaska, U.S. A major tributary of the Yukon River, it rises from several headstreams on the southern slopes of the Endicott Mountains in the central Brooks Range ...
town, capital of the nomos (department) of Kozani, western Greek Macedonia. The town is situated on the edge of a fertile basin between the Vermion and Vourinos mountains and has ...
city, northern Kerala state, southwestern India. It is situated on the Malabar Coast, 414 miles (666 km) west-southwest of Madras by rail. A once-famous cotton-weaving centre, it is remembered as ...
Russian astronomer who claimed to have discovered volcano-like activity on the Moon. His sightings of apparent gaseous emissions from the lunar surface challenged the long-held theory that the Moon is ...
people occupying much of central Liberia and extending into Guinea, where they are sometimes called the Guerze; they speak a language of the Mande branch of the Niger-Congo family.
narrow neck of southern Myanmar (Burma) and Thailand, connecting the Malay Peninsula to the Asian mainland. The isthmus lies between the Gulf of Thailand to the east and the Andaman ...
enclosure or group of houses surrounding an enclosure for livestock, or the social unit that inhabits these structures. The term has been more broadly used to describe the way of ...
port town, southwestern Thailand. Krabi is situated on the Strait of Malacca on the Andaman Sea and is a departure point for fishing and for travel to nearby islands.
town, northeastern Cambodia. Kracheh is located on the eastern bank of the Mekong River, at the head of Mekong navigation. It has a port and is linked to Phnom Penh, ...
American athlete, the first competitor to win four gold medals at a single Olympics. He is credited with having originated the modern technique of hurdling, and his world record in ...
German psychiatrist, one of the most influential of his time, who developed a classification system for mental illness that influenced subsequent classifications. Kraepelin made distinctions between schizophrenia and manic-depressive psychosis ...
(from German kraft, "strong"), chemical method for the production of wood pulp that employs a solution of caustic soda and sodium sulfide as the liquor in which the pulpwood is ...
German experimental group widely regarded as the godfathers of electronic pop music. The original members were Ralf Hutter (b. 1946, Krefeld, Ger., ) and Florian Schneider (b. 1947, Dusseldorf, ...
