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Kuang-hsu ... Kumagaya

Kuang-hsu: ninth emperor (reigned 1875-1908) of the Ch'ing dynasty, during whose reign the empress dowager Tz'u-hsi (1835-1908) totally dominated the government and thereby prevented the young emperor from modernizing and reforming ...
Kuang-wu ti: Chinese emperor (reigned AD 25-57) who restored the Han dynasty after the usurpation of Wang Mang, a former Han minister who established the Hsin dynasty (AD 9-25). Kuang-wu's restored Han ...
Kuantan: city situated on the eastern coast of the Malay Peninsula, West Malaysia. It lies at the mouth of the Kuantan River, on the South China Sea. Situated on a wide ...
Kuba: former African kingdom in the interior of Congo (Kinshasa). It was bounded to the southwest by the Kasai and Lulua rivers and to the north by the Sankuru River, a ...
Kuba: a cluster of about 16 Bantu-speaking groups in southeastern Congo (Kinshasa), living between the Kasai and Sankuru rivers east of their confluence.
Kuba carpet: floor covering from the Caucasus woven in the vicinity of Kuba (now Quba) in northern Azerbaijan. Kuba carpets of the last century and a half of several major types were ...
Kubaba: goddess of the ancient Syrian city of Carchemish. In religious texts of the Hittite empire (c. 1400-c. 1190 BC), she played a minor part and appeared mainly in a context ...
Kuban River: river in southwestern Russia, 563 miles (906 km) in length and draining 23,600 square miles (61,000 square km). It rises from glaciers on Mount Elbrus in the Greater Caucasus and ...
Kubelik, Rafael: Bohemian-born Swiss conductor, musical director, and composer, who was noted for his frequent guest appearances with major orchestras throughout the world.
Kubera: in Hindu mythology, the king of the yaksas (nature spirits) and the god of wealth. He is associated with the earth, mountains, all treasures such as minerals and jewels that ...
Kubin, Alfred: Austrian graphic artist known for his drawings and paintings of dreamlike, often morbid, subjects.
Kubitschek, Juscelino: president of Brazil (1956-61) noted for his ambitious public works, especially the construction of the new capital, Brasilia.
Kublai Khan: Mongolian general and statesman, grandson of Genghis Khan. He conquered China and became the first emperor of its Yuan, or Mongol, dynasty. He was thus at one and the same ...
Kubovy, Aryeh Leon: Israeli lawyer, diplomat, and Zionist. He was a founder (1936) and general secretary (1945-48) of the World Jewish Congress.
Kubrick, Stanley: American motion-picture director and writer whose films are characterized by a cool, formal visual style, meticulous attention to detail, and a detached, often ironic pessimism.
Kubu: seminomadic forest dwellers found primarily in swampy areas near watercourses in southeastern Sumatra, Indonesia. The people appear to be a mixture of an early Veddoid stock and Negrito.
Kucha: oasis town in the Uighur Autonomous Region of Sinkiang, China. The oasis of Kucha lies at the foot of the southern slope of the Tien Shan ("Celestial Mountains") on the ...
Kuching: city, capital and chief port of Sarawak, East Malaysia, on northwestern Borneo. The city was founded in 1839 by James (later Sir James) Brooke, who also founded the Brooke Raj ...
kuchipudi: one of six classical dance styles of India. Kuchipudi is indigenous to the state of Andhra Pradesh and differs from the other five classical styles by the inclusion of singing. ...
Kuchma, Leonid: Ukrainian engineer and politician who became prime minister (1992-93) and the second president of independent Ukraine (1994-2005). His administration supported increased privatization, free trade, and closer ties with Russia.
Kucuk Kaynarca, Treaty of: (July 10 [July 21, New Style], 1774), pact signed at the conclusion of the Russo-Turkish War of 1768-74 at Kucuk Kaynarca, in Bulgaria, ending undisputed Ottoman control of the Black ...
Kudamatsu: city, Yamaguchi ken (prefecture), western Honshu, Japan. Located on a deep cove of the Inland Sea, the original fishing village first started to grow through salt manufacturing ...
Kudirka, Vincas: Lithuanian physician, writer, and patriot who, through an underground literary-political journal, Varpas (1889-1905; "The Bell"), articulated a broadly representative protest against Russian attempts to submerge the awakening national culture of ...
kudu: any of certain handsome, slender antelopes of the genus Tragelaphus, family Bovidae (order Artiodactyla). The greater kudu (T. strepsiceros) lives in small groups in hilly bush country or open woods ...
kudurru: (Akkadian: "frontier," or "boundary"), type of boundary stone used by the Kassites of ancient Mesopotamia. A stone block or slab, it served as a record of a grant of land ...
Kudymkar: city and administrative centre of Komi-Permyak autonomous okrug (district), Perm oblast (province), western Russia. It lies along the Inva River at the latter's confluence with the Kuva River in the ...
kudzu vine: (Pueraria lobata, or P. thunbergiana), twining perennial vine that is a member of a genus belonging to the family Leguminosae. The kudzu is a fast-growing, woody, somewhat hairy vine that ...
kuei: (Chinese: "ghost," or "demon"), in indigenous Chinese religion, a troublesome spirit that roams the world causing misfortune, illness, and death.
Kuei River: northern tributary of the Hsi River, southern China. The Kuei River rises in the Mao-erh Mountains to the north of Kuei-lin in the northern part of the Kwangsi Chuang Autonomous ...
Kuei-lin: large city in northeastern Kwangsi Chuang autonomous ch'u (region), China. It stands on the west bank of the Kuei River, which is a tributary of the Hsi. ...
Kuei-yang: city in central Kweichow sheng (province), China. Kuei-yang is the provincial capital. The city is situated on the Nan-ming River, a headstream of the Wu River, which ...
Kufah: medieval city of Iraq that was a centre of Arab culture and learning from the 8th to the 10th century. It was founded in 638 as a garrison town by ...
Kufic script: in calligraphy, earliest extant Islamic style of handwritten alphabet that was used by early Muslims to record the Qur'an. This angular, slow-moving, dignified script was also used on tombstones and ...
Kufrah, Al-: oasis group (about 30 miles [48 km] long and 12 miles [19 km] wide), southeastern Libya, in an elliptical trough near the centre of the Libyan Desert. Astride ancient caravan ...
Kufstein: town, Tirol Bundesland (federal state), western Austria. It lies along the Inn River, between two ranges, the Kaiser Mountains and the Bavarian Alps, near the Bavarian (German) border. First mentioned ...
Kuga Sorta: (Mari: "Big Candle"), pacifist and theocratic movement among the Mari (or Cheremis), a Finno-Ugric tribal people living chiefly in Mari republic, Russia. The emergence of the cult around 1870 was ...
Kuhlmann, Richard von: German foreign minister for 10 months during World War I, who led the German delegation that concluded the Treaty of Brest-Litovsk with Russia (March 1918) and the Treaty of Bucharest ...
Kuhn, Adalbert: German language scholar and folklorist who founded a new school of comparative mythology based on comparative philology. He was associated with the Kollnisches Gymnasium, Berlin, from 1841 and became its ...
Kuhn, Maggie: American social activist who was central in establishing the group that became known as the Gray Panthers, which works for the rights and welfare of the elderly.
Kuhn, Richard: German biochemist who was awarded the 1938 Nobel Prize for Chemistry for work on carotenoids and vitamins. Forbidden by the Nazis to accept the award, he finally received his diploma ...
Kuhn, Thomas S.: American historian of science noted for The Structure of Scientific Revolutions (1962), one of the most influential works of history and philosophy written in the 20th century.
Kuhn, Walt: American painter instrumental in staging the Armory Show (New York City, 1913), the first exhibition of modern art in the United States.
Kuhnau, Johann: German composer of church cantatas and early keyboard sonatas.
Kuiper Airborne Observatory: a Lockheed C-141 jet transport aircraft specially instrumented for astronomical observations at high altitudes. Named for the American astronomer Gerard P. Kuiper, it was operated (1971-95) by the U.S. National ...
Kuiper belt: flat ring of icy small bodies that revolve around the Sun beyond the orbit of the planet Neptune. Named for the Dutch American astronomer Gerard P. Kuiper, it comprises hundreds ...
Kuiper, Gerard Peter: Dutch-American astronomer known especially for his discoveries and theories concerning the solar system.
Kuito: town (founded 1890), central Angola. It is the chief trade and market centre of the fertile Bie Plateau and processes rice and other grains, coffee, meat, and beeswax. The town ...
Kujawsko-Pomorskie: wojewodztwo (province), north-central Poland. It is bordered by the provinces of Warminsko-Mazurskie to the northeast, Pomorskie to the north, Mazowieckie to the east, Lodzkie to the south, ...
Kujawy: lowland region of central Poland. It is bounded on the northeast by the Vistula River between Wloclawek and Bydgoszcz and on the southwest by the Notec River. First appearing in ...
Kukai: one of the best known and most beloved Buddhist saints in Japan, founder of the Shingon ("True Word") school of Buddhism that emphasizes spells, magic formulas, ceremonials, and masses for ...
Kukenaam Falls: high waterfalls on the Guyana-Venezuelan border. They spring from a table mountain, Kukenaam (8,620 feet [2,627 m]), to the northwest of Mount Roraima (9,094 feet) and are the beginning of ...
Kuki: a Southeast Asian people living in the Mizo (formerly Lushai) Hills on the border between India and Myanmar (Burma) and numbering about 12,000 in the 1970s. They have been largely ...
kukri snake: any of 50 to 60 species of snakes constituting the genus Oligodon of the family Colubridae. The snakes are named for their enlarged hind teeth, which are broad and curved ...
kul: (Sanskrit: "assembly," or "family"), throughout India, except in the south, a family unit or, in some instances, an extended family. Most commonly kul refers to one contemporarily existing family, though ...
kula: exchange system among the people of the Trobriand Islands of southeast Melanesia, in which permanent contractual partners trade traditional valuables following an established ceremonial pattern and trade route. In this ...
Kula carpet: floor covering handwoven in Kula, a town east of Izmir, in western Turkey. Kula prayer rugs were produced throughout the 19th century and into the 20th and have been favourites ...
kulak: (Russian: "fist"), in Russian and Soviet history, a wealthy or prosperous peasant, generally characterized as one who owned a relatively large farm and several head of cattle and horses and ...
Kulakova, Galina: Russian skier of Udmurt descent who captured all three gold medals in women's Nordic skiing at the 1972 Olympic Games in Sapporo, Japan, and a total of eight Olympic medals.
Kuldja: city in western Uighur Autonomous Region of Sinkiang, China. It is the chief city, agricultural market, and commercial centre of the I-li River valley, which is a principal route from ...
Kuldja, Treaty of: (1851), treaty between China and Russia to regulate trade between the two countries. The treaty was preceded by a gradual Russian advance throughout the 18th century into Kazakhstan.
Kulebaki: city, Nizhegorod oblast (province), western Russia. It lies in the valley of the Tesha River, which is a tributary of the Oka River. The economic base of the city is ...
Kuleshov, Lev Vladimirovich: Soviet film theorist and director who taught that structuring a film by montage (the cutting and editing of film and the juxtaposing of the images) was the most important aspect ...
Kulhwch and Olwen: (c. 1100), Welsh prose work that is one of the earliest-known Arthurian romances. It is a lighthearted tale that skillfully incorporates themes from mythology, folk literature, and history. The earliest ...
Kulikovo, Battle of: (Sept. 8, 1380), military engagement in which the Russians defeated the forces of the Golden Horde, thereby demonstrating the developing independence of the Russian lands from Mongol rule (which had ...
Kulin: ruler of Bosnia from about 1180 as ban, or viceroy, of the king of Hungary.
Kulinism: in Hinduism, caste and marriage rules said to have been introduced by Raja Vallala Sena of Bengal (reigned 1158-69); the name derives from the Sanskrit word kulina, "of good family." ...
Kullu: city, central Himachal Pradesh state, northwestern India. The city lies on the Beas River about 60 miles (100 km) north of Shimla, the state capital, with which it is linked ...
Kulpe, Oswald: German psychologist and philosopher regarded as the guiding force behind the experimental study of thought processes identified with the Wurzburg school of psychology.
Kultepe: (Turkish: "Ash Hill"), ancient mound covering the Bronze Age city of Kanesh, in central Turkey. Kultepe was known to archaeologists during the 19th century, but it began to attract particular ...
Kulturkampf: (German: "culture struggle"), the bitter struggle (c. 1871-87) on the part of the German chancellor Otto von Bismarck to subject the Roman Catholic church to state controls. The term came ...
Kulturkreis: concept of a culture complex as an entity that develops from a centre of origin and becomes diffused over large areas of the world. It was the central concept of ...
Kulunda Steppe: lowland constituting the extreme southern extension of the West Siberian Plain. Most of the steppe lies in Russia, but its western part extends into Kazakstan. Roughly triangular in shape, with ...
Kulyab: city, southwestern Tajikistan. It lies in the valley of the Iakhsu River and at the foot of the Khazratishokh Range, 125 miles (200 km) southeast of Dushanbe. The city was ...
Kum River: river, southwestern South Korea. It rises east of Chonju in North Cholla do (province) and flows north-northwest through North Ch'ungch'ong do, where it turns southwest and empties into the Yellow ...
Kuma-Manych Depression: geologic depression in western Russia that divides the Russian Plain (north) from the North Caucasus foreland (south). It is often regarded as the natural boundary between Europe and Asia.
Kumagaya: city, Saitama ken (prefecture), Honshu, Japan, on the Ara River. It was named for the 12th-century warrior Kumagai Naozane. The city was a post town and silk ...