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Ulyanovsk ... Unification Church

Ulyanovsk: oblast (province), western Russia. The oblast lies athwart the middle Volga River, which is there transformed into a broad lake by the downstream Samara dam. The larger western part lies ...
Uman: city, Cherkasy oblast (province), central Ukraine, on the Umanka River. It dates from the Middle Ages and was incorporated in 1795. Uman is an industrial centre specializing in scientific instruments, ...
umangite: a copper selenide (Cu₃Se₂) occurring only in small grains or fine granular aggregates with other copper minerals of the sulfide group. The mineral is bluish black with a reddish tint. ...
Umar I: the second Muslim caliph (from 634), under whom Arab armies conquered Mesopotamia and Syria and began the conquest of Iran and Egypt.
Umar ibn Abi Rabi'ah: full name 'umar Ibn 'abd Allah Ibn Abi Rabi'ah Al-makhzumi one of the greatest early Arabic poets.
Umar II: pious and respected caliph who attempted to preserve the integrity of the Muslim Umayyad caliphate (661-750) by emphasizing religion and a return to the original principles of the Islamic faith.
Umar Tal: West African Tukulor leader who, after launching a jihad (holy war) in 1854, established a Muslim realm, the Tukulor empire, between the upper Senegal and Niger rivers (in what is ...
Umari, al-: in full Shihab Ad-din Ahmad Ibn Fadl Allah Al-'umari scholar and writer whose works on the administration of the Mamluk dominions of Egypt and Syria became standard sources for Mamluk ...
Umayyad Dynasty: first great Muslim dynasty to rule the Empire of the Caliphate (AD 661-750), sometimes referred to as the Arab kingdom (reflecting traditional Muslim disapproval of the secular nature of the ...
Umberto I: duke of Savoy and king of Italy who led his country out of its isolation and into the Triple Alliance with Austria-Hungary and Germany. He supported nationalistic and imperialistic policies ...
Umberto II: prince of Savoy and briefly king of Italy in 1946 until he was forced to abdicate after a republican form of government was approved in a general referendum.
umbilical cord: narrow cord of tissue that connects a developing embryo, or fetus, with the placenta (the extra-embryonic tissues responsible for providing nourishment and other life-sustaining functions). In the human fetus, the ...
umbra: that part of a shadow area over which all light from a given source is excluded. The shadow from a point source of illumination is essentially all umbra, but that ...
umbrella: a portable, hand-held device that is used for protection against rain and sunlight. The modern umbrella consists of a circular fabric or plastic screen stretched over hinged ribs that radiate ...
umbrella pine: (Sciadopitys verticillata), coniferous evergreen tree native to Japan, the only member of the genus Sciadopitys of the deciduous cypress family (Taxodiaceae). Although slow growing, it may reach a height of ...
umbrella plant: any of several unrelated but similarly leaved plants. Cyperus alternifolius (family Cyperaceae), also called umbrella palm and umbrella sedge, is widely cultivated in water gardens and as a potted plant. ...
umbrellabird: any of three species of cotingas (family Cotingidae, order Passeriformes) of tropical American forests. They are notable for their unique, umbrella-like crest and for the pendant suspended from the throat, ...
Umbri: ancient pre-Etruscan people who gradually concentrated in Umbria (in central Italy) in response to Etruscan and Gallic pressure. By about 400 BC the inhabitants of this area spoke an Indo-European ...
Umbria: region, central Italy, including the provinces of Perugia and Terni, with an area of 3,265 square miles (8,456 square km). It lies roughly equidistant between Rome (south) and Florence (north). ...
Umbrian language: one of the ancient Italic languages closely related to Oscan and Volscian and more distantly related to Latin and Faliscan. Umbrian was spoken in central Italy, probably only in the ...
Umbriel: one of the major satellites of the planet Uranus. It orbits the planet at a distance of 266,300 km (165,110 miles). Umbriel has an orbital period of 4.144 days. Its ...
Umbrisol: one of the 30 soil groups in the classification system of the Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO). Umbrisols are characterized by a surface layer that is rich in humus but ...
Umea: town and capital of Vasterbotten lan (county), northeastern Sweden. It lies on the left bank of the Umea River near the Gulf of Bothnia. It has long been an educational ...
Umehara Ryuzaburo: Western-style Japanese painter whose vibrant colours, dynamic brushstrokes, and liberated spirit had a strong impact on young Japanese painters.
Umfolozi Game Reserve: wild animal sanctuary in northern KwaZulu/Natal province, South Africa. The reserve lies southwest of the Hluhluwe Game Reserve, about 35 miles (56 km) inland from the Indian Ocean. It was ...
umiak: boat used by the Greenland and later by the Alaskan Eskimos for transport. It was called the woman's boat, as opposed to the kayak, the men's hunting and fishing boat.
Umlazi: urban area, southeastern KwaZulu-Natal province, South Africa. It lies along the south bank of the Mlazi (Umlazi) River and adjoins the city of Durban on the southwest. The present site ...
Umm al-Qaywayn: constituent emirate of the United Arab Emirates, on the Arabian Peninsula facing the Persian Gulf. The second smallest in area and the least populous of the federation's seven emirates, Umm ...
Umm Kulthum: Egyptian singer, who mesmerized Arab audiences from the Persian Gulf to Morocco for half a century. She was one of the most famous Arab singers and public personalities in the ...
Umniati River: river, tributary of the Zambezi River in north-central Zimbabwe. It has its source in the Daramumbe Range on the main watershed north of Chivhu. Flowing northwest for 325 miles (520 ...
umrah: the "minor pilgrimage" undertaken by Muslims whenever they enter Mecca. It is also meritorious, though optional, for Muslims residing in Mecca. Its similarity to the major and obligatory Islamic pilgrimage ...
Umtata: town, Eastern Cape province, South Africa. It was the capital of Transkei, a nominally independent but not internationally recognized southern African republic that was reincorporated into South Africa in 1994. ...
Umuahia: town, capital of Abia state, southern Nigeria. It lies along the railroad from Port Harcourt to Enugu. It is an agricultural market centre and (since 1916) collecting point on the ...
Umvukwe Range: mountain range in northern Zimbabwe, extending about 100 miles (160 km) north from the Hunyani River and rising to a high point of 5,748 feet (1,752 m). The range forms ...
Una: city, southwestern Himachal Pradesh state, northern India. It lies along the Soan River at an elevation of 1,815 feet (550 m), about 60 miles (95 km) northwest of Simla, the ...
Una, The: American publication, founded by Paulina W. Davis in 1853, that was widely recognized as the first periodical of the women's rights movement. Though several similar journals had appeared the previous ...
Unaka Mountains: segments of the Blue Ridge and Appalachian mountain systems in the southeastern United States. They extend from southwestern Virginia along the Tennessee-North Carolina border into northern Georgia. The main ridges ...
Unamuno, Miguel de: educator, philosopher, and author whose essays had considerable influence in early 20th-century Spain.
Unanimism: French literary movement based on the psychological concept of group consciousness and collective emotion and the need for the poet to merge with this transcendent consciousness. Founded by Jules Romains ...
Unas: last king of the 5th dynasty (c. 2465-c. 2325 BC) in Egypt, the first pharaoh to inscribe the interior of his pyramid with religious and magical texts known as Pyramid ...
unau: either of two species of tree-dwelling mammals also known as two-toed sloths. See sloth.
uncertainty principle: statement, articulated (1927) by the German physicist Werner Heisenberg, that the position and the velocity of an object cannot both be measured exactly, at the same time, even in theory. ...
uncial: in calligraphy, ancient majuscular book hand characterized by simple, rounded strokes. It apparently originated in the 2nd century AD when the codex form of book developed along with the growing ...
Uncle Sam: popular U.S. symbol usually associated with a cartoon figure having long white hair and chin whiskers and dressed in a swallow-tailed coat, vest, tall hat, and striped trousers. His appearance ...
unconscious: the complex of mental activities within an individual that proceed without his awareness. Sigmund Freud, the founder of psychoanalysis, stated that such unconscious processes may affect a person's behaviour even ...
Undenominational Fellowship of Christian Churches and Churches of Christ: autonomous Protestant churches in the United States that were formerly associated primarily with the Disciples of Christ. These churches refused to become part of the restructured Christian Church (Disciples of ...
underground film: motion picture made and distributed outside the commercial film industry, usually as an artistic expression of its maker, who often acts as its producer, director, writer, photographer, and editor. Underground ...
Underground Railroad: in the United States, a system existing in the Northern states before the Civil War by which escaped slaves from the South were secretly helped by sympathetic Northerners, in defiance ...
Underhill, Evelyn: English mystical poet and author of such works as Mysticism (1911), The Mystic Way (1913), and Worship (1936), which helped establish mystical theology as a respectable discipline among contemporary intellectuals.
Underhill, John: British-American colonial military officer, privateer, and magistrate.
undersea cable: assembly of conductors enclosed by an insulating sheath and laid on the ocean floor for the transmission of messages. Undersea cables for transmitting telegraph signals antedated the invention of the ...
undersea exploration: the investigation and description of the ocean waters and the seafloor and of the Earth beneath.
undertow: a strong seaward bottom current returning the water of broken waves back out to sea. There is in fact no such current in a gross sense, for the overall flow ...
underwater diving: swimming done underwater either with a minimum of equipment, as in skin diving (free diving) or with a scuba (abbreviation of self-contained underwater-breathing apparatus) or an Aqua-Lung. Competitive underwater diving ...
Underwood, Francis Henry: American author and lawyer who became a founder of The Atlantic Monthly in order to further the antislavery cause.
Underwood, Oscar W: U.S. congressman from Alabama (1895-1927) who drafted the Underwood Tariff Act of 1913.
undine: mythological figure of European tradition, a water nymph who becomes human when she falls in love with a man but is doomed to die if he is unfaithful to her. ...
Undset, Sigrid: Norwegian novelist who received the Nobel Prize for Literature in 1928.
unemployment: the condition of one who is capable of working, actively seeking work, but unable to find any work. It is important to note that to be considered unemployed a person ...
unemployment insurance: a form of social insurance (q.v.) designed to compensate certain categories of workers for unemployment that is involuntary and short-term. Unemployment insurance programs were created primarily to provide financial assistance ...
Unequal Treaty: in Chinese history, any of a series of treaties in which China was forced to concede many of its territorial and sovereignty rights. They were negotiated during the 19th and ...
UNESCO: specialized agency of the United Nations (UN) that was created in 1946 to promote international collaboration in education, science, and culture. Its permanent headquarters are in Paris, France.
uneven parallel bars: gymnastics apparatus developed in the 1930s and used in women's competition. The length and construction are the same as for the parallel bars used in men's gymnastics. The top bar ...
Ungaretti, Giuseppe: Italian poet, founder of the Hermetic movement (see Hermeticism) that brought about a reorientation in modern Italian poetry.
Ungava: peninsular section of northern Quebec province, Canada, bounded by the Hudson Strait (north), Ungava Bay and Labrador (east), the Eastmain River (south), and the Hudson Bay (west). Physically, Ungava is ...
Ungava Bay: inlet off the Hudson Strait, on the northeast coast of Nord-du-Quebec region, northern Quebec province, Canada. The bay is approximately 200 miles (320 km) long, 160 miles (260 km) wide ...
Ungava-Quebec Crater: geologically young crater of meteoritic origin located in the northwestern part of the Ungava Peninsula, northern Quebec province, Canada. First recognized as an impact structure in 1950, the crater is ...
Unggi: city, extreme northeastern North Korea. It lies 16 miles (26 km) southwest of the estuary of the Tumen River, which forms North Korea's boundary with Russia. Until Unggi's port was ...
ungulate: formerly, any hoofed mammal. Although the term is now used more broadly in formal classification as the grandorder Ungulata, in common usage it was widely applied to a diverse group ...
UNICEF: special program of the United Nations (UN), devoted to aiding national efforts to improve the health, nutrition, education, and general welfare of children.
unicorn: mythological animal resembling a horse or a kid with a single horn on its forehead. The unicorn appeared in early Mesopotamian artworks, and it also was referred to in the ...
unicorn beetle: (Dynastes tityus), a large, easily recognized insect of the Dynastinae subfamily of the beetle family Scarabaeidae (order Coleoptera). The unicorn beetle is closely related to the rhinoceros and elephant beetles. ...
unicorn fish: any of certain exclusively marine fishes belonging to the genus Naso, in the family Acanthuridae (order Perciformes), occurring in the tropical Indo-Pacific region. The 17 species are herbivorous algae eaters. ...
unicorn plant: any North American herb of the family Martyniaceae of the flowering plant order Scrophulariales, and particularly Proboseidea louisianica. There are nine species of unicorn plants, most having large purple or ...
unidentified flying object: any aerial object or optical phenomenon not readily explainable to the observer. UFO's became a major subject of interest with the developments in aeronautics and astronautics following World War II.
Unification Church: religious movement founded in Pusan, South Korea, by the Reverend Sun Myung Moon in 1954. Known for its mass weddings, the church teaches a unique Christian theology. It has generated ...