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The History Channel - Encyclopedia Category: History and Culture > History Date & country: 02/12/2007, UK Words: 25833

National Public Radio
US radio network, established as a private, non-profit organization in 1970 with headquarters in Washington, DC. It provides news and cultural programmes to public non-commercial or educational...

National Reconnaissance Office
US agency in charge of spy satellites, established 1960, although its existence was not officially admitted until 1992. It has its headquarters in Chantilly, Virginia. Estimated...

National Rifle Association
US gun organization, the largest pressure group in the USA, with about 3.6 million members (2000). The NRA opposes any major restriction on ownership of firearms. It is very influential among...

National Savings
Any of several government savings schemes in the UK, including the National Savings Bank (NSB), which operates through the Post Office; National Savings Certificates; and British...

national schools
In Britain, schools founded from 1811 by the National Society for the Education of the Poor as an Anglican alternative to the nonconformist schools or dissenting academies. The schools used older...

national security adviser
In the USA, the head of the National Security Council, which coordinates the defence and foreign policy of the USA. The national security adviser also acts as assistant to the US president on...

National Security Council
US federal executive council that was established under the National Security Act of 1947. The statutory membership includes the president, vice-president, and secretaries of state and defence....

national security directive
In the USA, secret decree issued by the president that can establish national policy and commit federal funds without the knowledge of Congress, under the National...

national service
Conscription into the armed services in peacetime. ...

national socialism
Official name for the Nazi movement in Germany; see also fascism. ...

National Trust
British trust founded in 1895 for the preservation of land and buildings of historic interest or beauty, incorporated by an act of Parliament in 1907. It is the largest private landowner in Britain....

National Union of Journalists
British trade union of journalists, the largest association of its kind in the world, with over 25,000 members (1998) in England, Scotland, Wales, and Nor ...

nationalism
In politics, a movement that consciously aims to unify a nation, create a state, or free it from foreign or imperialistic rule. Nationalist movements became an important factor in European politics...

nationalization
Policy of bringing a country's essential services and industries under public ownership. It was pursued, for example, by the UK Labour government 1945-51. Assets in the hands of foreign...

Nations, Battle of the
Defeat of Napoleon I outside the town of Leipzig, Saxony by a coalition of Britain, Prussia, Russia, Austria, and Sweden 16-18 October 1813. Napoleon offered strong resistance but was greatly...

Native American
Alternative term for American Indian. ...

Native South American religions
Beliefs and myths of the Native South Americans. Many have the concept of a supreme force or god, but this force is often so remote or great that it is not worshipped directly. There are many...

nativity
Christian festival celebrating a birth:Christmas has been celebrated on 25 December from AD 336 in memory of the birth of Jesus in Bethlehem;Nativity of the Virgin Mary is celebrated on 8 September...

NATO
Abbreviation for North Atlantic Treaty Organization. ...

Natsir, Muhammad
(1908-1993) Indonesian politician, a moderate nationalist; prime minister 1950-51. A prominent cabinet minister involved in negotiations with the Dutch for independence after World War II, Natsir became the...

Nattier, Jean-Marc
(1685-1766) French painter. He painted history pictures and portraits, among them Louis XV's daughters, represented in the rococo fashion in various allegorical roles. He also worked for Peter the Great....

natural justice
The concept that there is an inherent quality in law that compares favourably with arbitrary action by a government. It is largely associated with the idea of the rule of law. For natural justice to...

natural law
The idea that basic fundamental laws exist in nature that are common to all humankind. Natural law is distinct from positive law, which is those laws imposed on people by people. ...

natural philosophy
Former name for physics, used in the days before physics was separated from philosophy and became a discipline in its own right. The term began to fall out of use in the late 18th century. ...

Natural Step
Environmental organization founded in Sweden in 1989, with branches in the USA, Australia, and the Netherlands. NS focuses on industrialists and policymakers, encouraging them to cooperate towards...

natural theology
In Christianity, learning about God from creation, using reason alone. In Greek and Roman philosophy, it refers to discourse on the `divine` nature of things, rather than their accidental or...

naturalism
In art, the accurate, factual representation of people, places, and objects. Taken to the extreme, the most realistic painting is trompe l'oeil art, which intends to `trick the eye` into...

nature worship
Religious adoration of the powers of nature, especially when personifed. The worship of nature as imbued with a generalized divine spirit is pantheism. Fertility cults, animism, and the ancient...

Natyasastra
Ancient Indian (Sanskrit) treatise on the theatre, dating from c. 500 AD, dealing with composition, production, theatre buildings, and performance, and propounding a theory of...

Natzler, Gertrud (Amon)
(1908-71) and Otto (1908) Austrian-born ceramicists. Natzler vessels have richly textured surfaces - some distinctively pock-marked - often painterly in colour but never with figural imagery; Otto would develop over...

Naucratis
City of Greek traders in ancient Egypt, in the Nile delta, rediscovered by the British archaeologist Flinders Petrie 1884. ...

Naudé, Gabriel
(1600-1653) French scholar and librarian. He was librarian to the cardinals Bagni and Barberini, and later to Queen Christina of Sweden. His main work was the formation of the Mazarin Library, which was open to...

Naughton, Bill
(1910-1992) Irish-born author and playwright. His best-known collections of short stories include Late Night on Watling Street (1959) and The Goalkeeper's Revenge (1961), both collections firmly set in the...

naumachia
Imitation sea fight staged in a Roman amphitheatre, which was flooded for the occasion, or in an artificial basin (also called a naumachia). The combatants were prisoners of war or convicts, who...

Naumann, Friedrich
(1860-1919) German politician and writer. He was a founding member of the Democratic party and its first chairman in 1919. His influential book Mitteleuropa/Central Europe (1915) urged a union of Germany and...

Naumburg Convention
A meeting of German princes and Protestant theologians in 1561 designed to achieve doctrinal unity in accordance with the Confession of Augsburg. It failed because the Lutherans insisted on the...

Naunton, Robert
(1563-1635) English politician and writer. He was made master of requests by James I in 1603 and secretary of state in 1618. He is remembered for his Fragmenta Regalia, or Observations on the Late Q. Elizabeth,...

Nauplius
In Greek mythology, a king of Euboea and father of Palamedes. To avenge the death of his son he watched for the Greek fleet returning from Troy and, using flares, caused many of its...

Nauru
Island country in Polynesia, southwest Pacific, west of Kiribati. Government The constitution dates from independence in 1968. It provides for a single-chamber parliament of 18 members, elected by...

Navagiero, Andrea
(1483-1529) Italian scholar, historian, poet, and diplomat. A central figure in Venetian public life, he edited Latin texts for the Aldine press, worked as librarian to St Mark's Basilica, and was a member of...

Navaho
Alternative name for a member of the American Indian Navajo people. ...

Navaho
Alternative spelling of Navajo. ...

Navajo
Member of an American Indian people, who migrated from Canada to southwest USA (Arizona, New Mexico, and Utah) in about AD 1000. They are related to the Apache, and speak an Athabaskan language,...

Navajo code talkers
Members of the American Indian Navajo people who served in the US Marines during World War II by transmitting secure communications. The Navajo code talkers took part in every assault the US Marines...

Navan Fort
Enormous circular earthwork or hill fort, 4 km/2.5 mi west of Armagh, Northern Ireland; capital and seat of the ancient kings of Ulster. Modern study of the area has uncovered evidence of Mesolithic...

Navaratri
In Hindu tradition, a nine-day festival for the worship of Durga, goddess of bravery and the wife or shakti (female attribute) of Shiva. It leads to the festival of Dussehra (`the tenth`). The...

Navarino, Battle of
During the Greek war of liberation, destruction on 20 October 1827 of a joint Turkish-Egyptian fleet by the combined fleets of the British, French, and Russians under Vice-Admiral Edward...

Navarre, Kingdom of
Former kingdom comprising the Spanish province of Navarre and part of what is now the French département of Basses-Pyrénées. It resisted the conquest of the Moors and was independent until it...

nave
In architecture, the central area of a church extending from the entrance to the crossing, if any; otherwise, up to the altar. It was developed by the early Christian builders out...

Navigation Acts
In British history, a series of acts of Parliament passed from 1381 to protect English shipping from foreign competition and to ensure monopoly trading between Britain and its colonies. The last was...

navy
Fleet of ships, usually a nation's warships and the organization to maintain them. In the early 1990s, the UK had a force of small carriers, destroyers, frigates, and submarines. ...

Naxalite
Member of an Indian extremist communist movement named after the town of Naxalbari, western Bengal, where a peasant uprising was suppressed 1967. The movement was founded...

Nayar
Member of a people living on the Malabar Coast of India. Traditionally the women lived together and brought up their children as members of a joint family, taravad. Each woman might have several...

Nayler, James
(c. 1617-1660) English Quaker. A persuasive preacher, he travelled through England gathering followers. In 1656 he allowed some of his followers to lead him into Bristol as Christ...

Nazarbayev, Nursultan Abishevich
(1940) Kazakh politician, president of Kazakhstan from 1990. A `reform communist`, Nazarbayev has pursued policies which encourage the development of a free-market economy and Western investment in...

Nazarenes
Group of German and Austrian artists working mainly in Rome in the early 19th century, who aimed to revive religious art by turning to medieval and Renaissance models. The group first formed in...

Nazarite
Hebrew under a vow to God to observe certain rules, including not to cut his hair, drink wine, or have contact with dead bodies. Some took the vow for life, others for only a certain period. Samson...

Nazi
Member of the Nationalsozialistische Deutsche Arbeiterpartei, usually abbreviated to the Nazi Party. The party was based on the ideology of Nazism. ...

Nazi-Soviet pact
Another name for the Ribbentrop-Molotov pact. ...

Nazimuddin, Khwaja
(1894-1964) Second governor general of Pakistan 1948-51, successor to Muhammad Ali Jinnah. He resigned in 1951 in order to become prime minister after the assassination of Nawabzada Liaquat Ali Khan. His...

Nazism
Ideology based on racism, nationalism, and the supremacy of the state over the individual. The German Nazi party, the Nationalsozialistische Deutsche Arbeiterpartei (National Socialist German...

Ndebele, Njabulo (Simakahle)
(1948) South African writer and critic who, despite a relatively modest literary output, has had a significant impact on South African writing. In the 1980s he published a series of highly influential...

Ne Win
(1911-2002) Myanmar (Burmese) politician, prime minister 1958-60, ruler from 1962 to 1974, president 1974-81, and chair until 1988 of the ruling Burma Socialist Programme Party (BSPP). His domestic...

Neagle, Anna
(1904-1986) English actor. She was made a star by her husband Herbert Wilcox (1890-1977), a producer and director. Her films include Nell Gwyn (1934), Victoria the Great (1937), and Odette (1950). She was...

Neale, John Ernest
(1890-1975) British historian, He was an authority on Elizabethan history and has had considerable influence on later scholars working in this field. His biography Queen Elizabeth was awarded the James Tait...

Neale, John Mason
(1818-1866) Anglican cleric. He wrote or translated over 700 hymns, as well as novels and Church histories. Among the ancient and medieval hymns he translated was `Jerusalem, the Golden`. Shortly after...

Neander, Johann August Wilhelm
(1789-1850) German theologian and historian. He was professor at Berlin from 1813, where he lectured on church history, ethics, and systematic theology. His principal work is the General History of the...

Neanderthal
Hominid of the Mid-Late Palaeolithic, named after the Neander Tal (valley) near Düsseldorf, Germany, where a skeleton was found in 1856. Homo sapiens neanderthalensis lived from about 150,000 to...

Neapolis
Ancient name for the southwestern Italian port of Naples. ...

Neapolitan Academy
Name given to the tradition of humanist coteries at Naples. An example of an informal academy, its first manifestation in the 1440s centred on the scholars at the court of Alfonso V the Manganimous,...

Neave, Airey Middleton Sheffield
(1916-1979) British intelligence officer and Conservative member of Parliament 1953-79. He was a close adviser to Conservative Party leader (later prime minister) Margaret Thatcher. During World War II he...

Nebo
Biblical name for the Babylonian and Assyrian god Nabu. ...

necessity
In economics, good or service whose consumption is seen as essential in order to maintain a minimum standard of living in a society; for example, food and shelter. ...

Necker, Jacques
(1732-1804) French politician. As finance minister 1776-81, he attempted reforms, and was dismissed through Queen Marie Antoinette's influence. Recalled in 1788, he persuaded Louis XVI to summon the States...

necromancy
Conjuring up the dead for divination or other purposes. In ancient times this was believed to be possible among many peoples. In Homer's Odyssey the shade of Tiresias is brought up and consulted by...

necropolis
Large cemetery or burial ground. Originally, the name was applied to cemeteries attached to ancient cities, in particular a suburb of Alexandria, Egypt. Ancient examples are found in Asia Minor,...

nectar
In Greek mythology, the drink of the gods. Their food was ambrosia. ...

NEDC
Abbreviation for National Economic Development Council. ...

Nedim
(1681-1730) Turkish poet. One of the greatest lyric poets of the Ottoman Empire, Nedim wrote graceful ghazals and qasidas, excelling especially in the composition of songs. Nedim was trained as a religious...

Needham, James Joseph
(1926) US accountant and financier. Named chairman and chief executive officer of the New York Stock Exchange in 1972, the first chosen from outside the industry, he served until a boardroom coup toppled...

Neer, Aert van der
(1603-1677) Dutch landscape painter. He was the best of the Dutch painters of moonlit landscapes, which he developed from prototypes by Adam Elsheimer and Peter Paul Rubens. He also painted winter landscapes,...

Neff, Morris
(1871-1952) US governor and educator. An attorney, he served in the Texas house of representatives (Democrat, 1901-05), becoming Speaker in 1903. As governor of Texas (1921-25), he founded Texas...

negligence
In law, doing some act that a `prudent and reasonable` person would not do, or omitting to do some act that such a person would do. Negligence may arise in respect of a person's duty towards an...

negotiating rights
The situation where the management of a firm agrees to recognize a representative body, usually a trade union, as the sole negotiator on behalf of the people it represents. ...

negotiation
Bargaining over an issue. In industrial relations, trade unions and employers are likely to negotiate the pay and conditions of workers in the process of collective bargaining. In sales, a company...

Negri, Ada
(1870-1945) Italian poet. Her first book of verses, Fatalità/Destiny, was published 1892 and her success was rapid. Her early poetry was that of an authentic daughter...

Negrito
Member of any of several peoples living on various islands in Southeast Asia. The Negritos are long-established inhabitants of the region and have affinities with Australoid groups. They include...

Negro
Term formerly used to refer to the indigenous people of Africa south of the Sahara, today distributed around the world. The term generally preferred today is black. ...

Negroid
Former racial classification, based on physical features, used to describe the indigenous peoples of sub-Saharan Africa and some of the nearby islands in the Indian Ocean and the western Pacific....

Negroponte
Italian name for the Greek Island of Euboea. ...

Neguib, Muhammad
(1901-1984) Egyptian army general and politician; prime minister from 1952 and president 1953-54. After a distinguished military career, he led the coup of the Free Officers that ended King Farouk's reign in...

Nehemiah
Hebrew governor of Judaea under Persian rule. He rebuilt Jerusalem's walls 444 BC, and made religious and social reforms. ...

Nehru Report
Constitution drafted for India in 1928. After Indian nationalists rejected the Simon Commission in 1927, an all-party committee was set up, chaired by Motilal Nehru (1861-1931), to map out a...

Nehru, Jawaharlal
(1889-1964) Indian nationalist politician, prime minister from 1947 until his death. Before the partition (the division of British India into India and Pakistan), he led the socialist wing of the nationalist...

Nehru, Motilal
(1861-1931) Indian nationalist leader, lawyer, and journalist. He became a follower of Gandhi in 1919, founded Allahabad's Independent newspaper, and became the first president of the reconstructed Indian...

neighbourhood watch
Local crime-prevention scheme. Under the supervision of police, groups of residents agree to increase watchfulness in order to prevent crimes such as burglary and vandalism in their area. The...

Neile, Richard
(1562-1640) English prelate, archbishop of York from 1631. He was bishop of Rochester 1608-10 and appointed William Laud as his chaplain. In 1610 he was translated to Lichfield, removing to Lincoln in 1614,...

Neilson, Julia Emilie
(1868-1957) English actor. She spent five years with Herbert Beerbohm Tree at the Haymarket Theatre, London, where she met and married the actor Fred Terry; the couple often acted together. ...

Neiman, LeRoy
(1927) US illustrator. Recognized as the consummate sports artist of the 20th century. In 1972 he was named the official artist for the Olympic games. He was designated the outstanding sports artist in the...

Neith
In Egyptian mythology, creator-goddess whose symbol is crossed arrows over a shield. She was one of the four protectors of sarcophagi and Canopic jars. Her chief cult centre was at Sais. ...