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  • National Aluminum Corporation (American company)
    National Steel diversified into aluminum manufacturing with the acquisition of Hastings Aluminum Products in 1968 and Pittsburgh Aluminum Alloys in 1970 and the creation of National Aluminum Corporation. In 1984 it formed a new computer-data and information-services subsidiary, GENIX. The company also engaged in the distribution of pharmaceuticals, petroleum products, and other goods....
  • National American Woman Suffrage Association (American organization)
    American organization created in 1890 by the merger of the two major rival women’s rights organizations—the National Woman Suffrage Association and the American Woman Suffrage Association—after 21 years of independent operation. NAWSA was initially headed by past executives of the two merged groups, including Elizabeth Cady Stanto...
  • National Amusements Inc. (American company)
    ...Latin School and went on to attend Harvard College (B.A., 1944) and Harvard Law School (L.L.B., 1947). After practicing law in Washington, D.C., and Boston, Redstone joined his father’s company, National Amusements Inc. (NAI), in 1954 and in 1967 became its president and CEO. His leadership transformed NAI into one of the largest movie theatre chains in the United States. Redstone built ...
  • National Aniline & Chemical Company (American company)
    ...of several chemical manufacturers; the Barrett Company (founded 1903), supplying coal-tar chemicals and roofing; General Chemical Company (founded 1899), specializing in industrial acids; National Aniline & Chemical Company (founded 1917), producing dyes; Semet-Solvay Company (founded 1894), manufacturing coke and its by-products; and Solvay Process Company (founded 1881),......
  • national anthem
    hymn or song expressing patriotic sentiment and either governmentally authorized as an official national hymn or holding that position in popular feeling. The oldest national anthem is Great Britain’s “God Save the Queen,” which was described as a national anthem in 1825, although it had been popular as a patriotic song and used on occasions of royal ceremo...
  • National Antiquities, Museum of (museum, Saint-Germain-en-Laye, France)
    ...into the Stone, Bronze, and Iron ages). This museum was merged with three others (of ethnography, antiquities, and numismatics) in 1892 to form the National Museum of Denmark. In France the Museum of National Antiquities opened at Saint-Germain-en-Laye late in the 18th century. It still acts as a national archaeological repository, as does the State Historical Museum in Stockholm, which......
  • National Aquarium (aquarium, Washington, District of Columbia, United States)
    oldest public aquarium in the United States. Originally built at Woods Hole, Mass., in 1873, the aquarium was relocated to a site in Washington, D.C., in 1888. Since 1932 it has been located in the basement of the U.S. Department of Commerce building in Washington....
  • National Aquarium in Baltimore (aquarium, Baltimore, Maryland, United States)
    one of the largest public aquariums in the United States. The aquarium, which opened in 1981 in the Inner Harbor area of Baltimore, Md., was financed largely by the city but was designated a “national” aquarium by the U.S. Congress. Of the more than 10,000 marine and freshwater animals maintained by the aquarium, many are marine mammals, birds, reptiles, and amphib...
  • National Archaeological Museum (museum, Athens, Greece)
    in Athens, museum of ancient Greek art, containing probably the finest collection of Greek antiquities in the world. The museum was erected in 1866–89 and extended in 1925–39, when an additional wing was built. The holdings include sculpture, bronzes, pottery, jewelry, and artifacts from all parts of Greece; they range in date from the Mycenaean period to the Hellenistic Age....
  • National Archaeological Museum (museum, Naples, Italy)
    ...in the National Museum in Taranto provides one of the most important insights into the history of Magna Graecia, while the archaeological collections in the Roman National Museum in Rome and in the National Archaeological Museum in Naples are considered among the best in the world. The same may be said of the Etruscan collection in the National Archaeological Museum of Umbria in Perugia, the......
  • National Archery Association (American organization)
    ...founded in 1828. In the early days the sport was, as in England, a popular upper- and middle-class recreation. In the 1870s many archery clubs sprang up, and in 1879 eight of them formed the National Archery Association of the United States. In 1939 the National Field Archery Association of the United States was established to promote hunting, roving, and field archery. The number of......
  • National Archives (museum, Washington, District of Columbia, United States)
    ...institution for state archives but has a series of important repositories, united under the ministry of the interior, which reflect the earlier divisions of the country. In the United States the National Archives was established in 1934 to house the retired records of the national government; the Federal Records Act of 1950 authorized the establishment also of “intermediate”......
  • National Archives of Mali (museum, Bamako, Mali)
    The National Archives of Mali and the National Library are located in Bamako, as is the Municipal Library; the Ahmed Baba Institute, a centre that houses and preserves a large collection of historical Arabic and African manuscripts, is located in Timbuktu. These institutions suffer from lack of funds and are often closed. The civilian government has sought outside funding for these cultural......
  • National Army Museum (museum, London, United Kingdom)
    museum of the British army. Established in 1960 at the Royal Military Academy, Sandhurst, it has occupied purpose-built premises since 1971 on Royal Hospital Road, Chelsea, London....
  • National Army of Indonesia (Indonesian military)
    Following the Suharto presidency, the armed forces returned to one of their pre-Sukarno names, the National Army of Indonesia (Tentara Nasional Indonesia; TNI), and the police were split into a separate unit. The army, constituting more than three-fourths of the forces, has remained the largest segment of the TNI. Men must be at least 18 years old to join the armed forces; selective compulsory......
  • National Art Gallery (museum, Wellington, New Zealand)
    in Wellington, N.Z., national collection of paintings by New Zealand and European artists and portraits of prominent New Zealand figures. The gallery grew out of the city’s first public art gallery, opened in 1907 by the New Zealand Academy of Fine Arts. The basis for the original collection was a group of paintings purchased in England in 1906–07 and another group purchased at the ...
  • National Art, Gallery of (museum, Caracas, Venezuela)
    museum in Caracas, Venez., containing a variety of international and Venezuelan art, and also possessing fine gardens. It adjoins the Gallery of National Art (Galería de Arte Nacional), one of the few museums in South America founded to show the national cultural identity of the country; opened in 1976, the gallery contains works by more than 40 Venezuelan painters in the contemporary-......
  • National Assembly (Serbian government)
    ...was led by Djordje Petrović, called Karadjordje (“Black George”), a successful pig trader who had served with the Austrians in the war against Turkey in 1787–88. In 1805 a Skupština (Assembly) was summoned, and it submitted a list of proposals to the sultan. The proposals included a number of demands for local autonomy that were unacceptable to the sultan, and...
  • National Assembly (Montenegrin government)
    ...secede from the federation. Montenegro is governed by independent executive, legislative, and judicial branches. The president is the head of state, elected directly for a period of five years. The national assembly of Montenegro has 78 members and is led by a prime minister. Its judicial branch includes a constitutional court composed of five judges with nine-year terms and a supreme court......
  • National Assembly (Pakistan government)
    The National Assembly has 342 members, each of whom serves a five-year term. Of these, 272 seats are filled by direct popular election; 262 are for Muslim candidates, and 10 are for non-Muslims. Of the remaining seats, 60 are reserved for women, who are chosen by the major parties; in 2008 the assembly elected its first female speaker. The Senate has 100 members, each serving a six-year term. A......
  • National Assembly (Malaŵi government)
    ...up to two vice-presidents, all of whom are elected by universal suffrage. The president serves as head of both state and government. The cabinet is appointed by the president. The legislature, the National Assembly, is unicameral; its members are also elected by universal suffrage and serve five-year terms. The 1995 constitution also provided for the creation of an upper legislative chamber,......
  • National Assembly (Thai government)
    ...While almost every government since 1932 has accepted constitutional authority, the country has had 17 constitutions, the most recent drafted in 2007. All of these documents have provided for a National Assembly with a prime minister as head of government. Power is exercised by the bicameral National Assembly, the Council of Ministers, and the courts in accordance with the provisions of the......
  • National Assembly (Zambian government)
    ...on the advice of the Judicial Services Commission. During the president’s absence, his duties are assumed by the vice president. The president also appoints a cabinet from elected members of the National Assembly. The cabinet consists of 25 ministers, 30 deputy ministers (some ministries have 2), and 9 provincial deputy ministers....
  • National Assembly (Chinese history)
    ...Yuan’s emissaries and the revolutionary representatives agreed that the abdication of the Qing and the appointment of Yuan to the presidency of the new republic were to be formally decided by a National Assembly that would be formed. However, this was renounced by Yuan, probably because he hoped to be appointed by the retiring Manchu monarch to organize a new government rather than......
  • National Assembly (Tanzanian government)
    According to the 1984 constitutional amendments, most members (216 in the 1990 election) of the National Assembly are directly elected. Many seats also are allocated to ex-officio, nominated, and indirectly elected members—including those seats reserved for women, representatives of mass organizations, and the president’s nominees. The National Assembly has a term of five years but c...
  • National Assembly (Guyanan government)
    ...republic, involving citizens’ organizations in government. Under the constitution of Oct. 6, 1980, executive power is vested in the president, who leads the majority party in the unicameral National Assembly and holds office for the assembly’s duration. The president appoints the Cabinet, which is responsible to the National Assembly. The minority members of the assembly elect an....
  • National Assembly (Czech history)
    ...Beneš refused to sanction it and resigned (he died three months later). Under a new electoral law and with a single list of candidates, a general election was held on May 30, and the new National Assembly elected Gottwald president. His friend Antonín Zápotocký succeeded him as premier, while the Communist Party itself was headed by Rudolf Slánský.......
  • National Assembly (United Kingdom government)
    ...referendum in September 1997. (A bare majority—50.3 percent—voted in favour of the new assembly on a turnout of only 50 percent of eligible voters.) First convened in May 1999, the National Assembly for Wales was responsible for administering public services and implementing regional policies on education, health care, and economic development, among other areas. Plaid was very......
  • National Assembly (Nicaraguan government)
    ...most of these combatants by 1995. The conflicts between the Recompas and the Recontras gradually receded, and several constitutional reforms were adopted that shifted power from the president to the National Assembly, ended conscription, guaranteed private property rights, and prevented close relatives of the president from serving in the cabinet or succeeding the president. Chamorro’s.....
  • National Assembly (South African government)
    ...interdependence, and interrelationship of the national, provincial, and local spheres of government. The constitution established the bicameral national Parliament. The lower house, or National Assembly, comprises 350 to 400 members who are directly elected to a five-year term through proportional representation. The National Council of Provinces, which replaced the Senate as the......
  • National Assembly (Chadian government)
    ...The president is elected by universal suffrage to a five-year term and is responsible for appointing the prime minister and the Council of Ministers. The legislative branch is served by the National Assembly, comprising members who are directly elected to four-year terms. For administrative purposes, Chad is divided into 28 departments and 1 commune....
  • National Assembly (Bulgarian government)
    In July 1991 the National Assembly adopted a new constitution establishing a parliamentary government and guaranteeing direct presidential elections, separation of powers, and freedom of speech, press, conscience, and religion. New laws allowed for the return of the properties that had been confiscated by the previous communist governments. Other laws aimed at meeting EU standards were passed,......
  • National Assembly (Netherlands government)
    ...influence—were replaced by a unitary republic divided into departments and electoral constituencies that were roughly equal in population, if not in wealth. The representatives elected to the National Assembly (which replaced the historic States General) were not delegates of provincial assemblies by whose decisions they were bound but deputies with full independence of judgment. The......
  • National Assembly (Burundian government)
    ...the president, who is ordinarily elected directly to a five-year term, renewable once. The president appoints the Council of Ministers. There is a bicameral legislature, with power exercised by the National Assembly, which is mandated to comprise 60 percent Hutu and 40 percent Tutsi, and by the Senate, which includes one Hutu and one Tutsi representative from each province, with three seats......
  • National Assembly (Jordanian government)
    The first multiparty general election since 1956 was scheduled for November 1993. In August the king dissolved the 80-member House of Representatives (the lower house of the National Assembly) and announced that the election would be conducted on a one-person-one-vote system rather than on the old “slate” system that allowed voters to cast as many votes as there were representatives....
  • National Assembly (Slovene government)
    ...presidents are popularly elected for a five-year term and can serve two consecutive terms. The head of government is the prime minister, who is normally the leader of the majority party in the National Assembly (lower house of the parliament), with which most legislative authority rests. Of its 90 members, 88 are elected by proportional representation to four-year terms, with the remaining......
  • National Assembly (historical French parliament)
    any of various historical French parliaments or houses of parliament. From June 17 to July 9, 1789, it was the name of the revolutionary assembly formed by representatives of the Third Estate; thereafter (until replaced by the Legislative Assembly on Sept. 30, 1791) its formal name was National Constituent Assembly (Assemblée Nationale Constituante), though popularly the shorter form persis...
  • National Assembly (Cambodian government)
    any of various historical French parliaments or houses of parliament. From June 17 to July 9, 1789, it was the name of the revolutionary assembly formed by representatives of the Third Estate; thereafter (until replaced by the Legislative Assembly on Sept. 30, 1791) its formal name was National Constituent Assembly (Assemblée Nationale Constituante), though popularly the shorter form persis...
  • National Assembly (South Korean government)
    ...is composed of the president, the prime minister, the heads of executive ministries, and ministers without portfolio. The prime minister is appointed by the president and approved by the elected National Assembly....
  • National Assembly (Seychellois government)
    ...amendment created the position of vice president, who is appointed by the president. The president also appoints the Council of Ministers to assist him in an advisory capacity. The legislature, the National Assembly, is unicameral; its members serve five-year terms. The judicial branch consists of Magistrate’s Courts, subordinate to the Supreme Court; the Supreme Court, which has jurisdi...
  • National Assembly (Surinamese government)
    Under the 1987 constitution, legislative power is exercised by an elected 51-member National Assembly, which elects a president and vice president. The president, vice president, and members of the National Assembly serve five-year terms. The president is the chairman of a nonelective, military-influenced Council of State, which ensures that the government’s actions conform to the law. It h...
  • National Assembly (Iraqi government)
    ...provided for a legislative assembly, and—in an effort to garner popular support during the war—elections (the first in postrevolutionary Iraq) were held in June 1980. The new National Assembly convened 10 days later, and subsequent elections were held in 1984 and 1989. Regardless, the Assembly was vested with little power. Only those supporting the Baʿth revolution......
  • National Assembly for Wales (Welsh government)
    ...the striking contradiction of an unelected legislative assembly in a country that prided itself on its traditions of liberal democracy was apparent. Following referenda in Wales and Scotland, the National Assembly for Wales and the Scottish Parliament were established in 1999 and granted powers previously reserved for the central government. Yet, with the exception of political devolution to......
  • National Assembly of People’s Power (Cuban government)
    Under the constitution, legislative authority rests with the National Assembly of People’s Power, whose more than 600 members serve five-year terms. The number of seats in the assembly has grown steadily, corresponding to the population of the provinces and municipalities. The National Assembly in its brief, twice-yearly sessions appoints a 31-member Council of State, which is headed by......
  • National Assembly, Palace of the (building, Lisbon, Portugal)
    ...cable cars, and, in one case, an elevator (the Santa Justa Lift; an iron structure designed by French architect Raoul Mesnier du Ponsard). Just west and north of the heart of Bairro Alto is the Palace of the National Assembly, also known as the Palace of São Bento. Nearby is the official residence of Portugal’s prime minister. Farther west, toward Belém, Necessidades Palace...
  • National Assistance Act (United Kingdom [1946])
    ...of free health insurance and contributory social insurance) but differing from it in important ways. It regularized the de facto nationalization of public assistance, the old Poor Law, in the National Assistance Act of 1946, and in its most controversial move it established the gigantic framework of the National Health Service, which provided free comprehensive medical care for every......
  • National Association (British political group)
    ...Another group, led by Christopher Wyvill, a one-time Anglican clergyman, wanted a moderate reform of the representative system. Wyvill and some of his supporters played with the idea of a national association, an assembly of reformers from each county in Britain, that would exist parallel to Parliament and be superior to it in constitutional zeal. A third small group, led by Charles......
  • National Association for Mental Health (British organization)
    ...boards of hospital administration acting as regional agencies for the Ministry of Health. In the same year, existing privately supported mental-health organizations combined to form the (U.K.) National Association for Mental Health. This voluntary national group provides resident facilities for disturbed persons, offers follow-up services, and trains mental-health personnel, in addition to......
  • National Association for Mental Health (American organization)
    ...of sound information. In New York City less than a year later, on February 19, 1909, Beers led in forming the National Committee for Mental Hygiene, which in turn was instrumental in organizing the National Association for Mental Health in 1950....
  • National Association for Stock Car Auto Racing (sports organization)
    sanctioning body for stock-car racing in North America, founded in 1948 in Daytona Beach, Fla., and responsible for making stock-car racing a widely popular sport in the United States by the turn of the 21st century....
  • National Association for the Advancement of Colored People (American organization)
    interracial American organization created to work for the abolition of segregation and discrimination in housing, education, employment, voting, and transportation; to oppose racism; and to ensure African Americans their constitutional rights. The NAACP was created in 1909 by an interracial group consisting of W.E.B. Du Bois, Ida Bell Wells-Barnett...
  • National Association for the Repeal of Abortion Laws (American organization)
    American organization, founded in 1969 to centralize state abortion-rights efforts and continuing its mission thereafter to protect and promote reproductive freedom. The organization consists of three related entities: NARAL Pro-Choice America, Inc., a nonprofit organization that focuses on defending abortion rights and on making abortions less necessary; NARA...
  • National Association for the Study and Prevention of Tuberculosis (American organization)
    ...the cities, public health clinics are located chiefly in smaller towns and villages. In the United States the first great movement in creating public health clinics resulted in the founding of the National Association for the Study and Prevention of Tuberculosis in 1904. It was the association’s goal to study and prevent tuberculosis by making clinic facilities available for free examina...
  • National Association of Amateur Athletes of America (American sports organization)
    ...York Athletic Club, formed in the 1860s, that placed the sport on a solid footing in the United States. The club held the world’s first indoor meet and helped promote the formation in 1879 of the National Association of Amateur Athletes of America (NAAAA) to conduct national championships. Nine years later the Amateur Athletic Union (AAU) took over as national governing body, amid report...
  • National Association of Audubon Societies (American organization)
    ...York Athletic Club, formed in the 1860s, that placed the sport on a solid footing in the United States. The club held the world’s first indoor meet and helped promote the formation in 1879 of the National Association of Amateur Athletes of America (NAAAA) to conduct national championships. Nine years later the Amateur Athletic Union (AAU) took over as national governing body, amid report...
  • National Association of Base Ball Players (American sports organization)
    In 1854 a revision of the rules prescribed the weight and size of the ball, along with the dimensions of the infield, specifications that have not been significantly altered since that time. The National Association of Base Ball Players was organized in 1857, comprising clubs from New York City and vicinity. In 1859 Washington, D.C., organized a club, and in the next year clubs were formed in......
  • National Association of Chiropodists (American medical organization)
    ...“corn cutters” became a fixture of North American rural life during the 19th century. The National Association of Chiropodists was founded in the United States in 1912 and became the American Podiatric Medical Association in 1983. The term podiatry was coined by M.J. Lewi of New York in 1917....
  • National Association of Colored Graduate Nurses (American organization)
    ...nurse. One of the first black members of the Nurses Associated Alumnae of the United States and Canada (subsequently renamed the American Nurses Association, or ANA), she later joined the National Association of Colored Graduate Nurses (NACGN) and addressed its first annual convention in Boston (1909). The association awarded her life membership in 1911 and elected her its national......
  • National Association of Colored Women (American organization)
    American organization formed at a convention in Washington, D.C., as the product of the merger in 1896 of the National Federation of Afro-American Women and the National League of Colored Women—organizations that had arisen out of the African American women’s club movement. Founders of the NACW included Harriet Tubman, Frances E.W. Harpe...
  • National Association of Congregational Christian Churches (American religious organization)
    association of churches organized in Detroit, Mich., in 1955 by ministers and laymen of Congregational Christian Churches who did not wish to take part in the merger of the Congregational Christian Churches and the Evangelical and Reformed Church that formed the United Church of Christ. The National Association wished to continue the independent tradition of congregationalism. Churches or associa...
  • National Association of Educational Broadcasters (American organization)
    Noncommercial broadcasting has risen in the United States. The National Association of Educational Broadcasters serves educational stations with transcriptions produced by its members and by other domestic as well as foreign broadcasters. The National Public Radio is also largely educational, supported by donations from foundations and other sources. There are radio stations supported by......
  • National Association of Evangelicals (American religious organization)
    fellowship of Evangelical Protestant groups in the United States, founded in 1942 by 147 Evangelical leaders. It embraces some 50 denominations, many independent religious organizations, local churches, groups of churches, and individual Christians. All members must subscribe to a Statement of Faith that requires belief in the Bible “as the inspired, the only infallible, authoritative word ...
  • National Association of Free Will Baptists (American religious organization)
    association of Baptist churches organized in Nashville, Tennessee, U.S., in 1935. It traces its history back to Free Will, or Arminian, Baptists in the 18th century. These Baptists believed in free will, free grace, and free salvation, in contrast to most Baptists, who were Calvinists (i.e., who believed that Christ died only for those predestined to be saved)...
  • National Association of Intercollegiate Athletics (American organization)
    ...brand of football. The National Association of Intercollegiate Basketball, created in 1940 by small colleges concerned about the state of amateurism in that sport, became the National Association of Intercollegiate Athletics (NAIA) in 1952 and first sponsored a national championship in football in 1956....
  • National Association of Professional Base Ball Players (American organization)
    The National Association of Professional Base Ball Players was formed in 1871. The founding teams were the Philadelphia Athletics; the Chicago White Stockings (who would also play as the Chicago Colts and the Chicago Orphans before becoming the Cubs—the American League Chicago White Sox were not formed until 1900); the Brooklyn (New York) Eckfords; the Cleveland (Ohio) Forest Citys; the......
  • National Association of Securities Dealers Automated Quotations (American organization)
    an American stock market that handles electronic securities trading around the world. It was developed by the National Association of Securities Dealers (NASD) and is monitored by the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC)....
  • National Association of Securities Dealers, Inc. (American organization)
    The Amex was part of the National Association of Securities Dealers (NASD) from 1998 to 2004, when ownership of the Amex returned to private hands. Unlike many other exchanges around the world, it did not relinquish floor trading in favour of computer trading, and, at the beginning of the 21st century, the Amex was the second largest floor-based exchange in the United States. The exchange was a......
  • National Association Opposed to Woman Suffrage (American organization)
    organization formed in New York City in 1911 during a convention of state antisuffrage groups. Led by Josephine Dodge, the founder and first president, the NAOWS believed that woman suffrage would decrease women’s work in communities and their ability to effect societal reforms. Active on a state and federal level, the group also established a newslette...
  • National Astronomy and Ionosphere Center (observatory, Arecibo, Puerto Rico)
    astronomical observatory located 16 km (10 miles) south of the town of Arecibo in Puerto Rico; it is the site of the world’s largest single-unit radio telescope. This instrument, built in the early 1960s, employs a 305-metre (1,000-foot) spherical reflector consisting of perforated aluminum panels that focus incoming radio waves on mo...
  • National Atlas (United States map)
    The National Atlas of the United States of America, published by the Geological Survey in 1970, contains contributions from all of that country’s mapping agencies. Summaries are provided of all thematic and economic data of interest. The atlas also indicates where more detailed information or large-scale specialized maps may be obtained. Many countries have centres where detailed informatio...
  • National Audubon Society (American organization)
    The National Atlas of the United States of America, published by the Geological Survey in 1970, contains contributions from all of that country’s mapping agencies. Summaries are provided of all thematic and economic data of interest. The atlas also indicates where more detailed information or large-scale specialized maps may be obtained. Many countries have centres where detailed informatio...
  • National Autonomist Party (political party, Argentina)
    The entire country was now dominated by the National Autonomist Party, which had originally supported Avellaneda’s candidacy and was now an alliance of the various groups supporting Roca. These included many of the big ranchers, as well as commercial and business interests who were more than happy with Roca’s formula of “peace and efficient administration.” Argentina...
  • National Autonomous University of Honduras (university, Tegucigalpa, Honduras)
    ...Efforts have been made to combat illiteracy, which affects more than one-fourth of the population over age 15 and is especially prevalent among older people. Higher education is centred at the National Autonomous University of Honduras in Tegucigalpa (founded 1847)....
  • National Awakening Party (political party, Indonesia)
    moderate Islamic political party in Indonesia....
  • National Ballet of Cuba (ballet company)
    One of Cuba’s foremost artistic figures is Alicia Alonso—a dancer of international acclaim, the prima ballerina and founder (1948) of the company that would become the National Ballet of Cuba, and the head of its school. The Ballet of Camagüey, under the direction of Fernando Alonso, was established in 1971, and a second Havana company was founded in the mid-1980s. Besides cla...
  • national bank (United States banking)
    in the United States, any commercial bank chartered and supervised by the federal government and operated by private individuals....
  • National Bank Act (United States [1863])
    ...backed by questionable security (e.g., mortgages, bonds) and were located in inaccessible areas to discourage note redemption. Note circulation by state banks ended after the passage of the National Bank Act of 1863, which provided for the incorporation of national banks under federal law and the issue of bank notes on the security of government bonds. The term wildcat bank was......
  • National Bank of Angola (bank, Angola)
    The National Bank of Angola, which issues Angola’s currency, the kwanza, acts as the central bank. Banks were nationalized after independence, but in 1985 foreign banks reentered the country, and in 1995 the government allowed the formation of private banks. Most savings are held in informal banking structures outside the cumbersome state system. Foreign investment is highly concentrated in...
  • National Bank of Belarus (bank, Belarus)
    Independent Belarus restructured its Soviet-style banking system into a two-tier system consisting of the National Bank of Belarus and a growing number of commercial banks, most of which are either joint-stock or limited-liability companies. The republic introduced its own currency, the Belarusian rubel, in 1992. A securities market and stock exchange were also established that year....
  • National Bank of Denmark (bank, Denmark)
    ...national currency is the krone; though a member of the EU, Denmark has not adopted the euro, the EU’s common currency. (In a 2000 referendum 53 percent of voters rejected adoption of the euro.) The National Bank of Denmark (Danmarks Nationalbank) is responsible for issuing the currency and enjoys a special status as a self-governing institution under government supervision. Profits rever...
  • National Bank of Egypt (bank, Egypt)
    From its inception the National Bank of Egypt assumed the main functions of a central bank, a status that was confirmed by law in 1951. In 1957 all English and French banks and insurance companies were nationalized and taken over by various Egyptian joint-stock companies; thereafter, all shareholders, directors, and managers of those financial institutions were bound by law to be Egyptian......
  • National Bank of Poland (bank, Poland)
    During the communist era, all financial institutions were owned by the state beginning in 1944–45 and formed an integral part of centralized economic planning after 1949. The National Bank of Poland (Narodowy Bank Polski) acted as the main agent of the government’s financial policy, managing everything from the currency and money supply to wages and prices, credit, investment, and th...
  • National Bank of Romania (bank, Romania)
    ...stability of Romania was threatened at various times during this period by severe inflation. In an attempt to lower the inflation rate, the Romanian currency, the leu, was revaluated in 2005. The National Bank of Romania, founded in 1880, implements the monetary policy of the Ministry of Finance, managing budgetary cash resources and issuing currency. The Bucharest Stock Exchange opened in......
  • National Bank of Slovakia (bank, Slovakia)
    The National Bank of Slovakia succeeded the Czech and Slovak central bank on Jan. 1, 1993, as the republic’s principal financial institution. The bank’s first major accomplishment was its conversion to the new republican monetary system. Following decentralization of the banking system, a number of commercial and joint-venture banks came into being. A stock exchange operates in Brati...
  • National Bank of Vietnam
    The State Bank of Vietnam, the central bank, issues the national currency, the dong, and oversees the country’s banking system. Known until 1975 as the National Bank of Vietnam in the north, the State Bank of Vietnam formerly functioned as a government monopoly in the banking sector. With the economic reforms of the late 1980s, however, the government recognized that ...
  • National Baptist Convention of the United States of America, Inc. (formed 1915)
    the larger of two associations of black Baptist churches that formed after a schism in 1915 in the National Baptist Convention. It is the largest black church in the United States and claimed a membership of about 8,500,000 in 30,000 congregations in the late 20th century....
  • National Baptist Convention, U.S.A., Inc. (formed 1895)
    association of black Baptist churches formed in 1895 in Atlanta, Ga., from the merger of the Foreign Mission Baptist Convention (established 1880), the American National Baptist Convention (1886), and the Baptist National Education Convention (1893). A schism in 1915 resulted in the formation of the National Baptist Convention of America. In 1961 a dispute wit...
  • National Baptist Convention, U.S.A., Inc. (formed 1915)
    the larger of two associations of black Baptist churches that formed after a schism in 1915 in the National Baptist Convention. It is the largest black church in the United States and claimed a membership of about 8,500,000 in 30,000 congregations in the late 20th century....
  • National Baseball Hall of Fame and Museum (museum, Cooperstown, New York, United States)
    museum and honorary society, Cooperstown, New York, U.S. The origins of the hall can be traced to 1935, when plans were first put forward for the 1939 celebration of the supposed centennial of baseball (it was then believed that the American army officer Abner Doubleday had developed the game at Cooperstown in 1839, a story that was later di...
  • National Basketball Association (American sports organization)
    professional basketball league formed in the United States in 1949 by the merger of two rival organizations, the National Basketball League (founded 1937) and the Basketball Association of America (founded 1946). In 1976 the NBA absorbed four teams from the American Basketball Association (ABA), which disbanded that year....
  • National Basketball Committee (American sports organization)
    ...a different set for each half of a game. To establish some measure of uniformity, the colleges, Amateur Athletic Union, and YMCA formed the Joint Rules Committee in 1915. This group was renamed the National Basketball Committee (NBC) of the United States and Canada in 1936 and until 1979 served as the game’s sole amateur rule-making body. In that year, however, the colleges broke away to...
  • National Basketball Development League (American sports organization)
    In 2001 the NBA launched the National Basketball Development League (NBDL). The league served as a kind of “farm system” for the NBA. Through its first 50 years the NBA did not have an official system of player development or a true minor league system for bringing up young and inexperienced players such as exists in major league baseball. College basketball has been the area from......
  • National Basketball League (American sports organization)
    The first professional league was the National Basketball League (NBL), formed in 1898. Its game differed from the college game in that a chicken-wire cage typically surrounded the court, separating players from often hostile fans. (Basketball players were long referred to as cagers.) The chicken wire was soon replaced with a rope netting, off which the players bounced like prizefighters in a......
  • national bibliography (library science)
    ...their fields of work, and the most popular usually turns out to be informal discussions with colleagues. But this is by nature a haphazard process, and most countries now have, or aim to have, a national bibliography based on the acquisitions of the national library. The British National Bibliography, begun in 1950 at the British Museum, is a leading example: it is published weekly,......
  • National Biscuit Company (American company)
    former U.S. snack food and bakery product company. The National Biscuit Company was formed in 1898 when the American Biscuit Company merged with the New York Biscuit Company. Better known as Nabisco, it went on to introduce a number of popular consumer brands such as Oreo cookies (1912) and Ritz crackers (1934). After being acquired by R.J. Reynolds in 1985 and becoming part of RJR Nabisc...
  • National Black Women’s Health Project (American organization)
    ...an alternative birthing centre, also in Gainesville. The self-help groups she initiated served as models throughout the nation and worldwide, and they paved the way for her founding in 1983 of the National Black Women’s Health Project (NBWHP; since 2003 the Black Women’s Health Imperative). That year the NBWHP held its first national conference at Spelman College in Atlanta, Georg...
  • National Bloc (political group, Syria)
    Kuwatli entered Syrian politics in the 1930s as a member of the National Bloc, an Arab group that led the opposition to French rule. Kuwatli assumed leadership of the movement in 1940. His tolerance for the corruption of his associates helped keep him in power. The National Bloc remained the dominant expression of Syrian nationalism, and, when Syria became independent in 1943, the bloc helped......
  • National Board of Medical Examiners (American medicine)
    ...conduct examinations of applicants to practice within the state, and they examine the credentials of applicants who want licenses earned in other states to be accepted in lieu of examination. The National Board of Medical Examiners holds examinations leading to a degree that is acceptable to most state boards. National laws regulating professional practice cannot be enacted in the United......
  • National Book Award (American literary award)
    annual awards given to books of the highest quality written by Americans and published by American publishers. The awards were founded in 1950 by the American Book Publishers Council, American Booksellers Association, and Book Manufacturers Institute. From 1976 to 1979 they were administered by the National Book Committee. In 1980 they were renamed the American Book Awards and were conferred by th...
  • National Botanic Gardens of South Africa (garden, Kirstenbosch, South Africa)
    one of the world’s largest botanical gardens, occupying a 1,305-acre (528-hectare) site in Kirstenbosch, near Cape Town, Western Cape province, South Africa. The 6,200-species collection consists almost exclusively of Cape plants native to the fynbos (scrubland) and forests of southern Africa. The botanical garden was established in 1913. It includes such beautiful flowering...
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