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  • National Botanical Garden of Belgium (garden, Meise, Belgium)
    botanical garden consisting of the plant collections at Meise, on the outskirts of Brussels, Belgium. The garden has about 18,000 different species of plants. Originally founded in 1870 on a 17-acre (7-hectare) site in the heart of Brussels, the botanical garden was gradually transferred after the mid-1960s to a magnificent estate at Meise, the Domaine de Bouchout. The world...
  • National Bowling Council (American sports organization)
    ...functions, it is affiliated with a number of tournaments, most notably the All-Star tournament, a match game event begun in 1941 that in 1971 became the U.S. Open and a part of the PBA tour. The National Bowling Council, founded in 1943 by manufacturers, proprietors, and membership groups, concerns itself with national promotional campaigns and other activities....
  • National Boxing Association (international sports organization)
    World professional boxing has no one controlling body that is universally recognized. This situation had its origins in the United States in 1920 when two organizations were established: the National Boxing Association, a private body, and the New York State Athletic Commission, a state agency. Divided control led to competing organizations’ sometimes recognizing different boxers as world.....
  • National Broadcasting Co., Inc. (American corporation)
    major American commercial broadcasting company, now a subsidiary of General Electric Company (GE)....
  • National Brotherhood of Base Ball Players (American trade union)
    ...of organized professional baseball, the owners had controlled the game, players, managers, and umpires. The players had begun to organize as early as 1885, when a group of New York Giants formed the National Brotherhood of Base Ball Players, a benevolent and protective association. Under the leadership of John Montgomery Ward, who had a law degree and was a player for the Giants, the Brotherhoo...
  • National Bureau of Economic Research (American organization)
    ...of his father (who changed the family name to Smith, though the young Kuznets preferred the original name). He was educated at Columbia University, receiving his Ph.D. in 1926. In 1927 he joined the National Bureau of Economic Research, working with its founder, Wesley Mitchell. It was there that Kuznets developed his pioneering studies of U.S. national income and his more general work on......
  • National Bureau of Standards (United States government)
    in Washington, D.C., an official source, with the U.S. National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST; formerly the National Bureau of Standards), for standard time in the United States. The positional measurement of celestial objects for purposes of timekeeping and navigation has been the main work of the observatory since its beginning. In 1833 the first small observatory building was......
  • National Campers and Hikers Association (American organization)
    The majority of organized campers in North America belong to local clubs, but there are two large-scale national organizations in the United States (National Campers and Hikers Association and North American Family Campers Association) and one in Canada (Canadian Federation of Camping and Caravanning)....
  • National Cancer Institute (American organization)
    This screening process was initiated as a cooperative venture between the United States Department of Agriculture (USDA) and the National Cancer Institute (NCI) of the United States. Extracts from the Pacific yew were tested against two cancer cell lines in 1964 and found to have promising effects. After a sufficient quantity of the extract was prepared, the active compound, taxol, was isolated......
  • National Capital Development Commission (Australia history)
    ...to Canberra soon after the war were frustrated by the poor coordination of the provision of services. Following the recommendations of a Senate Select Committee for the development of Canberra, the National Capital Development Commission was established in 1958 with wide powers to plan, develop, and construct the national capital. This commission was unique in having effective control over......
  • National Capital District (Papua New Guinea)
    city and capital of Papua New Guinea, southwestern Pacific Ocean. The city is situated on the eastern shore of Port Moresby Harbour of the Gulf of Papua. Before the arrival of Europeans, the area around the harbour was inhabited by the Motu and Koitabu people, fishermen and yam farmers who traded with other settlements up and down the coast....
  • National Capital Parks (park system, United States)
    system of national monuments and government-owned parks and recreation areas in and around the District of Columbia, U.S. The system was authorized by the U.S. Congress in 1790 and became part of the National Park Service in 1933....
  • National Capital Region (region, Philippines)
    ...15 square miles (38 square km). In 1975, by presidential decree, Manila and its contiguous cities and municipalities were integrated to function as a single administrative region, known as Metropolitan Manila (also called the National Capital Region), with an area of 246 square miles (637 square km)....
  • National Cash Register Co. (American company)
    ., American manufacturer of cash registers, computers, and information-processing systems, based in Dayton, Ohio, U.S....
  • National Catholic Register (American newspaper)
    ...Frawley into an outspoken promoter of anticommunist and conservative causes. He gave voice to political issues through his Twin Circle Publishing Co., which purchased the National Catholic Register in 1970. Frawley supported treatment programs for alcohol and drug addiction as well, having experienced successful treatment for alcoholism in 1964. In the second......
  • National Cemetery (cemetery, South Carolina, United States)
    Lynches River State Park is located in the county, as is the Florence National Cemetery, which contains the graves of Union soldiers and a small group of Confederates. During the American Civil War, Florence, the county seat, became a centre for the transport of supplies and troops. Hundreds of Union soldiers died of typhoid in an unsanitary makeshift prison compound in Florence while a......
  • National Center for Atmospheric Research (research centre, Boulder, Colorado, United States)
    ...firm, I.M. Pei & Associates (later Pei Cobb Freed & Partners), in 1955. Among the notable early designs of the firm were the Luce Memorial Chapel, Taiwan; the Mesa Laboratory of the National Center for Atmospheric Research, Boulder, Colorado, which, located near mountains, mimics the broken silhouettes of the surrounding peaks; and the Everson Museum of Art, Syracuse, New York,......
  • National Centers for Environmental Prediction (United States weather centers)
    ...weather services and through its specialized services to aviation, space operations, agriculture, maritime operations, and other weather-sensitive activities. In the United States, for example, the National Centers for Environmental Prediction (NCEP), near Washington, D.C., is the keystone of the National Weather Service, preparing most of the synoptic-scale guidance material and long-range......
  • National Central Bureau (Interpol organization)
    Each member country has a domestic clearinghouse—called the National Central Bureau, or NCB—through which its individual police forces may communicate with the General Secretariat or with the police forces of other member countries. Interpol relies on an extensive telecommunications system and a unique database of international police intelligence. Each year, Interpol’s......
  • National Central Library (library, London, United Kingdom)
    Under Mansbridge’s administration, the WEA created a tutorial system and a scholarly library (National Central Library) for working people unaffiliated with an academic institution. He organized WEA branches in Australia, New Zealand, and Canada; and, after recovering from spinal meningitis, he established other adult-education groups: the World Association for Adult Education (1918), the.....
  • National Central Library (library, Florence, Italy)
    Florence has numerous museums, mostly devoted to painting and sculpture. The National Central Library (Biblioteca Nazionale Centrale) has been the Italian library of deposit since 1870, receiving a copy of every book published in the country. It houses millions of autographs, manuscripts, letters, incunabula, and books, including many rare editions. The Riccardiana and Moreniana libraries......
  • National Centre for Scientific Research (French research organization)
    ...of 1936. As undersecretary of state for scientific research, she helped to lay the foundations, with Jean Perrin, for what would later become the Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique (National Centre for Scientific Research)....
  • National Centre of Independents and Peasants (political party, France)
    French political party founded in 1949. It grew out of the National Centre of Independents, formed in 1948 by Roger Duchet, who, by the following year, had accomplished a coalition of various parliamentarians of the right and had absorbed the small peasant party, the Republican Party of Liberty (Parti Républicain de la Liberté); the new grouping became the CNIP. Thereafter it took pa...
  • National Ceremony (Swazi festival)
    ...official residence of the king, the offices of the Swazi National Council, the National Archives and Museum, and the National Stadium. The two most important cultural events of Swaziland, the sacred Incwala (National Ceremony) and the Umhlanga (Reed Dance), are held annually at Lobamba. The Mlilwane Game Sanctuary and the Gilbert Reynolds Memorial Garden are situated about 6 miles (10 km)......
  • National Championship Stock Car Circuit (American sports organization)
    ...stock-car races in Florida throughout the 1930s and ’40s, and, after several unsuccessful attempts to create a series of races that would determine a national champion, in 1947 he created the National Championship Stock Car Circuit (NCSCC), a yearlong series of 40 races held across the southeastern United States. France was responsible for establishing and enforcing the technical......
  • National Chinese (Chinese political party)
    political party that governed all or part of mainland China from 1928 to 1949 and subsequently ruled Taiwan under Chiang Kai-shek and his successors for most of the time since then....
  • National Church of Iceland (church, Iceland)
    established, state-supported Evangelical Lutheran Church of Iceland. Christian missionaries came to the country in the late 10th century, and about 1000 the Althing (the national Parliament and high court) averted a civil war between pagans and Christians by deciding that the country’s population should be Christian. The first Icelandic bishop was consecrated in 1056....
  • National Citizen and Ballot Box (American newspaper)
    ...that was presented at the Fourth of July observance at the Philadelphia Centennial Exposition in 1876. (See Declaration of Rights for Women.) During 1878–81 she edited the monthly National Citizen and Ballot Box, published by the National Woman Suffrage Association. She was a coauthor with Stanton and Anthony of the first three volumes of the History of Woman......
  • National Citizens Coalition (Canadian organization)
    ...federation and conservative views on social policy. However, he chose not to seek reelection in 1997 after a disagreement with Reform leader Preston Manning. After leaving office, Harper led the National Citizens Coalition, which advocated free enterprise and lower taxes and was critical of the federal response to Quebec separatism....
  • National City Bank of New York (American bank)
    American financier and banker whose presidency of New York’s National City Bank (now Citibank) made it one of the most powerful financial institutions in the United States....
  • National City Company (American company)
    ...of America in New York City, a position he held for five years. Mitchell formed his own investment house, C.E. Mitchell & Co., in 1911. Five years later he took part in the reorganization of the National City Company, which oversaw investments for the National City Bank, and he soon became its president. The company was capitalized at $55,000,000 and had 50 offices throughout the world.....
  • National Classical Music Institute (institution, Seoul, South Korea)
    ...and folk music, accompanied by native musical instruments, is performed occasionally at ceremonies and festive occasions. The government has made an effort to preserve the traditional arts. The National Classical Music Institute (formerly the Prince Yi Conservatory), for example, plays an important role in the preservation of folk music. It has had its own training centre for national music......
  • National Clearinghouse for Mental Health Information (United States agency)
    ...projects, and for the training of mental-health professionals. It has developed special programs in a broad range of social problem areas, from drug addiction to suicide prevention. The National Clearinghouse for Mental Health Information, operated by NIMH, is a valuable resource, as is the periodical publication Mental Health Digest. Additional sources of support for mental......
  • National Coal Board (British corporation)
    British public corporation created on Jan. 1, 1947, which operates previously private coal mines, manufactures coke and smokeless fuels, and distributes coal, heating instruments, and other supplies. Headquarters are in London....
  • National Collection of Fine Arts (museum, Washington, District of Columbia, United States)
    first federal art collection of the United States, housing the world’s largest collection of American art. The Washington, D.C., museum showcases more than 40,000 works of art, representing 7,000 American artists. Featured permanent collections include colonial portraiture, 19th-century landscapes, Impressionism, realism, photography, crafts, folk art, African American art, and Latino art....
  • National Collegiate Athletic Association (American organization)
    organization in the United States that administers intercollegiate athletics. It was formed in 1906 as the Intercollegiate Athletic Association to draw up competition and eligibility rules for football and other intercollegiate sports. The NCAA adopted its current name in 1910. In 1921 it conducted its first national championship event, the National College Track and Field Championship, and it gra...
  • National Collegiate Boxing Association (American organization)
    ...boxing, and boxing is unlikely ever to regain NCAA status. However, it continues today at a college club level with 20 to 25 institutional teams involved each year in national tournaments of the National Collegiate Boxing Association (NCBA). Seeking to teach fundamentals to novices in a safety-oriented and structured environment of balanced competition, the NCBA bars persons who have......
  • National Committee (Polish political organization)
    ...the head of government in 1862, introduced reforms that were not insignificant but did not include peasant emancipation. He was viewed as an enemy by both the Reds, who created an underground National Committee, and the Whites, who also set up a clandestine organization. Wielopolski decided to break the Reds by drafting large numbers of them into the Russian army. In January 1863 the......
  • National Committee for Mental Hygiene (American organization)
    ...disorder and retardation, the conservation of mental health, and the dissemination 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 Communism
    policies based on the principle that in each country the means of attaining ultimate communist goals must be dictated by national conditions rather than by a pattern set in another country. The term, popular from the late 1940s to the 1980s, was particularly identified with assertions by eastern European communists regarding independence from Soviet leadershi...
  • National Conciliation Party (political party, El Salvador)
    A second coup, in January 1961, brought Lieut. Col. Julio Adalberto Rivera (1962–67) to power. PRUD was dismantled and replaced by the National Conciliation Party (Partido de Conciliación Nacional; PCN), which would control the national government for the next 18 years. Under the banner of the Alliance for Progress, Rivera advanced programs aimed at economic growth and......
  • National Concord (Bulgarian political organization)
    ...where in 1910 he became professor of economics. Originally a social democrat, he had by 1922 moved considerably to the right politically, becoming in that year leader of the conservative group National Concord (Naroden Zgovor), which conspired to overthrow the radical peasant dictatorship of Aleksandŭr Stamboliyski....
  • National Confederation of Hungarian Trade Unions (Hungarian organization)
    The Soviet-style Central Council of Hungarian Trade Unions was reorganized in 1988 as the National Confederation of Hungarian Trade Unions. It remains the largest trade union in Hungary, with some 40 organizations under its umbrella at the start of the 21st century. It is joined by the Association of Hungarian Free Trade Unions, Democratic Confederation of Free Trade Unions, Forum for the......
  • National Confederation of Labour (Spanish labour union)
    ...led to worldwide protests and the resignation of the conservative government in Madrid. These events also resulted in a congress of Spanish trade unionists at Sevilla in 1910, which founded the National Confederation of Labour (Confederación Nacional del Trabajo; CNT)....
  • National Confederation of Trade Unions (Japanese labour union)
    ...other private- and public-sector unions were reorganized into the Japanese Trade Union Confederation (Rengō); those unions politically more to the left of Rengō formed the much smaller National Confederation of Trade Unions (Zenrōren)....
  • National Conference for Unification (South Korean government)
    The institutional framework of the Yushin (“Revitalization Reform”) order departed radically from the Third Republic. The National Conference for Unification (NCU) was created “to pursue peaceful unification of the fatherland.” The conference was to be a body of not fewer than 2,000 nor more than 5,000 members who were directly elected by the voters for a six-year term....
  • National Conference of Brazilian Bishops (Brazilian religious organization)
    Câmara was ordained a priest in 1931. In close collaboration with Monsignor Giovanni Montini (later Pope Paul VI), Câmara founded the National Conference of Brazilian Bishops in October 1952, shortly after he had been named auxiliary bishop of Rio de Janeiro. He was also one of the organizers of the Latin-American Conference of Bishops. (The birth of liberation theology is usually......
  • National Conference of Christians and Jews (American organization)
    ...continued to hold irrational and hostile attitudes toward Jews, some liberal Christian voices were raised against anti-Semitism in the early decades of the century. In the United States the National Conference of Christians and Jews was founded in 1928 in response to the virulent anti-Semitism propagated in Henry Ford’s newspaper, the Dearborn Independent.......
  • National Conference of Social Work (American organization)
    ...for justice for immigrants and blacks, advocated research aimed at determining the causes of poverty and crime, and supported woman suffrage. In 1910 she became the first woman president of the National Conference of Social Work, and in 1912 she played an active part in the Progressive Party’s presidential campaign for Theodore Roosevelt. At The Hague in 1915 she served as chairman of th...
  • National Congress (Brazilian government)
    Legislative power is exercised by the bicameral National Congress (Congresso Nacional), comprising the Chamber of Deputies (Câmara dos Deputados) and the Federal Senate (Senado Federal). Congress meets every year in two sessions of four and a half months each. The constitution gives Congress the power to rule in matters involving the federal government, particularly those related to......
  • National Congress for New Politics (political party, South Korea)
    centrist-liberal political party in South Korea....
  • National Congress of British West Africa (African political organization)
    ...African lands by European entrepreneurs or officials. The ARPS went on to campaign against the exclusion of qualified Africans from the colonial administration. Following this, in 1918–20, a National Congress of British West Africa was formed by professionals to press for the development of the legislative councils in all the British colonies into elective assemblies controlling the......
  • National Congress of Mothers (American organization)
    American organization concerned with the educational, social, and economic well-being of children. The PTA was founded on Feb. 17, 1897, as the National Congress of Mothers; membership was later broadened to include teachers, fathers, and other citizens. There are 52 state branches, including one in the District of Columbia and one in Europe to serve American dependents on military bases. Within t...
  • National Congress of Parents and Teachers (American organization)
    American organization concerned with the educational, social, and economic well-being of children. The PTA was founded on Feb. 17, 1897, as the National Congress of Mothers; membership was later broadened to include teachers, fathers, and other citizens. There are 52 state branches, including one in the District of Columbia and one in Europe to serve American dependents on military bases. Within t...
  • National Constituent 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 Constitution Center (building, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, United States)
    ...country. Included in the complex are Carpenters’ Hall, site of the meeting of the First Continental Congress, and Philosophical Hall, home of the American Philosophical Society. Also nearby is the National Constitution Center, which was opened on July 4, 2003, to promote the better understanding of the U.S. Constitution....
  • National Consultative Assembly (Iranian government)
    The unicameral legislature is the 290-member Islamic Consultative Assembly (Majles-e Shūrā-ye Eslāmī), known simply as the Majles. Deputies are elected directly for four-year terms by universal adult suffrage, and recognized religious and ethnic minorities have token representation in the legislature. The Majles enacts all legislation and, under extraordinary......
  • National Consumers League (American organization)
    American organization founded in 1899 to fight for the welfare of consumers and workers who had little voice or power in the marketplace and workplace. Many of the NCL’s goals, such as the establishment of a minimum wage and the limitation of working hours, directly benefited poor working women. According to the NCL constitution, it was “concerned that goods be produced and distribut...
  • National Convention (French history)
    assembly that governed France from September 20, 1792, until October 26, 1795, during the most critical period of the French Revolution. The National Convention was elected to provide a new constitution for the country after the overthrow of the monarchy (August 10, 1792). The Convention numbered 749 deputies, including businessmen, tradesmen, and many professional men. Among it...
  • National Convention of Nigerian Citizens (political party, Nigeria)
    ...the greatest challenge to British and African policymakers alike. In the south two nationalist parties emerged, the Action Group (AG), supported primarily by the Yoruba of the west, and the National Convention of Nigerian Citizens (NCNC), whose prime support came from the Igbo of the east. These parties expected the whole country quickly to follow the Ghanaian pattern of constitutional......
  • National Council (Austrian government)
    The parliament, known as the Federal Assembly, consists of two houses: the National Council (Nationalrat) and the Federal Council (Bundesrat). The National Council, wielding the primary legislative power, is elected by all citizens who are at least 16 years of age, and every citizen over age 26 is eligible to run for office. The distribution of seats in the National Council is based on a system......
  • National Council (Namibian government)
    ...is constituted to initiate and pass legislation. It consists of 72 members who are directly elected to five-year terms under universal adult suffrage and 6 appointed members. The second house, the National Council, serves in an advisory capacity on legislative matters and comprises two representatives from each of Namibia’s 13 administrative regions. National Council members are elected ...
  • National Council (political organization, Hungary)
    Explosive urban and industrial growth created social tension and the emergence of a working-class movement before World War I. After the disintegration of Austria-Hungary in the autumn of 1918, the National Council, a revolutionary body headed by Count Mihály Károlyi and supported by antiwar radicals and socialists, took power in Budapest. The following March the Károlyi......
  • National Council of Administration (Uruguayan government)
    ...a compromise that partly rescued the colegiado; thus, in a constitution promulgated in 1918, executive responsibility was split between the president and a National Council of Administration....
  • National Council of Churches (American religious organization)
    an agency of Protestant, Anglican, and Eastern Orthodox denominations that was formed in 1950 in the United States by the merger of 12 national interdenominational agencies. The National Council of Churches is the largest ecumenical body in the United States, with a membership of more than 50 million in the early 21st century. Its international counterpart is the World Council of Churches...
  • National Council of Hispanic Women (American organization)
    organization of both individuals and organizations, such as universities and corporations, founded in 1985 with the mission of empowering Hispanic women and giving them a greater role in American society. The main goal of the organization is to have a more direct representation for its members in policy making by establishing Hispanic women in positions of leadership in business and government. ...
  • National Council of Jewish Women (American organization)
    oldest volunteer Jewish women’s organization in the United States, founded in 1893. Prompted by Jewish values, the organization works with both the Jewish community and the general public to safeguard rights and freedoms for people worldwide. This objective is sought through a comprehensive program of research, education, and community service, placing particular emphasis on advocacy for wo...
  • National Council of Negro Women (American organization)
    American umbrella organization, founded by Mary McLeod Bethune in New York City on December 5, 1935, whose mission is “to advance opportunities and the quality of life for African American women, their families and communities.”...
  • National Council of Nigeria and the Cameroons (African political organization)
    ...before returning to Nigeria in 1937. There he founded and edited newspapers and also became directly involved in politics, first with the Nigerian Youth Movement and later (1944) as a founder of the National Council of Nigeria and the Cameroons (NCNC), which became increasingly identified with the Igbo people of southern Nigeria after 1951. In 1948, with the backing of the NCNC, Azikiwe was......
  • National Council of Provinces (government, South Africa)
    ...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 upper house, is made up of 10-member delegations (each with six permanent and four special members, including the provincial premier)......
  • National Council of Slovenes, Croats, and Serbs (European history)
    ...of the lands of Croatia, Dalmatia, and Slavonia in an independent Croatian state; announced the incorporation of Croatia into a South Slav state; and transferred its power to the newly created National Council of Slovenes, Croats, and Serbs in Zagreb. One dissenting voice was that of Stjepan Radić, leader of the Croatian Peasant Party, who opposed unconditional unification with no......
  • National Council of the Churches of Christ in the U.S.A. (American religious organization)
    an agency of Protestant, Anglican, and Eastern Orthodox denominations that was formed in 1950 in the United States by the merger of 12 national interdenominational agencies. The National Council of Churches is the largest ecumenical body in the United States, with a membership of more than 50 million in the early 21st century. Its international counterpart is the World Council of Churches...
  • National Council of the Evangelical Free Churches (American organization)
    ...churches was first applied collectively to several nonepiscopal Protestant evangelical communions in England that convened the first Free Church Congress in 1892 and combined in 1896 to form the National Council of the Evangelical Free Churches. In 1940 this group merged with the Federal Council of the Evangelical Churches to form the Free Church Federal Council....
  • National Council of the Resistance (French history)
    ...and in southern France (ruled by the puppet Vichy regime) other resistance groups were formed by former army officers, socialists, labour leaders, intellectuals, and others. In 1943 the clandestine National Council of the Resistance (Conseil National de la Résistance) was established as the central organ of coordination among all French groups. Early the following year, various......
  • National Council of Trade Unions (South African organization)
    ...the ANC and is a nonracial but mainly black body that includes the country’s largest unions, among them the National Union of Mineworkers. Other federations include the black consciousness-rooted National Council of Trade Unions and the mainly white Federation of South African Labour....
  • National Council of Women (New Zealand organization)
    In 1896 Sheppard helped establish the National Council of Women (NCW) and became its first president. Among the issues she supported were greater equality in marriage and the right of women to run for Parliament. Although poor health forced her to step down as president of the NCW in 1903, she remained a prominent figure in the women’s rights movement. Her image appears on the New Zealand $...
  • National Country Party (political party, Australia)
    an Australian political party that for most of its history has held office as a result of its customary alliance with the Liberal Party of Australia. It often acted as a margin in the balance of power, but its own power declined over the years. In 1934 it could command 16 percent of the vote in federal elections. By 1975 its federal vote had fallen to 8 percent. In October 1982 ...
  • National Covenant (Scottish history)
    solemn agreement inaugurated by Scottish churchmen on Feb. 28, 1638, in the Greyfriars’ churchyard, Edinburgh. It rejected the attempt by King Charles I and William Laud, archbishop of Canterbury, to force the Scottish church to conform to English liturgical practice and church governance. The National Covenant was composed of the King’s Confession (1581), additional statements by A...
  • National Covenant (Protestantism)
    The Second Scots Confession, also called the King’s Confession and the National Covenant (1581), was a supplement to the First Scots Confession. It was a strongly antipapal statement adopted by the king, council, and court and by all the Scottish people in 1581. It was also made a part of the National Covenant of 1638. The Scots Confession was superseded by the Westminster Confession in 164...
  • National Cowboy Hall of Fame and Western Heritage Center (museum, Oklahoma City, Oklahoma, United States)
    ...of their leaders, and extensive displays of their artifacts. Western historical collections are maintained by the University of Oklahoma and by the Oklahoma Historical Society in Oklahoma City. The National Cowboy Hall of Fame and Western Heritage Center, at Oklahoma City, is noted for its Western art and its exhibits of cowboy paraphernalia. The Will Rogers Memorial museum at Claremore......
  • National Cricket Association (British sports organization)
    ...was asked to create a governing body for the game along the lines generally accepted by other sports in Great Britain. The Cricket Council, comprising the Test and County Cricket Board (TCCB), the National Cricket Association (NCA), and the MCC, was the result of these efforts. The TCCB, which amalgamated the Advisory County Cricket Committee and the Board of Control of Test matches at Home......
  • National Crime Information Center (United States government agency)
    The police were early adopters of computer database technology. In the United States the National Crime Information Center (NCIC) was established in 1967; police records were subsequently computerized and made available to police agencies throughout the country. The NCIC’s database enables local police departments to apprehend offenders who might otherwise evade capture. The database contai...
  • National Day (Chinese holiday)
    holiday celebrated on October 1 to mark the formation of the People’s Republic of China. The holiday is also celebrated by China’s two special administrative regions: Hong Kong and Macau. Traditionally, the festivities begin with the ceremonial raising of the Chinese national flag in Tiananmen Square...
  • National Day (Swiss holiday)
    ...there are various harvest and wine festivals. A popular holiday in Geneva is the Escalade, which is celebrated in December and marks the city’s victory over the duke of Savoy in 1602. August 1 is National Day (German: Bundesfeier; French: Fête Nationale; and Italian: Festa Nazionale), which commemorates the agreement between representatives of the Alpine cantons of Uri, Schwyz, an...
  • national debt (economics)
    The ingredient of economic crisis that attracted widest attention was Latin America’s inability to maintain full service on its foreign debt, which had grown to dangerously high levels. Both Mexico and Venezuela, as major petroleum exporters, benefited from rising international oil prices during the 1970s, but, instead of concluding that foreign credit was no longer necessary, they assumed ...
  • national defense (national defense)
    ...is essential for the national interest: its product would be needed in wartime, when the supply of imports might well be cut off. The verdict of economists on this argument is fairly clear: the national-defense argument is frequently a red herring, an attempt to “wrap oneself in the flag,” and insofar as an industry is essential, the tariff is a dubious means of ensuring its......
  • National Defense (Serbian political group)
    The National Defense (Narodna Odbrana) was formed in Serbia in 1908 to carry on pro-Serbian and anti-Austrian agitation across the border. Its nonviolent methods were deemed insufficient by others, who in 1911 formed the secret society Union or Death (Ujedinjenje ili Smrt), also known as the Black Hand, led by the head of Serbian military intelligence, Colonel......
  • National Defense Act (United States [1947])
    The National Security Act of 1947 created a coordinated command for security and intelligence-gathering activities. The act established the National Security Council (NSC) and the Central Intelligence Agency (CIA), the latter under the authority of the NSC and responsible for foreign intelligence. The National Security Agency, an agency of the Department of Defense, is responsible for......
  • National Defense Council (government, Serbia)
    ...government, continuing a practice that has long been one of the state’s distinctive institutions. Legislation adopted formally in 1982, before the secession of the other republics, established a National Defense Council, which in time of war “or any other peril” could assume sweeping police powers—even making its own determination that such a situation exists. As a r...
  • National Defense Council (Japanese government)
    ...forces, established a National Police Reserve, which later became the Self-Defense Forces (SDF; Jieitai). The SDF consist of ground, maritime, and air branches, under the civilian-controlled National Defense Council....
  • National Defense Education Act (United States [1958])
    ...the first artificial satellite, arousing fears that the United States was falling behind the Soviets technologically. This prompted Eisenhower, who generally held the line on spending, to sign the National Defense Education Act of 1958, which provided extensive aid to schools and students in order to bring American education up to what were regarded as Soviet levels of achievement. The event......
  • National Defense Research Committee (United States government organization)
    With the German invasion of Poland in September 1939, Bush approached Roosevelt about forming an organization, the National Defense Research Committee (NDRC), to organize research of interest to the military and to inform the armed services about new technologies. The NDRC was formed with Bush as its chairman on June 27, 1940. One year later, the Office of Scientific Research and Development......
  • National Democracy (political party, Poland)
    A reaction to that situation developed in the 1890s that had both a nationalist and a socialist character. The National Democratic movement originated with a Polish League organized in Switzerland; by 1893 the organization had transformed into the clandestine National League, based in Warsaw. It stressed its all-Polish character, rejected loyalism, and promoted national resistance, even......
  • National Democratic Alliance (political organization, India)
    The BJP contested the 1999 elections as part of the National Democratic Alliance (NDA), a coalition of more than 20 national and regional parties. The alliance secured a governing majority, with the BJP winning 182 of the coalition’s 294 seats. Vajpayee, as leader of the largest party in the alliance, was again elected prime minister. Although Vajpayee sought to resolve the country’s...
  • National Democratic Movement (political party, Jamaica)
    ...who stabilized the economy through austerity measures. During the 1990s the PNP retained power, even during an economic recession, partly because the JLP split in 1995 (creating a third party, the National Democratic Movement). The PNP’s electoral victories in 1997 and 2002 marked the first time that a Jamaican party won four consecutive terms. In March 2006 Patterson appointed PNP membe...
  • National Democratic Party (political party, Nigeria)
    ...as premier. The Northern-dominated federal government, however, hostile to Awolowo, declared a state of emergency in the region and restored Akintola to his post (1963). He formed the Nigerian National Democratic Party but was never able to win the votes of the majority of the region. His blatantly rigged election in 1965 was undoubtedly an immediate cause of the January 1966 coup in which......
  • National Democratic Party (political party, Venezuela)
    social-democratic political party of Venezuela....
  • National Democratic Party (political party, Zimbabwe)
    ...Congress (ANC), the leading black nationalist organization in Rhodesia. When the ANC was banned early in 1959, Nkomo went to England to escape imprisonment. He returned in 1960 and founded the National Democratic Party (NDP); in 1961, when the NDP was banned in turn, he founded ZAPU. The white-minority government of Rhodesia held Nkomo in detention from 1964 until 1974. After his release......
  • National Democratic Party of Germany (political party, Germany)
    ...of candidates drawn from all parties, as well as representatives of mass organizations controlled by the communist-dominated SED. Two additional parties, a Democratic Farmers’ Party and a National Democratic Party, designed to attract support from farmers and from former Nazis, respectively, were added with the blessing of the SED. By ensuring that communists predominated in these......
  • National Democratic Rally (political party, Algeria)
    ...was approved by a majority of the voters, although claims of manipulation were made by the opposition parties. The main change, however, took place in early 1997 when a new government party, the National Democratic Rally (Rassemblement National et Démocratique; RND), was formed. Benefiting from unlimited government support, including the use of official buildings and funds, the RND......
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