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  • United Irishmen, Society of (political organization, Ireland)
    Irish political organization formed in October 1791 by Theobald Wolfe Tone, James Napper Tandy, and Thomas Russell to achieve Roman Catholic emancipation and (with Protestant cooperation) parliamentary reform. British attempts to suppress the society caused its reorganization as an underground movement dedicated to securing complete Irish independence. In Apri...
  • United Kingdom
    island country located off the northwestern coast of mainland Europe. The United Kingdom comprises the whole of the island of Great Britain—which contains England, Wales, and Scotland—as well as the northern portion of the island of Ireland. The name Britain is sometimes used to refer to the United Kingdom as...
  • United Kingdom, flag of the
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  • United Kingdom, history of
    Apart from a few short references in classical literature, knowledge of Britain before the Roman conquest (begun ad 43) is derived entirely from archaeological research. It is thus lacking in detail, for archaeology can rarely identify personalities, motives, or exact dates. All that is available is a picture of successive cultures and some knowledge of economic development. But even...
  • United Kingdom Infrared Telescope (astronomy)
    Another example of an infrared telescope is the United Kingdom Infrared Telescope (UKIRT), which has a 3.8-metre mirror made of Cer-Vit (trademark), a glass ceramic that has a very low coefficient of expansion. This instrument is configured in a Cassegrain design and employs a thin monolithic primary mirror with a lightweight support structure. This telescope is located at Mauna Kea......
  • United Kingdom of Portugal, Brazil, and the Algarves
    ...printing office, and the Bank of Brazil. He also founded a royal library, a military academy, and medical and law schools. His decree of December 16, 1815, designated the Portuguese dominions the United Kingdom of Portugal, Brazil, and the Algarves, thus making Brazil coequal with Portugal. Dom João’s mother died in 1816, whereupon he ascended to the throne....
  • United Kingdom Trust (British organization)
    ...housing reformer Octavia Hill, Haldane founded in Edinburgh (1884) an organization for slum reconstruction and housing-project management. She was the first female (from 1914) of Andrew Carnegie’s United Kingdom Trust, which she induced to rescue the Sadler’s Wells Theatre and Ballet (London) from penury. In addition, she was the first woman to be justice of the peace in Scotland ...
  • United League (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....
  • United Left (political party, Denmark)
    To counter Højre, several groups that represented farmers combined in 1870 to form the United Left (Forenede Venstre), which in 1872 secured a majority in the Folketing. The Left demanded a return to the June constitution of 1849 as well as a number of other reforms, such as making the government responsible to the parliament instead of to the king. The Social Democratic Party......
  • United Left (political party, Spain)
    ...from the Soviet Union. In Spain’s first democratic elections, the PCE attracted little support, and by 1986 it had split into several relatively small factions. Subsequently, the PCE joined the United Left (Izquierda Unida), a coalition of left-wing and ecologist parties. Although failing to attract wide support, the United Left did succeed in becoming Spain’s third largest nation...
  • United Lutheran Church in America (American church organization)
    ...in the 20th century. The first two occurred in 1917, when three Norwegian synods formed the Norwegian Lutheran Church of America (NLCA), and in 1918, when three German-language synods formed the United Lutheran Church in America (ULCA). In 1930 the Joint Synod of Ohio, the Evangelical Lutheran Synod of Iowa, and the Buffalo Synod formed the American Lutheran Church (German). In 1960 the......
  • United Malays National Organization (political party, Malaysia)
    ...a part in the government would lead to the “extinction” of the Malay race. Convening a meeting of more than 40 Malay organizations in March 1946 to oppose the union, Onn founded the United Malays National Organization (UMNO), a political party representing purely Malay interests. When the plan for a union was eventually withdrawn, the sultan of Johore appointed him prime......
  • United Methodist Church (American church)
    in the United States, a major Protestant church formed in 1968 in Dallas, Texas, by the union of The Methodist Church and the Evangelical United Brethren Church. It developed from the British Methodist revival movement led by John Wesley that was taken to the American colonies in the 1760s. The autonomous Methodist Episcopal Church was organized in 1784 in Ba...
  • United Methodist Free Churches (British Methodism)
    Wesley’s ordinations set an important precedent for the Methodist church, but the definite break with the Church of England came in 1795, four years after his death. After the schism, English Methodism, with vigorous outposts in Ireland, Scotland, and Wales, rapidly developed as a church, even though it was reluctant to perpetuate the split from the Church of England. Its system centred in ...
  • United Mexican States
    country of North America and the third largest country in Latin America, after Brazil and Argentina. Although there is little truth to the long-held stereotype of Mexico as a slow-paced land of subsistence farmers, Mexican society is characterized by extremes of wealth and poverty, with a limited middle class wedged between an elite cadre of landowners and inv...
  • United Mine Workers of America (American labour union)
    American labour union, founded in 1890, that engaged in bitter, though often successful, disputes with coal mine operators for safe working conditions, fair pay, and other worker benefits. An industrial union, the UMWA includes miners in bituminous and anthracite coal mines, as well as workers outside the mining industry....
  • United National Congress (political party, Trinidad and Tobago)
    ...economic and social policies inaugurated by its NAR predecessors. In 1995 the prime minister called an early general election. The result was a tie between the PNM and the main opposition party, the United National Congress (UNC), which was supported chiefly by Indo-Trinidadians; the two Tobago seats went to the NAR, led by Robinson. The latter gave his support to the UNC, whose leader, Basdeo....
  • United National Independence Party (political party, Zambia)
    ...the nationalists had been released and new constitutions drawn up, and in 1963 the federation was dissolved. In the following year the Malawi Congress Party under Hastings Banda and the United National Independence Party (UNIP) under Kenneth Kaunda won the first universal suffrage elections in Nyasaland and Northern Rhodesia, respectively, and led them into independence as Malawi......
  • United National Party (political party, Sri Lanka)
    Among the political parties in Sri Lanka, the conservative United National Party and the more liberal Sri Lanka Freedom Party have dominated the political arena since independence. Successive governments have been led by one or the other of these two parties, which, at times, formed coalitions with the smaller parties....
  • United Nations (international organization)
    international organization established on October 24, 1945. The United Nations was the second multipurpose international organization established in the 20th century that was worldwide in scope and membership. Its predecessor, the League of Nations, was created by the Treaty of Versailles in 1919 and disbanded in 1946. Headquartered in New Y...
  • United Nations Capital Development Fund (international organization)
    United Nations (UN) organization established by the General Assembly in 1966 and fully operational in 1974. Headquartered in New York City, the UNDF, a semi-autonomous unit of the United Nations Development Programme, provides grants and loans to the least-developed members of the UN for projects in areas such as agriculture and agro-industry, drinking-water s...
  • United Nations, Charter of the (international charter)
    According to its Charter, the UN aims:to save succeeding generations from the scourge of war,…to reaffirm faith in fundamental human rights,…to establish conditions under which justice and respect for the obligations arising from treaties and other sources of international law can be maintained, and to promote social progress and better standards of life in larger......
  • United Nations Children’s Fund (international organization)
    special program of the United Nations (UN), devoted to aiding national efforts to improve the health, nutrition, education, and general welfare of children....
  • United Nations Command (military force)
    It was not until the first weeks of August that the United Nations Command, or UNC, as MacArthur’s theatre forces had been redesignated, started to slow the North Koreans. The Eighth Army, commanded by Lieutenant General Walton H. Walker, one of the best corps commanders in Europe in 1944–45, and the ROKA, led by Major General Chung Il-kwon, rallied and fought back with more success....
  • United Nations Commission on Human Rights (international commission)
    In 1993 the United Nations (UN) Commission on Human Rights (replaced in 2006 by the UN Human Rights Council) declared systematic rape and military sexual slavery to be crimes against humanity punishable as violations of women’s human rights. In 1995 the UN’s Fourth World Conference on Women specified that rape by armed groups during wartime is a war crime. The jurisdiction of the int...
  • United Nations Conference on Disarmament (international organization)
    international treaty that bans the use of chemical weapons in war and also prohibits all development, production, acquisition, stockpiling, or transfer of such weapons. The CWC was adopted by the United Nations Conference on Disarmament on Sept. 3, 1992, and the treaty was opened to signature by all states on Jan. 13, 1993. The CWC entered into force on April 29, 1997. As of 2007, the only......
  • United Nations Conference on Environment and Development (international organization)
    conference held at Rio de Janeiro, Brazil (June 3–14, 1992), to reconcile worldwide economic development with protection of the environment. The Earth Summit was the largest gathering of world leaders in history, with 117 heads of state and representatives of 178 nations in all attending. By means of treaties and other documents signed at the conference, most of the world’s nations n...
  • United Nations Conference on International Organization (international politics)
    (April 25–June 26, 1945), international meeting that established the United Nations. The basic principles of a worldwide organization that would embrace the political objectives of the Allies had been proposed at the Dumbarton Oaks Conference in 1944 and reaffirmed at the Yalta Conference in early 1945....
  • United Nations Conference on the Human Environment
    In response to growing worldwide concern with environmental issues, the General Assembly organized the United Nations Conference on the Human Environment, which was held in Stockholm in 1972 and led to the creation of the United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP) in the same year. UNEP has attempted to find solutions to various environmental problems, including pollution in the Mediterranean......
  • United Nations Conference on the Standardization of Geographical Names (international conference)
    ...is exercised in the United States by the Board on Geographic Names and in the United Kingdom by the Permanent Committee on Geographical Names; worldwide these activities are coordinated by the United Nations Conference on the Standardization of Geographical Names....
  • United Nations Conference on Trade and Development (international organization)
    permanent organ of the United Nations (UN) General Assembly, established in 1964 to promote trade, investment, and development in developing countries. Headquartered in Geneva, Switzerland, UNCTAD has approximately 190 members....
  • United Nations Conferences on the Law of the Sea
    ...on the development of the Dutch economy. The gas fields are in the northeastern Netherlands—with the largest field at Slochteren—and beneath the Dutch sector of the North Sea. Under the Geneva Convention of 1958, The Netherlands was allocated a 22,000-square-mile (57,000-square-km) block of the continental shelf of the North Sea, an area larger than the country itself. Technologic...
  • United Nations Convention on the Law of the Sea (international law [1982])
    branch of international law concerned with public order at sea. Much of this law is codified in the United Nations Convention on the Law of the Sea, signed Dec. 10, 1982. The convention, described as a “constitution for the oceans,” represents an attempt to codify international law regarding territorial waters, sea-lanes, and ocean...
  • United Nations Covenant on Civil and Political Rights
    Both the European human rights convention and the United Nations Covenant on Civil and Political Rights expressly recognize that the right of free association may lawfully be restricted in the armed forces. Nevertheless, some countries (notably West Germany and The Netherlands) permit soldiers to form unions in order to safeguard and improve their working and economic conditions—though......
  • United Nations, Declaration of (international declaration)
    ...the Soviet Union (after its entry in June 1941), the United States (after its entry on Dec. 8–11, 1941), and China. More generally the Allies included all the wartime members of the United Nations, the signatories to the Declaration of the United Nations. The original signers, of Jan. 1, 1942, were Australia, Belgium, Canada, China, Costa Rica, Cuba, Czechoslovakia, Dominican......
  • United Nations Department of Humanitarian Affairs (international organization)
    agency of the United Nations (UN) Secretariat originally established in 1972 to coordinate international relief activities to countries struck by natural or other disasters. It is headed by a disaster relief coordinator who reports directly to the UN secretary-general and works closely with the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP)....
  • United Nations Development Programme (international program)
    United Nations (UN) organization formed in 1965 to help countries eliminate poverty and achieve sustainable human development, an approach to economic growth that emphasizes improving the quality of life of all citizens while conserving the environment and natural resources for future generations. The largest UN development assistance program, the UNDP is headed by an administra...
  • United Nations Disaster Relief Coordinator, Office of the (international organization)
    agency of the United Nations (UN) Secretariat originally established in 1972 to coordinate international relief activities to countries struck by natural or other disasters. It is headed by a disaster relief coordinator who reports directly to the UN secretary-general and works closely with the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP)....
  • United Nations Economic and Social Commission for Asia and the Pacific (UN)
    ...by the International Refugee Organization, which operated from 1947 to 1951. To assist in dealing with regional problems, in 1947 ECOSOC established the Economic Commission for Europe and the Economic Commission for Asia and the Far East. Similar commissions were established for Latin America in 1948 and for Africa in 1958. The major work of economic reconstruction, however, was delegated......
  • United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (international organization)
    specialized agency of the United Nations (UN) that was created in 1946 to promote international collaboration in education, science, and culture. Its permanent headquarters are in Paris, France....
  • United Nations Emergency Force (international organization)
    ...decision to abandon his policy of “militant inaction” toward Israel. For 10 years, relative peace on the border with Israel had been maintained precariously by the presence of the UNEF stationed on the Egyptian side. In the Arab summit conferences of 1964 and 1965, Nasser had counseled restraint, but in 1966 events eluded his control. Palestinian incursions against Israel were......
  • United Nations Environment Programme (international program)
    organization established in 1972 to guide and coordinate environmental activities within the United Nations (UN) system. UNEP promotes international cooperation on environmental issues, provides guidance to UN organizations, and, through its scientific advisory groups, encourages the international scientific community to participate in formulating policy for many of the UN...
  • United Nations, flag of the
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  • United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (international treaty)
    The reports of the IPCC and the scientific consensus they reflect have provided one of the most prominent bases for the formulation of climate-change policy. On a global scale, climate-change policy is guided by two major treaties: the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC) of 1992 and the associated 1997 Kyoto Protocol to the UNFCCC (named after the city in Japan......
  • United Nations Fund for Population Activities (international fund)
    trust fund under the jurisdiction of the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP). Established in 1969, the UNFPA is the largest international source of assistance for population programs and the leading United Nations (UN) organization for the implementation of the 1994 Programme of Action of the International Conference on Population and Development. It f...
  • United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights, Office of the (international organization)
    department of the United Nations (UN) created to aid and protect human rights. The UN General Assembly Resolution 48/141 created the OHCHR in its present form in 1993. The OHCHR works with all levels of government internationally to achieve its goals to protect human rights across the globe....
  • United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees, Office of the (international organization)
    organization established as the successor to the International Refugee Organization (IRO; 1946–52) by the United Nations (UN) General Assembly in 1951 to provide legal and political protection for refugees until they could acquire nationality in new countries of residence. International refugee assistance was first provided by the ...
  • United Nations Human Rights Committee (international agency)
    ...vacate the federal appeals court ruling that lethal gas was unconstitutional because the California legislature called for lethal injection unless a prisoner specifically requested lethal gas. The United Nations Human Rights Committee has considered California’s gas chamber torturous and inhumane....
  • United Nations Industrial Development Organization (international organization)
    international UN development agency, based in Vienna, that was established by the General Assembly on January 1, 1967. UNIDO’s governing body, the General Conference, meets every two years and determines policy and approves the budget. It also elects the director-general and the Industrial Development Board, which is composed of representatives from 53 member states; the board reviews the v...
  • United Nations Institute for Training and Research (international organization)
    United Nations organization established in 1965 to provide high-priority training and research projects to help facilitate the UN objectives of world peace and security and of economic and social progress. A Board of Trustees of up to 30 members is appointed by the UN secretary-general; the secretary-general himself and the presidents of the General Assembly and the Economic and Social Council (EC...
  • United Nations Interim Force in Lebanon
    ...1978 Israel launched a major reprisal attack, sending troops into the south of Lebanon as far as the Līṭānī River. The resulting conflict led to the establishment of the UN Interim Force in Lebanon (UNIFIL)—a peacekeeping force meant to secure Israeli withdrawal and support the return of Lebanese authority in the south—as well as to the creation of the....
  • United Nations International Children’s Emergency Fund (international organization)
    special program of the United Nations (UN), devoted to aiding national efforts to improve the health, nutrition, education, and general welfare of children....
  • United Nations Korean Reconstruction Agency (international organization)
    economic-rehabilitation program (1950–58) established to aid South Korea in recovering from the disruption caused by the 1945 partition creating the two Korean republics. In addition to problems of economic reconstruction, much attention was concentrated on the problem of refugees who were displaced by World War II and those who were made homeless by the ensuing Korean Wa...
  • United Nations Mission in Kosovo (UN intervention)
    ...bombing campaign against Yugoslavia in response to increasing violence against its Albanian population; subsequently, the Yugoslav government agreed to remove its security forces from Kosovo. The United Nations Mission in Kosovo (UNMIK) then took over the administration of the territory. The Vojvodina regained nominal autonomous status in 2002, but some local groups continued to call for a......
  • United Nations Mission to the Central African Republic (UN intervention)
    ...when France withdrew its troops from Bangui and closed its long-standing military base in Bouar. The United Nations took over the peacekeeping mission and six months later sent in troops under the UN Mission to the Central African Republic (MINURCA). MINURCA’s mission was to maintain stability and security, mediate between rival factions in the country, and provide advice and support in ...
  • United Nations Monetary and Financial Conference (international relations [1944])
    meeting at Bretton Woods, N.H. (July 1–22, 1944), during World War II to make financial arrangements for the postwar world after the expected defeat of Germany and Japan....
  • United Nations Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (international organization)
    agency of the United Nations (UN) Secretariat originally established in 1972 to coordinate international relief activities to countries struck by natural or other disasters. It is headed by a disaster relief coordinator who reports directly to the UN secretary-general and works closely with the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP)....
  • United Nations Office of Cartography (international organization)
    The United Nations Office of Cartography plays an important role in all of the activities noted above. It maintains records of progress on the International Map of the World and performs related services formerly handled by the Central Bureau of the IMW. Technical assistance in the development of mapping facilities and programs is provided on request. Occasional regional meetings are arranged......
  • United Nations Orchestra (international musical group)
    ...led several overseas tours sponsored by the U.S. State Department and traveled the world extensively, sharing his knowledge with younger players. During his last few years, he was the leader of the United Nations Orchestra, which featured such Gillespie protégés as Paquito D’Rivera and Arturo Sandoval. Gillespie’s memoirs, To Be, or Not…to Bo...
  • United Nations Palestine Commission (United Nations commission)
    ...and because nearly half of the population of the Jewish state would be Arab. Great Britain was unwilling to implement a policy that was not acceptable to both sides and refused to share with the UN Palestine Commission the administration of Palestine during the transitional period. It set May 15, 1948, as the date for ending the mandate....
  • United Nations Peace Operations, Report of the Panel on (UN)
    ...international peace and security through dispute settlement, peacekeeping, peace building, and enforcement action, a comprehensive review of UN Peace Operations was undertaken. The resulting Brahimi Report (formally the Report of the Panel on United Nations Peace Operations), issued in 2000, outlined the need for strengthening the UN’s capacity to undertake a wide variety of missions.......
  • United Nations Peace-Keeping Force in Cyprus (United Nations military force)
    ...in northern Cyprus. In addition, because of the continued tensions between the two sides—which occasionally have flared into violence—the UN has maintained peacekeeping troops in Cyprus (UNFICYP) who police the demilitarized zone that divides the country; the United Kingdom also maintains two sovereign military bases in Cyprus....
  • United Nations Peacekeeping Forces
    international armed forces first used in 1948 to observe cease-fires in Kashmir and Palestine. Although not specifically mentioned in the United Nations (UN) Charter, the use of international forces as a buffer between warring parties pending troop withdrawals and negotiations—a practice that became known as peacekeeping—was fo...
  • United Nations Population Fund (international fund)
    trust fund under the jurisdiction of the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP). Established in 1969, the UNFPA is the largest international source of assistance for population programs and the leading United Nations (UN) organization for the implementation of the 1994 Programme of Action of the International Conference on Population and Development. It f...
  • United Nations Relief and Rehabilitation Administration (international organization)
    administrative body (1943–47) for an extensive social-welfare program that assisted nations ravaged by World War II. Created on Nov. 9, 1943, by a 44-nation agreement, its operations concentrated on distributing relief supplies, such as food, clothing, fuel, shelter, and medicines; providing relief services, with trained personnel; and aiding agricultural and economic rehabilitation. In add...
  • United Nations Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees in the Near East (international organization)
    subsidiary agency created by the United Nations (UN) General Assembly in 1949 to provide relief, health, and education services for Palestinians who lost both their homes and means of livelihood during the Arab-Israeli wars following the establishment of the state of Israel in 1948. Beginning operations in 1950, UNRWA was originally headquar...
  • United Nations Research Institute for Social Development (international organization)
    autonomous United Nations body established in 1964 to conduct research into the problems and policies of social and economic development. UNRISD is dependent on voluntary contributions from governments, from other UN organizations, and from various national and international agencies because it does not receive monies from the regular UN budget; it has been supported by 15, primarily European, gov...
  • United Nations Secretariat (UN)
    the organ that administers and coordinates the activities of the United Nations. It is headed by the UN secretary-general. The Secretariat influences the work of the United Nations to a degree much greater than indicated in the UN Charter. This influence largely results from the fact that the Secretariat’s staff is composed of permanent expert officials, rather than poli...
  • United Nations Special Commission (UN)
    The Security Council established a UN Special Commission (UNSCOM) to inspect and verify that Iraq was complying with the ban on WMD. By mid-1991, however, it was becoming clear that the embargo would very likely last longer than had been originally expected and that, in the meantime, the people of Iraq needed humanitarian aid. Thus, the Security Council passed a pair of......
  • United Nations Special Committee on Palestine (international committee)
    ...stationed there during the war, more than 80,000 still remained), referred the Palestine question to the United Nations (UN). On August 31 a majority report of the UN Special Committee on Palestine (UNSCOP) recommended that the region be partitioned into an Arab and a Jewish state, which, however, should retain an economic union (see map). Jerusalem and its environs were to be internatio...
  • United Nations Transition Assistance Group (United Nations organization)
    The United Nations Transition Assistance Group (UNTAG) opened operations in April 1989. After a disastrous start—in which South African forces massacred PLAN forces seeking to report to UNTAG to be confined to designated areas—UNTAG slowly gained control over the registration and electoral process in most areas....
  • United Nations Transitional Authority in Cambodia (United Nations interim government)
    ...Council, with the backing of the factions, endorsed this treaty and agreed to establish in the country a peacekeeping operation consisting of both soldiers and civil servants under the control of a United Nations Transitional Authority in Cambodia which would monitor progress toward conducting elections, temporarily run several government ministries, and safeguard human rights....
  • United Negro College Fund (American organization)
    American educator and prominent black leader, president of Tuskegee Normal and Industrial Institute (later Tuskegee Institute; now Tuskegee University) in 1935–53, and founder of the United Negro College Fund (1944)....
  • United Netherlands, Republic of the (historical state, Europe)
    (1588–1795), state whose area comprised approximately that of the present Kingdom of The Netherlands and which achieved a position of world power in the 17th century. The republic consisted of the seven northern Netherlands provinces that won independence from Spain from 1568 to 1609, and it grew out of the Union of Utrecht (1579), which was designed to...
  • United New Democratic Party (political party, South Korea)
    centrist-liberal political party in South Korea....
  • United Nile (river, Africa)
    Along the stretch of the Nile north of Khartoum, which is sometimes called the United Nile, two parts can be distinguished. The first part, which stretches from Khartoum to Lake Nasser, is about 830 miles in length; there the river flows through a desert region where rainfall is negligible, although some irrigation takes place along its banks. The second part includes Lake Nasser—which......
  • United Nobility (Russian organization)
    ...position in the localities. They were also alarmed that more and more land was passing from their control to other social classes. Their opposition was articulated by a pressure group known as the United Nobility, which had numerous members in the State Council and close personal links with the imperial court. Stolypin increasingly found that his reform measures, passed by the Duma, were being....
  • United Officers Group (political organization, Argentina)
    Perón returned to Argentina in 1941, used his acquired knowledge to achieve the rank of colonel, and joined the United Officers Group (Grupo de Oficiales Unidos; GOU), a secret military lodge that engineered the 1943 coup that overthrew the ineffective civilian government of Argentina. The military regimes of the following three years came increasingly under the influence of......
  • United Opposition (Soviet history)
    ...the denunciation of the latter at the 14th Party Congress, Trotsky joined forces with his old adversaries Zinovyev and Kamenev to resume the political offensive. For a year and a half this “United Opposition” grasped at every opportunity to put its criticisms before the party membership, despite the increasingly severe curbs being placed on such discussion. Again they stressed the...
  • United Order of Enoch (religious organization)
    ...where a prominent preacher, Sidney Rigdon, and his following had embraced Mormonism. In Jackson county, Mo., where it was revealed that Zion was to be established, Smith instituted a communalistic United Order of Enoch. But strife with non-Mormons in the area led to killings and the burning of Mormon property. Tensions between Mormons and local slave-owning Missourians, who viewed them as......
  • United Packinghouse Workers of America (American labour union)
    American labour union official who was president of the United Packinghouse Workers of America (UPWA) from 1946 to 1968....
  • United Paramount Theatres (American company)
    In 1953 United Paramount Theatres, the movie theatre arm of Paramount Pictures, merged with ABC, which thereby became the owner of several hundred American movie houses (many of which were sold in 1974). The merger provided ABC with the capital it needed to expand its presence in the new medium of television, and it quickly became one of the three major television networks. In 1955 ABC entered......
  • United Parcel Service (American company)
    In 1997 the Teamsters galvanized media attention and public support when their strike against United Parcel Service (UPS) stopped the delivery of thousands of packages worldwide. The strike centred on the extensive use of part-time employees by UPS. In the agreement negotiated with UPS, the Teamsters won 10,000 new full-time jobs over the course of the five-year contract....
  • United Party (political party, South Africa)
    one of the leading political parties of the Republic of South Africa from 1934 to 1977, governing from 1934 to 1948....
  • United Party (political party, New Zealand)
    prime minister of New Zealand (1891–93) who unified the Liberal Party, which held power for 20 years; he also played a major role in the enactment of social welfare legislation....
  • United Pentecostal Church, Inc. (church, United States)
    Protestant denomination organized in St. Louis, Mo., U.S., in 1945 by merger of the Pentecostal Assemblies of Jesus Christ and the Pentecostal Church, Inc. It is the largest of the Jesus Only groups (a movement for which the sacrament of baptism is given in the name of Jesus only, rather than in the name of the Trinity), and it emphasizes justification and baptism of the Holy Spirit (demonstrated...
  • United Presbyterian Church (church, Scotland)
    denomination that flourished in Scotland from 1847 to 1900. It was formed through the union of the United Secession Church and the Relief Church, which had developed from groups that left the Church of Scotland in the 18th century. The United Presbyterian Church, the Church of Scotland, and the Free Church of Scotland each claimed to repres...
  • United Presbyterian Church in the U.S.A. (church, United States)
    church formed on June 10, 1983, in the merger of the United Presbyterian Church in the U.S.A. (headquartered in New York City) and the Presbyterian Church in the United States (headquartered in Atlanta, Ga.). The merger ended a North–South split among Presbyterians that had dated from the U.S. Civil War....
  • United Press (news agency)
    American-based news agency, one of the largest proprietary news wire services in the world. It was created in 1958 upon the merger of the United Press (UP; 1907) with the International News Service (INS). UPI and its precursor agencies pioneered in some key areas of news coverage, including the wired transmission of news photographs in 1925....
  • United Press International (American news agency)
    American-based news agency, one of the largest proprietary news wire services in the world. It was created in 1958 upon the merger of the United Press (UP; 1907) with the International News Service (INS). UPI and its precursor agencies pioneered in some key areas of news coverage, including the wired transmission of news photographs in 1925....
  • United Productions of America (American film industry)
    ...advanced, most inventive work of this kind was done in countries such as Yugoslavia, Czechoslovakia, and Poland. In the United States, highly individual styles were pioneered in the 1940s by the United Productions of America (UPA) group under the direction of Stephen Bosustow. Among their creations were the series that featured Mr. Magoo and Gerald McBoing Boing....
  • United Progressive Alliance (political organization, India)
    ...BJP’s membership fell to 138 seats. As had become the pattern in other recent elections, no party was situated to call a government on its own, so the Congress (I) formed a coalition known as the United Progressive Alliance (UPA). Congress leader Sonia Gandhi opted not to take the premiership, however, and instead recommended Manmohan Singh, a Sikh, for the post....
  • United Provinces (historical state, Europe)
    (1588–1795), state whose area comprised approximately that of the present Kingdom of The Netherlands and which achieved a position of world power in the 17th century. The republic consisted of the seven northern Netherlands provinces that won independence from Spain from 1568 to 1609, and it grew out of the Union of Utrecht (1579), which was designed to...
  • United Provinces of Āgra and Oudh (historical Indian state)
    ...the North-Western Provinces (initially called the Āgra Presidency). The kingdom of Avadh, annexed by the company in 1856, was united with the North-Western Provinces in 1877 under the name United Provinces of Āgra and Oudh (with borders almost identical with present-day Uttar Pradesh); in 1902 the name was changed to the United Provinces of Āgra and Oudh....
  • United Provinces of Central America (historical federation, Central America)
    (1823–40), union of what are now the states of Guatemala, Honduras, El Salvador, Costa Rica, and Nicaragua....
  • United Provinces of the Centre of America (historical federation, Central America)
    (1823–40), union of what are now the states of Guatemala, Honduras, El Salvador, Costa Rica, and Nicaragua....
  • United Provinces of the Río de la Plata (historical state, Latin America)
    ...and it was not until 1816, at a congress in Tucumán, that the other provinces declared their independence. A provisional government was created, and Buenos Aires was named capital of the United Provinces of the Río de la Plata. The more distant provinces of the former viceroyalty—Bolivia, Uruguay, and Paraguay—refused to become part of a new country dominated by......
  • United Red Army (militant organization)
    militant Japanese organization that was formed in 1969 in the merger of two far-left factions. Beginning in 1970, the Red Army undertook several major terrorist operations, including the hijacking of several Japan Air Lines airplanes, a massacre at Tel Aviv’s Lod Airport (1972), and the seizure and occupation of embassies in various countries. In 1971–72 the organization underwent se...
  • United Russia (political party, Russia)
    ...limits, might engineer a change to the constitution to allow him to be reelected. Instead, Putin surprised many observers in October 2007 by announcing that he would head the list of the pro-Putin United Russia party in parliamentary elections. In December 2007 United Russia won more than three-fifths of the vote and 315 of the Duma’s 450 seats. Less than two weeks later, Putin anointed ...
  • United Secession Church (Scottish church)
    denomination that flourished in Scotland from 1847 to 1900. It was formed through the union of the United Secession Church and the Relief Church, which had developed from groups that left the Church of Scotland in the 18th century. The United Presbyterian Church, the Church of Scotland, and the Free Church of Scotland each claimed to represent the soundest traditions of Scottish......
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