kingdom of God or kingdom of heaven In Christianity, the spiri¬ tual realm over which God reigns as king, or the eventual fulfillment of God’s will on earth. Although rare in pre-Christian Jewish literature, the idea of God as king was fundamental to Judaism, and Jewish ideas on the kingdom of God most likely shaped New Testament usage. The term is often used in the New Testament, and it was a central theme in the preach¬ ing of John the Baptist and Jesus. Theologians differ as to whether Jesus implied that the kingdom had arrived in his person or whether it was expected as a future event. Christian orthodoxy now holds that the king¬ dom has been partially realized by the presence of the church in the world and that it will be fully realized after the Last Judgment.
kingfish Any of various fishes, among them certain species of mackerel and a drum. The king mackerel, or kingfish ( Scomberomorus cavalla), is a western Atlantic fish about 67 in. (170 cm) long and weighing 79 lbs (36 kg) or more. The kingfish, or whiting ( Menticirrhus saxatilis ), of the Atlantic, is notable among drums in that it lacks an air bladder.
kingfisher Any of about 90 species of birds (family Alcedinidae), many of which fish for their food. Solitary birds, kingfishers are found world¬ wide but are chiefly tropical. They have a large head, long and usually narrow bill, compact body, small feet, and usually a short or medium- length tail. Species range from 4 to 18 in. (10—45 cm) long; most have bright, boldly patterned plumage, and many are crested. They utter rat¬ tling or piping calls, and they plunge into the water for small fish and other aquatic animals. The only widespread North American species, the belted kingfisher ( Megaceryle alcyon), is bluish gray above and white below. The forest kingfishers (e.g., kookaburra) have a broader bill.
Kings, Valley of the Narrow gorge. Upper Egypt, near the ancient city of Thebes. It is the burial site of nearly all of the kings (pharaohs) of the 18th-20th dynasties (1539-1075 bc), from Thutmose I to Ramses X. The valley contains 62 tombs, virtually all of which were robbed in antiquity. Only the tomb of Tutankhamen escaped pillage; after its excavation in the 1920s, its treasures were placed in the Egyptian Museum in Cairo. The longest tomb belongs to Queen Hatshepsut, whose burial chamber is nearly 700 ft (215 m) from the entrance. The largest tomb, built for the sons of Ramses II, contains scores of burial chambers. The valley is part of a UNESCO World Heritage site (designated 1979) centred on Thebes.
Kings Canyon National Park National park, Sierra Nevadas, south- central California, U.S. Occupying an area of 722 sq mi (1,870 sq km), it is administered along with the adjacent Sequoia National Park. Established in 1940, it contains giant sequoia trees. Its most spectacular feature is Kings Canyon on the Kings River, which was carved by glacial action.
Kings Mountain, Battle of (Oct. 7, 1780) Battle in the American Revolution between American revolutionaries and loyalists. About 2,000 frontiersmen were assembled to resist the British advance into North Carolina; they surrounded the 1,100 soldiers, mainly loyalists from New York and South Carolina, on Kings Mountain, S.C., near the border with North Carolina. The frontiersmen killed or captured almost all the loyal¬ ists, and the battle marked the beginning of the war’s turn against the British.
kingship, divine See divine kingship
Kingsley, Charles (b. June 12, 1819, Holne Vicarage, Devon, Eng.—d. Jan. 23, 1875, Eversley, Hampshire) English clergyman and novelist. After studies at Cambridge, he became a parish priest and later chaplain to Queen Victoria, professor of modern history at Cambridge, and canon of Westminster. An enthusiastic advocate of Christian socialism, he published several novels about social problems before writing the very successful historical novels Hypatia (1853), Westward Ho! (1855), and Hereward the Wake (1866). Fearing the Anglican church’s trend in the direction of Catholicism, he engaged in a famous controversy with John Henry Newman. His wholehearted acceptance of Charles Darwin’s theory of evolution inspired his popular children’s book The Water-Babies
(1863).
Kingston City (pop., 1999 est.: metro, area, 655,000), capital and chief port of Jamaica. Located on the southeastern coast of the island, it was founded in 1692 after Port Royal was destroyed by an earthquake. It soon became the commercial centre of Jamaica and was made the political capital in 1872. Historic buildings include a 17th-century church, a moated fortress, and the 18th-century Headquarters House. It is the seat of the University of the West Indies.
Kingston, Maxine Hong orig. Maxine Hong (b. Oct. 27, 1940, Stockton, Calif., U.S.) U.S. writer. Born to an immigrant family, she examined the myths, realities, and cultural identities of Chinese and American families and the role of women in Chinese culture in her fic¬ tion and nonfiction. Her widely admired The Woman Warrior (1976) and China Men (1980) blend fact and fantasy to tell aspects of her family’s history.
Kingston upon Hull or Hull City and unitary authority (pop., 2001: 243,595), geographic county of East Riding of Yorkshire, historic county of Yorkshire, England. It lies on the northern bank of the River Humber at its junction with the River Hull, 22 mi (35 km) from the North Sea. Hull was a medieval wool port that passed from the monks of Meaux Abbey to Edward I in 1293. For more than 400 years it was the chief shipping port for the inland waterways converging on the River Humber. Granted city status in 1897, it is a major national seaport, accommodating large oceangoing vessels. The medieval part of the city retains a number of his¬ toric buildings; its grammar school was founded in 1486.
Common king snake (Lampropeltis get- ula).
JACK DERMID
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Kingstown ► Kiribati I 1039
Kingstown Capital (pop., 1999 est.: 16,175), chief port of Saint Vin¬ cent and the Grenadines, West Indies. Located on the southwestern end of Saint Vincent island, it overlooks Kingstown Harbour. Its sites of interest include the Botanic Gardens (founded 1763), the oldest of its kind in the Western Hemisphere; Capt. William Bligh made his 1787 voyage on the Bounty to obtain breadfruit trees from Tahiti for this garden.
Kinnock, Neil (Gordon) (b. March 28, 1942, Tredegar, Monmouth¬ shire, Wales) British politician. Elected to Parliament in 1970, he rose in the Labour Party ranks and was named to its national executive commit¬ tee in 1978. After the party suffered its heaviest defeat in 48 years in 1983, he was elected party leader, the youngest in its history. By 1989 he had persuaded the party to abandon its radical policies on disarmament and large-scale nationalization. Although the party increased its numbers in Parliament, it lost the 1992 general election to the Conservatives, and Kinnock resigned as party leader. He became a vice president of the European Commission of the European Union in 1999.
Kinsey Vkin-zeV Alfred (Charles) (b. June 23, 1894, Hoboken, N.J., U.S.—d. Aug. 25, 1956, Bloomington, Ind.) U.S. zoologist and expert on human sexual behaviour. After earning a Ph.D. from Harvard University in 1920, he taught zoology at Indiana University, where he became the founder-director, in 1942, of the university’s Institute for Sex Research (renamed the Kinsey Institute for Sex Research, Inc., in 1981). His inquir¬ ies into human sexuality led him to publish Sexual Behavior in the Human Male (1948) and Sexual Behavior in the Human Female (1953). These reports, based on 18,500 personal interviews, received extraordinary pub¬ licity for their conclusions about contemporary sexual mores and behav¬ iour. Kinsey’s methodologies and statistical samplings, however, have been highly questioned and criticized in recent years.
Kinsha River See Jinsha River
Kinshasa \kin-sh'a-SQ\formerly Leopoldville Capital and largest city (pop., 1994 est.: 4,655,313), Democratic Republic of the Congo. Situated on the southern bank of the Congo River, it was founded as Leopoldville in 1881 by Henry Morton Stanley. It became the capital of the Belgian Congo in the 1920s. After World War II it emerged as the largest city in sub-Saharan Africa and became the capital of the independent republic in 1960. It was given its present name in 1966. A major river port and a commercial centre, it is the seat of the University of Kinshasa (1954).