Kirkland, (Joseph) Lane (b. March 12, 1922, Camden, S.C., U.S.—d. Aug. 14, 1999, Washington, D.C.) U.S. labour-union leader. He served as an officer in the U.S. merchant marine and joined the Ameri¬ can Federation of Labor (AFL) as a staff researcher in 1948. He was elected secretary-treasurer of the AFL-CIO in 1969 and succeeded George Meany as president in 1979. During Kirkland’s tenure (1979-95), the AFL-CIO’s membership and political influence waned due to shrinking employment in the U.S. manufacturing sector.
Kirkland, Samuel (b. Dec. 1, 1741, Norwich, Conn.—d. Feb. 28, 1808, Clinton, N.Y., U.S.) American clergyman. He was a Congregational missionary to Indian tribes of the Iroquois Confederacy and learned sev¬ eral Indian languages. In the American Revolution he served as chaplain to colonial troops and secured an alliance with the Oneida. He was rewarded with a land grant in New York state, where he founded the Hamilton Oneida Academy for Indian and white students (later Hamilton College).
Kirkwall Royal burgh and chief town (pop., 1995 est.: 7,000), Orkney Islands, Scotland. Located on Pomona Island off the northern tip of Scot¬ land, it has evidence of Norse influence persisting as late as the building of the Cathedral of St. Magnus in the 12th century. Kirkwall functions mainly as a commercial and service centre for the Orkney Islands and is also the islands’ historic county town (seat) and administrative centre. The exploitation of North Sea oil has led to development of offshore servic¬ ing and supply for the oil industry.
Kirkwood gaps Interruptions in the distribution of asteroids in the asteroid belt between Mars and Jupiter that appear where any of these small bodies’ orbital periods would be a simple fraction of Jupiter’s. Sev¬ eral zones of low density in the asteroid belt were noticed about 1860 by Daniel Kirkwood (1814-95), who explained the gaps as resulting from perturbations by Jupiter. Any object that revolved in one of these loca¬ tions would be disturbed regularly by the planet’s gravitational pull and eventually be moved to another orbit.
Kirov Vke-r6f\, Sergey (Mironovich) orig. Sergey Mironovich Kostrikov (b. March 27, 1886, Urzhum, Vyatka province, Russia—d. Dec. 1, 1934, Leningrad, Russia, U.S.S.R.) Soviet political leader. After joining the Bolsheviks, he extended the Communist Party’s control in Trans¬ caucasia, and in 1926 Joseph Stalin appointed him head of the Leningrad party organization (1926). He modernized the city’s industries, was elected to the Politburo (1930), and acquired power that nearly rivaled Stalin’s. In 1934 he was assassinated by a young party member, Leonid Nikolayev, who was later shot, along with 13 suspected accomplices. Sta¬ lin, claiming that a widespread conspiracy of anti-Stalinist communists planned to assassinate the entire Soviet leadership, used the assassination as a pretext to institute the Purge trials. In 1956 Nikita Khrushchev sug¬ gested that Stalin had engineered Kirov’s assassination.
Kirov Theatre See Mariinsky Theatre
Kirovabad See Ganca
Kirstein Vkir-,sten\, Lincoln (Edward) (b. May 4, 1907, Rochester, N.Y., U.S.—d. Jan. 5, 1996, New York, N.Y.) U.S. dance authority, impre¬ sario, and writer. He graduated from Harvard, where he founded the lit¬ erary magazine Hound & Horn. Financially independent, he focused his artistic interests on ballet and in 1933 persuaded the choreographer George Balanchine to move to the U.S. to found a ballet school and com¬ pany. The School of American Ballet opened in 1934; Kirstein was its director from 1940 to 1989. He and Balanchine jointly established a series of ballet companies, culminating in the New York City Ballet (1948), of which he served as general director until 1989. He wrote seven books on ballet, including the classic history Dance (1935).
Kisangani \,ke-san-'ga-ne\ formerly (until 1966) Stanleyville City (pop., 1994 est.: 417,517), northeastern Democratic Republic of the Congo. The nation’s major inland port after Kinshasa, it is located on the Congo River, below Boyoma Falls. The city was founded in 1883 by Europeans and was known first as Falls Station and then as Stanleyville (for Henry Morton Stanley). It has been the major centre of the northern Congo since the late 1800s. It is the seat of the University of Kisangani (1963) and other institutions of higher education.
Kish Ancient Mesopotamian city-state located east of Babylon in what is now south-central Iraq. It lay on the Euphrates River before the course of the river changed. City ruins date to the 4th millennium bc and to Sum¬ erian culture; archaeological evidence of the palace of Sargon and the temple of Nebuchadrezzar II has also been found.
Kishinev See Chisinau Kishon River See Qishon River
Kissinger Vki-sffi-jorV Henry A(lfred) (b. May 27,1923, Fiirth, Ger.) German-bom U.S. political scientist and foreign-policy adviser (1969-76). He immigrated with his family to the U.S. in 1938. He taught at Harvard University, where he directed the Defense Studies Program (1959-69). He was appointed assistant for national security affairs by Pres. Richard Nixon in 1968 and served as head of the National Security Council from 1969 to 1975; he was secretary of state from 1973 to 1977. He developed the policy of detente toward the Soviet Union, which led to the Strategic Arms Limita¬ tion Talks agreements. He also initiated the first official U.S. contact with China. After helping to plan the U.S. bombing of Cambodia in 1969-70, he negotiated the cease-fire agreement that ended the Vietnam War, for which he shared the Nobel Prize for Peace in 1973 with Le Due Tho (who refused it). In 1973 he helped foment a military coup in Chile that toppled that country’s Marxist government. After leaving government service, he became an international consultant, lecturer, and writer.
Kit-Cat Club Association of early 18th-century Whig leaders that met in London. Members included the writers Richard Steele, Joseph Addison, and William Congreve and such political figures as Robert Walpole and the duke of Marlborough. They first met in the tavern of Christopher Cat, whose mutton pies were called kit-cats. Portraits of the 42 members were painted by Godfrey Kneller (1646-1723), and the specific size of the can¬ vas (36 x 28 in. [91 x 71 cm]) used for the portraits became known as a kit-cat.
Kitaj \ki-'tl\, R(onald) B(rooks) (b. Oct. 29, 1932, Chagrin Falls, Ohio, U.S.) U.S.-born British painter. He studied in New York City, Vienna, Oxford, and London. In the 1960s he was a prominent member of the Pop art movement in Britain. His works mingled the impersonal finish characteristic of Pop canvases with the loose, painterly brushwork of Abstract Expressionism but differed from the work of his Pop contem¬ poraries in their complex and allusive figurative imagery. Kitaj’s semiab¬ stract paintings featured brightly coloured and imaginatively interpreted human figures portrayed in puzzling and ambiguous relation to one another. He exhibited internationally and taught at various British art schools.
Kitakami Mountains \ke-'ta-ka-me\ Mountain range, northeastern Honshu, Japan. It parallels the Pacific coast and extends for about 155 mi (250 km) to the Ojika Peninsula. Its highest peak rises to 6,280 ft (1,914 m). Often referred to as the “Tibet of Japan,” the Kitakami Range is the most culturally isolated region of Honshu. Until the mid-20th century rel¬ ics of old agricultural practices survived, including the serf system known as Nago.
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Kitakyushu ► Klamath I 1041
KitakyGshu Vke-'ta-.kyii-shiA City (pop., 2000 prelim.: 1,011,491), Kyushu, Japan. It was created in 1963 by the amalgamation of several cit¬ ies. Part of its long coastline is included in the Inland Sea National Park. It is one of Japan’s leading manufacturing centres. Undersea tunnels and a bridge link the city with Shimonoseki, Honshu.
Kitami Mountains \ke-'ta-me\ Mountain range, northeastern Hok¬ kaido, Japan. Extending 180 mi (290 km) along the coast of the Sea of Okhotsk, its elevations range generally from 2,500 to 3,100 ft (750 to 950 m), but the highest reaches 6,500 ft (1,980 m).