United States Naval Academy known as Annapolis Institution for the training of commissioned officers for the U.S. Navy and U.S. Marine Corps. It was founded at Annapolis, Md., in 1845 and reorganized in 1850-51. Women were first admitted in 1976. Graduates are awarded the degree of bachelor of science and a commission as ensign in the Navy or as second lieutenant in the Marine Corps. Annapolis has produced many notable Americans, including George Dewey, Richard E. Byrd, Ches¬ ter Nimitz, William F. Halsey, Jr., A.A. Michelson, Hyman Rickover, Jimmy Carter, Ross Perot, and several astronauts.
United States Navy Major branch of the U.S. military forces, charged with defending the nation at sea and maintaining security on the seas wher¬ ever U.S. interests extend. The Continental Navy was established by the Continental Congress in 1775. It was disbanded in 1784, but the harass¬ ment of U.S. merchant ships by Barbary pirates prompted Congress to establish the Department of the Navy in 1798. The navy took part in the War of 181 2 and was later important in the Union victory in the American Civil War. Sea victories during the Spanish-American War (1898) led to a period of steady growth. In World War I, its duties were limited to troop transport, minelaying, and escorting merchant ships. The Japanese attack on the naval base at Pearl Harbor (1941) led to U.S. entry into World War II, in which, in addition to antisubmarine and troop transport duties, the navy conducted amphibious assaults in the Pacific theater and along the European coast. Aircraft carriers proved decisive in battles with Japanese forces in the Pacific, and they are still the backbone of the navy’s fleets. Since World War II it has remained the largest and most powerful navy in the world. The Department of the Navy, a branch of the Department of Defense, is headed by a secretary of the navy. The navy includes the U.S. Marine Corps and, during wartime, the U.S. Coast Guard. In 2000 there were almost 400,000 Navy personnel on active duty, excluding the Marine Corps and Coast Guard. See also U.S. Naval Academy.
United States Steel Corp. Leading U.S. producer of steel and related products. It was founded in 1901 by Charles M. Schwab, Elbert H. Gary, and J.P. Morgan to consolidate Andrew Carnegie’s Carnegie Steel Co., Gary’s Federal Steel Co., and other steel and metal companies. As chair¬ man of the board, Gary dominated the corporation in its early years, orga¬ nizing price agreements among steel producers and opposing unions. An antitrust suit against U.S. Steel went as far as the Supreme Court, which ruled in 1920 that it was not a monopoly in restraint of trade. The corpo¬ ration recognized the United Steelworkers of America in 1936. The largest U.S. steel producer, U.S. Steel diversified into oil and gas in the later 20th century as well as into chemicals, mining, construction, and transporta¬ tion. In 1986 the holding company USX Corp. was established to oversee it and other operating units. U.S. Steel Group was spun off from USX in 2002 and again became an independent, publicly traded corporation.
United Steelworkers (USW) historic labour union representing workers in steel, aluminum, and other metallurgical industries for much of the 20th century. In the U.S. it grew out of the Steel Workers Orga¬ nizing Committee (SWOC), established jointly in 1936 by the Commit¬ tee for Industrial Organization (see AFL-CIO) and the Amalgamated Association of Iron, Steel, and Tin Workers. Under Philip Murray it devel¬
oped into a powerful union. In 1942 SWOC became the United Steel¬ workers of America (USWA), of which Murray served as president until his death in 1952. The USWA absorbed the Aluminum Workers of America in 1944 and by the mid-1950s had more than one million mem¬ bers. It won unprecedented benefits in the postwar period but saw its membership and power decline as the U.S. steel industry shrank from the 1970s onward. In 2005 the USWA combined with the Paper, Allied- Industrial, Chemical and Energy Workers International Union (PACE) and was renamed the United Steel, Paper and Forestry, Rubber, Manufactur¬ ing, Energy, Allied Industrial and Service Workers International Union (USW). The USW represents workers in the United States and Canada.
Unity (School of Christianity) Religious movement founded in 1889 by Charles Fillmore (1854-1948) and his wife, Myrtle Fillmore (1845-1931), in Kansas City, Mo., U.S. Believing that spiritual healing had cured Myrtle of tuberculosis, the couple began to endorse spiritual healing. Until 1922, Unity was a member of the International New Thought Alliance. Unlike some New Thought groups, Unity embraces practical Christianity and modem medicine. It has no definite creed and is interdenominational. Its Silent Unity service helps people through coun¬ seling and prayer, responding to 2.5 million requests for aid a year via mail, telephone, and Internet. Unity publishes magazines and books, and it conducts classes for prospective Unity ministers.
unity-of-science view See unified science
universal In metaphysics, epistemology, and logic, a general category, such as a property or relation, considered as distinct from the particular things that instantiate or exemplify it. The problem of universals concerns the question of what sort of being should be ascribed to such categories (e.g., is there any such thing as redness apart from particular red things?). The debate over the status of universals stems from Plato’s theory of forms. Whereas Plato held that forms (universals) exist independently of particu¬ lars, Aristotle argued that forms exist only in the particulars in which they are exemplified. See also realism.
Universal Declaration of Human Rights Declaration adopted by the United Nations General Assembly in 1948. Drafted by a committee chaired by Eleanor Roosevelt, it was adopted without dissent but with eight abstentions. Among its 30 articles are definitions of civil and political rights (including the rights to life, liberty, and a fair trial) as well as defi¬ nitions of economic, social, and cultural rights (including the right to social security and to participation in the cultural life of one’s commu¬ nity), all of which are owed by UN member states to those under their jurisdiction. It has acquired more juridical status than originally intended and has been widely used, even by national courts, as a means of judg¬ ing compliance with member states’ human-rights obligations. The dec¬ laration has been the foundation of the work of nongovernmental ORGANIZATIONS SUCh as AMNESTY INTERNATIONAL.
Universal Negro Improvement Association (UNIA) Organi¬ zation founded by Marcus Garvey in 1914. Organized in Jamaica, it was influential in urban African American neighbourhoods in the U.S. after Garvey’s arrival in New York City in 1916. It was dedicated to racial pride, economic self-sufficiency, and the formation of an independent black nation in Africa. After Garvey’s 1923 conviction on charges of fraud, the UNIA lost influence, but it proved to be a forerunner of black nationalism.
Universal Pictures U.S. film studio. Formed by Carl Laemmle in 1912, it became a top producer of popular, low-budget serials in the 1920s and of horror movies in the 1930s. Its later films include the Abbott and Cos¬ tello comedies and the Doris Day-Rock Hudson bedroom farces. The stu¬ dio was bought by MCA in 1962, and in 1966 it became a division of Universal City Studios (now simply Universal Studios), the largest pack¬ ager of television series.
Universal Product Code (UPC) Standard bar code used to identify grocery and other retail merchandise. In the UPC system, the five digits on the left are assigned to a particular manufacturer or maker and the five digits on the right are used by that manufacturer to identify a specific type or make of product.
Universal Resource Locator See URL Universal Serial Bus See USB