Hume, John (b. Jan. 18, 1937, Londonderry, N.Ire.) Leader of the Social Democratic and Labour Party (SDLP) in Northern Ireland from 1979 to 2001 and corecipient with David Trimble of the Nobel Prize for Peace in 1998. A schoolteacher, Hume became a Roman Catholic leader in the Northern Ireland civil rights movement in the 1960s. He was elected to the parliaments of Northern Ireland (1969), Europe (1979), and Brit¬ ain (1983). A moderate, he condemned the use of violence by the Irish Republican Army (IRA). In the late 1980s he attempted to persuade the IRA to abandon the armed struggle against Britain and enter democratic poli¬ tics. He risked his personal safety to engage in sometimes secret dialogues with leaders of Sinn Fein, the IRA’s political wing, and he played a lead¬ ing role in negotiating the Good Friday Agreement, the multiparty peace accord between unionists and nationalists reached in April 1998. Elected to the new Northern Ireland Assembly in June, he resigned his seat two years later because of ill health.
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humidity ► Hunan i 909
humidity Amount of water vapour in the air. One of the most variable characteristics of the atmosphere, humidity is an important factor in cli¬ mate and weather: it regulates air temperature by absorbing thermal radia¬ tion both from the Sun and the Earth; it is directly proportional to the latent energy available for the generation of storms; and it is the ultimate source of all forms of condensation and precipitation. Humidity varies because the water-holding capacity of air is determined by temperature. When a volume of air at a given temperature holds the maximum amount of water vapour possible, the air is said to be saturated. Relative humid¬ ity is the water-vapour content of the air relative to its content at satura¬ tion. Saturated air has a relative humidity of 100%; near the Earth the relative humidity rarely falls below 30%.
Hummel Vhum-alV, Johann Nepomuk (b. Nov. 14, 1778, Pozsony, Hung.—d. Oct. 17, 1837, Weimar, Thuringia) Austrian composer, pianist, and conductor. Hummel was a piano prodigy. Moving at age eight to Vienna, where his father was a conductor, he studied for two years with Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart. After five years of touring, he returned for further study and gave up public performance. He replaced Joseph Haydn as music director at the Esterhazy palace but actually made his living teaching and composing for the theatre. In 1814 he recommenced per¬ forming with huge success, and he died wealthy. He composed a number of concertos and much chamber music.
hummingbird Any of about 320 species of New World birds (family Trochilidae), many of which have glittering colours and elaborately specialized feathers. They are most abundant in South America, though about 12 species are found in the U.S. and Canada. Hummingbirds range in length from slightly more than 2 in. (5 cm) to 8 in. (20 cm), weigh 0.07-0.7 oz (2-20 g), and have a long, slender bill. The bee hummingbird of Cuba is the small¬ est living bird. Hummingbirds can fly forward, straight up and down, sideways, and backward and can hover in front of flowers to obtain nectar and insects. Smaller species can beat their wings as fast as 80 beats per second.
humour Latin "fluid" In early Western physiological theory, one of the four body fluids thought to determine a person’s temperament and features. As hypothesized by Galen, the four cardinal humours were blood, phlegm, choler (yellow bile), and melancholy (black bile). The variant mixture of these humours in each person determined his “com¬ plexion” or temperament and his mental and physical qualities. The ideal person had the perfectly proportioned mixture of the four fluids; a dis¬ proportionate amount of one humour created a personality dominated by one set of related emotions (e.g., a choleric man was easily angered, proud, ambitious, and vengeful).
humpback whale Long-finned baleen whale (. Megaptera novaean- gliae). They live along all major ocean coasts, sometimes swimming close inshore or even into harbours and up rivers. Humpbacks grow to 40-52 ft (12-16 m) long. They are black above, with some white below, and have large knobs on the head and jaws. The humpback migrates between polar waters in summer and tropical or subtropical breeding grounds in winter. It feeds on shrimplike crustaceans, small fish, and plankton. It is probably the most vocal of all whales (with “songs” of 5-35 minutes) and one of the most acrobatic (capable of turning a somersault). Much reduced in number by overhunting, humpbacks have been protected worldwide since the 1960s, and some populations seem to be increasing.
Humperdinck, Engelbert (b. Sept. 1, 1854, Sieberg, Hanover—d. Sept. 27, 1921, Neustrelitz, Ger.) German composer. He studied piano, organ, cello, and composition with Ferdinand Hiller. His compositions won prizes, and in 1879 he met Richard Wagner in Naples and became a member of his circle. Invited to help prepare Parsifal for its premiere, including copying the score and rehearsing the chorus, he came to be considered Wagner’s chosen successor by some. He is known today for the highly popular opera Hansel and Gretel (1892); his later works include the opera The King’s Children (1897).
Humphrey, Doris (b. Oct. 17, 1895, Oak Park, Ill., U.S.—d. Dec. 29, 1958, New York, N.Y.) U.S. dancer and modern-dance choreographer.
She was a member of the Denishawn troupe from 1917 to 1928, when she left to cofound, with Charles Weidman, a school and performing dance group, which was active until 1944. In her choreography she employed an innovative use of con¬ flict between balance and imbalance, fall and recovery; her works included Water Study (1928), The Shakers (1931), and New Dance (1935). She retired as a performer in 1945 but continued as artistic direc¬ tor for Jose Limon’s company, creat¬ ing works such as Day on Earth (1947) and Ruins and Visions (1953).
Humphrey, Hubert H(oratio)
(b. May 27, 1911, Wallace, S.D., U.S.—d. Jan. 13, 1978, Waverly, Minn.) U.S. politician. He worked as a pharmacist and a teacher before becom¬ ing Minnesota campaign manager for Pres. Franklin D. Roosevelt in 1944. During this period he was instrumental in merging the state’s Democratic and Farmer-Labor parties. His public career began when he was elected mayor of Minneapolis (1945-48). In the U.S. Senate (1949-64), he proved to be a skilled parliamentary leader who helped forge bipartisan support for the Nuclear Test-Ban Treaty (1963) and the Civil Rights Act (1964). As vice president under Lyndon B. Johnson (1965-69), he was vilified by left-wing opponents for his defense of U.S. participation in the Vietnam War. He won the Democratic presidential nomination in 1968 but narrowly lost the election to Richard Nixon. He served again in the Sen¬ ate from 1971 to 1978.
humus Vhyii-mosV Nonliving, finely divided organic matter in soil, derived from microbial decomposition of plant and animal substances. Ranging in colour from brown to black, it consists primarily of carbon but also contains nitrogen and smaller amounts of phosphorus and sulfur. As it decomposes, its components are changed into forms usable by plants. Humus is classified according to how well it is incorporated into the min¬ eral soil, the types of organisms involved in its decomposition, and the vegetation from which it is derived. It is valued by farmers and garden¬ ers because it provides nutrients essential for plant growth, increases the soil’s water absorption, and improves soil workability.
Hun Any member of a nomadic pastoralist people who invaded south¬ eastern Europe c. ad 370. Appearing from central Asia after the mid-4th century, they first overran the Alani, who occupied the plains between the Volga and Don rivers, and then overthrew the Ostrogoths living between the Don and Dniester rivers. About 376 they defeated the Visigoths living in what is now approximately Romania and reached the Danubian fron¬ tier of the Roman Empire. As warriors, they inspired almost unparalleled fear throughout Europe; they were accurate mounted archers, and their rapid, ferocious charges brought them overwhelming victories. They extended their power over many of the Germanic peoples of central Europe and allied themselves with the Romans. By 432 the leadership of the various groups of Huns had been centralized under a single king, Rua (Rugila). After his death (434), he was succeeded by his two nephews, Bleda and Attila. By a peace treaty with the Eastern Roman Empire, the Romans agreed to double the subsidies they had been paying the Huns; when they apparently failed to pay the stipulated sums, Attila launched a heavy assault on the Roman Danubian frontier (441), and other attacks spread the Huns’ control into Greece and Italy. After Attila’s death (453), his many sons divided up his empire and began a series of costly struggles with their subjects. The Huns were finally routed in 455 by an alliance of Gepidae, Ostrogoths, Heruli, and others in a great battle in Pannonia. The Eastern Roman government then closed the frontier to the Huns, who gradually disintegrated as a social and political unit.