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Otto, Nikolaus August

(Encyclopedia)Otto, Nikolaus August nēˈkōlous ouˈgo͝ost ôˈtō [key], 1832–91, German engineer. He was coinventor (1867) of an internal-combustion engine, and he devised (1876) the four-stroke Otto cycle, w...

August

(Encyclopedia)August: see month.

Federmann, Nikolaus

(Encyclopedia)Federmann, Nikolaus nēˈkōlous fāˈdərmän [key], 1501–42, German adventurer in Venezuela and Colombia. In the service of the Welser brothers, Augsburg bankers to whom Charles V had granted righ...

Harnoncourt, Nikolaus

(Encyclopedia)Harnoncourt, Nikolaus (Johann Nikolaus Graf de la Fontaine und d'Harnoncourt-Unverzagt), 1929–2016, Austrian conductor, b. Berlin, studied Vienna Music Academy (1948–52). A pioneer in the early-mu...

Lenau, Nikolaus

(Encyclopedia)Lenau, Nikolaus nēmpsh ādˈlər fən shtrāˈlənou [key], 1802–50, Austrian romantic poet, b. Hungary. He is considered Austria's chief lyric poet. Pessimism and melancholy dominate his work, whi...

Chodowiecki, Daniel Nikolaus

(Encyclopedia)Chodowiecki, Daniel Nikolaus däˈnēĕl nēˈkōlous khôdôvyĕtsˈkē [key], 1726–1801, German painter and engraver, b. Danzig. He was the most popular illustrator of his day in Prussia. The Depa...

Amsdorf, Nikolaus von

(Encyclopedia)Amsdorf, Nikolaus von nēˈkōlous fən ämsˈdôrf [key], 1483–1565, German Protestant reformer. He became a devoted supporter of Martin Luther. Elector John Frederick I of Saxony appointed Amsdorf...

Pevsner, Sir Nikolaus

(Encyclopedia)Pevsner, Sir Nikolaus pĕvzˈnər [key], 1902–83, English architectural historian, b. Germany. Influenced by Heinrich Wölfflin, Pevsner contended in his many works that art must be considered withi...

Fick, August

(Encyclopedia)Fick, August ouˈgo͝ost fĭk [key], 1833–1916, German philologist. Fick compiled the first comparative etymological dictionary of the Indo-European languages (1868). ...

August Coup

(Encyclopedia)August Coup, attempted coup (Aug. 18–22, 1991) against Soviet President Mikhail Gorbachev. On the eve of the signing ceremony for a new union treaty for the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics, memb...