And a solemn diploma from Christ Church, Canterbury dated 873 is so poorly constructed and written that historian Nicholas Brooks posited a scribe who was either so blind he could not read what he wrote or who knew little or no Latin.

* Santa Claus also known as Saint Nicholas, Father Christmas and simply " Santa ", is a figure with legendary, mythical, historical and folkloric origins who, in many western cultures, is said to bring gifts to the homes of the good children during the late evening and overnight hours of Christmas Eve, December 24.

In 2007, Geoffrey Robertson QC alleged that Phillip's remains are no longer in St Nicholas Church, Bathampton and have been lost: "... Captain Arthur Phillip is not where the ledger stone says he is: it may be that he is buried somewhere outside, it may simply be that he is simply lost.

The title of Nicholas Blake's 1949 detective novel Head of a Traveller is a quotation from Housman's parody Fragment of a Greek Tragedy.

There is a sizeable single storey Masonic Hall in St Nicholas Street, which is home to no less than seven Masonic bodies.

The Christmas ceremony is accompanied by a reading of A Visit From St. Nicholas by Clement Clarke Moore and Yes, Virginia, There is a Santa Claus by Francis Pharcellus Church.

Unlike in many other Christian countries, St. Nicholas does not play a major role in Polish Christmas, but instead, is celebrated on his Saint feast day of December 6.

On the night of Christmas Eve, so important is the appearance of the first star in remembrance of the Star of Bethlehem, that it has been given an affectionate name of " the little star " or Gwiazdka ( the female counterpart of St. Nicholas ).

In 2011, Nicholas V. Cozzi, of the University of Wisconsin School of Medicine and Public Health, concluded that INMT, an enzyme that may be associated with the biosynthesis of DMT and endogenous hallucinogens, is present in the human pineal gland, retinal ganglion neurons, spinal cord, and central nervous tissues.

A bronze statue to mark the centenary of Thomas ' birth, by Welsh sculptor Peter Nicholas, is planned for 2014.

:: Another example of Nomad's power is illustrated by Nicholas Rawlings in his comments for the Computer History Museum about NCSS ( see citation below ).

It is known to exist in northern Saudi Arabia, southern Jordan, northern Iraq ( Kurdistan ), and Nicholas Birch of the The Christian Science Monitor claims there is circumstantial evidence for its existence in Syria, western Iran, and southern Turkey.

A date of c. 1540 is suggested from two portraits: one a miniature painted by Nicholas Hilliard in 1581 when he was allegedly 42, the other painted in 1594 when he was said to be 53.

The Pirate gave full rein to Kelly's athleticism and is probably best remembered for Kelly's work with The Nicholas Brothers – the leading African-American dancers of their day – in a virtuoso dance routine.

Grigori Yefimovich Rasputin ( ) ( – ) was a Russian Orthodox Christian and mystic who is perceived as having influenced the latter days of the Russian Emperor Nicholas II, his wife Alexandra, and their only son, Alexei.

According to Nicholas de Lange, Judaism offers no clear teaching about the destiny which lies in wait for the individual after death and its attitude to life after death has been expressed as follows: " For the future is inscrutable, and the accepted sources of knowledge, whether experience, or reason, or revelation, offer no clear guidance about what is to come.

Historian Nicholas Rogers, exploring the origins of Halloween, notes that while " some folklorists have detected its origins in the Roman feast of Pomona, the goddess of fruits and seeds, or in the festival of the dead called Parentalia, it is more typically linked to the Celtic festival of Samhain, derived from the Old Irish Samuin meaning " summer's end ".

Others killed by the blast were Nicholas Knatchbull, his elder daughter's 14-year-old son, and Paul Maxwell, a 15-year-old youth from County Fermanagh who was a crew member.

Bacon was born on 22 January 1561 at York House near the Strand in London, the son of Sir Nicholas Bacon by his second wife Anne ( Cooke ) Bacon, the daughter of noted humanist Anthony Cooke.

Sir Nicholas had laid up a considerable sum of money to purchase an estate for his youngest son, but he died before doing so, and Francis was left with only a fifth of that money.

Her first son Nicholas was born in 1937, followed by twin boys Sam and Andrew, born in 1939.

Holt's son Nicholas Holt said that after 37 years there were few surviving witnesses and no new evidence would be presented.

The tsar's most influential adviser was Konstantin Pobedonostsev, tutor to Alexander III and his son Nicholas, and procurator of the Holy Synod from 1880 to 1895.

Alexander was succeeded by his son Nicholas II ( 1894 – 1917 ).

Lord Edgecumbe recommended the Duke of Devonshire and Duke of Grafton to sit for him, and other peers soon followed, including the Duke of Cumberland, third son of George II, in whose portrait, according to Nicholas Penny " bulk is brilliantly converted into power ".

Empress Maria with her son, future Nicholas IIThe family of Alexander III being blessed by Jesus Christ in a portrait by Makarov. On the morning of 13 March 1881, Alexander II, aged sixty-two, was killed by a bomb on the way back to the Winter Palace from a military parade.

She now turned her attention to her eldest son, the future Nicholas II, for it was on him that both her personal future and the future of the dynasty now depended.

Nevertheless, she did not get along well with her daughter-in-law, Alexandra Feodorovna ( the former Princess Alix of Hesse-Darmstadt ), holding her responsible for many of the woes that beset her son Nicholas and the Russian Empire in general.

After travelling from Kiev to meet with her deposed son, Nicholas II in Mogilev, Maria returned to the city.

Her letters to her son and his family have since almost all been lost ; but in one that survives, she wrote to Nicholas: " You know that my thoughts and prayers never leave you.

Born the son of a priest, he was ordained as a deacon by Pope Nicholas I.

Katharine, Duchess of Kent ; her son and grandson, Lord Nicholas Windsor and Edward Windsor, Lord Downpatrick, respectively, both of whose wives are Catholic, and her granddaughter, Lady Marina-Charlotte Windsor, as well as politicians such as Baroness Masham of Ilton and Ann Widdecombe, and, most recently, former Prime Minister Tony Blair, whose wife and children are Catholic, are prominent among laypeople who have converted.

Alexander II, son of Nicholas I, became the next Russian emperor.

This lack of extensive education may have influenced his politics as well as those of his son, Nicholas II.

) – Tsar Nicholas II of Russia abdicates his throne for his son.

* November 1 – Russian Tsar Alexander III is succeeded by his son Nicholas II.

" Nicholas Roerich and his son George were waiting in the Cheka office to see Dzerzhinsky when they heard of Dzerzhinsky's death.

Some examples of these de facto rulers are Empress Dowager Cixi of China ( for son Tongzhi and nephew Guangxu Emperors ), Prince Alexander Menshikov ( for his former lover Empress Catherine I of Russia ), Grigori Rasputin through Tsarina Alexandra ( for Tsar Nicholas II of Russia ), Cardinal Richelieu of France ( for Louis XIII ), and Queen Marie Caroline of Naples and Sicily ( for her husband King Ferdinand I of the Two Sicilies ).

Moore was married and divorced four times: to actresses Suzy Kendall, Tuesday Weld ( by whom he had a son, Patrick, in 1976 ), Brogan Lane and Nicole Rothschild ( one son, Nicholas, born in 1995 ).

* The Lord & Lady Nicholas Windsor ( The Duke of Kent's younger son and his wife )

His paternal great-great-grandparents, Nicholas Clooney ( of County Kilkenny ) and Bridget Byron, emigrated to the United States from Ireland.

A stained glass windows given to the church in 1947 celebrates ' the remarkable preservation of this village during the years 1939-45 ' and features figures of St Bridget ( representing the women of the parish ), St Nicholas ( for the sailors ), St George ( the soldiers and airmen ) and St Mary Magdalene, all the company of Sir Walstan ( the farmer bishop of Worcester Wulfstan 1062-95 representing the local farmers ).

Signatories included Karsten Schubert, Maureen Paley, Michael Craig-Martin, Angela and Matthew Flowers, Professor Christopher Frayling, Rene Gimpel, Susan Hiller, John Hoyland, Sarah Kent, Nicholas Logsdail, George Melly, Sandy Nairne, Sir Eduardo Paolozzi, Bridget Riley, Michelle Roberts, Richard Shone, Marina Warner, Natalie Wheen, and Rachel Whiteread.

* Mary Bridget Thomas ( 1914-1998 ), born in Nairobi, Kenya, who married 1st Lt-Col Jack Leslie Harry Lotinga and married 2nd in 1965 Nicholas Eliot, 9th Earl of St Germans.