title: Do not resuscitate

text: In Japan, DNR orders are known as Do Not Attempt Resuscitation (DNAR). Currently, there are no laws or guidelines in place regarding DNAR orders but they are still routinely used. A request to withdraw from life support can be completed by the patient or a surrogate. In addition, it is common for Japanese doctors and nurses to be involved in the decision-making process for the DNAR form.


title: Do not resuscitate

text: DNRs are not recognized by Jordan. Physicians attempt to resuscitate all patients regardless of individual or familial wishes.


title: Do not resuscitate

text: There is no formally accepted protocol for DNRs in Nigeria's healthcare delivery system. Written wills may act as a good guide in many end of life scenarios, but often physicians and/or patients' families will act as the decision makers. As quoted in a 2016 article on Advanced Directives in Nigeria, "…everything derives from communal values, the common good, the social goals, traditional practices, cooperative virtues and social relationship. Individuals do not exist in a vacuum but within a web of social and cultural relationships." It is important to note that there are vast cultural differences and perspectives on end of life within Nigeria itself between regions and communities of different ancestry.


title: Do not resuscitate

text: In Saudi Arabia patients cannot legally sign a DNR, but a DNR can be accepted by order of the primary physician in case of terminally ill patients.


title: Do not resuscitate

text: In Taiwan, patients sign their own DNR orders, and are required to do so to receive hospice care. However, one study looking at insights into Chinese perspectives on DNR showed that the majority of DNR orders in Taiwan were signed by surrogates. Typically doctors discuss the issue of DNR with the patients family rather than the patient themselves. In Taiwan, there are two separate types of DNR forms: DNR-P which the patient themselves sign and DNR-S in which a designated surrogate can sign. Typically, the time period between signing the DNR and death is very short, showing that signing a DNR in Taiwan is typically delayed. Two witnesses must also be present in order for a DNR to be signed.


title: Do not resuscitate

text: DNR orders have been legal in Taiwan since May 2000 and were enacted by the Hospice and Palliative Regulation. Also included in the Hospice and Palliative Regulation is the requirement to inform a patient of their terminal condition, however, the requirement is not explicitly defined leading to interpretation of exact truth telling.


title: Do not resuscitate

text: The UAE have laws forcing healthcare staff to resuscitate a patient even if the patient has a DNR or does not wish to live. There are penalties for breaching the laws.


title: Do not resuscitate

text: In England, CPR is presumed in the event of a cardiac arrest unless a "do not resuscitate" order is in place. If they have capacity as defined under the Mental Capacity Act 2005 the patient may decline resuscitation. Patients may also specify their wishes and/or devolve their decision-making to a proxy using an advance directive, which are commonly referred to as 'Living Wills', or an emergency care and treatment plan (ECTP), such as ReSPECT. Discussion between patient and doctor is integral to decisions made in advance directives and ECTPs, where resuscitation recommendations should be made within a more holistic consideration of all treatment options. Patients and relatives cannot demand treatment (including CPR) which the doctor believes is futile and in this situation, it is their doctor's duty to act in their 'best interest', whether that means continuing or discontinuing treatment, using their clinical judgment. If the patient lacks capacity, relatives will often be asked for their opinion in order to form a 'best interest' view of what the individual's views would have been (prior to losing capacity). Evaluation of ReSPECT (an ECTP) found that resuscitation status remained a central component of conversations, and that there was variability in the discussion of other emergency treatments.


title: Do not resuscitate

text: In 2020 the Care Quality Commission found that residents of care homes had been given inappropriate orders of Do not attempt cardiopulmonary resuscitation (DNACPR) without notice to residents or their families, causing avoidable deaths. In 2021, the Mencap charity found that people with learning disabilities also had inappropriate DNACPR orders. Medical providers have said that any discussion with patients and families is not in reference to consent to resuscitation and instead should be an explanation. The UK's regulatory body for doctors, the General Medical Council, provides clear guidance on the implementation and discussion of DNACPR decisions, and the obligation to communicate these decisions effectively was established by legal precedent in 2015.


title: Do not resuscitate

text: In Scotland, the terminology used is "Do Not Attempt Cardiopulmonary Resuscitation" or "DNACPR". There is a single policy used across all of NHS Scotland. The legal standing is similar to that in England and Wales, in that CPR is viewed as a treatment and, although there is a general presumption that CPR will be performed in the case of cardiac arrest, this is not the case if it is viewed by the treating clinician to be futile. Patients and families cannot demand CPR to be performed if it is felt to be futile (as with any medical treatment) and a DNACPR can be issued despite disagreement, although it is good practice to involve all parties in the discussion.


title: Do not resuscitate

text: As in England and Wales, inappropriate orders have been given to individuals who had no medical reason for them, such as a deaf man who received a DNACPR order in 2021 due to "communication difficulties."


title: Do not resuscitate

text: Wales has its own national DNACPR policy, 'Sharing and Involving'. They use the term 'Do Not Attempt Cardiopulmonary Resuscitation' or 'DNACPR'. They also have an active public information campaigns, which includes the website 'TalkCPR'


title: Do not resuscitate

text: In the United States the documentation is especially complicated in that each state accepts different forms, and advance directives also known as living wills may not be accepted by EMS as legally valid forms. If a patient has a living will that specifies the patient requests DNR but does not have a properly filled out state-sponsored form that is co-signed by a physician, EMS may attempt resuscitation.


title: Do not resuscitate

text: The DNR decision by patients was first litigated in 1976 in "In re Quinlan". The New Jersey Supreme Court upheld the right of Karen Ann Quinlan's parents to order her removal from artificial ventilation. In 1991 Congress passed into law the Patient Self-Determination Act that mandated hospitals honor an person's decision in their healthcare. Forty-nine states currently permit the next of kin to make medical decisions of incapacitated relatives, the exception being Missouri. Missouri has a Living Will Statute that requires two witnesses to any signed advance directive that results in a DNR/DNI code status in the hospital.


title: Do not resuscitate

text: In the United States, cardiopulmonary resuscitation (CPR) and advanced cardiac life support (ACLS) will not be performed if a valid written DNR order is present. Many states do not recognize living wills or health care proxies in the prehospital setting and prehospital personnel in those areas may be required to initiate resuscitation measures unless a specific state-sponsored form is properly filled out and cosigned by a physician.


title: Do not resuscitate

text: There are three notable cases which set the baseline for patient's rights to refuse medical intervention:


title: Yook Sung-jae

text: Yook Sung-jae (; born ), also known mononymously as Sungjae, is a South Korean singer, songwriter, actor, host and entertainer. He is a member of the boy group BtoB and its sub-group, BtoB Blue. Aside from his group's activities, Yook has acted in television dramas "Plus Nine Boys" (2014), "" (2015), "" (2015), "" (2016), and "Mystic Pop-up Bar" (2020) and has appeared in several reality shows, including: "Hitmaker", "We Got Married," and "Master in the House".


title: Yook Sung-jae

text: Yook was born on May 2, 1995, in Yongin, Gyeonggi Province. He has one older sister. Yook comes from a business family. His father is the CEO of an IT corporation that deals with semiconductors. His grandfather was the first to introduce red carp in South Korea, while his grandmother operated a fishing farm in Paju.


title: Yook Sung-jae

text: He briefly studied for a month in England and the Philippines, respectively. He completed his high school education at Hanlim Multi Art School, graduating in 2014. He then attended Dongshin University, majoring in Practical Music.


title: Yook Sung-jae

text: On March 6, 2011, Yook also participated in the stage performance of "2011 CUBE Stars Party" with bandmate Seo Eunkwang, Im Hyun-sik, Jung Il-hoon, and supposed to be member Lee Min-woo.


title: Yook Sung-jae

text: Yook made his debut as a vocalist of BtoB with "Insane" and "Imagine" on March 21, 2012. On March 23, 2012, Yook co-host SBS MTV's music program "The Show" alongside bandmate Lee Min-hyuk.


title: Yook Sung-jae

text: In 2013, Yook Sungjae started his first ever acting debut in drama Monstar (TV series) as part of the supporting cast alongside his bandmates Lee Min-hyuk, Lee Chang-sub and Im Hyun-sik. Sungjae acted as Arnold, a member of boy idol group 'Men In Black'. He appeared in 4 episodes in total, episodes 2, 6, 9, and 12. He, with BTOB's Lee Minhyuk, Lee Changsub, Im Hyunsik and Beast's Yong Jun-hyung were featured in the drama OST Part 1 titled "Days Gone By", OST Part 2 "After Time Passes", and OST Part 7 "First Love". In the same year, Sungjae and BTOB made a cameo appearance in hit drama "The Heirs" episode 4 as themselves, an idol group band BTOB.


title: Yook Sung-jae

text: In 2014, Yook appeared in the television series "Reply 1994" as Sungjoon/Ssukssuk, Na-jung's little brother. In July 2014, Yook was cast as a presenter for the program, "A Song For You" alongside Kangin of Super Junior and Amber of f(x). He also participated in the program "Hitmaker" season 1, presented by South Korean producer duo Jeong Hyeong-don and Defconn and became part of the program's project unit group, Big Byung, together with Got7's Jackson and VIXX members, N and Hyuk. The group then releases two singles: "Stress Come On" and "Ojingeo Doenjang" (Korean: 오징어 된장). The same year, he received his first main acting role in "Plus Nine Boys", playing a 19-year old Judo athlete. He then joined the reality-variety program "Real Men" from 2014 to 2015.


title: Yook Sung-jae

text: Yook achieved his breakthrough when he landed a leading role in the teen drama "", alongside Kim So-hyun and Nam Joo-hyuk. He also released an OST for the show, "Love Song" with Park Hye-soo. After the series ended, he experienced a rise in popularity and landed several endorsement deals. Yook then starred in the horror mystery series "" alongside Moon Geun-young in 2015. He received the "New Star award" for his performance in "The Village: Achiara's Secret", and won "Best Couple award" with Kim So-hyun for "Who Are You: School 2015".


title: Yook Sung-jae

text: In 2015, Yook joined "King of Mask Singer", competing under the alias "Tired Bumblebee", and received good feedback for his performance. He was paired up with Red Velvet's Joy in the fourth season of reality show "We Got Married". The couple went on to release a duet titled "Young Love", with the pair contributing to the lyric composition of the song with the help of his bandmate BTOB's Im Hyun-sik as the producer. At the 2015 MBC Entertainment Awards, Yook received the "Best Couple award" alongside Joy and the "Best Male Rookie (in Variety) award". The couple departed from "We Got Married" on May 7, 2016.


title: Yook Sung-jae

text: In September 2015, Yook became one of the trio main hosts Yook Sungjae-GOT7's Jackson Wang-and actress Kim Yoo-jung of the music-program "Inkigayo" and left the show in May 2016. In 2016, Sungjae was appointed as an ambassador of the King Sejong Institution. He also became part of BTOB's first sub-unit, BTOB Blue, and debuted in September 2016.


title: Yook Sung-jae

text: From 2016 to 2017, Yook starred in the hit fantasy-romance drama "". He also joined the cast for the reality-documentary show "Law of the Jungle" filmed in Sumatra, Indonesia. In August 2017, he participated in the digital single project, "Piece of BtoB". He released the songs "Say It" and "Paradise", the latter having been personally composed and written by himself, on August 30. In late 2017, he joined the cast of the reality show, "Master in the House".


title: Yook Sung-jae

text: On December 29, 2017, Cube Entertainment announced that Yook suffered a back injury and would be receiving treatment at the hospital. He had symptoms of lumbar disc herniation reportedly worsened during the concert "2017 BtoB Time - Our Concert". On January 5, 2018, Yook attended the press conference of "Master in the House". This was the first time he appeared after recuperating from a lumbar injury; he gradually resumed his activities after 2 weeks of rest.


title: Yook Sung-jae

text: In 2018, Yook held his first fan meeting, "Paradise" at TICC in Taiwan on February 11, Macpherson Stadium in Hong Kong on May 19, and in Manila, Philippines on July 13.


title: Yook Sung-jae

text: In 2019, during BtoB's seventh anniversary Yook was chosen as their new leader. Cube TV premiered a new reality show, "Lovely 95s" (예쁘장한 구오즈), featuring Yook on July 12. It was revealed that he planned and made his close same-aged 95s friends, former Boyfriend members Youngmin, Kwangmin and Minwoo, Teen Top's Ricky and model Baek Kyung Do to have a variety show.


title: Yook Sung-jae

text: On December 19, 2019, Cube revealed their plans for a new music project "3x2=6", which aims for Yook to release two songs every month for three months starting December 2019 and release it on various online music sites. Yook associated with the number '6' (pronounced as "yook" in Korean) to his surname 'Yook' (육), showing the wits of only Yook Sung-jae. The project consists of three themes; Singer is to showcase his ability as an artist by releasing his first produced song, Human is his desire to be loved for a long time and BtoB Yook Sung-jae as his bandmates Jung Il-hoon and Peniel Shin participated in the project. The project began on December 26, 2019, with the release of its first single "Yook" (뭍(陸)) and "From Winter" (겨울 속에서) as part of "3x2=6 PArt 1". "Yook" is described as a melodic modern-rock genre song with Yook participating in the lyrics and composing. For "3x2=6 Part 2", Yook showed his reversed charm with "W.A.U" (What About U) and "Chicken". "Chicken" is a song with clever lyrics talking about how as time passes, no matter how much trends change, just like (fried) chicken that is loved by everyone. The song was released on January 16, 2020. The project concluded on February 6, 2020, with the first collaboration song between Yook and Ilhoon "HMHN" and "Hypnotized" which was performed with Peniel at concert.


title: Yook Sung-jae

text: After a three-year acting hiatus, Yook made a return to the small-screen as part of the main cast of "Mystic Pop-up Bar", a JTBC drama based on a popular webtoon of the same name in early 2020. On February 18, Yook left the cast of "Master in the House" after two years on the show prior to his mandatory military service. Yook released his debut solo album, "Yook O'Clock," on March 2, 2020, which consisted of six songs from "3X2=6" and lead single "Come with the Wind".


title: Yook Sung-jae

text: On May 3, 2020, Yook announced on his Instagram that he is enlisting in mandatory military service on May 11, and was confirmed by Cube. According to MyDaily, Yook will serve as part of the Ministry of National Defense military band after completing his five weeks of basic military training course at Nonsan Training Center.


title: Yook Sung-jae

text: On May 7, 2021, Yook and Teen Top's Ricky performed "Love Blossom" (original song from K.Will) at Seoul National Cemetery Spring Contact - Free Periodical Concert as part of their military service duty as a military band. The concert was held with the theme of 'Waiting for the normal daily life before the pandemic'. On June 6, Yook and Major Jeong Dong-mi hosted the "66th Memorial Day Commemoration Ceremony" which was held by the Ministry of Patriots and Veterans Affairs (South Korea) in front of the Memorial Tower at the Seoul National Cemetery.


title: Yook Sung-jae

text: After taking his final military leave in October 2021, Yook announced that he will not return to his unit following the army's protocols regarding the COVID-19 pandemic. He was officially discharged from military service on November 14, 2021.


title: Yook Sung-jae

text: In 2015, Yook took part in a fundraiser that auction items to the Social Welfare Community Fund for Love to support low-income children. In December, 2015, SBS revealed that Yook donated ₩3 million to Jeonbuk National University Hospital, which was the filming location of "The Village: Achiara's Secret". The same year, he also participated in Briquette Sharing Campaign of the Korean Peninsula and donated briquettes to the people at Kowloon Village in Gangnam-gu, Seoul.


title: Apsis

text: An apsis (; ) is the farthest or nearest point in the orbit of a planetary body about its primary body. For example, the apsides of the Sun are called the aphelion and perihelion.


title: Apsis

text: There are two apsides in any elliptic orbit. The name for each apsis is created from the prefixes "ap-", "apo-" (), or "peri-" (), each referring to the farthest and closest point to the primary body the affixing necessary suffix that describes the primary body in the orbit. In this case, the suffix for Earth is "-gee", so the apsides' names are "apogee" and "perigee". For the Sun, its suffix is "-helion", so the names are "aphelion" and "perihelion".


title: Apsis

text: According to Newton's laws of motion, all periodic orbits are ellipses. The barycenter of the two bodies may lie well within the bigger body—e.g., the Earth–Moon barycenter is about 75% of the way from Earth's center to its surface. If, compared to the larger mass, the smaller mass is negligible (e.g., for satellites), then the orbital parameters are independent of the smaller mass.


title: Apsis

text: When used as a suffix—that is, "-apsis"—the term can refer to the two distances from the primary body to the orbiting body when the latter is located: 1) at the "periapsis" point, or 2) at the "apoapsis" point (compare both graphics, second figure). The line of apsides denotes the distance of the line that joins the nearest and farthest points across an orbit; it also refers simply to the extreme range of an object orbiting a host body (see top figure; see third figure).


title: Apsis

text: In orbital mechanics, the apsides technically refer to the distance measured between the barycenters of the central body and orbiting body. However, in the case of a spacecraft, the terms are commonly used to refer to the orbital altitude of the spacecraft above the surface of the central body (assuming a constant, standard reference radius).


title: Apsis

text: The words "pericenter" and "apocenter" are often seen, although periapsis/apoapsis are preferred in technical usage.


title: Apsis

text: The words "perihelion" and "aphelion" were coined by Johannes Kepler to describe the orbital motions of the planets around the Sun.


title: Apsis

text: The words are formed from the prefixes "peri-" (Greek: "περί", near) and "apo-" (Greek: "ἀπό", away from), affixed to the Greek word for the sun, ("ἥλιος", or "hēlíos").


title: Apsis

text: Various related terms are used for other celestial objects. The suffixes "-gee", "-helion", "-astron" and "-galacticon" are frequently used in the astronomical literature when referring to the Earth, Sun, stars, and the galactic center respectively. The suffix "-jove" is occasionally used for Jupiter, but "-saturnium" has very rarely been used in the last 50 years for Saturn. The "-gee" form is also used as a generic closest-approach-to "any planet" term—instead of applying it only to Earth.


title: Apsis

text: During the Apollo program, the terms "pericynthion" and "apocynthion" were used when referring to orbiting the Moon; they reference Cynthia, an alternative name for the Greek Moon goddess Artemis. More recently, during the Artemis program, the terms "perilune" and "apolune" have been used. Regarding black holes, the terms "perimelasma" and "apomelasma" (from a Greek root) were used by physicist and science-fiction author Geoffrey A. Landis in a story published in 1998, thus appearing before "perinigricon" and "aponigricon" (from Latin) in the scientific literature in 2002, and before "peribothron" (from Greek "bothros", meaning "hole" or "pit") in 2015.


title: Apsis

text: The suffixes shown below may be added to prefixes "peri-" or "apo-" to form unique names of apsides for the orbiting bodies of the indicated host/(primary) system. However, only for the Earth, Moon and Sun systems are the unique suffixes commonly used. Exoplanet studies commonly use "-astron", but typically, for other host systems the generic suffix, "-apsis", is used instead.


title: Apsis

text: The perihelion (q) and aphelion (Q) are the nearest and farthest points respectively of a body's direct orbit around the Sun.


title: Apsis

text: Comparing osculating elements at a specific epoch to effectively those at a different epoch will generate differences. The time-of-perihelion-passage as one of six osculating elements is not an exact prediction (other than for a generic two-body model) of the actual minimum distance to the Sun using the full dynamical model. Precise predictions of perihelion passage require numerical integration.


title: Apsis

text: The two images below show the orbits, orbital nodes, and positions of perihelion (q) and aphelion (Q) for the planets of the Solar System as seen from above the northern pole of Earth's ecliptic plane, which is coplanar with Earth's orbital plane. The planets travel counterclockwise around the Sun and for each planet, the blue part of their orbit travels north of the ecliptic plane, the pink part travels south, and dots mark perihelion (green) and aphelion (orange).


title: Apsis

text: The first image (below-left) features the "inner" planets, situated outward from the Sun as Mercury, Venus, Earth, and Mars. The "reference" Earth-orbit is colored yellow and represents the orbital plane of reference. At the time of vernal equinox, the Earth is at the bottom of the figure. The second image (below-right) shows the "outer" planets, being Jupiter, Saturn, Uranus, and Neptune.


title: Apsis

text: The orbital nodes are the two end points of the "line of nodes" where a planet's tilted orbit intersects the plane of reference; here they may be 'seen' as the points where the blue section of an orbit meets the pink.


title: Apsis

text: The chart shows the extreme range—from the closest approach (perihelion) to farthest point (aphelion)—of several orbiting celestial bodies of the Solar System: the planets, the known dwarf planets, including Ceres, and Halley's Comet. The length of the horizontal bars correspond to the extreme range of the orbit of the indicated body around the Sun. These extreme distances (between perihelion and aphelion) are "the lines of apsides" of the orbits of various objects around a host body.


title: Apsis

text: Currently, the Earth reaches perihelion in early January, approximately 14 days after the December solstice. At perihelion, the Earth's center is about astronomical units (AU) or from the Sun's center. In contrast, the Earth reaches aphelion currently in early July, approximately 14 days after the June solstice. The aphelion distance between the Earth's and Sun's centers is currently about or .


title: Apsis

text: The dates of perihelion and aphelion change over time due to precession and other orbital factors, which follow cyclical patterns known as Milankovitch cycles. In the short term, such dates can vary up to 2 days from one year to another. This significant variation is due to the presence of the Moon: while the Earth–Moon barycenter is moving on a stable orbit around the Sun, the position of the Earth's center which is on average about from the barycenter, could be shifted in any direction from it—and this affects the timing of the actual closest approach between the Sun's and the Earth's centers (which in turn defines the timing of perihelion in a given year).


title: Apsis

text: Because of the increased distance at aphelion, only 93.55% of the radiation from the Sun falls on a given area of Earth's surface as does at perihelion, but this does not account for the seasons, which result instead from the tilt of Earth's axis of 23.4° away from perpendicular to the plane of Earth's orbit. Indeed, at both perihelion and aphelion it is summer in one hemisphere while it is winter in the other one. Winter falls on the hemisphere where sunlight strikes least directly, and summer falls where sunlight strikes most directly, regardless of the Earth's distance from the Sun.


title: Apsis

text: In the northern hemisphere, summer occurs at the same time as aphelion, when solar radiation is lowest. Despite this, summers in the northern hemisphere are on average warmer than in the southern hemisphere, because the northern hemisphere contains larger land masses, which are easier to heat than the seas.


title: Apsis

text: Perihelion and aphelion do however have an indirect effect on the seasons: because Earth's orbital speed is minimum at aphelion and maximum at perihelion, the planet takes longer to orbit from June solstice to September equinox than it does from December solstice to March equinox. Therefore, summer in the northern hemisphere lasts slightly longer (93 days) than summer in the southern hemisphere (89 days).


title: Apsis

text: Astronomers commonly express the timing of perihelion relative to the First Point of Aries not in terms of days and hours, but rather as an angle of orbital displacement, the so-called longitude of the periapsis (also called longitude of the pericenter). For the orbit of the Earth, this is called the "longitude of perihelion", and in 2000 it was about 282.895°; by 2010, this had advanced by a small fraction of a degree to about 283.067°.


title: Apsis

text: For the orbit of the Earth around the Sun, the time of apsis is often expressed in terms of a time relative to seasons, since this determines the contribution of the elliptical orbit to seasonal variations. The variation of the seasons is primarily controlled by the annual cycle of the elevation angle of the Sun, which is a result of the tilt of the axis of the Earth measured from the plane of the ecliptic. The Earth's eccentricity and other orbital elements are not constant, but vary slowly due to the perturbing effects of the planets and other objects in the solar system (Milankovitch cycles).


title: Apsis

text: On a very long time scale, the dates of the perihelion and of the aphelion progress through the seasons, and they make one complete cycle in 22,000 to 26,000 years. There is a corresponding movement of the position of the stars as seen from Earth, called the apsidal precession. (This is closely related to the precession of the axes.) The dates and times of the perihelions and aphelions for several past and future years are listed in the following table:


title: Apsis

text: The following table shows the distances of the planets and dwarf planets from the Sun at their perihelion and aphelion.


title: Apsis

text: While, in accordance with Kepler's laws of planetary motion (based on the conservation of angular momentum) and the conservation of energy, these two quantities are constant for a given orbit:


title: Apsis

text: Note that for conversion from heights above the surface to distances between an orbit and its primary, the radius of the central body has to be added, and conversely.


title: Apsis

text: The arithmetic mean of the two limiting distances is the length of the semi-major axis "a". The geometric mean of the two distances is the length of the semi-minor axis "b".


title: Apsis

text: Orbital elements such as the "time of perihelion passage" are defined at the epoch chosen using an unperturbed two-body solution that does not account for the n-body problem. To get an accurate time of perihelion passage you need to use an epoch close to the perihelion passage. For example, using an epoch of 1996, Comet Hale–Bopp shows perihelion on 1 April 1997. Using an epoch of 2008 shows a less accurate perihelion date of 30 March 1997. Short-period comets can be even more sensitive to the epoch selected. Using an epoch of 2005 shows 101P/Chernykh coming to perihelion on 25 December 2005, but using an epoch of 2012 produces a less accurate unperturbed perihelion date of 20 January 2006.


title: Apsis

text: Numerical integration shows dwarf planet Eris will come to perihelion around December 2257. Using an epoch of 2021, which is 236 years early, less accurately shows Eris coming to perihelion in 2260.


title: Apsis

text: 4 Vesta comes to perihelion on 26 December 2021, but using a two-body solution at an epoch of July 2021 less accurately shows Vesta coming to perihelion on 25 December 2021.


title: Apsis

text: Trans-Neptunian objects discovered when 80+ AU from the Sun need dozens of observations over multiple years to well constrain their orbits because they move very slowly against the background stars. Due to statistics of small numbers, trans-Neptunian objects such as with only 8 observations over an observation arc of 1 year that have not or will not come to perihelion for roughly 100 years can have a 1-sigma uncertainty of in the perihelion date.


title: Third Temple

text: The "Third Temple" (, , ) refers to a hypothetical rebuilt Temple in Jerusalem. It would succeed Solomon's Temple and the Second Temple, the former having been destroyed during the Babylonian siege of Jerusalem in and the latter having been destroyed during the Roman siege of Jerusalem in 70 CE. Although it remains unbuilt, the notion of and desire for the Third Temple is sacred in Judaism, and particularly in Orthodox Judaism; it is anticipated as the most sacred place of worship for Jews. The Hebrew Bible holds that Jewish prophets called for its construction to be fulfilled prior to, or in tandem with, the Messianic Age. The building of the Third Temple also plays a major role in some interpretations of Christian eschatology.


title: Third Temple

text: Among religious Jews, the anticipation of an ultimate future project centred around building the Third Temple at the Temple Mount in the Old City of Jerusalem has been a running theme that, in Israel, is also espoused as an ideological motive. However, the notion of the Third Temple has been contested by Muslims due to the existence of the Dome of the Rock, which was built by the Umayyad Caliphate on top of the site of Solomon's Temple and the Second Temple; tensions between Jews and Muslims over the Temple Mount have carried over politically as one of the major flashpoints of the Israeli–Palestinian conflict, and the area has likewise been a subject of significant debate in the Israeli–Palestinian peace process. Most of the international community has refrained from recognizing any sovereignty over Jerusalem due to conflicting territorial claims between Israel and the Palestinian National Authority, as both sides have asserted it as their capital city (see status of Jerusalem).


title: Third Temple

text: Since the destruction of the Second Temple in 70 CE, religious Jews have expressed their desire to see the building of a Third Temple on the Temple Mount. Prayer for this is a formal part of the Jewish tradition of thrice daily "Amidah" prayer. Although it remains unbuilt, the notion of and desire for a Third Temple is sacred in Judaism, particularly Orthodox Judaism, and anticipated as a soon-to-be-built place of worship.


title: Third Temple

text: Initially, the Emperor Hadrian granted permission to rebuild the temple but then changed his mind. The forces of Simon bar Kokhba captured Jerusalem from the Romans in 132 CE, and construction of a new temple continued. The failure of this revolt led to the writing of the Mishna, as the religious leaders believed that the next attempt to rebuild the temple might be centuries away and memory of the practices and ceremonies would otherwise be lost. As punishment for the revolt, the Romans renamed the city to Aelia Capitolina and the province to Syria Palaestina and Jews were prohibited in the city except for the day of Tisha B'av. However, the Rabbis that survived persecution (see Ten Martyrs) were allowed to continue their school in Javnia, as long as they paid the Fiscus Judaicus.


title: Third Temple

text: There was an aborted project under Roman emperor Julian (361–363 CE) to rebuild the Temple. Julian is traditionally called Julian the Apostate due to his policy of reversing Emperor Constantine's Christianization campaign by restoring traditional religious practices and holy places across the Empire. As part of this policy, Julian permitted the Jews to build a Third Temple. Rabbi Hilkiyah, one of the leading rabbis of the time, spurned Julian's money, arguing that gentiles should play no part in the rebuilding of the temple.


title: Third Temple

text: According to various ancient sources, including Sozomen (c. 400–450 CE) in his "Historia Ecclesiastica" and the pagan historian and close friend of Julian, Ammianus Marcellinus, the project of rebuilding the temple was aborted because each time the workers tried to build the temple using the existing substructure, they were burned by terrible flames coming from inside the earth and an earthquake negated what work was made:


title: Third Temple

text: The failure to rebuild the Temple has been ascribed to the Galilee earthquake of 363 CE, and to the Jews' ambivalence about the project. Sabotage is a possibility, as is an accidental fire. Divine intervention was the common view among Christian historians of the time. When Julian was killed in battle after a reign of less than three years, the Christians reasserted control over the empire, and the opportunity to rebuild the Temple ended.


title: Third Temple

text: In 610 CE, the Sassanid Empire drove the Byzantine Empire out of the Middle East, giving the Jews control of Jerusalem for the first time in centuries. The new rulers soon ordered the restart of animal sacrifice for the first time since the time of Bar Kochba. Shortly, before the Byzantines took the area back, the Persians gave control to the Christian population, who tore down the partly built edifice, and turned it into a garbage dump, which is what it was when the Caliph Omar took the city in the 630s.


title: Third Temple

text: An Armenian chronicle from the 7th century CE, written by the bishop Sebeos, states that the Jews and Arabs were quarreling amongst each other about their differences of religion during the Siege of Jerusalem in 637 CE but "a man of the sons of Ishmael named Muhammad" gave a "sermon of the Way of Truth, supposedly at God's command" to them saying that they, both the Jews and the Arabs, should unite under the banner of their father Abraham and enter the Holy Land. Sebeos also reports that the Jews began a reconstruction of the temple, but the Arabs expelled them and re-purposed the place for their own prayers. In turn, these Jews built another temple in a different location.


title: Third Temple

text: In 1267, during the Mongol raids into Syria, an interregnum period between the complete domination of the Levant by the crusader states until 1260 and the conquest of Levant by the Mamluks in 1291, Nachmanides wrote a letter to his son. It contained the following references to the land and the Temple:


title: Third Temple

text: Although in mainstream Orthodox Judaism the rebuilding of the Temple is generally left to the coming of the Jewish Messiah and to divine providence, a number of organizations, generally representing a small minority of Orthodox Jews, have been formed with the objective of realizing the immediate construction of a Third Temple in present times.


title: Third Temple

text: The Temple Institute and the Temple Mount and Eretz Yisrael Faithful Movement each state that its goal is to build the Third Temple on the Temple Mount (Mount Moriah). The Temple Institute has made several items to be used in the Third Temple.


title: Third Temple

text: In August 1967, after the Israeli capture of the Mount, Rabbi Shlomo Goren, the Chief Rabbi of the Israel Defense Forces (IDF) (and later chief rabbi of the State of Israel), began organizing public prayer for Jews on the Temple Mount. Rabbi Goren was also well known for his controversial positions concerning Jewish sovereignty over the Temple Mount. On August 15, 1967, shortly after the Six-Day War, Goren led a group of fifty Jews onto the Temple Mount, where, fighting off protesting Muslim guards and Israeli police, they defiantly held a prayer service. Goren continued to pray for many years in the Makhkame building overlooking the Temple Mount where he conducted yearly High Holy Days services. His call for the establishment of a synagogue on the Temple Mount has subsequently been reiterated by his brother-in-law, the Chief Rabbi of Haifa, She'ar Yashuv Cohen.


title: Third Temple

text: Goren was sharply criticized by the Israeli Defense Ministry, who, noting Goren's senior rank, called his behaviour inappropriate. The episode led the Chief Rabbis of the time to restate the accepted laws of Judaism that no Jews were allowed on the mount due to issues of ritual impurity. The secular authorities welcomed this ruling as it preserved the status quo with the Jerusalem Islamic Waqf. Disagreeing with his colleagues, Goren continually maintained that Jews were not only permitted, but commanded, to ascend and pray on the mount.


title: Third Temple

text: Goren repeatedly advocated or supported building a Third Temple on the Temple Mount from the 1960s onward, and was associated with various messianic projects involving the site. In the summer of 1983, Goren and several other rabbis joined Rabbi Yehuda Getz, who worked for the Religious Affairs Ministry at the Western Wall, in touring a chamber underneath the mount that Getz had excavated, where the two claimed to have seen the Ark of the Covenant. The tunnel was shortly discovered and resulted in a massive brawl between young Jews and Arabs in the area. The tunnel was quickly sealed with concrete by Israeli police. The sealed entrance can be seen from the Western Wall Tunnel, which opened to the public in 1996.


title: Third Temple

text: The Chief Rabbis of Israel, Isser Yehuda Unterman and Yitzhak Nissim, together with other leading rabbis, asserted that "For generations we have warned against and refrained from entering any part of the Temple Mount." A recent study of this rabbinical ruling suggests that it was both "unprecedented" and possibly prompted by governmental pressure on the rabbis, and "brilliant" in preventing Muslim–Jewish friction on the Mount. Rabbinical consensus in the Religious Zionist stream of Orthodox Judaism continues to hold that it is forbidden for Jews to enter any part of the Temple Mount and in January 2005 a declaration was signed confirming the 1967 decision. On the eve of Shavuot in 2014, or 6th Sivan, 5774 in the Hebrew calendar, 400 Jews ascended the Temple Mount; some were photographed in prayer.


title: Third Temple

text: The most immediate and obvious obstacle to realization of these goals is the fact that two historic Islamic structures which are 13 centuries old, namely the Al Aqsa Mosque and the Dome of the Rock, are built on top of the Temple Mount. Any efforts to damage or reduce access to these sites, or to build Jewish structures within, between, beneath, beside, cantilevered on top of, or instead of them, could lead to severe international conflicts, given the association of the Muslim world with these holy places.


title: Third Temple

text: The Dome of the Rock is regarded as occupying the actual space where the Second Temple once stood, but some scholars disagree and instead claim that the Temple was located either just north of the Dome of the Rock, or about 200 meters south of it, with access to the Gihon fresh water spring, or perhaps between the Dome of the Rock and the Al Aqsa Mosque.


title: Third Temple

text: In addition, most Orthodox Jewish scholars reject any attempts to build the Temple before the coming of Messiah. This is because there are many doubts as to the exact location in which it is required to be built. For example, while measurements are given in cubits, there exists a controversy whether this unit of measurement equals 1.84 feet, the scholarly consensus, or 1.43 feet, put forward by respected historian Asher Selig Kaufman. Without exact knowledge of the size of a cubit, the altar could not be built. The Talmud recounts that the building of the Second Temple was only possible under the direct prophetic guidance of Haggai, Zechariah, and Malachi. Without valid prophetic revelation, it would be impossible to rebuild the Temple, even if the mosques no longer occupied its location.


title: Third Temple

text: Despite obstacles, efforts are under way by various analytical groups to articulate the benefits to local and regional constituents and participants to encourage developments that would progressively align in support. It is known from the Talmud that in the time of King Agrippa, Jerusalem was filled with millions of visitors and pilgrims from the entire region. Some current opinions suggest that the potential of spiritual tourism would support the growth goals of the Mayor of Jerusalem for 10 million tourists annually. This would provide a significant boost to the economy and would benefit people locally and regionally, many of whom live in poverty.


title: Third Temple

text: Many rabbis interpret "halakha" (Jewish religious law) as prohibiting Jews from entering the Holy of Holies. The situation is complicated as the Dome of the Rock and Al-Aqsa Mosque fall under control of Muslim clerics, but Israeli police administer its security. According to CNN:


title: Third Temple

text: Orthodox Judaism believes in the rebuilding of a Third Temple and the resumption of korban (sacrifices), although there is disagreement about how rebuilding should take place. Orthodox scholars and rabbinic authorities generally believe that rebuilding should occur in the era of the Jewish messiah at the hand of divine providence, although a minority position, following the opinion of Maimonides, holds that Jews should endeavour to rebuild the temple themselves, whenever possible.


title: Third Temple

text: The generally accepted position among Orthodox Jews is that the full order of the sacrifices will be resumed upon the building of the Temple. This belief is embedded in Orthodox Jewish prayer services. Three times a day, Orthodox Jews recite the Amidah, which contains prayers for the Temple's restoration and for the resumption of sacrifices, and every day there is a recitation of the order of the day's sacrifices and the psalms the Levites would have sung that day. Conservative, Reform, and Reconstructionist authorities disavow all belief in the resumption of korban.


title: Third Temple

text: Maimonides wrote in "The Guide for the Perplexed" "that God deliberately has moved Jews away from sacrifices towards prayer, as prayer is a higher form of worship". However, in his Jewish legal code, the "Mishneh Torah", he states that animal sacrifices will resume in the Third Temple, and details how they will be carried out. Some attribute to Rabbi Abraham Isaac Kook the view that animal sacrifices will not be reinstituted. These views on the Temple service are sometimes misconstrued (for example, in "Olat Raiyah", commenting on the prophecy of Malachi ("Then the grain-offering of Judah and Jerusalem will be pleasing to God as in the days of old and as in former years" [Malachi 3:4]), Kook indicates that only grain offerings will be offered in the reinstated Temple service, while in a related essay from "Igrot HaRaiyah" he suggests otherwise.


title: Third Temple

text: Conservative Judaism believes in a messiah and in a rebuilt Temple, but does not believe in the restoration of sacrifices. Accordingly, Conservative Judaism's Committee on Jewish Law and Standards has modified the prayers. Conservative prayerbooks call for the restoration of Temple, but do not ask for resumption of sacrifices. The Orthodox study session on sacrifices in the daily morning service has been replaced with the Talmudic passages teaching that deeds of loving-kindness now atone for sin.


title: Third Temple

text: In the daily Amidah prayer, the central prayer in Jewish services, the petitions to accept the "fire offerings of Israel" and "the grain-offering of Judah and Jerusalem" (Malachi 3:4) are removed. In the special Mussaf Amidah prayer said on Shabbat and Jewish holidays, the Hebrew phrase "na'ase ve'nakriv" (we will present and sacrifice) is modified to read to "asu ve'hikrivu" (they presented and sacrificed), implying that sacrifices are a thing of the past. The prayer for the restoration of "the House of our lives" and the Shekhinah to dwell "among us" in the weekday Torah reading service is retained in Conservative prayer books, although not all Conservative services say it. In Conservative prayer books, words and phrases that have dual meaning, referring to both Temple features and theological or poetic concepts, are generally retained. Translations and commentaries, however, generally refer to the poetic or theological meanings only. Conservative Judaism also takes an intermediate position on Kohanim and Levites, preserving patrilineal tribal descent and some aspects of their roles, but lifting restrictions on whom Kohanim are permitted to marry.


title: Third Temple

text: In 2006, the Committee on Jewish Law and Standards adapted a series of responsa on the subject of the role, in Conservative Judaism, of Niddah, a description of a woman during menstruation, which was considered in relation to the role of Temple-related concepts of ritual purity within contemporary Judaism. One responsum adopted by a majority of the Committee held that concepts of ritual purity relevant to entry into the Temple are no longer applicable to contemporary Judaism and accepted a proposal to change the term "family purity" to "family holiness" and to explain the continuing observance of "niddah" on a different basis from continuity with Temple practices. Another responsum, also adopted by a majority of the committee, called for retaining existing observances, terminology, and rationale, and held that these Temple-related observances and concepts continued to have contemporary impact and meaning. Thus, consistent with Conservative Judaism's philosophy of pluralism, both views of the continuing relevance of Temple-related concepts of ritual purity are permissible Conservative views.


title: Third Temple

text: Theodor Herzl includes the reconstructed Temple in his novel "Altneuland", but along with an intact Dome of the Rock.


title: Third Temple

text: Reform Judaism does not believe in the rebuilding of a central Temple or a restoration of Temple sacrifices or worship. It regards the Temple and sacrificial era as a period of a more primitive form of ritual from which Judaism has evolved and should not return. It also believes a special role for Kohanim and Levites represents a caste system incompatible with modern principles of egalitarianism, and does not preserve these roles. Furthermore, there is a Reform view that the "shul" or synagogue "is" a modern Temple; hence, "Temple" appears in numerous congregation names in Reform Judaism. Indeed, the re-designation of the synagogue as "temple" was one of the hallmarks of early Reform in 19th-century Germany, when Berlin was declared the new Jerusalem, and Reform Jewry sought to demonstrate their staunch German nationalism. The Anti-Zionism that characterized Reform Judaism throughout much of its history subsided significantly following the Holocaust and the subsequent establishment and later successes of the modern state of Israel. The belief in the return of the Jews to the Temple in Jerusalem is not part of mainstream Reform Judaism however.


title: Third Temple

text: While there are a number of differing views amongst Christianity with regard to the significance or the requirement of a third temple being built in Jerusalem, according to the writers of the New Testament, the New Covenant (spoken of in ) is marked by the indwelling of the Holy Spirit in the believer (Ezekiel 36:26–27) and that therefore every believer's body and every gathering of believers comprise the temple, or that the temple has been superseded. Paul illustrates this concept in his letter to the believers at Corinth:


title: Third Temple

text: This idea is related to the belief that Christ himself, having claimed to be and do what the temple was and did, is the "new temple" (), and that his people, as a part of the "body of Christ" (meaning the church), are part of this temple as well (; ; ). The result, according to N. T. Wright, is that the earthly temple (along with the city of Jerusalem and the Land of Israel) is no longer of any spiritual significance:


title: Third Temple

text: Ben F. Meyer, also, argued that Jesus applied prophecy regarding Zion and temple to himself and his followers:


title: Third Temple

text: Some would therefore see the need for a third temple as being diminished, redundant, or entirely foreclosed and superseded, while others take a position that the building of the third temple is an integral part of Christian eschatology. The various perspectives on the significance of the building of a third temple within Christianity are therefore generally linked to a number of factors including: the level of literal or spiritual interpretation applied to what is taken to be "end-time" prophecy; the perceived relationships between various scriptures such as Daniel, the Olivet discourse, 2 Thessalonians and Ezekiel (amongst others); whether or not a dual-covenant is considered to be in place; and whether Old Testament promises of the restoration of Israel remain unfulfilled or have all come true in the Messiah (2 Corinthians 1:20). Such factors determine, for example, whether Daniel or 2 Thessalonians are read as referring to a still-future physically restored third temple.


title: Third Temple

text: The dominant view within Roman Catholic, Eastern Orthodox and Protestant Christianity is that animal sacrifices within the Temple were a "foreshadowing" of the sacrifice Jesus made for the sins of the world through his crucifixion and shedding of his blood on the first day of Passover. The Epistle to the Hebrews is often cited in support of this view: the temple sacrifices are described as being imperfect, since they require repeating (ch. 10:1–4), and as belonging to a covenant that was "becoming obsolete and growing old" and was "ready to vanish away" (ch. 8:13, ESV). See also Abrogation of Old Covenant laws. Christ's crucifixion, being a sacrifice which dealt with sin once and for all, negated any need for further animal sacrifice. Christ himself is compared to the High Priest who was always standing and performing rituals and sacrifices. Christ, however, having performed his sacrifice, "sat down" — perfection having been finally attained (ch. 10:11–14,18). Further, the veil or curtain to the Holy of Holies is seen as having been torn asunder at the crucifixion – figuratively in connection with this theology (Ch 10:19–21), and literally according to the Gospel of Matthew (ch 27:50–51). For these reasons, a third temple, whose partial purpose would be the re-institution of animal sacrifices, is seen as unnecessary and thus superseded. Irenaeus and Hippolytus were among early church writers who foresaw a rebuilding of the Temple, as necessary for the preparation for the reign of the Antichrist.


title: Third Temple

text: Additionally, Jesus himself stated, in response to a Samaritan asking whether it is right to worship on Mount Gerizim or Mount Zion, that "a time is coming when you will worship the Father neither on this mountain nor in Jerusalem... But in spirit and in truth". He stated of the Herodian temple, "Not one stone will be left on another; every one of them will be thrown down" – John 4:21, Luke 21:6.


title: Third Temple

text: Those Protestants who do believe in the importance of a future rebuilt temple (viz., some dispensationalists) hold that the importance of the sacrificial system shifts to a Memorial of the Cross, given the text of Ezekiel Chapters 39 and following (in addition to Millennial references to the Temple in other Old Testament passages); since Ezekiel explains at length the construction and nature of the Millennial temple, in which Jews will once again hold the priesthood; some others hold that perhaps it was not eliminated with Jesus' sacrifice for sin, but is a ceremonial object lesson for confession and forgiveness (somewhat like water baptism and Communion are today); and that such animal sacrifices would still be appropriate for ritual cleansing and for acts of celebration and thanksgiving toward God. Some dispensationalists believe this will be the case with the Second Coming when Jesus reigns over earth from the city of New Jerusalem.


title: Third Temple

text: Many Evangelical Christians believe that New Testament prophecies associated with the Jewish Temple, such as Matthew 24–25 and 2 Thessalonians 2:1–12, were not completely fulfilled during the Roman destruction of Jerusalem in AD 70 (a belief of full preterism) and that these prophecies refer to a future temple. This view is a core part of dispensationalism, an interpretative framework of the Bible that stresses biblical literalism and asserts that the Jews remain God's chosen people. According to dispensationalist theologians, such as Hal Lindsey and Tim LaHaye, the Third Temple will be rebuilt when the Antichrist, often identified as the political leader of a trans-national alliance similar to the European Union or the United Nations, secures a peace treaty between the modern nation of Israel and its neighbours following a global war. The Antichrist later uses the temple as a venue for proclaiming himself as God and the long-awaited Messiah, demanding worship from humanity.


title: Third Temple

text: Catholic and Eastern Orthodox Christians believe that the Eucharist, which they hold to be one in substance with the one self-sacrifice of Christ on the Cross, is a far superior offering when compared with the merely preparatory temple sacrifices, as explained in the Epistle to the Hebrews. They also believe that Christ Himself is the "New Temple", as spoken of in the Book of Revelation and that Revelation can best be understood as the Eucharist, heaven on earth. Their church buildings are meant to model Solomon's Temple, with the Tabernacle, containing the Eucharist, being considered the new "Holy of Holies." Therefore, they do not attach any significance to a possible future rebuilding of the Jerusalem Temple.


title: Third Temple

text: The Orthodox also quote Daniel 9:27 ("... "he shall cause the sacrifice and the oblation to cease" ...") to show that the sacrifices would stop with the arrival of the Messiah, and mention that according to Jesus, St. Paul and the Holy Fathers, the temple will only be rebuilt in the times of the Antichrist.


title: Third Temple

text: "When you see the desolating abomination spoken of through Daniel the prophet standing in the holy place (let the reader understand)..."


title: Third Temple

text: "Let no one deceive you in any way. For unless the apostasy comes first and the lawless one is revealed,* the one doomed to perdition, who opposes and exalts himself above every so-called god and object of worship, so as to seat himself in the temple of God,* claiming that he is a god — do you not recall that while I was still with you I told you these things?"


title: Third Temple

text: Latter Day Saints believe that the Jews will build the Third Temple before the Second Coming of Jesus Christ, and after the Second Coming the Jews will accept Jesus as the Messiah. Most Jews will then embrace the fullness of the Gospel of Jesus Christ. Then, it is believed, the Third Temple will be God's temple as Christ reigns on the earth, and it will become the Jerusalem LDS Temple. There will be many LDS Temples but two main temples will jointly serve as the central governing places – the Jerusalem Temple will function as the resurrected Jesus Christ's Eastern Hemisphere governing place and the New Jerusalem Temple in Independence, Missouri will function as the resurrected Jesus Christ's Western Hemisphere governing place. Both of these two temples will have thrones for Jesus Christ to sit on during his millennial reign.


title: Third Temple

text: The Community of Christ, the second largest denomination of the Latter Day Saint movement, has operated a temple, open to the public, in Independence, Missouri, since 1994. Another denomination of the LDS movement, the Church of Christ (Temple Lot), possess the Temple Lot, the actual spot on which the Temple will be built.


title: Third Temple

text: Most Muslims view the movement for the building of a Third Temple on the Temple Mount as an affront to Islam due to the presence of the Al-Aqsa Mosque and the Dome of the Rock in the stead of the former Holy Temple. Today the area is regarded by the majority of Muslims as the third holiest site in Islam. Muslims are resolute in calling for recognition of their exclusive rights over the site and demand that it be wholly transferred to Muslim sovereignty; furthermore, some Muslims deny any association with the Mount to the former Jewish Temples which stood at the site.


title: Third Temple

text: The Organisation of Islamic Cooperation was initiated in reaction to Denis Michael Rohan, an Australian Christian who set fire to a 12th-century pulpit of the Al-Aqsa mosque, in an attempt to initiate the second coming of Christ. The protection of the Al-Aqsa Mosque is in the primary mandate of the Organisation of Islamic Cooperation.


title: Third Temple

text: In the Baháʼí Faith, the prophecy of the Third Temple was fulfilled with the writing of the Súriy-i-Haykal by Bahá'u'lláh in pentacle form. The Súriy-i-Haykal or Tablet of the Temple, is a composite work which consists of a tablet followed by five messages addressed to world leaders; shortly after its completion, Bahá'u'lláh instructed the tablet be written in the form of a pentacle, symbolizing the human temple and added to it the conclusion:


title: Third Temple

text: Shoghi Effendi, the head of the Baháʼí Faith in the first half of the 20th century, explained that this verse refers to the prophecy in the Hebrew Bible where Zechariah had promised the rebuilding of the Temple in the End Times as fulfilled in the return of the Manifestation of God, Bahá'u'lláh, in a human temple. Throughout the tablet, Bahá'u'lláh addresses the Temple (himself) and explains the glory which is invested in it allowing all the nations of the world to find redemption. In the tablet, Bahá'u'lláh states that the Manifestation of God is a pure mirror that reflects the sovereignty of God and manifests God's beauty and grandeur to mankind. In essence, Bahá'u'lláh explains that the Manifestation of God is a "Living Temple" and Bahá'u'lláh addresses the organs and limbs of the human body and bids each to focus on God and not the earthly world.


title: American International Group

text: American International Group, Inc. (AIG) is an American multinational finance and insurance corporation with operations in more than 80 countries and jurisdictions. , AIG companies employed 49,600 people. The company operates through three core businesses: General Insurance, Life & Retirement, and a standalone technology-enabled subsidiary. General Insurance includes Commercial, Personal Insurance, U.S. and International field operations. Life & Retirement includes Group Retirement, Individual Retirement, Life, and Institutional Markets.


title: American International Group

text: AIG's corporate headquarters are in New York City and the company also has offices around the world. AIG serves 87% of the Fortune Global 500 and 83% of the Forbes 2000. AIG was ranked 60th on the 2018 Fortune 500 list. According to the 2016 Forbes Global 2000 list, AIG is the 87th largest public company in the world. On December 31, 2017, AIG had $65.2 billion in shareholder equity.


title: American International Group

text: During the financial crisis of 2007–2008, the Federal Reserve bailed the company out for $180 billion and assumed control, with the Financial Crisis Inquiry Commission correlating AIG's failure with the mass sales of unhedged insurance. AIG repaid $205 billion to the United States government in 2012.


title: American International Group

text: AIG was founded December 19, 1919 when American Cornelius Vander Starr (1892–1968) established a general insurance agency, American Asiatic Underwriters (AAU), in Shanghai, China. Business grew rapidly, and two years later, Starr formed a life insurance operation. By the late 1920s, AAU had branches throughout China and Southeast Asia, including the Philippines, Indonesia, and Malaysia. In 1926, Starr opened his first office in the United States, American International Underwriters Corporation (AIU). He also focused on opportunities in Latin America and, in the late 1930s, AIU entered Havana, Cuba. The steady growth of the Latin American agencies proved significant as it would offset the decline in business from Asia due to the impending World War II. In 1939, Starr moved his headquarters from Shanghai, China, to New York City.


title: American International Group

text: After World War II, American International Underwriters (AIU) entered Japan and Germany, to provide insurance for American military personnel. Throughout the late 1940s and early 1950s, AIU continued to expand in Europe, with offices opening in France, Italy, and the United Kingdom. In 1952, Starr began to focus on the American market by acquiring Globe & Rutgers Fire Insurance Company and its subsidiary, American Home Fire Assurance Company. By the end of the decade, C.V. Starr's general and life insurance organization included an extensive network of agents and offices in over 75 countries.


title: American International Group

text: In 1960, C.V. Starr hired Maurice R. Greenberg, known as Hank, to develop an international accident and health business. Two years later, Greenberg reorganized one of C.V. Starr's U.S. holdings into a successful multiple line carrier. Greenberg focused on selling insurance through independent brokers rather than agents to eliminate agent salaries. Using brokers, AIU could price insurance according to its potential return even if it suffered decreased sales of certain products for great lengths of time with very little extra expense. In 1967, American International Group, Inc. (AIG) was incorporated as a unifying umbrella organization for most of C.V. Starr's general and life insurance businesses. In 1968, Starr named Greenberg his successor. The company went public in 1969.


title: American International Group

text: The 1970s presented many challenges for AIG as operations in the Middle East and Southeast Asia were curtailed or ceased altogether due to the changing political landscape. However, AIG continued to expand its markets by introducing specialized energy, transportation, and shipping products to serve the needs of niche industries.


title: American International Group

text: During the 1980s, AIG continued expanding its market distribution and worldwide network by offering a wide range of specialized products, including pollution liability and political risk. In 1984, AIG listed its shares on the New York Stock Exchange (NYSE). Throughout the 1990s, AIG developed new sources of income through diverse investments, including the acquisition of International Lease Finance Corporation (ILFC), a provider of leased aircraft to the airline industry. In 1992, AIG received the first foreign insurance license granted in over 40 years by the Chinese government. Within the U.S., AIG acquired SunAmerica Inc. a retirement savings company managed by Eli Broad, in 1999.


title: American International Group

text: The early 2000s saw a marked period of growth as AIG acquired American General Corporation, a leading domestic life insurance and annuities provider, and AIG entered new markets including India. In February 2000, AIG created a strategic advisory venture team with the Blackstone Group and Kissinger Associates "to provide financial advisory services to corporations seeking high level independent strategic advice". AIG was an investor in Blackstone from 1998 to March 2012, when it sold all of its shares in the company. Blackstone acted as an adviser for AIG during the 2007–2008 financial crisis.


title: American International Group

text: In the early 2000s, AIG made significant investments in Russia as the country recovered from its financial crisis. In July 2003, Maurice Greenberg met with Putin to discuss AIG's investments and improving U.S.-Russia economic ties, in anticipation of Putin's meeting with U.S. President George W. Bush later that year."


title: American International Group

text: In November 2004, AIG reached a $126 million settlement with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission and the Justice Department partly resolving a number of regulatory matters, and the company needed to continue to cooperate with investigators continuing to probe the sale of a non-traditional insurance product.


title: American International Group

text: In 2005, AIG became embroiled in a series of fraud investigations conducted by the Securities and Exchange Commission, U.S. Justice Department, and New York State Attorney General's Office. Greenberg was ousted amid an accounting scandal in February 2005. The New York Attorney General's investigation led to a $1.6 billion fine for AIG and criminal charges for some of its executives.


title: American International Group

text: On May 1, 2005, investigations conducted by outside counsel at the request of AIG's Audit Committee and the consultation with AIG's independent auditors, PricewaterhouseCoopers LLP resulted in AIG's decision to restate its financial statements for the years ended December 31, 2003, 2002, 2001 and 2000, the quarters ended March 31, June 30 and September 30, 2004, and 2003 and the quarter ended December 31, 2003.


title: American International Group

text: On November 9, 2005, the company was said to have delayed its third-quarter earnings report because it had to restate earlier financial results, to correct accounting errors.


title: American International Group

text: Martin J. Sullivan became CEO of the company in 2005. He began his career at AIG as a clerk in its London office in 1970. AIG then took on tens of billions of dollars of risk associated with mortgages. It insured tens of billions of dollars of derivatives against default, but did not purchase reinsurance to hedge that risk. Secondly, it used collateral on deposit to buy mortgage-backed securities. When losses hit the mortgage market in 2007–2008, AIG had to pay out insurance claims and also replace the losses in its collateral accounts.


title: American International Group

text: AIG purchased the remaining 39% that it did not own of online auto insurance specialist 21st Century Insurance in 2007 for $749 million. With the failure of the parent company and the continuing recession in late 2008, AIG rebranded its insurance unit to 21st Century Insurance.


title: American International Group

text: On June 11, 2008, three stockholders, collectively owning 4% of the outstanding stock of AIG, delivered a letter to the Board of Directors of AIG seeking to oust CEO Martin Sullivan and make certain other management and Board of Directors changes. This letter was the latest volley in what "The Wall Street Journal" called a "public spat" between the company's board and management on one hand, and its key stockholders and former CEO Maurice Greenberg on the other hand.


title: American International Group

text: On June 15, 2008, after disclosure of financial losses and subsequent to a falling stock price, Sullivan resigned and was replaced by Robert B. Willumstad, Chairman of the AIG Board of Directors since 2006. Willumstad was forced by the US government to step down and was replaced by Ed Liddy on September 17, 2008. AIG's board of directors named Bob Benmosche CEO on August 3, 2009, to replace Liddy, who earlier in the year announced his retirement.


title: American International Group

text: In late 2008, the federal government bailed out AIG for $180 billion, and technically assumed control, because many believed its failure would endanger the financial integrity of other major firms that were its trading partners--Goldman Sachs, Morgan Stanley, Bank of America and Merrill Lynch, as well as dozens of European banks. In January 2011, the Financial Crisis Inquiry Commission issued one of many critical governmental reports, deciding that AIG failed and was rescued by the government primarily because its enormous sales of credit default swaps were made without putting up the initial collateral, setting aside capital reserves, or hedging its exposure, which one analyst considered a profound failure in corporate governance, particularly its risk management practices. Other analysts believed AIG's failure was possible because of the sweeping deregulation of over-the-counter (OTC) derivatives, including credit default swaps, which effectively eliminated federal and state regulation of these products, including capital and margin requirements that would have lessened the likelihood of AIG's failure.


title: American International Group

text: Illustrating the danger of an AIG bankruptcy, a September 17, 2008, "CNN Money" article stated, "But in AIG's case, the situation is even more serious. The company is much larger and complex than Lehman Brothers and its assets hitting the market all at once would likely cause worldwide chaos and send values plummeting. Experts question whether there are even enough qualified buyers out there to digest the company and its subsidiaries."


title: American International Group

text: AIG had sold credit protection through its London unit in the form of credit default swaps (CDSs) on collateralized debt obligations (CDOs) but by 2008, they had declined in value. AIG's Financial Products division, headed by Joseph Cassano in London, had entered into credit default swaps to insure $441 billion worth of securities originally rated AAA. Of those securities, $57.8 billion were structured debt securities backed by subprime loans. As a result, AIG's credit rating was downgraded and it was required to post additional collateral with its trading counter-parties, leading to a liquidity crisis that began on September 16, 2008, and essentially bankrupted all of AIG. The New York United States Federal Reserve Bank (led by Timothy Geithner who would later become Treasury secretary) stepped in, announcing creation of a secured credit facility, initially of up to $85 billion to prevent the company's collapse, enabling AIG to deliver additional collateral to its credit default swap trading partners. The credit facility was secured by the stock in AIG-owned subsidiaries in the form of warrants for a 79.9% equity stake in the company and the right to suspend dividends to previously issued common and preferred stock. The AIG board accepted the terms of the Federal Reserve rescue package that same day, making it the largest government bailout of a private company in U.S. history.


title: American International Group

text: In March 2009, AIG compounded public cynicism concerning the "too big to fail" firm's bailout by announcing that it would pay its executives over $165 million in executive bonuses. Total bonuses for the financial unit could reach $450 million, and bonuses for the entire company could reach $1.2 billion. Newly inaugurated President Barack Obama, who had voted for TARP as a Senator responded to the planned payments by saying "[I]t's hard to understand how derivative traders at AIG warranted any bonuses, much less $165 million in extra pay. How do they justify this outrage to the taxpayers who are keeping the company afloat?" Both Democratic and Republican politicians reacted with similar outrage to the planned bonuses, as did political commentators and journalists in the AIG bonus payments controversy.


title: American International Group

text: AIG began selling some assets to pay off its government loans in September 2008 despite a global decline in the valuation of insurance businesses, and the weakening financial condition of potential bidders. In December 2009, AIG formed international life insurance subsidiaries, American International Assurance Company, Limited (AIA) and American Life Insurance Company (ALICO), which were transferred to the Federal Reserve Bank of New York, to reduce its debt by $25 billion. AIG sold its Hartford Steam Boiler unit on March 31, 2009, to Munich Re for $742 million. On April 16, 2009, AIG announced plans to sell its 21st Century Insurance subsidiary to Farmers Insurance Group for $1.9 billion. In June 2009 AIG sold its majority ownership of reinsurer Transatlantic Re. "The Wall Street Journal" reported on September 7, 2009, that Pacific Century Group had agreed to pay $500 million for a part of AIG's asset management business, and that they also expected to pay an additional $200 million to AIG in carried interest and other payments linked to future performance of the business.


title: American International Group

text: AIG then sold its American Life Insurance Co. (ALICO) to MetLife Inc. for $15.5 billion in cash and MetLife stock in March 2010. Bloomberg L.P. reported on March 29, 2010, that after almost three months of delays, AIG had completed the $500 million sale of a portion of its asset management business, branded PineBridge Investments, to the Asia-based Pacific Century Group. Fortress Investment Group purchased 80% of the interest in financing company American General Finance in August 2010. In September 2010 AIG sold AIG Starr and AIG Edison, two of its Japan-based companies, to Prudential Financial for $4.2 billion in cash and $600 million in assumption of third party AIG debt by Prudential. On November 1, 2010, AIG raised $36.71 billion from both the sale of ALICO and its IPO of AIA. Proceeds went to repay some of the aid it received from the government during the financial crisis.


title: American International Group

text: AIG sold its Taiwanese life insurance company Nan Shan Life to a consortium of buyers for $2.16 billion in January 2011. Due to the Q3 2011 net loss widening, on November 3, 2011, AIG shares plunged 49 percent year to date. The insurer's board approved a share buyback of as much as $1 billion.


title: American International Group

text: Nine years after the initial bailout, in 2017, the U.S. Financial Stability Oversight Council removed AIG from its list of too-big-to-fail institutions.


title: American International Group

text: The United States Department of the Treasury announced an offering of 188.5 million shares of AIG for a total of $5.8 billion on May 7, 2012. The sale reduced Treasury's stake in AIG to 61 percent, from 70 percent before the transaction. Four months later, on September 6, 2012, AIG sold $2 billion of its investment in AIA to repay government loans. The board also approved a $5 billion stock repurchase of government-owned shares in AIA. The next week, on September 14, 2012, the Department of Treasury completed its fifth sale of AIG common stock, with proceeds of approximately $20.7 billion, reducing the Treasury's ownership stake in AIG to approximately 15.9 percent from 53 percent. Government commitments were fully recovered, and Treasury and the FRBNY to date had received a combined positive return of approximately $15.1 billion.


title: American International Group

text: On October 12, 2012, AIG announced a five and a half year agreement to sponsor six New Zealand-based rugby teams, including the world champion All Blacks. The AIG logo and the Adidas logo, the league's primary sponsor, were displayed on the league's team jerseys.


title: American International Group

text: The U.S. Department of the Treasury in December 2012 published an itemized list of the loans, stock purchases, special purpose vehicles (SPVs) and other investments engaged in with AIG, the amount AIG paid back and the positive return on the loans and investments to the government. The Treasury said that it and the Federal Reserve Bank of New York provided a total $182.3 billion to AIG, which paid back a total $205 billion, for a total positive return, or profit, to the government of $22.7 billion. In addition, AIG sold off a number of its own assets to raise money to pay back the government. On December 14, 2012, the Treasury Department sold the last of its AIG stock in its sixth stock sale for a total of approximately $7.6 billion. In total, the Treasury Department realized a gain of more than $22 billion from the sale of AIG common stock and $0.9 billion from the sale of AIG preferred stock. The same month, Robert Benmosche announced that he would be stepping down from his position as president and CEO due to his advancing lung cancer.


title: American International Group

text: AIG began an advertising campaign on January 1, 2013, called "Thank You America," in which several company employees, including AIG President and CEO Robert Benmosche, talked directly to the camera and offered their thanks for the government assistance. Peter Hancock succeeded Benmosche as president and CEO of AIG in September 2014. While Benmosche stayed on in an advisory role, he died in February the following year.


title: American International Group

text: In June 2015, Taiwan's Nan Shan Life Insurance acquired a stake in AIG's subsidiary in Taiwan for a fee of $158 million. Later that year, activist investor Carl Icahn called for a breakup of AIG, describing the company as "too big to succeed". AIG announced plans for an initial public offering of 19.9 percent of United Guaranty Corp., a Greensboro, North Carolina-based provider of mortgage insurance for lenders in January 2016. Later that year, Icahn won a seat on the board of directors and continued to pressure the company to split up its major divisions. AIG also began a joint venture with Hamilton Insurance Group and Two Sigma Investments to serve the insurance needs of small- to medium-sized enterprises. Industry veteran Brian Duperreault became the chairman of the new entity, and Richard Friesenhahn, the executive vice president of U.S. casualty lines at AIG, became CEO. In August 2016, AIG sold off United Guaranty, its mortgage-guarantee unit, to Arch Capital Group, a Bermuda-based insurer, for $3.4 billion.


title: American International Group

text: Brian Duperreault was appointed CEO of AIG on May 15, 2017. Duperreault, who previously worked at AIG from 1973 until 1994, was hired as CEO from Hamilton Insurance Group following Hancock's announcement in March 2017 that he would step down as AIG CEO under pressure after a period of disappointing financial results. Due to previous calls in 2015 and 2016 to shrink or break up AIG, Duperreault announced his intention to grow AIG and maintain its multiline structure as a provider of life and retirement solutions and non-life insurance, outlining a strategy to focus on technology, "underwriting discipline," and diversification.


title: American International Group

text: 2017 through early 2019 saw AIG hire a number of new upper level executives, including 125 senior underwriters and most of Duperreault's direct subordinates. In 2017, Duperreault named his former Marsh & McLennan Companies colleagues Lucy Fato as General Counsel and Peter Zaffino as AIG COO, later also naming him CEO of AIG's General Insurance business. Zaffino succeeded Duperreault as president of AIG in January 2020, with Duperreault remaining AIG's CEO. The company announced plans in 2017 to reorganize its Commercial and Consumer segments into General Insurance and Life & Retirement, respectively. In September 2017, the Financial Stability Oversight Council determined that AIG was no longer considered a nonbank systemically important financial institution (SIFI). Duperreault commented in response that the development reflected "the progress made since 2008 to de-risk the company."


title: American International Group

text: AIG made a number of acquisitions in 2018. That July, AIG acquired Validus Holdings Ltd., a provider of reinsurance based in Bermuda. The company was also a Lloyd's of London syndicate, involved in insurance-linked securities, a specialist in US small commercial excess and surplus underwriting, and a provider of crop insurance. The deal "brought in fresh underwriting talent," particularly in property risk and catastrophe risk. Also in 2018 AIG acquired Ellipse, a UK life insurance business, from Munich Re. In 2018, AIG established Fortitude Re to hold most of its run-off portfolios and late in 2018 sold a minority stake to The Carlyle Group. In November 2019, a Carlyle-managed fund and T&D Holdings acquired a majority interest in Fortitude Re, leaving AIG with a 3.5% stake "subject to required regulatory approvals and other customary closing conditions."


title: American International Group

text: Duperreault and Zaffino set out a turnaround strategy for the General Insurance business in 2017 and began execution. In 2019, Duperreault stated that the new executive team had restructured the business, implemented new risk and underwriting guidelines, and "overhauled its reinsurance buying strategy." In 2019, AIG signed a five-year contract to be the title sponsor of Women's British Open, its first deal in golf. In 2020, the contract was extended to 2025 and the championship was rebranded as the AIG Women's Open, with the largest LPGA major women's prize fund in 2021, totaling $US5.8 million.


title: American International Group

text: In August 2019, Duperreault and Zaffino announced "AIG 200", a multi-year program to improve operations by shedding legacy processes and excess manual interventions, modernizing and digitizing workflows, and unifying operations. Also during that month, AIG reported its second consecutive quarter of underwriting profits, and AIG's Life and Retirement business, led by CEO Kevin Hogan, delivered "solid growth" and returns despite a volatile credit and equity market. In January 2020, AIG announced it was ending its decade-long sponsorship of the All Blacks in 2021. On March 1, 2021, Peter Zaffino succeeded Brian Duperreault as AIG's CEO, with Duperreault becoming executive chairman of the board. As part of AIG's 2020 plan to form an independent company of its life and retirement insurance business with a 2022 IPO, the company announced, in July 2021, that Blackstone Group would acquire 9.9% of the new unit for $2.2 billion cash. Blackstone and AIG also entered a long-term asset management agreement for about one quarter of AIG's life and retirement portfolio, set to increase in subsequent years. After the spin-off, Corebridge Financial became an independent entity.


title: American International Group

text: In Australia and China, AIG is identified as a large financial institution and provider of financial services including credit security mechanisms. In the United States, AIG is the largest underwriter of commercial and industrial insurance.


title: American International Group

text: AIG offers property casualty insurance, life insurance, retirement products, mortgage insurance and other financial services. In the third quarter of 2012, the global property-and-casualty insurance business, Chartis, was renamed AIG Property Casualty. SunAmerica, life-insurance and retirement-services division, was renamed AIG Life and Retirement; other existing brands continue to be used in certain geographies and market segments.


title: American International Group

text: Hank Greenberg, with lead lawyer David Boies, independently sued the U.S. Government for money damages in the United States Court of Federal Claims in 2011. The AIG board had announced on January 9 that the company would not join the lawsuit. After hearing thirty-seven days of testimony from Ben Bernanke, Timothy Geithner, Hank Paulson and others, Judge Thomas C. Wheeler ruled that the Federal Reserve payment to AIG had been an illegal exaction, as the Federal Reserve Act did not authorize the New York Fed to nationalize a corporation by owning its stock. Judge Wheeler did not award compensation to the plaintiffs, ruling that they did not suffer economic damage because "if the government had done nothing, the shareholders would have been left with 100 percent of nothing."


title: American International Group

text: AIG filed suit against the Federal Reserve Bank of New York in January 2013 in order to maintain the former's right to sue Bank of America and other issuers of bad mortgage debt. The specific issue was whether the Federal Reserve Bank of New York transferred $18 billion in litigation claims on troubled mortgage debt through Maiden Lane Transactions, entities created by the Fed in 2008. This transaction, AIG argued, prevented them from recouping losses from insured banks. Owing to events which allowed AIG to proceed in another related case, "AIG Inc. v. Bank of America Corporation LLC", AIG withdrew the Maiden Lane case "without prejudice" on May 28, 2013.


title: American International Group

text: On May 7, 2013, Los Angeles U.S. District Judge, Mariana Pfaelzer, ruled in a case between AIG and Bank of America concerning possible misrepresentations by Merrill Lynch and Countrywide as to the quality of the mortgage portfolio, that $7.3 billion of the disputed claims had not been assigned. The two parties settled in July 2014, with Bank of America paying out $650 million to AIG, who in turn dismissed their litigation.


title: First transcontinental railroad

text: North America's first transcontinental railroad (known originally as the "Pacific Railroad" and later as the "Overland Route") was a continuous railroad line constructed between 1863 and 1869 that connected the existing eastern U.S. rail network at Council Bluffs, Iowa with the Pacific coast at the Oakland Long Wharf on San Francisco Bay. The rail line was built by three private companies over public lands provided by extensive US land grants. Building was financed by both state and US government subsidy bonds as well as by company issued mortgage bonds. The Western Pacific Railroad Company built of track from the road's western terminus at Alameda/Oakland to Sacramento, California. The Central Pacific Railroad Company of California (CPRR) constructed east from Sacramento to Promontory Summit, Utah Territory. The Union Pacific Railroad (UPRR) built from the road's eastern terminus at the Missouri River settlements of Council Bluffs and Omaha, Nebraska westward to Promontory Summit.


title: First transcontinental railroad

text: The railroad opened for through traffic between Sacramento and Omaha on May 10, 1869, when CPRR President Leland Stanford ceremonially tapped the gold "Last Spike" (later often referred to as the "Golden Spike") with a silver hammer at Promontory Summit. In the following six months, the last leg from Sacramento to San Francisco Bay was completed. The resulting coast-to-coast railroad connection revolutionized the settlement and economy of the American West. It brought the western states and territories into alignment with the northern Union states and made transporting passengers and goods coast-to-coast considerably quicker, safer and less expensive.


title: First transcontinental railroad

text: The first transcontinental rail passengers arrived at the Pacific Railroad's original western terminus at the Alameda Terminal on September 6, 1869, where they transferred to the steamer "Alameda" for transport across the Bay to San Francisco. The road's rail terminus was moved two months later to the Oakland Long Wharf, about a mile to the north, when its expansion was completed and opened for passengers on November 8, 1869. Service between San Francisco and Oakland Pier continued to be provided by ferry.


title: First transcontinental railroad

text: The CPRR eventually purchased of UPRR-built grade from Promontory Summit (MP 828) to Ogden, Utah Territory (MP 881), which became the interchange point between trains of the two roads. The transcontinental line became popularly known as the "Overland Route" after the name of the principal passenger rail service to Chicago that operated over the length of the line until 1962.


title: First transcontinental railroad

text: Among the early proponents of building a railroad line that would connect the coasts of the United States was Dr. Hartwell Carver, who in 1847 submitted to the U.S. Congress a "Proposal for a Charter to Build a Railroad from Lake Michigan to the Pacific Ocean", seeking a congressional charter to support his idea.


title: First transcontinental railroad

text: Congress agreed to support the idea. Under the direction of the Department of War, the Pacific Railroad Surveys were conducted from 1853 through 1855. These included an extensive series of expeditions of the American West seeking possible routes. A report on the explorations described alternative routes and included an immense amount of information about the American West, covering at least . It included the region's natural history and illustrations of reptiles, amphibians, birds, and mammals.


title: First transcontinental railroad

text: The report failed however to include detailed topographic maps of potential routes needed to estimate the feasibility, cost and select the best route. The survey was detailed enough to determine that the best southern route lay south of the Gila River boundary with Mexico in mostly vacant desert, through the future territories of Arizona and New Mexico. This in part motivated the United States to complete the Gadsden Purchase.


title: First transcontinental railroad

text: In 1856 the Select Committee on the Pacific Railroad and Telegraph of the US House of Representatives published a report recommending support for a proposed Pacific railroad bill:


title: First transcontinental railroad

text: The U.S. Congress was strongly divided on where the eastern terminus of the railroad should be—in a southern or northern city. Three routes were considered:


title: First transcontinental railroad

text: Once the central route was chosen, it was immediately obvious that the western terminus should be Sacramento. But there was considerable difference of opinion about the eastern terminus. Three locations along of Missouri River were considered:


title: First transcontinental railroad

text: Council Bluffs had several advantages: It was well north of the Civil War fighting in Missouri; it was the shortest route to South Pass in the Rockies in Wyoming; and it would follow a fertile river that would encourage settlement. Durant had hired the future president Abraham Lincoln in 1857 when he was an attorney to represent him in a business matter about a bridge over the Missouri. Now Lincoln was responsible for choosing the eastern terminus, and he relied on Durant's counsel. Durant advocated for Omaha, and he was so confident of the choice that he began buying up land in Nebraska.


title: First transcontinental railroad

text: One of the most prominent champions of the central route railroad was Asa Whitney. He envisioned a route from Chicago and the Great Lakes to northern California, paid for by the sale of land to settlers along the route. Whitney traveled widely to solicit support from businessmen and politicians, printed maps and pamphlets, and submitted several proposals to Congress, all at his own expense. In June 1845, he led a team along part of the proposed route to assess its feasibility.


title: First transcontinental railroad

text: Legislation to begin construction of the "Pacific Railroad" (called the "Memorial of Asa Whitney") was first introduced to Congress by Representative Zadock Pratt. Congress did not immediately act on Whitney's proposal.


title: First transcontinental railroad

text: Theodore Judah was a fervent supporter of the central route railroad. He lobbied vigorously in favor of the project and undertook the survey of the route through the rugged Sierra Nevada, one of the chief obstacles of the project.


title: First transcontinental railroad

text: In 1852, Judah was chief engineer for the newly formed Sacramento Valley Railroad, the first railroad built west of the Mississippi River. Although the railroad later went bankrupt once the easy placer gold deposits around Placerville, California were depleted, Judah was convinced that a properly financed railroad could pass from Sacramento through the Sierra Nevada mountains to reach the Great Basin and hook up with rail lines coming from the East.


title: First transcontinental railroad

text: In 1856, Judah wrote a 13,000-word proposal in support of a Pacific railroad and distributed it to Cabinet secretaries, congressmen and other influential people. In September 1859, Judah was chosen to be the accredited lobbyist for the Pacific Railroad Convention, which indeed approved his plan to survey, finance and engineer the road. Judah returned to Washington in December 1859. He had a lobbying office in the United States Capitol, received an audience with President James Buchanan, and represented the Convention before Congress.


title: First transcontinental railroad

text: Judah returned to California in 1860. He continued to search for a more practical route through the Sierra suitable for a railroad. In mid-1860, local miner Daniel Strong had surveyed a route over the Sierra for a wagon toll road, which he realized would also suit a railroad. He described his discovery in a letter to Judah. Also in 1860, Charles Marsh, a surveyor, civil engineer and water company owner, met with civil engineer Judah. Marsh, who had already surveyed a potential railroad route between Sacramento and Nevada City, California, a decade earlier, went with Judah into the Sierra Nevada Mountains. There they examined the Henness Pass Turnpike Company’s route (Marsh was a founding director of that company). They measured elevations and distances, and discussed the possibility of a transcontinental railroad. Both were convinced that it could be done. Judah, Marsh and Strong then met with merchants and businessmen to solicit investors in their proposed railroad.


title: First transcontinental railroad

text: From January or February 1861 until July, Judah and Strong led a 10-person expedition to survey the route for the railroad over the Sierra Nevada through Clipper Gap and Emigrant Gap, over Donner Pass, and south to Truckee. They discovered a way across the Sierras that was gradual enough to be made suitable for a railroad, although it still needed a lot of work.


title: First transcontinental railroad

text: Four northern California businessmen formed the Central Pacific Railroad: Leland Stanford, (1824–1893), President; Collis Potter Huntington, (1821–1900), Vice President; Mark Hopkins, (1813–1878), Treasurer; Charles Crocker, (1822–1888), Construction Supervisor. All became substantially wealthy from their association with the railroad. Judah, Marsh, Strong, Stanford, Huntington, Hopkins and Crocker, along with James Bailey and Lucius Anson Booth, became the first board of directors of the Central Pacific Railroad.


title: First transcontinental railroad

text: Former ophthalmologist Dr. Thomas Clark "Doc" Durant was nominally only a vice president of Union Pacific, so he installed a series of respected men like John Adams Dix as president of the railroad. Durant and its financing arrangements were, unlike those of the CPRR, mired in controversy and scandals.


title: First transcontinental railroad

text: In February 1860, Iowa Representative Samuel Curtis introduced a bill to fund the railroad. It passed the House but died when it could not be reconciled with the Senate version because of opposition from southern states who wanted a southern route near the 42nd parallel. Curtis tried and failed again in 1861. After the southern states seceded from the Union, the House of Representatives approved the bill on May 6, 1862, and the Senate on June 20. Lincoln signed the Pacific Railroad Act of 1862 into law on July 1. It authorized creation of two companies, the Central Pacific in the west and the Union Pacific in the mid-west, to build the railroad. The legislation called for building and operating a new railroad from the Missouri River at Council Bluffs, Iowa, west to Sacramento, California, and on to San Francisco Bay. Another act to supplement the first was passed in 1864. The Pacific Railroad Act of 1863 established the standard gauge to be used in these federally financed railways.


title: First transcontinental railroad

text: To finance the project, the act authorized the federal government to issue 30-year U.S. government bonds (at 6% interest). The railroad companies were paid $16,000 per mile (approximately $ per mile today) for track laid on a level grade, $32,000 per mile (about $ per mile today) for track laid in foothills, and $48,000 per mile (or about $ per mile today) for track laid in mountains. The two railroad companies sold similar amounts of company-backed bonds and stock.


title: First transcontinental railroad

text: While the federal legislation for the Union Pacific required that no partner was to own more than 10 percent of the stock, the Union Pacific had problems selling its stock. One of the few subscribers was The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints leader Brigham Young, who also supplied crews for building much of the railroad through Utah. Durant enticed other investors by offering to front money for the stock they purchased in their names. This scheme enabled Durant to control about half of the railroad stock. The initial construction of Union Pacific grade traversed land owned by Durant. Durant's railroad was paid by the mile, and to further inflate its profits, the Union Pacific built oxbows of unneeded track, and by July 4, 1865, it had only reached from Omaha after 2½ years of construction.