document_title: Borg (Star Trek)

question_text: when did the borg first appear on star trek

question_tokens: when did the borg first appear on star trek

text: Borg (Star Trek)

text: Concept[edit]

text: In the text commentary to the collector's edition of Star Trek: First Contact, Michael Okuda revealed that Star Trek: The Next Generation (TNG) writers began to develop the idea of the Borg as early as the Season 1 episode, "Conspiracy", which introduced a coercive, symbiotic life form that took over key Federation personnel. It was thwarted by the Enterprise crew and presumably never heard of again (the 'alien conspiracy' plotline itself was scrapped when it became clear that the concept was too grim for Star Trek's target audience).[citation needed] Plans to feature the Borg as an increasingly menacing threat were subsequently scrapped in favor of a more subtle introduction, beginning with the mystery of missing colonies on both sides of the Neutral Zone in "The Neutral Zone" and culminating in the encounter between Borg and the Enterprise crew in "Q Who?".

text: The Borg represented a new antagonist and regular enemy that was lacking during the first season of TNG; the Klingons were allies and the Romulans mostly absent. The Ferengi were originally intended as the new enemy for the United Federation of Planets, but their comical appearance and devotion to capitalist accumulation by free enterprise failed to portray them as a convincing threat. The Borg, however, with their frightening appearance, their immense power, and their sinister motive, became the signature villains for the TNG and Voyager eras of Star Trek. In Voyager episode "Q2", even Q tells his son to "don't provoke the Borg."

text: "Resistance is futile"[edit]

text: Individual Borg rarely speak, though they do send a collective audio message to their targets, stating that "resistance is futile", generally followed by a declaration that the target in question will be assimilated and its "biological and technological distinctiveness" will be added to their own. The exact phrasing varies and evolves over the various series episodes and film. One phrase, from TNG, is:

text: "We are the Borg. Your biological and technological distinctiveness will be added to our own. Resistance is futile."

text: The complete phrase used in Star Trek: First Contact, as performed by Jeff Coopwood[3] is:

text: "We are the Borg. Lower your shields and surrender your ships. We will add your biological and technological distinctiveness to our own. Your culture will adapt to service us. Resistance is futile."[4]

text: The phrase "resistance is futile" became prevalent in popular culture from its use in the television show TNG.[5][6][7][8]

text: The Borg uttered the phrase in several Star Trek episodes and the film Star Trek: First Contact (which used the phrase as the tagline for the 1996 film). Patrick Stewart's delivery of the line, as Locutus, in "The Best of Both Worlds" was ranked no. 93 in TV Land's list of "The 100 Greatest TV Quotes and Catchphrases".[9] It was used as the title for an episode of the TV series Dexter. The phrase appears in several preceding TV series, including Doctor Who episode "The Deadly Assassin" (1976), where it is used by the Master through the voice of his mouthpiece, Chancellor Goth, and on Space: 1999 (series 2, episode 24, 1976) where it was used by Maya responding to "The Dorcons", during an attack on Moonbase Alpha.[10] As well as the Borg bearing remarkable resemblance to Lord Dread and the bio-dreads of Captain Power and the Soldiers of the Future, the similar phrase "resistance was futile" was used in reference to Lyman Taggert, the human who became Lord Dread.[11] This comic book also antedates the appearance of the Borg in TNG.

text: Origin[edit]

text: The origin of the Borg is never made clear, though they are portrayed as having existed for hundreds of thousands of years (as attested by Guinan and the Borg Queen). In Star Trek: First Contact, the Borg Queen merely states that the Borg were once much like humanity, "flawed and weak", but gradually developed into a partially synthetic species in an ongoing attempt to evolve and perfect themselves.

text: In TNG's "Q Who?", Guinan mentions that the Borg are "made up of organic and artificial life [...] which has been developing for [...] thousands of centuries." In the later episode of Star Trek: Voyager, "Dragon's Teeth", Gedrin, of the race the Vaadwaur, says that before his people and he were put into suspended animation 892 years earlier, the Borg had assimilated only a few colonies in the Delta Quadrant and were considered essentially a minor nuisance, which suggests the Borg began expansion through space only around 1,000 years ago. Now awake in the 24th century, he is amazed to see that the Borg control a vast area of the Delta Quadrant. Seven of Nine comments that the Borg's collective memories of that time period are fragmentary, though it is never established why that is.

text: The Star Trek Encyclopedia speculates that a connection could exist between the Borg and V'ger, the vessel encountered in Star Trek: The Motion Picture. In this movie, Spock states, "Any show of resistance would be futile, Captain," which could be paraphrased as the Borg's "Resistance is futile". This idea of a connection is advanced in William Shatner's novel The Return. The connection was also suggested in a letter included in Starlog no. 160 (November 1990). The letter writer, Christopher Haviland, also speculated that the original Borg drones were members of a race called "the Preservers", which Spock had suggested in the original series episode "The Paradise Syndrome" might be responsible for why so many humanoids populate the galaxy. It was confirmed in the TNG episode "The Chase" that an ancient species seeded hundreds, if not thousands of planets with their DNA, creating the Humans, Vulcans, Klingons, Romulans, Cardassians, and many more. Coincidentally, in the novelization of Star Trek: The Motion Picture (written by Gene Roddenberry), the V'ger entity notes that the Ilia probe is resisting the programming given to it because of residual memories and feelings for Captain Decker, from its precise replication of the Deltan lieutenant. When V'ger becomes aware of this, it decides that "the resistance was futile, of course".

text: The extra section of the non-canon game Star Trek: Legacy contains the supposed "Origin of the Borg", which tells the story of V'ger being sucked into a black hole. V'ger was found by a race of living machines which gave it a form suitable to fulfilling its simplistic programming. Unable to determine who its creator could be, the probe declared all carbon-based life an infestation of the creator's universe, leading to assimilation. From this, the Borg were created, as extensions of V'ger's purpose. Drones were made from those assimilated and merged into a collective consciousness. The Borg Queen was created out of the necessity for a single unifying voice. However, with thoughts and desires of her own, she was no longer bound to serve V'ger.

text: In the graphic novel Star Trek: The Manga, the Borg resulted from an experiment in medical nanotechnology gone wrong. An alien species under threat of extinction by an incurable disease created a repository satellite containing test subjects infused with body parts, organs, and DNA of multiple species along with cybernetic enhancements put in place by advanced medical technology. The satellite was maintained by nanomachines, which also maintained the medical equipment on board. The medical facility is parked in orbit by a black hole, and along with the anomalous states of time around the black hole, allows long-term research to continue at an accelerated time scale rather than in real-time speed. As the medical facility deteriorates, so does the programming of the nanomachines. The nanomachines began infusing themselves into the patients, interpreting them as part of the satellite in need of repair. Among the patients is the daughter of the head medical researcher of the satellite. The satellite eventually falls apart in an encounter with an away team from the Enterprise under the command of James T. Kirk. In the final moments of the satellite's destruction and the escape of the crew members of the Enterprise with the patients, the subjects display qualities inherently resembling the Borg: injection of nanomachines in a fashion like assimilation, rapid adaptation to weaponry, and a hive mind consciousness, as all the subjects begin following the whim of the daughter. As succumbing to the disease was inevitable, and the corrupt nanomachine programming infused itself into the bodies, the final image of the page of the manga Borg origin is left with the daughter turned Borg Queen, stating, "Resistance is futile."

text: In the novel Lost Souls (the third book in the Star Trek: Destiny trilogy), the Borg are revealed to be the survivors of the Caeliar city Mantilis. Thrown across the galaxy in the Delta Quadrant and back in time to about 4500 BC by the destruction of Erigol at the climax of Gods of Night, the first book in the trilogy, a group of human survivors from the starship Columbia NX-02 and Caeliar scientists try to survive in a harsh arctic climate. Most of the human survivors die of exposure, while several Caeliar are absorbed into their race's gestalt to give life to the others in their group mind.

text: The Caeliar offer the remaining humans a merging of human and Caeliar, to allow both groups to survive. The human survivors are resistant and as time goes on, the Caeliar called Sedin becomes the sole survivor of her group, her mental processes and her form both degrading as time goes on. When the humans return to Sedin for help, she forces them to merge with her, unwilling to allow herself to die when a union can save her life. The forced merging of the humans and the mostly decayed Caeliar results in the creation of the first Borg, the name being created due to the fragmented thought of the first drone as he was assimilated (his last thought was that he would not become some cyborg, with his individuality ceasing before he could finish thinking the final word). The gestalt group mind is perverted to become the collective, driven by Sedin's desperate hunger and need to add the strength, technology, and life-force of others to her own. Ironically, while the Caeliar were–albeit accidentally–involved in the creation of the Borg, they also provide the means to end it; in the 24th century, the Caeliar absorb the entire Borg collective back into themselves, ending the cyborgs' centuries-long reign of terror.

text: Characteristics[edit]

text: General design[edit]

text: Though Borg costumes are all unique, they share several common characteristics. Borg commonly have one eye (most often the left eye) replaced with a sophisticated ocular implant which allows them to see beyond the human visual spectrum, though it may not always be added to them. This implant usually projects a red laser beam, particularly in later appearances. They also usually have one arm replaced with a prosthetic one, bearing one of a variety of multipurpose tools in place of a humanoid hand. Since different drones have slightly different roles, the arm may be specialized for medical purposes, or weaponized for tactical usage. Another defining feature is flat white skin, giving them an almost zombie-like appearance. This skin was originally dry and human-looking, but it later had a more "slick" look to it, with veins showing.

text: Due to their cybernetic enhancements, all Borg are far stronger than humans to varying degrees (depending on the species from which the drone came). Some Borg drones are just able to easily overpower most humans and similar species, while others are strong enough to pick up or lift such species off the ground or shove or toss them across a room. However, they never run to their destination, hence most species can outpace them. Borg drones are resistant to phaser fire, being completely immune to the stun setting. In addition, all Borg drones possess personal shielding which collectively adapts to phaser fire. In various episodes, phasers tend to become ineffective after a dozen shots at most, depending on the settings and time between shots. Phaser frequencies can be altered to penetrate the shield, but the Borg adapt more quickly with each change in modulation. Due to this, crews have been known to employ a variety of other countermeasures such as holodeck-generated bullets and melee weapons, as demonstrated in Star Trek: First Contact. The Borg hive mind can lead to certain downsides: Borg drones have a weakness in that they usually ignore anything which does not present itself as a direct threat (unless specifically directed to attack), allowing armed but passive Starfleet crew to walk among them relatively unscathed until threatening behavior was observed.

text: The most important cybernetic component of any Borg is their "cortical node", which controls every other implanted "fixed location" cybernetic device within a Borg's body, and is most often implanted in the forehead above the usually retained organic right eye. If the cortical node fails, the afflicted individual Borg eventually dies, as it cannot be replicated or repaired. However, successful replacement of the node can be carried out on a Borg vessel if the failure is detected promptly before the afflicted Borg's impending death.

text: Assimilation[edit]

text: Assimilation is the process by which the Borg integrate beings, cultures, and technology into their collective. "You will be assimilated" is one of the few on-screen phrases employed by the Borg when communicating with other species. The Borg are portrayed as having found and assimilated thousands of species and billions to trillions of individual life-forms throughout the galaxy. The Borg designate each species with a number assigned to them upon first contact; humanity for example being 'Species 5618'.

text: When first introduced, the Borg are said to be more interested in assimilating technology than people, roaming the universe as single-minded marauders that have assimilated starships, planets, and entire societies to collect new technology. They are discriminating in this area, finding certain races, for example the Kazon, to be technologically inferior and not worthy of assimilation. A Borg infant found aboard the first cube introduced (TNG: "Q Who?") shows that the Borg will even assimilate the children of a conquered race. However, the Borg then place the assimilated children into maturation chambers, to quickly and fully grow them into mature drones that can be of use.

text: In their second appearance, "The Best of Both Worlds", they capture and assimilate Captain Jean-Luc Picard into the collective by surgically altering him, creating Locutus of Borg, meaning "he who has spoken" or "he who speaks", in Latin, fitting as he speaks to Federation humans for them. After this, life-form assimilation becomes much more prominent in their overall behavior, as they learn about the nuances in tactics, as well as what they consider diplomacy with the human race.

text: The method of assimilating individual life-forms into the collective has been represented differently over time. The only constant is that the infant, and fetal humanoids have been grown in an accelerated state and surgically receive implants connected directly into the brain (cannot be removed without death), as well as ocular devices, tool-enhanced limbs, armor, and other prosthetics. In Star Trek: First Contact, the method of adult assimilation is depicted with the more efficient injection of nanoprobes into the individual's bloodstream through a pair of tubules that spring forth from the drone's hand (while in "The Best of Both Worlds" and Star Trek: Borg, at least some Borg were shown with a syringe like prosthetic that also acted as a data port that allowed them to interface directly with technology and share data between each other). Assimilation by tubules is depicted on-screen as being a usually fast-acting process, with the victim's skin pigmentation turning gray and mottled with visible dark tracks forming within moments of contact, though it seems that the longer the victim is being injected, the quicker they can be fully transformed. The individual is then taken away for complete assimilation by drones. The tubules can also allow for direct interfacing with technology, while they are also shown to be able to reconfigure and enhance such technology into Borg technology. Sometimes assimilated Borg have been noted to be neither male nor female.[12] One theory could be that their reproductive systems have been removed upon assimilation, yet drones such as Captain Picard and Seven of Nine are easily identified as male and female. The other reason may be that the species from whence they came was gender-less. Drones who have escaped the collective have also been shown to have a gender. The individual has all traces of individuality removed and implants are attached to the new drone so it can become an integrated part of the collective. This method of assimilation is also shown to be much more surgical in nature.[1] In Star Trek: First Contact a captured crew member is shown to have a forearm and an eye physically removed and replaced with cybernetic implants.

text: Because assimilation depends on nanoprobes, species with extremely advanced immune systems are able to resist assimilation. Thus far, Species 8472 is the only race shown to be capable of completely rejecting assimilation attempts, but other species, such as the Hirogen, have also proved more than a match, both physically and technologically against the Borg.[13] Phlox was able to partially resist the assimilation process in the Star Trek: Enterprise episode "Regeneration".

text: Nanoprobes are microscopic machines that inhabit a Borg's body, bloodstream, and many cybernetic implants. The probes perform the function of maintaining the Borg cybernetic systems, as well as repairing damage to the organic parts of a Borg. They generate new technology inside a Borg when needed, as well as protecting them from many forms of disease. Borg nanoprobes, each about the size of a human red blood cell, travel through the victim's bloodstream and latch on to individual cells. The nanoprobes rewrite the cellular DNA, altering the victim's biochemistry, and eventually form larger, more complicated structures and networks within the body such as electrical pathways, processing and data-storage nodes, and ultimately prosthetic devices that spring forth from the skin, similar to cancers or tumors, which can lead to severe deformation in the skin. In "Mortal Coil", Seven of Nine states that the Borg assimilated the nanoprobe technology from "Species 149". In addition, the nanoprobes work to maintain and repair their host's mechanical and biological components on a microscopic level, allowing both sets of components regenerative capabilities.

text: Though used by the Borg to exert control over another being, reprogrammed nanoprobes were used by the crew of the starship Voyager in many instances as medical aids. In one instance, the probes were used to revive crewman Neelix 18 hours, 49 minutes, and 13 seconds after death by repairing his body, and are used to treat various visitors' ailments. The ability to perform such a feat was thanks to a species that the Borg had previously assimilated.

text: The capability of nanoprobes to absorb improved technologies they find into the Borg collective is shown in the Voyager episode "Drone", where Seven of Nine's nanoprobes are fused with the Doctor's mobile emitter which uses technology from the 29th century of the history line of the Federation, creating an individual 29th-century drone existing outside the collective, with capabilities far surpassing that of late 24th-century drones. The attempt by the Borg to assimilate this drone is unsuccessful, so its enhanced capabilities are not disseminated throughout the collective.

text: The Borg do not try to immediately assimilate any being with which it comes to contact; in fact, Borg drones tend to completely ignore beings that are identified as too weak to be a threat and too inferior to be worth assimilating. Captain Picard and his team walk safely past a group of Borg drones in a scene from the film Star Trek: First Contact because they are unarmed, while the drones fulfill a programmed mission. In the Star Trek: Voyager episode "Mortal Coil", Seven of Nine told Neelix that the Kazon were "unworthy" of assimilation and would only detract from the Borg's quest for perceived perfection.

text: Maturation chamber[edit]

text: The Borg use maturation chambers as the means of assimilating children that have been captured.

text: The child is kept in the maturation chamber for a period of 17 cycles.[14] Information conflicts as to how long 17 cycles is. Based on information from Star Trek: Voyager (Mortal Coil) and Star Trek: Voyager (Drone), the time equates to about six months, but in "Collective", Seven of Nine mentions that she was in her maturation chamber for five years.

text: During this time spent in the maturation chamber, nanoprobes are introduced into the child's body along with cybernetic implants which are either surgically implanted or constructed by the nanoprobes. The child's physical age is also accelerated. When the children emerge from the maturation chambers, they have physically grown into adult drones, being no different from a drone that was already an adult when assimilated.

text: The appearance of maturation chambers has changed over time, originally seen in Star Trek: The Next Generation ("Q Who") and later in Star Trek: Voyager (Drone) and (Collective).

text: Unicomplex[edit]

text: The Unicomplex is a location in the fictional Star Trek universe that is considered the central base for the Borg pseudo-race. It is located in an unknown area of the Delta Quadrant and is the center of all processing activity for the Borg collective, as well as the home of the Borg Queen. The Unicomplex resembles a patchwork-like collection of thousands of cubes, connected by assorted conduits and transportation hubs. Borg cubes frequently cross into and out of the Unicomplex on their way to other parts of the galaxy, using transwarp conduits. The Unicomplex primarily appears in the episodes leading towards the conclusion of Star Trek: Voyager. The Unicomplex was destroyed in 2378 after the Borg Queen assimilated a neurolytic pathogen from the future by Admiral Kathryn Janeway, who had traveled back in time, as seen in the Star Trek: Voyager series finale, "Endgame".

text: Borg Collective[edit]

text: Also referred to as the "hive mind" or "collective consciousness", the Borg Collective is a civilization with a group mind. Each Borg individual, or drone, is linked to the collective by a sophisticated subspace network that ensures each member is given constant supervision and guidance. The collective is broadcast over a subspace domain similar to that used by the transporter. Being part of the collective offers significant biomedical advantages to the individual drones. The mental energy of the group consciousness can help an injured or damaged drone heal or regenerate damaged body parts or technology. The collective consciousness not only gives them the ability to "share the same thoughts", but also to adapt with great speed to defensive tactics used against them.[15]

text: Borg Queen[edit]

text: Before the movie Star Trek: First Contact, the Borg exhibited no hierarchical command structure, instead using a structure with no control center and distributed processing. First Contact introduced the Borg Queen, who is not named as such in the film, but is referred to by that name during the credits. The Queen is played by Alice Krige in this film and in the finale of Star Trek: Voyager, "Endgame". The character also appeared in Voyager's two-part episodes "Dark Frontier" and "Unimatrix Zero", but was portrayed by Susanna Thompson (due to Krige's unavailability during the filming of those episodes). Whether or not all of these appearances represent exactly the same Queen is never confirmed.

text: The Borg Queen is the focal point within the Borg collective consciousness and a unique drone within the collective, who originates from Species 125, who brings "order to chaos", referring to herself as "we" and "I" interchangeably. In First Contact, the Queen's dialogue suggests she is an expression of the Borg Collective's overall intelligence, not a controller but the avatar of the entire Collective as an individual. This sentiment is contradicted by Star Trek: Voyager, where she is seen explicitly directing, commanding, and in one instance even overriding the Collective. She also identified herself as having originally been a member of Species 125. The introduction of the Queen radically changed the canon understanding of the Borg function with the authors of The Computers of Star Trek noting "It was a lot easier for viewers to focus on a villain rather than a hive-mind that made decisions based on the input of all its members."[16] First Contact writers Brannon Braga and Ronald D. Moore have defended the introduction of the Queen as a dramatic necessity, however, noting on the film's DVD audio commentary that they had initially written the film with drones, but finding that it was essential for the main characters to have someone to interact with, beyond mindless drones.

text: In First Contact, the Borg Queen is seen as apparently present during Picard's former assimilation at the start as flashbacks in Picard's mind, and was believed destroyed along with that Borg cube years earlier. Here, she instead directs her attentions to Data. After he is captured by her drones, she tries to tempt him to join her by playing on his desire to be more human. She claims that she desires a semi-independent non-Borg being as an intellectual companion. This Queen is partially destroyed when her organic components are liquefied as a result of Data rupturing one of the Enterprise's warp core plasma coolant conduits. Picard finishes her off by breaking her spinal column with his own hands. The Queen is also destroyed in the Voyager episode "Endgame".

text: In the Star Trek: The Experience attraction The Borg Invasion 4-D, the Borg Queen reappears after Voyager returns to the Alpha Quadrant, but as Admiral Janeway attempts to kill her, she activates a transporter, allowing her to survive.

text: In the post-Star Trek Nemesis novels, the Borg Queen is not a single, irreplaceable entity, but the product of a program called "the Royal Protocol" that shares its name with a Starfleet document outlining requirements when dealing with foreign royalty. This program is used to create a Borg Queen from any female Borg (though Borg drones supposedly have no gender), commanding the technology within her to alter and adapt to the protocol's specifications. In the relaunch novels, one of the leaders of Starfleet Intelligence gets her hands on the Royal Protocol, and with the use of an emergency medical hologram, turns herself into a new kind of Borg Queen who cares about and loves her drones.

text: Alternatively, in the game Star Trek: Legacy, bonus content unlockable throughout the course of the game offers further information on the role of the queen. It is suggested that the females of a particular species have a natural ability to filter and control the immense 'traffic' of thought present in the collective consciousness of the Borg. These females, in a sense, serve as regulators or signal boosters even assisting in maintaining the complete consciousness over the thousands of lightyears of Borg space. This also presents the possibility of multiple queens, which would be a suitable explanation for why, on more than one occasion, a Starfleet officer has 'killed the queen'. In the illustration accompanying the explanation, all the females distinctly resemble the queen portrayed on screen, suggesting that this is Species 125, mentioned by the Borg Queen as her original species in "Dark Frontier".

text: In the novel Before Dishonor by Peter David, Admiral Janeway is assimilated while exploring a supposedly "dead" Borg supercube and is later transformed into the Borg Queen. She is later stopped by Seven of Nine, who introduced a virus into the Borg ship. This leads to the events of the Destiny trilogy.

text: In the Mirror Universe novella The Worst of Both Worlds by Greg Cox, the Borg are led by a king.

text: Character history[edit]

text: The Next Generation[edit]

text: The Borg first appear in the Star Trek: The Next Generation second-season episode "Q Who?", when the omnipotent life-form Q hurls the Enterprise-D across the galaxy to challenge Jean-Luc Picard's assertion that his crew is ready to face the unexplored galaxy's unknown dangers and mysteries. The Enterprise crew is quickly overwhelmed by the relentless Borg, and Picard eventually begs for and receives Q's help in returning the ship to its previous coordinates in the Alpha Quadrant. At the episode's conclusion, Picard suggests to Guinan that Q did "the right thing for the wrong reason" by showing the dangers they will eventually face. It is suggested that the Borg may have been responsible for the destruction of Federation and Romulan colonies in the final episode of season one, "The Neutral Zone".[17]

text: The Borg next appear in The Next Generation's third-season finale and fourth-season premiere, "The Best of Both Worlds". In the third-season cliffhanger, Picard is abducted and subsequently assimilated by the Borg and transformed into Locutus, the Latin term for "he who has spoken" or "he who speaks". "Locutus" is the Borg method of describing the former Picard as the representative of the Borg in all future contacts related to humanity. Picard's knowledge of Starfleet is gained by the collective, and the single cube easily wipes out all resistance in its path, notably the entire Starfleet armada at Wolf 359, which consisted of 40 starships, some of which were sent from the Klingon Empire. The Enterprise crew manages to capture Locutus and gain information through him which allows them to destroy the cube. Picard is later "deassimilated", a process quite different from what happened to Seven of Nine in Star Trek: Voyager (Seven of Nine had to be completely "re-schooled" on humanity, while Picard merely needed to be reminded of humanity. This could be because unlike Seven of Nine, Picard was assimilated for only a short while, while Seven of Nine was assimilated as a child).

text: In the fifth-season episode "I, Borg", the Enterprise crew rescues a solitary adolescent Borg who is given the name "Hugh" by Chief Engineer Geordi La Forge. The crew faces the moral decision of whether or not to use Hugh (who begins to develop a sense of independence as a result of a severed link to the collective consciousness of the Borg) as an apocalyptic means of delivering a devastating computer virus, in the form of a topological paradox problem, that would theoretically destroy the Borg, or to humanely allow him to return to the Borg with his individuality intact.[18] They decide to return him without the virus. This is followed up in the sixth-season cliffhanger "Descent", which depicts a group of rogue Borg who had "assimilated" individuality through Hugh. These rogue Borg fell under the control of the psychopathic android Lore, the "older brother" of Data.

text: In cult leader-like fashion, Lore had manipulated them into following him by appealing to their restored emotions and exploiting their new-found senses of individuality and fear, hoping to turn them on the Federation. Lore also corrupts Data through the use of the emotion chip he had stolen from Noonien Soong (Data and Lore's creator). In the end, Data's ethical subroutines are restored (having been suppressed by Lore through use of the emotion chip) and he manages to deactivate Lore after a battle in which a renegade Borg faction led by Hugh attacks the main complex. Data reclaims the emotion chip, Lore is mentioned as needing to be dismantled (for safety) and the surviving Borg fall under the leadership of Hugh. The fate of these deassimilated Borg is not revealed, though non-canon material suggests that they remained on the planet and established a permanent colony.

text: First Contact[edit]

text: The Borg return as the antagonists in one of the Next Generation films, Star Trek: First Contact. After again failing to assimilate Earth by a direct assault in the year 2373, the Borg travel back in time to the year 2063 to try to stop Zefram Cochrane's first contact with the Vulcans, which would have erased the Federation from history. However, the Enterprise-E follows the Borg back in time and the crew restores the original timeline. First Contact introduces the Borg Queen, a recurring character on Star Trek: Voyager.

text: Parts of this destroyed Borg sphere, along with at least two drones, are shown to have crash landed in the Arctic in the Star Trek: Enterprise episode "Regeneration".

text: Deep Space Nine[edit]

text: The only appearance the Borg made on this series was in the premiere episode Emissary. Benjamin Sisko (Avery Brooks) was an officer on the USS Saratoga, one of the ships in the Starfleet armada dispatched to Wolf 359. The Saratoga was hailed by the Borg cube with Locutus speaking as their representative. The Borg opened fire on the Saratoga, leading to the deaths of most of the ship's personnel, including Sisko's wife Jennifer. This created great resentment in Sisko when dealing with Picard; for Sisko, Picard was the living embodiment of the suffering the Borg inflicted at Wolf 359, making their meeting in "Emissary" tense when Picard gave Sisko his orders for taking over the station. Sisko found it hard to separate Jean-Luc Picard from the Borg drone who was responsible for his wife's death.

text: Despite their absence for the vast majority of the series beyond the pilot, references to the Borg, as well as the Wolf 359 massacre, are made occasionally throughout the series. In fact, the USS Defiant, a primary starship setting from the third season onwards, is explicitly stated to have been designed as a countermeasure against the Borg though it is later used against the Dominion.[19] In addition, the battle from Star Trek: First Contact is used as a plot point in Season 5 as Starfleet is spread thin to deal with a Dominion incursion.

text: In First Contact, the Defiant is heavily damaged during a battle with the Borg; the ship is later declared 'adrift, but salvageable', which allowed Deep Space Nine's producers to retain their signature starship.

text: Voyager[edit]

text: The Borg make frequent appearances in Star Trek: Voyager, which takes place in the Delta Quadrant, the region of the galaxy from which the Borg are believed to have originated. The Borg are first discovered by Voyager in the third-season episode "Blood Fever". Chakotay discovers the body of what the local humanoids refer to as "the Invaders"; which turns out to be the Borg. In "Scorpion", the Borg are engaged in a war of attrition against Species 8472, whose biological defences are a match for the Borg's nanoprobes. In one of the few instances of the Borg negotiating, in exchange for safe passage through Borg space, the Voyager crew devises a way to destroy the otherwise invulnerable Species 8472. A Borg drone, Seven of Nine, is dispatched to Voyager to facilitate this arrangement as Captain Janeway refuses to allow the Borg to use neural implants for communication with the Voyager crew.

text: After successfully driving Species 8472 back into their fluidic space, Seven of Nine attempts to assimilate Voyager but is severed from the hive mind and stripped of most of her Borg implants, becoming a member of Voyager's crew. Seven of Nine's rediscovery of her individuality becomes a recurring theme throughout the series. Flashbacks and allusions in several episodes, such as "The Raven", establish that before her assimilation, Seven of Nine was Annika Hansen, the child of scientists who studied the Borg in the Delta Quadrant independent of the Federation. Unfortunately her parents were assimilated into the collective with her, but her father makes a temporary appearance in the final episode of Voyager.

text: In "Drone", an advanced Borg drone is created when Seven of Nine's nanoprobes are fused with the Doctor's mobile emitter in a transporter accident. The drone, who adopts the moniker "One", involuntarily sends a signal to the collective, bringing a sphere to Voyager. One destroys the Borg ship and lets himself die to protect Voyager from further Borg pursuits.

text: In "Infinite Regress" it was revealed that all Borg starships have a device called a vinculum which connects all the minds of the drones, eliminates individual thoughts, and disseminates information to the Borg Collective.

text: In "Dark Frontier", Captain Kathryn Janeway decides to attack the Borg in the hopes of stealing a transwarp coil to aid Voyager's journey home. The Borg Queen learns of the plot and offers Seven of Nine a deal to spare Voyager in exchange for her rejoining the collective. Voyager recovers the transwarp coil and uses it, with the Delta Flyer, to save Seven from the Queen. Voyager uses the transwarp coil to travel 20,000 light-years before it burns out.

text: In "Collective", the crew of Voyager stumble upon a severely damaged cube that is holding Tom Paris, Neelix, Harry and Chakotay hostage. The crew later finds out that the ship is run by five Borg children who left their maturation chambers early. There are no living adult drones on board the ship due to a pathogen that somehow infected the entire vessel. The children sent a message to the collective that they were attacked. The collective replied and told them they were irrelevant. Seven of Nine is sent to assist in repairs and negotiate a trade for the prisoners. However, Voyager is soon attacked by the cube when the Borg children attempt to rip the main deflector off of the hull so they can rejoin the collective. When the cube's leader dies, Seven takes the children onto Voyager, has their non-essential Borg components removed. Most of the deassimilated children were returned to their home planets; one chose to remain with Voyager, and was eventually given the provisional rank of Cadet.

text: In "Q2", Q's son places Voyager in danger and brings Borg onto the ship. Q intercedes, saves Voyager and angrily warns his son about provoking the Borg.

text: In the Voyager finale, "Endgame", an elderly Admiral Janeway from the future travels back in time, to aid in Voyager's return to the Alpha Quadrant through the use of a Borg transwarp hub. This hub is one of six such structures scattered across the galaxy, which allow Borg ships to traverse galactic distances in mere minutes. The future Janeway uses the hub and travels to Unicomplex 1, the primary control center of the Borg and the residence of the Queen. She deliberately infects herself with a neurolytic pathogen, and when she was assimilated, the pathogen rapidly spreads and infects a majority of the collective and kills the Queen. With the Queen dead, the hive mind is fractured and Borg technology ceases to adapt to weapons fire. Without the adaptations against transphasic torpedoes, Voyager fires the torpedoes at the transwarp conduits holding the transwarp network together and they are easily destroyed. On the way, a Borg sphere pursues and captures Voyager, but upon arrival at Earth, it is destroyed from the inside by Voyager's transphasic torpedo.

text: Enterprise[edit]

text: The Borg make their last canon appearance in the Star Trek: Enterprise episode "Regeneration", the remnants of the destroyed sphere from Star Trek: First Contact are discovered in the Arctic along with two frozen drones. Once unearthed, the Borg quickly revive and assimilate the human scientists who found them before stealing an unarmed research ship, modifying it to match Starfleet technology in a matter of hours. The drones manage to send a transmission toward the Delta Quadrant before they are destroyed. According to dialogue, their transmission would reach its destination in 200 years, essentially establishing a closed time loop with the events of "Q Who", explaining why the cube in the latter episode was already en route to Earth. Although the Borg never identify themselves as such in dialogue, the episode's events prompt characters to allude to Zefram Cochrane's claims that "strange cybernetic creatures from the future" tried to interfere with First Contact.

text: Writers Judith and Garfield Reeves-Stevens developed an unproduced idea for an episode which would have featured Alice Krige as a Starfleet medical technician who encounters the Borg and is assimilated – thereby becoming the Borg Queen.[20]

text: Other media[edit]

text: In the non-canonical Star Trek: The Manga story 'Side Effects' written by Chris Dows, the crew of the Enterprise under James T. Kirk discovers an alien station operating near a black hole. The commander of the station appears to be abducting races in a desperate attempt to cure a strange plague among his people. Using his own daughter as a guinea pig, he is able to create a cure for the plague, though the end result is always assimilation into the consciousness of his daughter, the future Borg Queen, for those cured.

text: In the Star Trek novel Probe, which takes place following the events of Star Trek IV: The Voyage Home, the Borg are mentioned obliquely in communication with the whale-probe as spacefaring "mites" (the whale-probe's term for humanoid races) who traveled in cubical and spherical spacefaring vessels; the Borg apparently attacked the whale-probe and damaged its memory in some fashion before the events of the film.

text: In the Star Trek Game Star Trek: Legacy, the Borg are featured midway through the TOS era as "Assimilated Klingon ships". In the final mission, once the player has completed the primary objective, a confrontation with T'urell ensues; she departs, and the player must destroy a Borg Sphere.

text: The Peter David novel Vendetta reveals that the planet killer weapon from the Original Series episode "The Doomsday Machine" is a prototype for a weapon against the Borg, with a woman whose race were destroyed by the Borg trying to use the weapon against them despite the damage she will cause on her journey due to its need to consume planets. David revisited this concept in a 2007 sequel novel, Before Dishonor, which features the Enterprise-E working with Spock and Seven of Nine to reactivate the original planet killer to stop the Borg.

text: In William Shatner's novel The Return, Spock is nearly assimilated by the Borg, but is saved because he mind-melded with V'ger, an earlier form of the Borg, causing the Borg to register an "imprint" of the Collective already in Spock's mind and spare him as they assume that he is already a Borg. Using the information he subconsciously acquired in the meld, Spock is able to lead a crew of Enterprise officers- consisting of the Enterprise-D senior staff, himself, Admiral McCoy, and the resurrected Kirk- in a Defiant-class ship to destroy the Borg central node, severing all branches of the Collective from each other and limiting their future threat.

text: In David Mack's novel trilogy Star Trek: Destiny, set over a year after Star Trek: Nemesis, the Borg stage a massive invasion of local space using the totality of their forces. Due to Kathryn Janeway crippling their infrastructure in "Endgame", the Borg fear for their survival and thus attempt to exterminate the Federation and its neighbors. They wipe out the populations of numerous Federation worlds before being dismantled by the Caeliar, the advanced species that spawned them. The crews of the Enterprise-E, the Titan, and the Aventine had made contact with the Caeliar, learned of their role in the creation of the Borg from Erika Hernandez, and convinced them to end the threat of the Borg once and for all.

text: In the Doctor Who/Star Trek crossover comic, Assimilation2, the Borg join forces with the Cybermen, but the Enterprise-D crew are later forced to work with the Eleventh Doctor and the Borg when the Cybermen subvert the Collective, resulting in them restoring the Borg to full strength and erasing the Borg/Cyberman alliance from existence.[21]

text: In the video game Star Trek: Armada, the Borg invades a Dominion cloning facility to create a clone of Jean-Luc Picard to assimilate him into Locutus.

text: In video games[edit]

text: The Borg appear as antagonists to the player in the following Star Trek videogame titles:

text:
Star Trek: The Next Generation: Birth of the Federation
Star Trek: A Final Unity
Star Trek: Armada
Star Trek: Armada II
Star Trek: Away Team
Star Trek: Borg
Star Trek: Voyager – Elite Force
Star Trek: Elite Force II
Star Trek: Starfleet Command III
Star Trek: Encounters
Star Trek: Invasion
Star Trek: Legacy
Star Trek: Conquest
Star Trek Online
Star Trek: Borg Contact

text: They also appear as the main characters in one of the Star Trek arcade games, Star Trek: Borg Contact, where players must squeeze two handles without letting go.

text: Activision at one point planned to release Star Trek: Borg Assimilator, in which the player would play a Borg, but later canceled the game.

text: In Mass Effect 2, Legion's loyalty mission – deciding whether or not to infect its fellow Geth with a virus that would re-write their collective consciousness – was inspired by the fifth-season episode of Star Trek: The Next Generation: "I, Borg".[citation needed]

text: In Star Fox Assault, a race known as the "Aparoids" invades the Lylat system. Their goal is to assimilate all living organisms and mechanical devices, much like the Borg. However, instead of cyborg humanoids, Aparoids are insect-like creatures (coincidentally, the Borg were originally conceived as an insectoid race).[citation needed]

text: Critical reception[edit]

text: The depiction of the Borg cube in "Q Who" garnered the episode an Emmy Award nomination.[22]


document_title: Love Potion No. 9 (song)

question_text: who sang the song love potion number 9

question_tokens: who sang the song love potion number 9

root

text: Love Potion No. 9 (song)

text:
"Love Potion No. 9"

Single by The Clovers

B-side
"Stay Awhile"

Released
September 1959

Length
2:02

Label
United Artists

Songwriter(s)
Jerry Leiber and Mike Stoller

tag: table

text:
"Love Potion Number Nine"

Single by The Searchers

from the album Meet the Searchers

B-side
"Hi-Heel Sneakers"

Released
1964

Genre
Rock and roll

Length
2:05

Label
Kapp KJB-27

Songwriter(s)
Jerry Leiber and Mike Stoller

The Searchers singles chronology

"When You Walk in the Room"
(1964)
"Love Potion Number Nine"
(1964)
"What Have They Done to the Rain"
(1964)

"When You Walk in the Room"
(1964)
"Love Potion Number Nine"
(1964)
"What Have They Done to the Rain"
(1964)

text: "Love Potion No. 9" is a song written in 1959 by Jerry Leiber and Mike Stoller. It was originally performed by the Clovers,[1] who took it to number 23 on the US as well as R&B charts that year.[2][3]

tag: p

text: History[edit]

text: The song describes a man seeking help to find love, so he talks to a Gypsy who determines, by means of palmistry, that he needs "love potion number 9". The potion, an aphrodisiac, causes him to fall in love with everything he sees, kissing whatever is in front of him, eventually kissing a policeman on the street-corner, who breaks his bottle of love potion.

text: In one recorded version of the ending of the song, The Clovers used the alternative lyrics:

text: The "kissing a cop" lyric led to the song being banned by some radio stations.[citation needed] The lyrics also have the narrator describe himself as being "a flop with chicks since 1956"; later recordings of the song have often changed the year to suit the year of recording or the age of the performer. A notable exception is the Australian alternative rock band Tlot Tlot's recording, which leaves the year in the song as 1956. It also uses the alternative Love Potion No. 10 lyrics.


document_title: Elections in the United States

question_text: when do most states hold elections for state offices

text: Elections in the United States

text: Voting[edit]

text: The most common method used in U.S. elections is the first-past-the-post system, where the highest polling candidate wins the election. Some may use a two-round system, where if no candidate receives a required number of votes then there is a runoff between the two candidates with the most votes.[citation needed]

text: Since 2002, several cities have adopted instant-runoff voting in their elections. Voters rank the candidates in order of preference rather than voting for a single candidate. If a candidate secures more than half of votes cast, that candidate wins. Otherwise, the candidate with the fewest votes is eliminated. Ballots assigned to the eliminated candidate are recounted and assigned to those of the remaining candidates who rank next in order of preference on each ballot. This process continues until one candidate wins by obtaining more than half the votes.[citation needed]

text: Eligibility[edit]

text: The eligibility of an individual for voting is set out in the constitution and also regulated at state level. The constitution states that suffrage cannot be denied on grounds of race or color, sex, or age for citizens eighteen years or older. Beyond these basic qualifications, it is the responsibility of state legislatures to regulate voter eligibility. Some states ban convicted criminals, especially felons, from voting for a fixed period of time or indefinitely.[3] The number of American adults who are currently or permanently ineligible to vote due to felony convictions is estimated to be 5.3 million.[4] Some states also have legacy constitutional statements barring legally declared incompetent from voting; such references are generally considered obsolete and are being considered for review or removal where they appear.[5]

text: Voter registration[edit]

text: While the federal government has jurisdiction over federal elections, most election laws are decided at the state level. All U.S. states except North Dakota require that citizens who wish to vote be registered. Traditionally, voters had to register at state offices to vote, but in the mid-1990s efforts were made by the federal government to make registering easier, in an attempt to increase turnout. The National Voter Registration Act of 1993 (the "Motor Voter" law) required state governments that receive certain types of federal funding to make the voter registration process easier by providing uniform registration services through drivers' license registration centers, disability centers, schools, libraries, and mail-in registration. Other states allow citizens same-day registration on Election Day.

text: In many states, citizens registering to vote may declare an affiliation with a political party.[6] This declaration of affiliation does not cost money, and does not make the citizen a dues-paying member of a party. A party cannot prevent a voter from declaring his or her affiliation with them, but it can refuse requests for full membership. In some states, only voters affiliated with a party may vote in that party's primary elections (see below). Declaring a party affiliation is never required. Some states, including Georgia, Michigan, Minnesota, Virginia, Wisconsin, and Washington, practice non-partisan registration.[7]

text: Absentee voting[edit]

text: Voters unable or unwilling to vote at polling stations on Election Day can vote via absentee ballots. Absentee ballots are most commonly sent and received via the United States Postal Service. Despite their name, absentee ballots are often requested and submitted in person. About half of all states and U.S. territories allow "no excuse absentee," where no reason is required to request an absentee ballot. Others require a valid reason, such as infirmity or travel, be given before a voter can participate using an absentee ballot. Some states, including California,[8] and Washington[9][10] allow citizens to apply for permanent absentee voter status, which will automatically receive an absentee ballot for each election. Typically a voter must request an absentee ballot before the election occurs.

text: A significant source of absentee ballots is the population of Americans living outside the United States. In 1986 Congress enacted the Uniformed and Overseas Citizens Absentee Voting Act (UOCAVA). UOCAVA requires that the states and territories allow members of the United States Uniformed Services and merchant marine, their family members, and United States citizens residing outside the United States to register and vote absentee in elections for Federal offices. Though many states had pre-existing statutes in place UOCAVA made it mandatory and nationally uniform. "Generally, all U.S. citizens 19 years or older who are or will be residing outside the United States during an election period are eligible to vote absentee in any election for Federal office. In addition, all members of the Uniformed Services, their family members and members of the Merchant Marine and their family members, who are U.S. citizens, may vote absentee in Federal, state and local elections."[11] Absentee ballots from these voters can often be transmitted private delivery services, fax, or email.[12]

text: Mail ballots[edit]

text: Mail ballots are similar in many respects to an absentee ballot. However they are used for Mailing Precincts where on Election Day no polling place is opened for a specific precinct.[13] In Oregon, Washington, and Colorado, all ballots are delivered through the mail.

text: Early voting[edit]

text: Early voting is a formal process where voters can cast their ballots prior to the official Election Day. Early voting in person is allowed in 33 states and in Washington, D.C., with no excuse required.[14]

text: Voting equipment[edit]

text: Voters casting their ballots in polling places record their votes most commonly with optical scan voting machines or DRE voting machines. Voting machine selection is typically done through a state's local election jurisdiction including counties, cities, and townships. Many of these local jurisdictions have changed their voting equipment since 2000 due to the passage of the Help America Vote Act (HAVA), which allocated funds for the replacement of lever machine and punch card voting equipment.

text: Since the 1980s many jurisdictions and voting locations have given out "I Voted" stickers to people casting ballots. In the state of Illinois it is a state law to have stickers available to voters after they have cast their ballots. State and local governments pay $30 million per year for the stickers that cost about one cent each.[15]

text: Levels of election[edit]

text: Federal elections[edit]

text: The United States has a presidential system of government, which means that the executive and legislature are elected separately. Article One of the United States Constitution requires that any election for the U.S. President must occur on a single day throughout the country; elections for Congressional offices, however, can be held at different times. Congressional and presidential elections take place simultaneously every four years, and the intervening Congressional elections, which take place every two years, are called Midterm elections.

text: The constitution states that members of the United States House of Representatives must be at least 25 years old, a citizen of the United States for at least seven years, and be a (legal) inhabitant of the state they represent. Senators must be at least 30 years old, a citizen of the United States for at least nine years, and be a (legal) inhabitant of the state they represent. The President must be at least 35 years old, a natural born citizen of the United States and a resident in the United States for at least fourteen years. It is the responsibility of state legislatures to regulate the qualifications for a candidate appearing on a ballot paper, although in order to get onto the ballot, a candidate must often collect a legally defined number of signatures.

text: Presidential elections[edit]

text: The President and the Vice President are elected together in a Presidential election.[16] It is an indirect election, with the winner being determined by votes cast by electors of the Electoral College. In modern times, voters in each state select a slate of electors from a list of several slates designated by different parties or candidates, and the electors typically promise in advance to vote for the candidates of their party (whose names of the presidential candidates usually appear on the ballot rather than those of the individual electors). The winner of the election is the candidate with at least 270 Electoral College votes. It is possible for a candidate to win the electoral vote, and lose the (nationwide) popular vote (receive fewer votes nationwide than the second ranked candidate). Prior to ratification of the Twelfth Amendment to the United States Constitution (1804), the runner-up in a Presidential election[17] became the Vice President.

text: Electoral College votes are cast by individual states by a group of electors; each elector casts one electoral college vote. Until the Twenty-third Amendment to the United States Constitution of 1961 the District of Columbia citizens did not have representation and/or electors in the electoral college. In modern times, with electors usually committed to vote for a party candidate in advance, electors that vote against the popular vote in their state are called faithless electors, and occurrences are rare. State law regulates how states cast their electoral college votes. In all states except Maine and Nebraska, the candidate that wins the most votes in the state receives all its electoral college votes (a "winner takes all" system). From 1969 in Maine, and from 1991 in Nebraska, two electoral votes are awarded based on the winner of the statewide election, and the rest (two in Maine, three in Nebraska) go to the highest vote-winner in each of the state's congressional districts.

text:
[show]

v
t
e

United States presidential elections

Elections by year

1788–89
1792
1796
1800
1804
1808
1812
1816
1820
1824
1828
1832
1836
1840
1844
1848
1852
1856
1860
1864
1868
1872
1876
1880
1884
1888
1892
1896
1900
1904
1908
1912
1916
1920
1924
1928
1932
1936
1940
1944
1948
1952
1956
1960
1964
1968
1972
1976
1980
1984
1988
1992
1996
2000
2004
2008
2012
2016
2020

Elections by state

Alabama
Alaska
Arizona
Arkansas
California
Colorado
Connecticut
Delaware
Florida
Georgia
Hawaii
Idaho
Illinois
Indiana
Iowa
Kansas
Kentucky
Louisiana
Maine
Maryland
Massachusetts
Michigan
Minnesota
Mississippi
Missouri
Montana
Nebraska
Nevada
New Hampshire
New Jersey
New Mexico
New York
North Carolina
North Dakota
Ohio
Oklahoma
Oregon
Pennsylvania
Rhode Island
South Carolina
South Dakota
Tennessee
Texas
Utah
Vermont
Virginia
Washington
Washington, D.C.
West Virginia
Wisconsin
Wyoming

Primaries and caucuses

Iowa caucuses
New Hampshire primary
South Carolina primary
Super Tuesday

Nominating conventions

Brokered convention
Convention bounce
Superdelegate

Electoral College
and Popular vote

Results

Summary
Elections in which the winner lost the popular vote
Electoral College margins
Electoral College results by state
Electoral vote changes between elections
Electoral vote recipients
Popular vote margins

Contingent election
Faithless elector
Unpledged elector
Voter turnout

Related topics

Campaign slogans
Historical election polling
Election Day
Major party tickets
Major party losers
Presidential debates
October surprise
Red states and blue states
Swing state
Election recount

House elections
Senate elections
Gubernatorial elections

text: Congressional elections[edit]

text: Congress has two chambers: the Senate and the House of Representatives.

text: Senate elections[edit]

text: The Senate has 100 members, elected for a six-year term in dual-seat constituencies (2 from each state), with one-third being renewed every two years. The group of the Senate seats that is up for election during a given year is known as a "class"; the three classes are staggered so that only one of the three groups is renewed every two years. Until the Seventeenth Amendment to the United States Constitution in 1913, States chose how to elect Senators, and they were often elected by state legislatures, not the electorate of states.

text:
[show]

v
t
e

United States Senate elections

Multiple-date
elections

1788/89
1790/91
1792/93
1794/95
1796/97
1798/99
1800/01
1802/03
1804/05
1806/07
1808/09
1810/11
1812/13
1814/15
1816/17
1818/19
1820/21
1822/23
1824/25
1826/27
1828/29
1830/31
1832/33
1834/35
1836/37
1838/39
1840/41
1842/43
1844/45
1846/47
1848/49
1850/51
1852/53
1854/55
1856/57
1858/59
1860/61
1862/63
1864/65
1866/67
1868/69
1870/71
1872/73
1874/75
1876/77
1878/79
1880/81
1882/83
1884/85
1886/87
1888/89
1890/91
1892/93
1894/95
1896/97
1898/99
1900/01
1902/03
1904/05
1906/07
1908/09
1910/11
1912/13

Single-date
elections

1914
1916
1918
1920
1922
1924
1926
1928
1930
1932
1934
1936
1938
1940
1942
1944
1946
1948
1950
1952
1954
1956
1958
1960
1962
1964
1966
1968
1970
1972
1974
1976
1978
1980
1982
1984
1986
1988
1990
1992
1994
1996
1998
2000
2002
2004
2006
2008
2010
2012
2014
2016
2018
2020
2022

Special elections
Election disputes
Results by state
List of elections in the United States
House elections
Presidential elections
Gubernatorial elections

text: House of Representatives elections[edit]

text: The House of Representatives has 435 members, elected for a two-year term in single-seat constituencies. House of Representatives elections are held every two years on the first Tuesday after November 1 in even years. Special House elections can occur between if a member dies or resigns during a term. House elections are first-past-the-post elections that elect a Representative from each of 435 House districts which cover the United States. The non-voting delegates of Washington, D.C. and the territories of American Samoa, Guam, the Northern Mariana Islands, Puerto Rico and the United States Virgin Islands are also elected.

text: House elections occur every two years, correlated with presidential elections or halfway through a President's term. The House delegate of Puerto Rico, officially known as the Resident Commissioner of Puerto Rico, is elected to a four-year term, coinciding with those of the President.

text: As the redistricting commissions of states are often partisan, districts are often drawn which benefit incumbents. An increasing trend has been for incumbents to have an overwhelming advantage in House elections, and since the 1994 election, an unusually low number of seats has changed hands in each election.[citation needed] Due to gerrymandering, fewer than 10% of all House seats are contested in each election cycle. Over 90% of House members are reelected every two years, due to lack of electoral competition. Gerrymandering of the House, combined with the divisions inherent in the design of the Senate and of the Electoral College, result in a discrepancy between the percentage of popular support for various political parties and the actual level of the parties' representation.

text:
[show]

v
t
e

United States House of Representatives elections

Years

1788/89
1790
1792
1794
1796
1798
1800
1802
1804
1806
1808
1810
1812
1814
1816
1818
1820
1822
1824
1826
1828
1830
1832
1834
1836
1838
1840
1842
1844
1846
1848
1850
1852
1854
1856
1858/59
1860/61
1862/63
1864/65
1866
1868
1870/71
1872
1874
1876
1878
1880
1882
1884
1886
1888
1890
1892
1894
1896
1898
1900
1902
1904
1906
1908
1910
1912
1914
1916
1918
1920
1922
1924
1926
1928
1930
1932
1934
1936
1938
1940
1942
1944
1946
1948
1950
1952
1954
1956
1958
1960
1962
1964
1966
1968
1970
1972
1974
1976
1978
1980
1982
1984
1986
1988
1990
1992
1994
1996
1998
2000
2002
2004
2006
2008
2010
2012
2014
2016
2018

Special

1801
1917
1973
1989
1991
2001
110th Congress
111th Congress
All

Senate elections
Presidential elections
Gubernatorial elections

text: State elections[edit]

text: State law and state constitutions, controlled by state legislatures regulate elections at state level and local level. Various officials at state level are elected. Since the separation of powers applies to states as well as the federal government, state legislatures and the executive (the governor) are elected separately. Governors and lieutenant governor are elected in all states, in some states on a joint ticket and in some states separately, some separately in different electoral cycles. The governors of the territories of American Samoa, Guam, the Northern Mariana Islands, Puerto Rico and the United States Virgin Islands are also elected. In some states, executive positions such as Attorney General and Secretary of State are also elected offices. All members of state legislatures and territorial jurisdiction legislatures are elected. In some states, members of the state supreme court and other members of the state judiciary are elected. Proposals to amend the state constitution are also placed on the ballot in some states.

text: As a matter of convenience and cost saving, elections for many of these state and local offices are held at the same time as either the federal presidential or midterm elections. There are a handful of states, however, that instead hold their elections during odd-numbered "off years."

text:
[show]

v
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United States gubernatorial elections

List of current Governors

1913
1928
1929
1930
1931
1932
1933
1934
1935
1936
1937
1938
1939
1940
1941
1942
1943
1944
1945
1946
1947
1948
1949
1950
1951
1952
1953
1954
1955
1956
1957
1958
1959
1960
1961
1962
1963
1964
1965
1966
1967
1968
1969
1970
1971
1972
1973
1974
1975
1976
1977
1978
1979
1980
1981
1982
1983
1984
1985
1986
1987
1988
1989
1990
1991
1992
1993
1994
1995
1996
1997
1998
1999
2000
2001
2002
2003
2004
2005
2006
2007
2008
2009
2010
2011
2012
2013
2014
2015
2016
2017
2018
2019
2020
2021

House elections
Senate elections
Presidential elections

text: Local elections[edit]

text: At the local level, county and city government positions are usually filled by election, especially within the legislative branch. The extent to which offices in the executive or judicial branches are elected vary from county-to-county or city-to-city. Some examples of local elected positions include sheriffs at the county level and mayors and school board members at the city level. Like state elections, an election for a specific local office may be held at the same time as either the presidential, midterm, or off-year elections.

text: Comparison of recent and upcoming election years[edit]

text:
Basic rotation of U.S. general elections (fixed-terms only[1])

Year
2016
2017
2018
2019
2020

Type
Presidential
Off-yeara
Midterm
Off-yearb
Presidential

President
Yes
No
Yes

Senate
Class III (34 seats)
No
Class I (33 seats)
No
Class II (33 seats)

House
All 435 seats[2]
No
All 435 seats[3]
No
All 435 seats[2]

Gubernatorial
11 states, 2 territories
AS, DE, IN, MO, MT, NH, NC, ND, PR, UT, VT, WA, WV
2 states
NJ, VA
36 states, 3 territories[4]
AL, AK, AZ, AR, CA, CO, CT, FL, GA, GU, HI, ID, IL, IA, KS, ME, MP, MD, MA, MI, MN, NE, NV, NH, NM, NY, OH, OK, OR, PA, RI, SC, SD, TN, TX, VI, VT, WI, WY
3 states
KY, LA, MS
11 states, 2 territories
AS, DE, IN, MO, MT, NH, NC, ND, PR, UT, VT, WA, WV

Other state and local offices
Varies

text:
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tag: ul

text: Features of the election system[edit]

text: Multiple levels of regulation[edit]

text: In the US elections are actually conducted by local authorities, working under local, state, and federal law and regulation, as well as the US Constitution. It is a highly decentralized system.[18]

text: In around half of US states, the Secretary of State is the official in charge of elections; in other states it is someone appointed for the job, or a commission.[18] It is this person or commission who is responsible for certifying, tabulating, and reporting votes for the state.[18]

text: Party systems[edit]

text: Americans vote for a specific candidate instead of directly selecting a particular political party. The United States Constitution has never formally addressed the issue of political parties. The Founding Fathers such as Alexander Hamilton and James Madison did not support domestic political factions at the time the Constitution was written.[19] In addition, the first President of the United States, George Washington, was not a member of any political party at the time of his election or throughout his tenure as president. Furthermore, he hoped that political parties would not be formed, fearing conflict and stagnation. Nevertheless, the beginnings of the American two-party system emerged from his immediate circle of advisers, with Hamilton and Madison ending up being the core leaders in this emerging party system.

text: Thus, it is up to the candidate to decide under what party he/she should run, registers to run, pays the fees, etc. In the primary elections, the party organization stays neutral until one candidate has been elected. The platform of the party is written by the winning candidate (in presidential elections; in other elections no platform is involved). Each candidate has his or her own campaign, fund raising organization, etc. The primary elections in the main parties are organized by the states, who also register the party affiliation of the voters (this also makes it easier to gerrymander the congressional districts). The party is thus little more than a campaign organization for the main elections.

text: However, elections in the United States often do become de facto national races between the political parties. In what is known as "presidential coattails", candidates in presidential elections usually bring out supporters who then vote for his or her party's candidates for other offices, usually resulting in the presidential winner's party gaining seats in Congress. On the other hand, midterm elections are sometimes regarded as a referendum on the sitting president's and/or incumbent party's performance.[20][21] There is a historical pattern that the incumbent president's party loses seats in midterm elections. This may be because the President's popularity has slipped since election, or because the President's popularity encouraged supporters to come out to vote for him or her in the presidential election, but these supporters are less likely to vote when the President is not up for election.

text: Ballot access[edit]

text: Ballot access refers to the laws which regulate under what conditions access is granted for a candidate or political party to appear on voters' ballots. Each State has its own ballot access laws to determine who may appear on ballots and who may not. According to Article I, Section 4, of the United States Constitution, the authority to regulate the time, place, and manner of federal elections is up to each State, unless Congress legislates otherwise. Depending on the office and the state, it may be possible for a voter to cast a write-in vote for a candidate whose name does not appear on the ballot, but it is extremely rare for such a candidate to win office.

text: Campaign finance[edit]

text: The funding of electoral campaigns has always been a controversial issue in American politics. Infringement of free speech (First Amendment) is an argument against restrictions on campaign contributions, while allegations of corruption arising from unlimited contributions and the need for political equality are arguments for the other side.[22] Private funds are a major source of finance, from individuals and organizations. The first attempt to regulate campaign finance by legislation was in 1867, but major legislation, with the intention to widely enforce, on campaign finance was not introduced until the 1970s.

text: Money contributed to campaigns can be classified into "hard money" and "soft money". Hard money is money contributed directly to a campaign, by an individual or organization. Soft money is money from an individual or organization not contributed to a campaign, but spent in candidate specific advertising or other efforts that benefits that candidate by groups supporting the candidate, but legally not coordinated by the official campaign.

text: The Federal Election Campaign Act of 1971 required candidates to disclose sources of campaign contributions and campaign expenditure. It was amended in 1974 to legally limit campaign contributions. It banned direct contributing to campaigns by corporations and trade unions and limited individual donations to $1,000 per campaign. It introduced public funding for Presidential primaries and elections. The Act also placed limits of $5,000 per campaign on PACs (political action committees). The limits on individual contributions and prohibition of direct corporate or labor union campaigns led to a huge increase in the number of PACs. Today many labor unions and corporations have their own PACs, and over 4,000 in total exist. The 1974 amendment also specified a Federal Election Commission, created in 1975 to administer and enforce campaign finance law. Various other provisions were also included, such as a ban on contributions or expenditures by foreign nationals (incorporated from the Foreign Agents Registration Act (FARA) (1966)).

text: The case of Buckley v. Valeo (1976) challenged the Act. Most provisions were upheld, but the court found that the mandatory spending limit imposed was unconstitutional, as was the limit placed on campaign spending from the candidate's personal fortune and the provision that limited independent expenditures by individuals and organizations supporting but not officially linked to a campaign. The effect of the first decision was to allow candidates such as Ross Perot and Steve Forbes to spend enormous amounts of their own money in their own campaigns. The effect of the second decision was to allow the culture of "soft money" to develop.

text: A 1979 amendment to the Federal Election Campaign Act allowed political parties to spend without limit on get-out-the-vote and voter registration activities conducted primarily for a presidential candidate. Later, they were permitted by FECA to use "soft money", unregulated, unlimited contributions to fund this effort. Increasingly, the money began to be spent on issue advertising, candidate specific advertising that was being funded mostly by soft money.

text: The Bipartisan Campaign Reform Act of 2002 banned local and national parties from spending "soft money" and banned national party committees from accepting or spending soft money. It increased the limit of contributions by individuals from $1,000 to $2,000. It banned corporations or labor unions from funding issue advertising directly, and banned the use of corporate or labor money for advertisements that mention a federal candidate within 60 days of a general election or 30 days of a primary. The constitutionality of the bill was challenged and in December 2003, the Supreme Court upheld most provisions of the legislation. (See McConnell v. FEC.)

text: A large number of "527 groups" were active for the first time in the 2004 election. These groups receive donations from individuals and groups and then spend the money on issue advocacy, such as the anti-Kerry ads by Swift Boat Veterans for Truth. This is a new form of soft money, and not surprisingly it is controversial. Many 527 groups have close links with the Democratic or Republican parties, even though legally they cannot coordinate their activities with them. John McCain, one of the senators behind the Bipartisan Campaign Reform Act, and President Bush have both declared a desire to ban 527s.

text: Changing campaign finance laws is a highly controversial issue. Some reformers wish to see laws changed in order to improve electoral competition and political equality. Opponents wish to see the system stay as it is, whereas other reformers wish even fewer restrictions on the freedom to spend and contribute money. The Supreme Court has made it increasingly difficult for those who wish to regulate election financing, but options like partial public funding of campaigns are still possible and offer the potential to address reformers' concerns with minimal restrictions on the freedom to contribute.[23]

text: Primaries and caucuses[edit]

text: In partisan elections, candidates are chosen by primary elections (abbreviated to "primaries") and caucuses in the states, the District of Columbia, Puerto Rico, American Samoa, Guam, and the U.S. Virgin Islands.

text: A primary election is an election in which registered voters in a jurisdiction (nominating primary) select a political party's candidate for a later election. There are various types of primary: either the whole electorate is eligible, and voters choose one party's primary at the polling booth (an open primary); or only independent voters can choose a party's primary at the polling booth (a semi-closed primary); or only registered members of the party are allowed to vote (closed primary). The blanket primary, when voters could vote for all parties' primaries on the same ballot was struck down by the United States Supreme Court as violating the First Amendment guarantee of freedom of assembly in the case California Democratic Party v. Jones. Primaries are also used to select candidates at the state level, for example in gubernatorial elections.

text: Caucuses also nominate candidates by election, but they are very different from primaries. Caucuses are meetings that occur at precincts and involve discussion of each party's platform and issues such as voter turnout in addition to voting. Eleven states: Iowa, New Mexico, North Dakota, Maine, Nevada, Hawaii, Minnesota, Kansas, Alaska, Wyoming, Colorado and the District of Columbia use caucuses, for one or more political parties.

text: The primary and caucus season in Presidential elections lasts from the Iowa caucus in January to the last primaries in June. Front-loading - when larger numbers of contests take place in the opening weeks of the season—can have an effect on the nomination process, potentially reducing the number of realistic candidates, as fund-raisers and donors quickly abandon those they see as untenable. However, it is not the case that the successful candidate is always the candidate that does the best in the early primaries. There is also a period dubbed the "invisible primary" that takes place before the primary season, when candidates attempt to solicit media coverage and funding well before the real primary season begins.

text: A state's presidential primary election or caucus usually is an indirect election: instead of voters directly selecting a particular person running for President, it determines how many delegates each party's national political convention will receive from their respective state. These delegates then in turn select their party's presidential nominee. Held in the summer, a political convention's purpose is also to adopt a statement of the party's principles and goals known as the platform and adopt the rules for the party's activities.

text: The day on which primaries are held for congressional seats, and state and local offices may also vary between states. The only federally mandated day for elections is Election Day for the general elections of the President and Congress; all other elections are at the discretion of the individual state and local governments.

text: Election information on the web[edit]

text: In most states of the U.S., the chief election officer is the Secretary of state. In some states, local officials like a county Registrar of Voters or Supervisor of Elections manages the conduct of elections under the supervision of (or in coordination with) the chief election officer of the state. Many of these state and county offices have web sites that provide information to help voters obtain information on their polling places for each election, the various districts to which they belong (e.g., house and senate districts in the state and federal legislature, school boards, water districts, municipalities, etc.), as well as dates of elections and deadlines to file to run or register to vote. Some allow voters to download a sample ballot in advance of the election.

text: Beyond this, various media outlets provide information they think will interest their audience.

text: More systematic coverage is provided by web sites devoted specifically to collecting election information and making it available to the public. Two of the better known such sites are Ballotpedia and Vote Smart. These are run by non-profit, non-partisan organizations. They have paid staffs and are much more tightly controlled than Wikipedia.

text: USElections.com[24] tries to provide similar information but relies on volunteers in a way that is more like Wikipedia than Ballotpedia and Vote Smart.

text: The website 270towin provides actual electoral college maps (both current and historic) but also the ability to use an interactive map in order to make election predictions. Ongoing election news is reported as well as data on Senate and House races.[25]

text: The Center for Responsive Politics (opensecrets.org) and the National Institute on Money in State Politics (followthemoney.org) also provide useful election information focusing especially on campaign finance.

text: Hurdles[edit]

text: In 2014 scientists from Princeton University did a study on the influence of the "elite", and their derived power from special interest lobbying, versus the "ordinary" US citizen within the US political system. They found that the US was looking more like an oligarchy than a real representative democracy; thus eroding a government of the people, by the people, for the people as stated by Abraham Lincoln in his Gettysburg Address. In fact, the study found that average citizens had an almost nonexistent influence on public policies and that the ordinary citizen had little or no independent influence on policy at all.[26]

text: There were many US presidential elections in which foreign countries manipulate the voters.[27] Electoral College is criticised for being un-democratic (it can choose candidate who did not win the popular vote) and for focusing campaigns only on swing states.[28]


document_title: Heart (symbol)

question_text: where did the symbol for the heart come from

text: Heart (symbol)

text: History[edit]

text: Origins of symbol[edit]

text: Greek. In the 6th-5th century BC, the heart shape was used to represent the heart-shaped fruit of the plant Silphium,[1] a plant possibly used as a contraceptive [2] Many species in the parsley family have estrogenic properties, and some, such as wild carrot, were used to induce abortion.[3] Silver coins from Cyrene of the 6–5th BC bear a similar design, sometimes accompanied by a silphium plant and is understood to represent its seed or fruit.[4]

text: Earliest use[edit]

text: The combination of the heart shape and its use within the heart metaphor developed at the end of the Middle Ages, although the shape has been used in many ancient epigraphy monuments and texts. With possible early examples or direct predecessors in the 13th to 14th century, the familiar symbol of the heart representing love developed in the 15th century, and became popular in Europe during the 16th.[5] Before the 14th century, the heart shape was not associated with the meaning of the heart metaphor. The geometric shape itself is found in much earlier sources, but in such instances does not depict a heart, but typically foliage: in examples from antiquity fig leaves, and in medieval iconography and heraldry typically the leaves of ivy and of the water-lily.

text: The first known depiction of a heart as a symbol of romantic love dates to the 1250s. It occurs in a miniature decorating a capital 'S' in a manuscript of the French Roman de la poire (National Library FR MS. 2086, plate 12). In the miniature a kneeling lover (or more precisely, an allegory of the lover's "sweet gaze" or douz regart) offers his heart to a damsel. The heart here resembles a pine cone (held "upside down", the point facing upward), in accord with medieval anatomical descriptions. However, in this miniature what suggests a heart shape is only the result of a lover's finger superimposed on an object; the full shape outline of the object is partly hidden, and therefore unknown. Moreover, the French title of the manuscript that features the miniature translates into "Novel Of The Pear" in English. Thus the heart shaped object would be a pear; the conclusion that a pear represents a heart is dubious. Opinions therefore differ over this being the first depiction of a heart as symbol of romantic love.[6] Giotto in his 1305 painting in the Scrovegni Chapel (Padua) shows an allegory of charity (caritas) handing her heart to Jesus Christ. This heart is also depicted in the pine cone shape based on anatomical descriptions of the day (still held "upside down"). Giotto's painting exerted considerable influence on later painters, and the motive of Caritas offering a heart is shown by Taddeo Gaddi in Santa Croce, by Andrea Pisano on the bronze door of the south porch of the Baptisterium in Florence (c. 1337), by Ambrogio Lorenzetti in the Palazzo Publico in Siena (c. 1340) and by Andrea da Firenze in Santa Maria Novella in Florence (c. 1365). The convention of showing the heart point upward switches in the late 14th century and becomes rare in the first half of the 15th century.[6]

text: The "scalloped" shape of the now-familiar heart symbol, with a dent in its base, arises in the early 14th century, at first only lightly dented, as in the miniatures in Francesco Barberino's Documenti d'amore (before 1320). A slightly later example with a more pronounced dent is found in a manuscript from the Cistercian monastery in Brussels (MS 4459–70, fol 192v. Royal Library of Belgium). The convention of showing a dent at the base of the heart thus spread at about the same time as the convention of showing the heart with its point downward.[7] The modern indented red heart has been used on playing cards since the late 15th century.[8]

text: Various hypotheses attempted to connect the "heart shape" as it evolved in the Late Middle Ages with instances of the geometric shape in antiquity.[9] Such theories are modern, proposed from the 1960s onward, and they remain speculative, as no continuity between the supposed ancient predecessors and the late medieval tradition can be shown. Specific suggestions include: the shape of the seed of the silphium plant, used in ancient times as an herbal contraceptive,[9][10] and stylized depictions of features of the human female body, such as the female's breasts, buttocks, pubic mound, or spread vulva.[11]

text: Renaissance and early modern[edit]

text: Hearts can be seen on the Bible Jesus holds in the Empress Zoë mosaic in the Hagia Sophia in Istanbul. It probably dates from 1239.

text: Hearts can also be seen on various stucco reliefs and wall panels excavated from the ruins of Ctesiphon, the Persian capital (circa 90 BC – 637 AD).[12][13][14]

text: The Luther rose was the seal that was designed for Martin Luther at the behest of Prince John Frederick, in 1530, while Luther was staying at the Coburg Fortress during the Diet of Augsburg. Luther wrote an explanation of the symbol to Lazarus Spengler: "a black cross in a heart, which retains its natural color, so that I myself would be reminded that faith in the Crucified saves us. 'For one who believes from the heart will be justified' (Romans 10:10)."[15]

text: The aorta remains visible, as a protrusion at the top centered between the two "chambers" indicated in the symbol, in some depictions of the Sacred Heart well into the 18th century, and is partly still shown today (although mostly obscured by elements such as a crown, flames, rays, or a cross) but the "hearts" suit did not have this element since the 15th century.

text: The heart symbol reached Japan with the Nanban trade of 1543 to 1614, as evidenced by an Edo period Samurai helmet (dated c. 1630), which includes both the rounded and indented forms of the heart symbol, representing the heart of Marishiten, goddess of archers.[16]

text:
The chanson Belle, Bonne, Sage by Baude Cordier, written in the shape of a heart, in the Chantilly Codex. This is one of two dedicatory pieces placed at the beginning of the older (late 14th century) corpus, probably to replace the original first fascicle, which is missing.

Early depiction of the Heart of Jesus in the context of the Five Wounds (the wounded heart here depicting Christ's wound inflicted by the Lance of Longinus) in a 15th-century manuscript (Cologne Mn Kn 28-1181 fol. 116)

1486 depiction of the Five Wounds

Miniature from the Petit Livre d'Amour (c. 1500), showing the author Pierre Sala (fr) depositing his heart in a marguerite flower (symbolizing his mistress, who was called Marguerite). Also worth mentioning is the miniature on fol. 13r, showing two women catching winged hearts in a net.

The Luther rose, 1706 print after the 1530 design.

Hearts suit in a 1540s German deck of playing cards

The Danish "Heart Book", a heart-shaped manuscript of love ballads from the 1550s.

Augustine of Hippo holding a heart in his hand which is set alight by a ray emanating from divine Truth (Veritas), painting by Philippe de Champaigne, ca. 1650.

Allegorical painting of the Sacred Heart of Jesus. The central heart radiates hearts gathered up by Putti. By Robert la Longe, ca. 1705.

Leaden heart of Raesfeld chapel (funerary casket containing the heart of Christoph Otto von Velen, d. 1733)

18th-century depiction of the Sacred Heart from the vision of Marguerite Marie Alacoque (d. 1690). The heart is both "heart shaped" and drawn anatomically correct, with both the aorta and the pulmonary artery visible, with the crucifix placed inside the aorta.

Another anatomically correct Sacred Heart, painted in c. 1770 by José de Páez.

text: Modern[edit]

text: Since the 19th century, the symbol has often been used on Valentine's Day cards, candy boxes, and similar popular culture artifacts as a symbol of romantic love.

text: The use of the heart symbol as a logograph for the English verb "to love" derives from the use in "I ♥ NY," introduced in 1977.[17]

text: Heart symbols were used to symbolize "health" or "lives" in video games; influentially so in The Legend of Zelda (1986). Super Mario Bros. 2 (1987, 1988) had a "life bar" composed of hexagons, but in 1990s remakes of these games, the hexagons were replaced by heart shapes. Since the 1990s, the heart symbol has also been used as an ideogram indicating health outside of the video gaming context, e.g. its use by restaurants to indicate heart-healthy nutrient content claim (e.g. "low in cholesterol"). A copyrighted "heart-check" symbol to indicate heart-healthy food was introduced by the American Heart Association in 1995.[18]

text:
A heart-shaped "Map of Woman's Heart" (1830s)

Two burning hearts, coloured pink, illustration on a Victorian-era Valentine's Day card.

A "Vinegar Valentine" card from the 1870s, with a red heart symbol pierced by six arrows.

The traditional "heart shape" appears on a 1910 Valentine's Day card.

Sheet music cover of "Look in His Eyes", from the musical Have a Heart (1913).

Wedding ring of groom and a bride with shadow in form of heart - symbolic sense of love

text: Heraldry[edit]

text: The earliest heart-shaped charges in heraldry appear in the 12th century; the hearts in the coat of arms of Denmark go back to the royal banner of the kings of Denmark, in turn based on a seal used as early as the 1190s. However, while the charges are clearly heart-shaped, they did not in origin depict hearts, or symbolize any idea related to love. Instead they are assumed to have depicted the leaves of the water-lily. Early heraldic heart-shaped charges depicting the leaves of water-lilies are found in various other designs related to territories close to rivers or a coastline (e.g. Flags of Frisia).

text: Inverted heart symbols have been used in heraldry as stylized testicles (coglioni in Italian) as in the canting arms of the Colleoni family of Milan.[20]

text: A seal attributed to William, Lord of Douglas (of 1333) shows a heart shape, identified as the heart of Robert the Bruce. The authenticity of this seal is "very questionable",[21] i.e. it could possibly date to the late 14th or even the 15th century.[22]

text: Heraldic charges actually representing hearts became more common in the early modern period, with the Sacred Heart depicted in ecclesiastical heraldry, and hearts representing love appearing in bourgeois coats of arms. Hearts also later became popular elements in municipal coats of arms.

text: Botanical symbolism : Silphium[edit]

text: There has been some conjecture regarding the link between the traditional heart symbol and images of the fruit of Silphium, a (probably) extinct plant known to classical antiquity and belonging to the genus Ferula, used as a condiment and medicine, (the medicinal properties including contraceptive and abortifacient activity, linking the plant to sexuality and love).[23] Silver coins from the ancient Libya of the 6th - 5th BC bear images strongly reminiscent of the heart symbol, sometimes accompanied by images of the Silphium plant.[24][25] The related Ferula species Asafoetida - which was actually used as an inferior substitute for Silphium - is regarded as an aphrodisiac in Tibet and India, suggesting yet a third amatory association relating to Silphium.[26]

text:
Ancient silver coin from Cyrene, Libya depicting the heart-shaped 'seed' (actually fruit) of Silphium.

Example of a heart-shaped mericarp fruit in a plant (Heracleum sphondylium) belonging, like the unidentified Silphium, to the Parsley family, Apiaceae.

Ferula assa-foetida a species of Giant Fennel belonging to the same genus as the ancient Silphium and regarded as having similar properties, while being an inferior substitute for the plant.

Ferula tingitana : a possible identity for Silphium.

text: Encoding[edit]

text: This section contains special characters. Without proper rendering support, you may see question marks, boxes, or other symbols.

text: A common emoticon for the heart is <3. In Unicode several heart symbols are available:

text:
Glyph
Description
HTML code
Alt codes

♡
U+2661 WHITE HEART SUIT
♡ or ♡

♥
U+2665 BLACK HEART SUIT
♥ or ♥ or ♥
Alt + 3

❤
U+2764 HEAVY BLACK HEART
❤ or ❤

❥
U+2765 ROTATED HEAVY BLACK HEART BULLET
❥ or ❥

❣
U+2763 HEAVY HEART EXCLAMATION MARK ORNAMENT
❣ or ❣

text: And from the Miscellaneous Symbols and Pictographs range associated with emoji:

text:
Glyph
Description
HTML code

🎔
U+1F394 HEART WITH TIP ON THE LEFT
🎔

💑
U+1F491 COUPLE WITH HEART
💑

💓
U+1F493 BEATING HEART
💓

💔
U+1F494 BROKEN HEART
💔

💕
U+1F495 TWO HEARTS
💕

💖
U+1F496 SPARKLING HEART
💖

💗
U+1F497 GROWING HEART
💗

💘
U+1F498 HEART WITH ARROW
💘

💙
U+1F499 BLUE HEART
💙

💚
U+1F49A GREEN HEART
💚

💛
U+1F49B YELLOW HEART
💛

💜
U+1F49C PURPLE HEART
💜

💝
U+1F49D HEART WITH RIBBON
💝

💞
U+1F49E REVOLVING HEARTS
💞

💟
U+1F49F HEART DECORATION
💟

text: In Code page 437, the original character set of the IBM PC, the value of 3 (hexadecimal 03) represents the heart symbol. This value is shared with the non-printing ETX control character, which overrides the glyph in many contexts.

text: The Unicode character of the letter ghan of the Georgian alphabet (ღ) has seen some use as a surrogate heart symbol in online communication.[according to whom?][year needed]

text: Parametrisation[edit]

text: A number of parametrisations of approximately heart-shaped curves have been described. The best-known of these is the cardioid, which is an epicycloid with one cusp;[27] though as the cardioid lacks the point, it may be seen as a stylized water-lily leaf, a so-called seeblatt, rather than a heart. Other curves, such as the implicit curve (x2+y2−1)3−x2y3=0, may produce better approximations of the heart shape.[28]

text:
heart curve on ti-89 graphics calculator

parametric equation of heart curve on ti-89 graphics calculator