document_title: History of the Knights Templar

question_text: who ordered the death of the knights templar

text: History of the Knights Templar

text: The Crusades and the Knights Templar[edit]

text: The Knights Templar were the elite fighting force of their day, highly trained, well-equipped and highly motivated; one of the tenets of their religious order was that they were forbidden from retreating in battle, unless outnumbered three to one, and even then only by order of their commander, or if the Templar flag went down. Not all Knights Templar were warriors. The mission of most of the members was one of support – to acquire resources which could be used to fund and equip the small percentage of members who were fighting on the front lines. There were actually three classes within the orders. The highest class was the knight. When a candidate was sworn into the order, the initiation made the knight a monk. They wore white robes. The knights could hold no property and receive no private letters. He could not be married or betrothed and cannot have any vow in any other Order. He could not have debt more than he could pay, and no infirmities. The Templar priest class was similar to the modern day military chaplain. Wearing green robes, they conducted religious services, led prayers, and were assigned record keeping and letter writing. They always wore gloves, unless they were giving Holy Communion. The mounted men-at-arms represented the most common class, and they were called "brothers". They were usually assigned two horses each and held many positions, including guard, steward, squire or other support vocations. As the main support staff, they wore black or brown robes and were partially garbed in chain mail or plate mail. The armor was not as complete as the knights. Because of this infrastructure, the warriors were well-trained and very well armed. Even their horses were trained to fight in combat, fully armored.[5] The combination of soldier and monk was also a powerful one, as to the Templar knights, martyrdom in battle was one of the most glorious ways to die.

text: The Templars were also shrewd tacticians, following the dream of Saint Bernard who had declared that a small force, under the right conditions, could defeat a much larger enemy. One of the key battles in which this was demonstrated was in 1177, at the Battle of Montgisard. The famous Muslim military leader Saladin was attempting to push toward Jerusalem from the south, with a force of 26,000 soldiers. He had pinned the forces of Jerusalem's King Baldwin IV, about 500 knights and their supporters, near the coast, at Ascalon. Eighty Templar knights and their own entourage attempted to reinforce. They met Saladin's troops at Gaza, but were considered too small a force to be worth fighting, so Saladin turned his back on them and headed with his army towards Jerusalem.

text: Once Saladin and his army had moved on, the Templars were able to join King Baldwin's forces, and together they proceeded north along the coast. Saladin had made a key mistake at that point – instead of keeping his forces together, he permitted his army to temporarily spread out and pillage various villages on their way to Jerusalem. The Templars took advantage of this low state of readiness to launch a surprise ambush directly against Saladin and his bodyguard, at Montgisard near Ramla. Saladin's army was spread too thin to adequately defend themselves, and he and his forces were forced to fight a losing battle as they retreated back to the south, ending up with only a tenth of their original number. The battle was not the final one with Saladin, but it bought a year of peace for the Kingdom of Jerusalem, and the victory became a heroic legend.

text: Another key tactic of the Templars was that of the "squadron charge". A small group of knights and their heavily armed warhorses would gather into a tight unit which would gallop full speed at the enemy lines, with a determination and force of will that made it clear that they would rather commit suicide than fall back. This terrifying onslaught would frequently have the desired result of breaking a hole in the enemy lines, thereby giving the other Crusader forces an advantage.[6]

text: The Templars, though relatively small in number, routinely joined other armies in key battles. They would be the force that would ram through the enemy's front lines at the beginning of a battle, or the fighters that would protect the army from the rear. They fought alongside King Louis VII of France, and King Richard I of England.[7] In addition to battles in Palestine, members of the Order also fought in the Spanish and Portuguese Reconquista.

text: Bankers[edit]

text: Though initially an Order of poor monks, the official papal sanction made the Knights Templar a charity across Europe. Further resources came in when members joined the Order, as they had to take oaths of poverty, and therefore often donated large amounts of their original cash or property to the Order. Additional revenue came from business dealings. Since the monks themselves were sworn to poverty, but had the strength of a large and trusted international infrastructure behind them, nobles would occasionally use them as a kind of bank or power of attorney. If a noble wished to join the Crusades, this might entail an absence of years from their home. So some nobles would place all of their wealth and businesses under the control of Templars, to safeguard it for them until their return. The Order's financial power became substantial, and the majority of the Order's infrastructure was devoted not to combat, but to economic pursuits.

text: By 1150, the Order's original mission of guarding pilgrims had changed into a mission of guarding their valuables through an innovative way of issuing letters of credit, an early precursor of modern banking. Pilgrims would visit a Templar house in their home country, depositing their deeds and valuables. The Templars would then give them a letter which would describe their holdings. Modern scholars have stated that the letters were encrypted with a cipher alphabet based on a Maltese Cross; however there is some disagreement on this, and it is possible that the code system was introduced later, and not something used by the medieval Templars themselves.[8][9][10] While traveling, the pilgrims could present the letter to other Templars along the way, to "withdraw" funds from their accounts. This kept the pilgrims safe since they were not carrying valuables, and further increased the power of the Templars.

text: The Knights' involvement in banking grew over time into a new basis for money, as Templars became increasingly involved in banking activities. One indication of their powerful political connections is that the Templars' involvement in usury did not lead to more controversy within the Order and the church at large. Officially the idea of lending money in return for interest was forbidden by the church, but the Order sidestepped this with clever loopholes, such as a stipulation that the Templars retained the rights to the production of mortgaged property. Or as one Templar researcher put it, "Since they weren't allowed to charge interest, they charged rent instead."[11]

text: Their holdings were necessary to support their campaigns; in 1180, a Burgundian noble required 3 square kilometres of estate to support himself as a knight, and by 1260 this had risen to 15.6 km². The Order potentially supported up to 4,000 horses and pack animals at any given time, if provisions of the rule were followed; these horses had extremely high maintenance costs due to the heat in Outremer (Crusader states at the Eastern Mediterranean), and had high mortality rates due to both disease and the Turkish bowmen strategy of aiming at a knight's horse rather than the knight himself. In addition, the high mortality rates of the knights in the East (regularly ninety percent in battle, not including wounded) resulted in extremely high campaign costs due to the need to recruit and train more knights. In 1244, at the battle of La Forbie, where only thirty-three of 300 knights survived, it is estimated the financial loss was equivalent to one-ninth of the entire Capetian yearly revenue.[citation needed]

text: The Templars' political connections and awareness of the essentially urban and commercial nature of the Outremer communities led the Order to a position of significant power, both in Europe and the Holy Land.[citation needed] They owned large tracts of land both in Europe and the Middle East, built churches and castles, bought farms and vineyards, were involved in manufacturing and import/export, had their own fleet of ships, and for a time even "owned" the entire island of Cyprus.[12]

text: Decline[edit]

text: Their success attracted the concern of many other orders, with the two most powerful rivals being the Knights Hospitaller and the Teutonic Knights. Various nobles also had concerns about the Templars as well, both for financial reasons, and nervousness about an independent army that was able to move freely through all borders.

text: The long-famed military acumen of the Templars began to stumble in the 1180s. On July 4, 1187, came the disastrous Battle of the Horns of Hattin, a turning point in the Crusades. It again involved Saladin, who had been beaten back by the Templars in 1177 in the legendary Battle of Montgisard near Tiberias, but this time Saladin was better prepared. Further, the Grand Master of the Templars was involved in this battle, Gerard de Ridefort, who had just achieved that lifetime position a few years earlier. He was not known as a good military strategist, and made some deadly errors, such as venturing out with his force of 80 knights without adequate supplies or water, across the arid hill country of Galilee. The Templars were overcome by the heat within a day, and then surrounded and massacred by Saladin's army. Within months Saladin captured Jerusalem.

text: But in the early 1190s, in a remarkably short and powerfully effective campaign, Richard the Lionheart, King of England and leader of the Third Crusade, together with his allies the Templars, delivered a series of powerful blows against Saladin and recovered much of Christian territory. In name and number the revived Crusader states were as before, but their outlines were diminished. There was the Kingdom of Jerusalem, though its capital was at Acre, which the Templars made their new headquarters. To the north was the County of Tripoli. But the Muslims retained control of the Syrian coast around Latakia for some time, and so the Principality of Antioch further to the north was now no longer contiguous to the other Crusader states. Nevertheless, the Third Crusade, in which Richard relied heavily on the Templars, had saved the Holy Land for the Christians and went a long way towards restoring Frankish fortunes. In this he was abetted by the military orders, whose great castles stood like islands of Frankish power amid the Muslim torrent. More than ever the Crusader states were relying on the military orders in their castles and on the field of battle, and the power of the orders grew. In fact at no point in their history would the Templars be more powerful than in the century to come.

text: But after the Siege of Acre in 1291, the Templars were forced to relocate their headquarters to the island of Cyprus.

text: Jacques de Molay, who was to be the last of the Order's Grand Masters, took office around 1292. One of his first tasks was to tour across Europe, to raise support for the Order and try to organize another Crusade. He met the newly invested Pope Boniface VIII, who agreed to grant the Templars the same privileges at Cyprus as they had held in the Holy Land. Charles II of Naples and Edward I also pledged varying types of support, either continuing to exempt the Templars from taxes, or pledging future support towards building a new army.[13]

text: Final attempts to regain the Holy Land (1298–1300)[edit]

text: In 1298 or 1299, the military orders (the Knights Templar and Knights Hospitaller) and their leaders, including Jacques de Molay, Otton de Grandson and the Great Master of the Hospitallers, briefly campaigned in Armenia, in order to fight off an invasion by the Mamluks. They were not successful and soon the fortress of Roche-Guillaume in the Belen Pass, the last Templar stronghold in Antioch, was lost to the Muslims.

text: In 1300, the Templars, along with the Knights Hospitaller and forces from Cyprus attempted to retake the coastal city of Tortosa. They were able to take the island of Arwad, near Tortosa, but lost it soon after. With the loss of Arwad, the Crusaders had lost their last foothold in the Holy Land.[14]

text: Though they still had a base of operations in Cyprus, and controlled considerable financial resources, the Order of the Templars became an Order without a clear purpose or support, but which still had enormous financial power. This unstable situation contributed to their downfall.

text: Fall[edit]

text: King Philip had other reasons to mistrust the Templars, as the organization had declared its desire to form its own state, similar to how the Teutonic Knights had founded Prussia. The Templars' preferred location for this was in the Languedoc of southeastern France, but they had also made a plan for the island of Cyprus. In 1306, the Templars had supported a coup on that island, which had forced King Henry II of Cyprus to abdicate his throne in favor of his brother, Amalric of Tyre. This probably made Philip particularly uneasy, since just a few years earlier he had inherited land in the region of Champagne, France, which was the Templars' headquarters. The Templars were already a "state within a state", were institutionally wealthy, paid no taxes, and had a large standing army which by papal decree could move freely through all European borders. However, this army no longer had a presence in the Holy Land, leaving it with no battlefield. These factors, plus the fact that Philip had inherited an impoverished kingdom from his father and was already deeply in debt to the Templars, were probably what led to his actions.[13][14] However, recent studies emphasize the political and religious motivations of the French king. It seems that, with the "discovery" and repression of the "Templars' heresy," the Capetian monarchy claimed for itself the mystic foundations of the papal theocracy. The Temple case was the last step of a process of appropriating these foundations, which had begun with the Franco-papal rift at the time of Boniface VIII. Being the ultimate defender of the Catholic faith, the Capetian king was invested with a Christlike function that put him above the pope : what was at stake in the Templars' trial, then, was the establishment of a "royal theocracy".[15]

text: At dawn on Friday, October 13, 1307, scores of French Templars were simultaneously arrested by agents of King Philip, later to be tortured in locations such as the tower at Chinon, into admitting heresy and other sacrilegious offenses in the Order. Then they were put to death. There were five initial charges lodged against the Templars. The first was the renouncement and spitting on the cross during initiation into the Order. The second was the stripping of the man to be initiated and the thrice kissing of that man by the preceptor on the navel, posteriors and the mouth. The third was telling the neophyte (novice) that unnatural lust was lawful and indulged in commonly. The fourth was that the cord worn by the neophyte day and night was consecrated by wrapping it around an idol in the form of a human head with a great beard, and that this idol was adored in all chapters. The fifth was that the priests of the order did not consecrate the host in celebrating Mass.[16][17] On August 12, 1308, the charges would be increased and would become more outrageous, one specifically stated that the Templars worshipped idols, specifically made of a cat and a head, the latter having three faces. The lists of articles 86 to 127[3] would add many other charges.[18][19] The majority of these charges were identical to the charges that had been earlier issued against the inconvenient Pope Boniface VIII: accusations of denying Christ, spitting and urinating on the cross, and devil worship. Of the 138 Templars (many of them old men) questioned in Paris over the next few years, 105 of them "confessed" to denying Christ during the secret Templar initiations. 103 confessed to an "obscene kiss" being part of the ceremonies, and 123 said they spat on the cross. Throughout the trial there was never any physical evidence of wrongdoing, and no independent witnesses; the only "proof" was obtained through confessions induced by torture.[11] The Templars reached out to the Pope for assistance, and Pope Clement did write letters to King Philip questioning the arrests, but took no further action.

text: Despite the fact that the confessions had been produced under duress, they caused a scandal in Paris, with mobs calling for action against the blaspheming Order. In response to this public pressure, along with more bullying from King Philip, Pope Clement issued the bull Pastoralis Praeeminentiae, which instructed all Christian monarchs in Europe to arrest all Templars and seize their assets.[20] Most monarchs simply didn't believe the charges, though proceedings were started in England, Iberia, Germany, Italy, and Cyprus,[21] with the likelihood of a confession being dependent on whether or not torture was used to extract it.

text: The dominant view is that Philip, who seized the treasury and broke up the monastic banking system, was jealous of the Templars' wealth and power, and frustrated by his enormous debt to them, sought to seize their financial resources for himself by bringing blatantly false charges against them at the Tours assembly in 1308. It is almost impossible to believe, that, under the influence of his carefully chosen advisors (the same that had persecuted Boniface), he actually believed the charges to be true. It is widely accepted that Philip had clearly made up the accusations, some nearly identical to those made against Boniface, and did not believe any of the Templars to have been party to such activities. It is a fact that he had invited Jacques de Molay to be a pall-bearer at the funeral of the King's sister on the very day before the arrests.[22]

text: The arrests caused some shifts in the European economy, from a system of military fiat back to European money, removing this power from Church orders. Seeing the fate of the Templars, the Hospitallers of St John of Jerusalem and of Rhodes were also convinced to give up banking at this time.

text: Dismantling[edit]

text: In 1312, after the Council of Vienne, and under extreme pressure from King Philip IV, Pope Clement V issued an edict officially dissolving the Order. Many kings and nobles who had been supporting the Knights up until that time, finally acquiesced and dissolved the orders in their fiefs in accordance with the Papal command. Most were not so brutal as the French. In England, many Knights were arrested and tried, but not found guilty.

text: Much of the Templar property outside France was transferred by the Pope to the Knights Hospitaller, and many surviving Templars were also accepted into the Hospitallers. In the Iberian Peninsula, where the king of Aragon was against giving the heritage of the Templars to the Hospitallers (as commanded by Clement V), the Order of Montesa took Templar assets.

text: The order continued to exist in Portugal, simply changing its name to the Order of Christ. This group was believed to have contributed to the first naval discoveries of the Portuguese. Prince Henry the Navigator led the Portuguese order for 20 years until the time of his death.

text: Even with the absorption of Templars into other Orders, there are still questions as to what became of all of the tens of thousands of Templars across Europe. There had been 15,000 "Templar Houses", and an entire fleet of ships. Even in France where hundreds of Templars had been rounded up and arrested, this was only a small percentage of the estimated 3,000 Templars in the entire country. Also, the extensive archive of the Templars, with detailed records of all of their business holdings and financial transactions, was never found. By papal bull it was to have been transferred to the Hospitallers.

text: A popular thread of conspiracy theory originating with Holy Blood, Holy Grail has it that the Templars used a fleet of 18 ships at La Rochelle to escape arrest in France. The fleet allegedly left laden with knights and treasures just before the issue of the warrant for the arrest of the Order in October 1307.[23][24] This, in turn, was based on a single item of testimony from serving brother Jean de Châlon, who says he had "heard people talking that [Gerard de Villiers had] put to sea with 18 galleys, and the brother Hugues de Chalon fled with the whole treasury of the brother Hugues de Pairaud."[25] However, aside from being the sole source for this statement, the transcript indicates that it is hearsay, and this serving brother seems to be prone to making some of the wildest and most damning of claims about the Order, which have led some to doubt his credibility.[26]

text: In Holy Blood, Holy Grail, the knights that allegedly boarded these ships then escaped to Scotland, but in some versions the Templars are even claimed to have left for North America, burying a treasure in Oak Island, Nova Scotia, Canada (a story taken up in the 2004 movie National Treasure starring Nicolas Cage).[27] However, many historians have questioned the plausibility of this scenario. For example, historian Helen Nicholson has argued that

text: Nicholson's argument, however, is an assessment of the fleet in 1312 - according to the LaRochelle Theory, many ships would already have disappeared bound for many of the aforementioned destinations and stands to reason their fleet would seem depleted in the following years after the arrest of the Templars.

text: Heresy, blasphemy, and other charges[edit]

text: There were five initial charges lodged against the Templars. The first was the renouncement and spitting on the cross during initiation into the Order. The second was the stripping of the man to be initiated and the thrice kissing of that man by the preceptor on the navel, posteriors and the mouth. The third was telling the neophyte (novice) that unnatural lust was lawful and indulged in commonly. The fourth was that the cord worn by the neophyte day and night was consecrated by wrapping it around an idol in the form of a human head with a great beard, and that this idol was adored in all chapters. The fifth was that the priests of the order did not consecrate the host in celebrating Mass.[16] Subsequently, the charges would be increased and would become, according to the procedures, lists of articles 86 to 127[3] in which will be added a few other charges, such as the prohibition to priests who do not belong to the order.[18]

text: The incontrovertibility of the evidence that the Templar priests did not mutilate the words of consecration in the mass is furnished in the Cypriote proceedings by ecclesiastics who had long dwelt with them in the East.[29]

text: Debate continues as to whether the accusation of religious heresy had merit by the standards of the time. Under torture, some Templars admitted to sodomy and to the worship of heads and an idol known as Baphomet.[30] Their leaders later denied these admissions, and for that were executed. Some scholars, such as Malcolm Barber, Helen Nicholson and Peter Partner, discount these as forced admissions, typical during the Medieval Inquisition.

text: The majority of the charges were identical to other people being tortured by the Inquisitors, with one exception: head worship. The Templars were specifically charged with worshipping some type of severed head; a charge which was made only against Templars. The descriptions of the head allegedly venerated by the Templars were varied and contradictory in nature. Quoting Norman Cohn:

text: Some describe it as having three faces, others as having four feet, others as being simply a face with no feet. For some it was a human skull, embalmed and encrusted with jewels; for others it was carved out of wood. Some maintained that it came from the remains of a former grand master of the order, while others were equally convinced that it was Baphomet – which in turn was interpreted as 'Mohammed'. Some saw it as having horns.[31]

text: Barber has linked this charge to medieval folklore about magical heads, and the popular medieval belief that the Muslims worshipped idols.[32] Some argue it referred to rituals involving the alleged relics of John the Baptist,[33] Euphemia,[34] one of Ursula's eleven maidens,[35] and/or Hugues de Payens[36] rather than pagan idols.

text: The charges of heresy included spitting, trampling, or urinating on the cross; while naked, being kissed obscenely by the receptor on the lips, navel, and base of the spine; heresy and worship of idols; institutionalized sodomy; and also accusations of contempt of the Holy Mass and denial of the sacraments. Barbara Frale has suggested that these acts were intended to simulate the kind of humiliation and torture that a Crusader might be subjected to if captured by the Saracens. According to this line of reasoning, they were taught how to commit apostasy with the mind only and not with the heart.[37]

text: The accusation of venerating Baphomet is more problematic. Karen Ralls has noted, "There is no mention of Baphomet either in the Templar Rule or in other medieval period Templar documents".[38] The late scholar Hugh J. Schonfield speculated that the chaplains of the Knights Templar created the term Baphomet through the Atbash cipher to encrypt the Gnostic term Sophia (Greek for "wisdom") due to the influence of hypothetical Qumran Essene scrolls, which they may have found during archaeological digs in the Kingdom of Jerusalem.[39]

text: Roman Catholic Church's position[edit]

text: The papal process started by Pope Clement V, to investigate both the Order as a whole and its members individually found virtually no knights guilty of heresy outside France. Fifty-four knights were executed in France by French authorities as relapsed heretics after denying their original testimonies before the papal commission; these executions were motivated by Philip's desire to prevent Templars from mounting an effective defence of the Order. It failed miserably, as many members testified against the charges of heresy in the ensuing papal investigation.[citation needed]

text: Despite the poor defense of the Order, when the papal commission ended its proceedings on June 5, 1311, it found no evidence that the Order itself held heretical doctrines, or used a "secret rule" apart from the Latin and French rules. On October 16, 1311, at the General Council of Vienne held in Dauphiné, the council voted for the maintenance of the Order.[citation needed]

text: But on March 22, 1312, Clement V promulgated the bull Vox in excelsis in which he stated that although there was not sufficient reason to condemn the Order, for the common good, the hatred of the Order by Philip IV, the scandal brought about by their trial, and the likely dilapidation of the Order that would result from the trial, the Order was to be suppressed by the pope’s authority over it. But the order explicitly stated that dissolution was enacted, "with a sad heart, not by definitive sentence, but by apostolic provision."[40]

text: This was followed by the papal bull Ad Providum on May 2, 1312, which granted all of the Order's lands and wealth to the Hospitallers so that its original purpose could be met, despite Philip's wishes that the lands in France pass to him. Philip held onto some lands until 1318, and in England the crown and nobility held a great deal until 1338; in many areas of Europe the land was never given over to the Hospitaller Order, instead taken over by nobility and monarchs in an attempt to lessen the influence of the Church and its Orders. Of the knights who had not admitted to the charges, against those whom nothing had been found, or those who had admitted but been reconciled to the Church, some joined the Hospitallers (even staying in the same Templar houses); others joined Augustinian or Cistercian houses; and still others returned to secular life with pension. In Portugal and Aragon, the Holy See granted the properties to two new Orders, the Order of Christ and the Order of Montesa respectively, made up largely of Templars in those kingdoms. In the same bull, he urged those who had pleaded guilty be treated "according to the rigours of justice."[citation needed]

text: In the end, the only three accused of heresy directly by the papal commission were Jacques de Molay, Grand Master of the Knights Templar, and his two immediate subordinates; they were to renounce their heresy publicly, when de Molay regained his courage and proclaimed the order's and his innocence along with Geoffrey de Charney. The two were arrested by French authorities as relapsed heretics and burned at the stake in 1314. Their ashes were then ground up and dumped into the Seine, so as to leave no relics behind.[citation needed]

text: In England the Crown was also deeply in debt to the Templars, and probably on that basis, the Templars were also persecuted in England, their lands forfeited and taken by others, (the last private owner being the favorite of Edward II, Hugh le Despenser). Many of Templars in England were killed; some fled to Scotland and other places.[41] In France, Philip IV, who was also coincidentally in terrible financial debt to the Templars was perhaps the more aggressive persecutor. So widely was the injustice of Philip's rage against the Templars perceived that the "Curse of the Templars" became legend: Reputedly uttered by the Grand Master Jacques de Molay upon the stake whence he burned, he adjured: "Within one year, God will summon both Clement and Philip to His Judgment for these actions." The fact that both rulers died within a year, as predicted, only heightened the scandal surrounding the suppression of the Order. The source of this legend does not date from the time of the execution of Jacques de Molay.[42]

text: Chinon and Absolution[edit]

text: In September 2001, Barbara Frale discovered a copy of the Chinon Parchment dated 17–20 August 1308 in the Vatican Secret Archives, a document that indicated that Pope Clement V absolved the leaders of the Order in 1308. Frale published her findings in the Journal of Medieval History in 2004[37] In 2007, The Vatican published the Chinon Parchment as part of a limited edition of 799 copies of Processus Contra Templarios.[43] Another Chinon parchment dated 20 August 1308 addressed to Philip IV of France, well known to historians,[44][45][46] stated that absolution had been granted to all those Templars that had confessed to heresy "and restored them to the Sacraments and to the unity of the Church".[47][48]


document_title: The whole nine yards

question_text: where did the term whole 9 yards come from

root

text: The whole nine yards

text: History of the phrase[edit]

text: The Oxford English Dictionary places the earliest published non-idiomatic use of the phrase in the New Albany (Indiana) Daily Ledger, January 30, 1855 in an article called "The Judge's Big Shirt." “What a silly, stupid woman! I told her to get just enough to make three shirts; instead of making three, she has put the whole nine yards into one shirt!” The first known use of the phrase as an idiom appears in The Mitchell Commercial, a newspaper in the small town of Mitchell, Indiana, in its May 2, 1907 edition:

tag: p

text: This afternoon at 2:30 will be called one of the baseball games that will be worth going a long way to see. The regular nine is going to play the business men as many innings as they can stand, but we can not promise the full nine yards.[4]

text: The idiom was used three more times in the Mitchell Commercial over the next seven years, in the forms give him the whole nine yards (i.e., tell someone a big story),[5] take the whole nine yards (i.e., take everything),[6] and settled the whole nine yards (i.e., resolved everything).[7]

text: In other uses from this time period, the phrase was given as the whole six yards. In 1912, a local newspaper in Kentucky asked readers to, "Just wait boys until the fix gets to a fever heat and they will tell the whole six yards."[8] The same newspaper repeated the phrase soon afterward in another issue, stating "As we have been gone for a few days and failed to get all the news for this issue we will give you the whole six yards in our next." [9] The six-yard form of the phrase also appears in a 1921 headline in a local South Carolina paper.[10]

text: The phrase is not known to have been used in writing thereafter until a 1956 issue of Kentucky Happy Hunting Ground, where it appears in an article on fishing.[11][12] After describing the contests and prizes, the author writes, "So that's the whole nine-yards."[13][14] It appeared in an article on hunting the following year, this time unhyphenated.[12]

text: The phrase at this point was still rare. There is strong circumstantial evidence it was not in general use in 1961, as Ralph Boston set a world record for the long jump that year at 27 feet, or nine yards, but no news report has been found that made any reference to the term, suggesting that journalists were unaware of it or did not regard it as common enough to use as a pun.[15]

text: In a short story published in 1962, the phrase is attributed to "a brush salesman".[16] A letter published in an auto magazine later that year describes a certain new car as containing "all nine yards of goodies".[17] In 1964, several newspapers published a syndicated story which explained that "Give 'em the whole nine yards" was NASA talk for an item-by-item report.[18] This early usage can be read as suggesting length, but can also be read as suggesting detailed completeness.[19]

text: Two 1965 newspaper articles quote U.S. military personnel serving in Vietnam using the phrase.[20] The phrase was explained as something "teenagers say" in a military-oriented magazine in 1965.[21] Citations from 1966 show the phrase was used by a former U.S. Army airman,[22] and also in a publication for military test pilots.[23] It is also recorded in two contemporary novels concerning the U.S. Air Force in Vietnam, Carl Krueger's Wings of a Tiger (1966),[24] and Elaine Shepard's The Doom Pussy (1967).[25]

text: Research[edit]

text: William Safire, a language columnist at the New York Times, asked listeners for information regarding the origin of the phrase on Larry King's radio show in 1982.[11] Safire ended up writing nine columns on this subject and is largely responsible for the interest in it.[11] In 1986, the phrase was added to the Oxford English Dictionary with the earliest citation given as 1970.[11][26] The Historical Dictionary of American Slang (1997) cited Shepard's novel, thus pushing the earliest known usage back to 1967.[11]

text: Several key discoveries in further antedating the phrase were made by Bonnie Taylor-Blake, a neuroscience researcher at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill and an amateur member of the American Dialect Society, an association of professional and amateur linguists whose mailing list often serves as a forum for word and phrase discoveries. In 2012, Taylor-Blake discovered the 1956 and 1957 uses in Kentucky Happy Hunting Ground, and later that year she and Fred R. Shapiro found the "whole six yards" examples from the 1912–1921 period, which received substantial publicity.[11] In 2013, Taylor-Blake posted her discovery of the Mitchell Commercial uses from the 1907–1914 period.[27][28]

text: Origin[edit]

text: There is still no consensus on the origin, though many early published quotations are now available for study. A vast number of explanations for this phrase has been suggested;[29][30] many of these are no longer viable in light of what is now known about the phrase's history.

text:
Perhaps the most commonly offered explanation is that World War II (1939–1945) aircraft machine gun belts were nine yards long. There are many versions of this explanation with variations regarding type of plane, nationality of gunner and geographic area. An alternative weapon is the ammunition belt for the British Vickers machine gun, invented and adopted by the British Army before World War I (1914–1918). The standard belt for this gun held 250 rounds of ammunition and was approximately twenty feet (under seven yards) in length. [11] However, the Vickers gun as fitted to aircraft during the First World War usually had ammunition containers capable of accommodating linked belts of 350-400 rounds, the average length of such a belt being about nine yards, and it was thought that this may be the origin of the phrase. [31] This theory is no longer considered viable, since the phrase predates World War I.
Another common explanation is that "nine yards" is a cubic measure and refers to the volume of a concrete mixer.[32] This theory, too, is inconsistent with the phrase's history.[11]
Many of the popular candidates relate to the length of pieces of fabric, or various garments, including Indian saris, Scottish kilts, burial shrouds, or bolts of cloth. No single source verifies that any one of those suggestions was the actual origin. However, an article published in Comments on Etymology demonstrates that fabric was routinely sold in standard lengths of nine yards (and other multiples of three yards) during the 1800s and early 1900s.[33] This may explain why so many different types of cloth or garments have been said to have been nine yards long.[34]The phrase "...she has put the whole nine yards into one shirt" appears in 1855. [35]
Other proposed sources include the volume of graves;[36] the length of bridal veils, kilts,[37] burial shrouds, bolts of cloth,[38] or saris; a very long list; ritual disembowelment; shipyards; and American football. Little documentary evidence has surfaced to support any of these explanations.[39]
One proposed origin involves the world of full-rigged sailing ships, in which yard is used not as a measure of length or size, but as the name of each horizontal spar on which a sail is hung. All square-rigged sails unfurled, with 3 yards on each of 3 masts, could then be described as the whole nine yards,[40][41] but again no actual documentation has been uncovered to support this explanation, and in any case not all ships had exactly three yards on each mast, even disregarding the fact that by no means all sailing vessels were three-masters. [42]
Bonnie Taylor-Blake, noting that several early examples are in the form "give" or "tell" the whole nine (or six) yards, has suggested that the idiom likely relied on "yards" as "lengthy or thorough presentation [of news, anecdotes, play-by-play, etc.]"[43]
Jesse Sheidlower, editor-at-large for the Oxford English Dictionary, and Fred R. Shapiro have argued that the phrase does not have a concrete meaning, pointing to the variance between six and nine yards and comparing it to the whole shebang.[11]

tag: ul


document_title: History of the United States dollar

question_text: when did us dollar not backed by gold

question_tokens: when did us dollar not backed by gold

text: History of the United States dollar

text: Background[edit]

text: By the end of 1778, Continental Currency retained only between 1⁄5 to 1⁄7 of its original face value. By 1780, Continental bills – or Continentals – were worth just 1⁄40 of their face value. Congress tried to reform the currency by removing the old bills from circulation and issuing new ones, but this met with little to no success. By May 1781, Continentals had become so worthless they ceased to circulate as money. Benjamin Franklin noted that the depreciation of the currency had, in effect, acted as a tax to pay for the war.[2] In the 1790s, after the ratification of the United States Constitution, Continentals could be exchanged for treasury bonds at 1% of face value.[3]

text: Congress appointed Robert Morris to be Superintendent of Finance of the United States following the collapse of Continental currency. In 1782, Morris advocated the creation of the first financial institution chartered by the United States. The Bank of North America was funded in part by specie loaned to the United States by France. Morris helped finance the final stages of the war by issuing notes in his name, backed by his own money. The Bank of North America also issued notes convertible into specie.[4] On July 6, 1785, the Continental Congress of the United States authorized the issuance of a new currency, the US dollar.

text: However, runaway inflation and the collapse of the Continental currency prompted delegates at the Constitutional Convention in Philadelphia in 1787 to include the gold and silver clause in the United States Constitution, preventing individual States from issuing their own bills of credit. Article One states they were prohibited to "make any Thing but gold and silver Coin a Tender in Payment of Debts."[5] Some people use this clause to argue that federal paper money is unconstitutional. [6][7]

text: The United States Mint was created by Congress following the passing of the Coinage Act of 1792. It was primarily tasked with producing and circulating coinage. The first Mint building was in Philadelphia, then the capital of the United States. The Mint was originally placed within the Department of State, until the Coinage Act of 1873 when it became part of the Department of the Treasury (in 1981 it was placed under the auspices of the Treasurer of the United States). The Mint had the authority to convert any precious metals into standard coinage for anyone's account with no seigniorage charge beyond refining costs.

text: Early history[edit]

text: After the creation of the U.S. dollar, the fledgling American administration of President George Washington turned its attention to monetary issues again in the early 1790s under the leadership of Alexander Hamilton, the Secretary of the Treasury at the time. Congress acted on Hamilton's recommendations in the Coinage Act of 1792, which established the dollar as the basic unit of account for the United States. The word dollar is derived from Low Saxon cognate of the High German Thaler. The most commonly circulated and readily available currency, used by common Americans, at this time, was the Spanish Peso, also known as the "Spanish milled dollar", which was valued for its high silver content.

text: In the early 19th century, gold rose in relation to silver, resulting in the removal from commerce of nearly all gold coins, and their subsequent melting. Therefore, in the Coinage Act of 1834, the 15:1 ratio of silver to gold was changed to a 16:1 ratio by reducing the weight of the nation's gold coinage. This created a new U.S. dollar that was backed by 1.50 g (23.22 grains) of gold. However, the previous dollar had been represented by 1.60 g (24.75 grains) of gold. The result of this revaluation, which was the first devaluation of the U.S. dollar, was that the value in gold of the dollar was reduced by 6%. Moreover, for a time, both gold and silver coins were useful in commerce.

text: In 1853, the weights of U.S. silver coins (except the dollar itself, which was rarely used) were reduced. This had the effect of placing the nation effectively (although not officially) on the gold standard. The retained weight in the dollar coin was a nod to bimetallism, although it had the effect of further driving the silver dollar coin from commerce. Foreign coins, including the Spanish dollar, were also, widely used,[8] as legal tender, until 1857.

text: With the enactment of the National Banking Act of 1863, during the American Civil War and its later versions that taxed states' bonds and currency out of existence, the dollar became the sole currency of the United States and remains so today.

text: During the 19th century the dollar was less accepted around the world than the British pound. Nellie Bly carried Bank of England notes on her 1889-1890 trip around the world in 72 days; she also brought some dollars, Bly wrote, "to use at different ports as a test to see if American money was known outside of America". Traveling east from New York, she did not see American money until she found $20 gold pieces used as jewelry in Colombo; there Bly found that as currency dollars were accepted at a 60% discount.[9]

text: In 1878, the Bland-Allison Act was enacted to provide for freer coinage of silver. This act required the government to purchase between $2 million and $4 million worth of silver bullion each month at market prices and to coin it into silver dollars. This was, in effect, a subsidy for politically influential silver producers.

text: The discovery of large silver deposits in the Western United States in the late 19th century created a political controversy. Due to the large influx of silver, the value of silver in the nation's coinage dropped precipitously. On one side were agrarian interests such as the United States Greenback Party that wanted to retain the bimetallic standard in order to inflate the dollar, which would allow farmers to more easily repay their debts. On the other side were Eastern banking and commercial interests, who advocated sound money and a switch to the gold standard. This issue split the Democratic Party in 1896. It led to the famous "cross of gold" speech given by William Jennings Bryan, and may have inspired many of the themes in The Wizard of Oz. Despite the controversy, the status of silver was slowly diminished through a series of legislative changes from 1873 to 1900, when a gold standard was formally adopted. The gold standard survived, with several modifications, until 1971.

text: Gold standard[edit]

text: Bimetallism persisted until March 14, 1900, with the passage of the Gold Standard Act, which provided that:

text: ...the dollar consisting of twenty-five and eight-tenths grains (1.67 g) of gold nine-tenths fine, as established by section thirty-five hundred and eleven of the Revised Statutes of the United States, shall be the standard unit of value, and all forms of money issued or coined by the United States shall be maintained at a parity of value with this standard...

text: Thus the United States moved to a gold standard, making both gold and silver the legal-tender coinage of the United States, and guaranteed the dollar as convertible to 1.5 g (23.22 grains) of gold.[10]

text: The gold standard was suspended twice during World War I, once fully and then for foreign exchange. At the onset of the war, U.S. corporations had large debts payable to European entities, who began liquidating their debts in gold. With debts looming to Europe, the dollar to British pound exchange rate reached as high as $6.75, far above the (gold) parity of $4.8665. This caused large gold outflows until July 31, 1914, when the New York Stock Exchange closed and the gold standard was temporarily suspended. In order to defend the exchange value of the dollar, the US Treasury Department authorized state and nationally chartered banks to issue emergency currency under the Aldrich-Vreeland Act, and the newly created Federal Reserve organized a fund to assure debts to foreign creditors. These efforts were largely successful, and the Aldrich-Vreeland notes were retired starting in November and the gold standard was restored when the New York Stock Exchange re-opened in December 1914.[11]

text: As the United States remained neutral in the war, it remained the only country to maintain its gold standard, doing so without restriction on import or export of gold from 1915 to 1917. During the participation of the United States as a belligerent, President Wilson banned gold export, thereby suspending the gold standard for foreign exchange. After the war, European countries slowly returned to their gold standards, though in somewhat altered form.[11][12]

text: During the Great Depression, every major currency abandoned the gold standard. Among the earliest, the Bank of England abandoned the gold standard in 1931 as speculators demanded gold in exchange for currency, threatening the solvency of the British monetary system. This pattern repeated throughout Europe and North America. In the United States, the Federal Reserve was forced to raise interest rates in order to protect the gold standard for the US dollar, worsening already severe domestic economic pressures. After bank runs became more pronounced in early 1933, people began to hoard gold coins as distrust for banks led to distrust for paper money, worsening deflation and depleting gold reserves.[11][12]

text: The Gold Reserve Act[edit]

text: In early 1933, in order to fight severe deflation Congress and President Roosevelt implemented a series of Acts of Congress and Executive Orders which suspended the gold standard except for foreign exchange, revoked gold as universal legal tender for debts, and banned private ownership of significant amounts of gold coin. These acts included Executive Order 6073, the Emergency Banking Act, Executive Order 6102, Executive Order 6111, the Agricultural Adjustment Act, 1933 Banking Act, House Joint Resolution 192, and later the Gold Reserve Act.[11] These actions were upheld by the U.S. Supreme Court in the "Gold Clause Cases" in 1935.[13]

text: For foreign exchange purposes, the set $20.67 per ounce value of the dollar was lifted, allowing the dollar to float freely in foreign exchange markets with no set value in gold. This was terminated after one year. Roosevelt attempted first to restabilize falling prices with the Agricultural Adjustment Act; however, this did not prove popular, so instead the next politically popular option was to devalue the dollar on foreign exchange markets. Under the Gold Reserve Act the value of gold was fixed at $35 per ounce, making the dollar more attractive for foreign buyers (and making foreign currencies more expensive for those holding dollars). This change led to more conversion of gold into dollars, allowing the U.S. to effectively corner the world gold market.[14][15]

text: The suspension of the gold standard was considered temporary by many in markets and in the government at the time, but restoring the standard was considered a low priority to dealing with other issues.[11][14]

text: Under the post-World War II Bretton Woods system, all other currencies were valued in terms of U.S. dollars and were thus indirectly linked to the gold standard. The need for the U.S. government to maintain both a $35 per troy ounce (112.53 ¢/g) market price of gold and also the conversion to foreign currencies caused economic and trade pressures. By the early 1960s, compensation for these pressures started to become too complicated to manage.

text: In March 1968, the effort to control the private market price of gold was abandoned. A two-tier system began. In this system all central-bank transactions in gold were insulated from the free market price. Central banks would trade gold among themselves at $35 per troy ounce (112.53 ¢/g) but would not trade with the private market. The private market could trade at the equilibrium market price and there would be no official intervention. The price immediately jumped to $43 per troy ounce (138.25 ¢/g). The price of gold touched briefly back at $35 (112.53 ¢/g) near the end of 1969 before beginning a steady price increase. This gold price increase turned steep through 1972 and hit a high that year of over $70 (2.25 $/g). By that time floating exchange rates had also begun to emerge, which indicated the de facto dissolution of the Bretton Woods system. The two-tier system was abandoned in November 1973. By then the price of gold had reached $100 per troy ounce (3.22 $/g).

text: In the early 1970s, inflation caused by rising prices for imported commodities, especially oil, and spending on the Vietnam War, which was not counteracted by cuts in other government expenditures, combined with a trade deficit to create a situation in which the dollar was worth less than the gold used to back it.

text: In 1971, President Richard Nixon unilaterally ordered the cancellation of the direct convertibility of the United States dollar to gold. This act was known as the Nixon Shock.

text: U.S. dollar value vs. gold value[edit]

text: The sudden jump in the price of gold after the demise of the Bretton Woods accords was a result of the significant prior debasement of the US dollar due to excessive inflation of the monetary supply via central bank (Federal Reserve) coordinated fractional reserve banking under the Bretton Woods partial gold standard. In the absence of an international mechanism tying the dollar to gold via fixed exchange rates, the dollar became a pure fiat currency and as such fell to its free market exchange price versus gold. Consequently, the price of gold rose from $35 per troy ounce (1.125 $/g) in 1969 to almost $500 (29 $/g) in 1980.

text: Shortly after the gold price started its ascent in the early 1970s, the price of other commodities such as oil also began to rise. While commodity prices became more volatile, the average exchange rate between oil and gold remained much the same in the 1990s as it had been in the 1960s, 1970s and 1980s.

text: Fearing the emergence of a specie gold-based economy separate from central banking, and with the corresponding threat of the collapse of the U.S. dollar, the U.S. government approved several changes to the trading on the COMEX. These changes resulted in a steep decline in the traded value of precious metals from the early 1980s onward.

text: In September 1987 under the Reagan administration the U.S. Secretary of the Treasury James Baker made a proposal through the International Monetary Fund to use a commodity basket (which included gold).[citation needed]

text: Silver standard[edit]

text: United States silver certificates were a type of representative money printed from 1878 to 1964 in the United States as part of its circulation of paper currency.[16] They were produced in response to silver agitation by citizens who were angered by the Fourth Coinage Act, and were used alongside the gold-based dollar notes. The silver certificates were initially redeemable in the same face value of silver dollar coins, and later in raw silver bullion.

text: Since the early 1920s, silver certificates were issued in $1, $5, and $10 denominations. In the 1928 series, only $1 silver certificates were produced. Fives and tens of this time were mainly Federal Reserve notes, which were backed by and redeemable in gold. In 1933, Congress passed the Agricultural Adjustment Act which included a clause allowing for the pumping of silver into the market to replace the gold. A new 1933 series of $10 silver certificate was printed and released, but not many were released into circulation.

text: In 1934, a law was passed in Congress that changed the obligation on Silver Certificates so as to denote the current location of the silver.

text: The last government regulation regarding the silver standard was in 1963, when President John F. Kennedy issued Executive Order 11110, delegating to the Treasury Secretary his authority to authorize the US Department of Treasury to issue silver certificates for any silver held by the U.S. Government in excess of that not already backing issued certificates. This was necessary because of Kennedy's signing of Public Law 88-36 on the same day, one of the effects of which was a repeal of the Silver Purchase Act of 1934-this act had authorized the Treasury Secretary to purchase silver bullion and issue silver certificates against it. Silver certificates continued to be issued for a short period of time in the $1 denomination, but were discontinued in late 1963.

text: Use as international reserve currency[edit]

text: History[edit]

text: World War II devastated European and Asian economies while leaving the United States' economy relatively unharmed.[17] As European governments exhausted their gold reserves and borrowed to pay the United States for war material, the United States accumulated large gold reserves. This combination gave the United States significant political and economic power following the war.[18]

text: The Bretton Woods agreement codified this economic dominance of the dollar after the war. In 1944, Allied nations sought to create an international monetary order that sustained the global economy and prevented the economic malaise that followed the First World War. The Bretton Woods agreement laid the foundations for an international monetary order that created rules and expectations for the international economic system. It created the International Monetary Fund (IMF), the predecessor of the World Bank, and an international monetary system based on fixed exchange rates. It valued the dollar at $35 per ounce of gold and the remaining signatories pegged their respective currency relative to the dollar, leading some economists to argue that Bretton Woods “dethroned”[19] gold as the default asset.[20]

text: While Bretton Woods institutionalized the dollar's importance following the war, Europe and Asia faced dollar shortages. The international community needed dollars to finance imports from the United States to rebuild what was lost in the war.[21] In 1948 Congress passed the European Recovery Program - generally known as the Marshall Plan – giving dollars to European countries to purchase imports needed to rebuild their economies. The plan helped European countries by providing them dollars to purchase the imports needed to produce exports, eventually allowing the countries to export enough of their own goods to obtain the dollars necessary to sustain their economies without reliance on any Marshall-like plan. At the same time, Joseph Dodge worked with Japanese officials and Congress to pass the Dodge Plan in 1949, which worked similarly to the Marshall Plan, but for Japan rather than Europe.[20]

text: The Marshall and Dodge plans' successes have brought new challenges to the U.S. dollar. In 1959, dollars in circulation around the world exceeded U.S. gold reserves, which became vulnerable to the equivalent of a bank run. In 1960, Yale economist Robert Triffin described the problem to Congress: either the dollar was not freely available and other countries could not afford to import American goods, or the dollar was freely available but confidence that the dollar could be converted to gold would wane.[22]

text: Eventually, the United States chose to devalue the dollar. During the early 1960s American officials largely prevented the conversion of dollars to gold with a series of "gentlemanly" agreements and other policies – which included the London Gold Pool - but these actions were not sustainable; the danger of a run on U.S. gold reserves was too high.[23] With Nixon's election in 1968, American officials became increasingly concerned until Nixon finally issued Executive Order 11615 in August 1971, ending the direct convertibility of dollars to gold. He said, "We must protect the position of the American dollar as pillar of monetary stability around the world… I am determined that the American dollar must never again be hostage in the hands of the international speculators."[24] This became known as the Nixon Shock and marked the dollar's transition from the gold standard to a fiat currency.

text: Impact[edit]

text: The United States enjoys some benefits because the dollar serves as the international reserve currency. The United States is less likely to face a balance of payments crisis.

text: The position of the dollar as the international reserve currency also has a cost: the American government is more likely to forego fiscal expansionary policies in order to maintain confidence in the dollar.[25]

text: United States Notes[edit]

text: A United States Note, also known as a Legal Tender Note, was a type of paper money that was issued from 1862 to 1971 in the U.S. Having been current for over 100 years, they were issued for longer than any other form of U.S. paper money. They were known popularly as "greenbacks" in their day, a name inherited from the Demand Notes that they replaced in 1862.

text: While issuance of United States Notes ended in January 1971, existing United States Notes are still valid currency in the United States today, though rarely seen in circulation.

text: Both United States Notes and Federal Reserve Notes are parts of the national currency of the United States, and both have been legal tender since the gold recall of 1933. Both have been used in circulation as money in the same way. However, the issuing authority for them came from different statutes.[26] United States Notes were created as fiat currency, in that the government has never categorically guaranteed to redeem them for precious metal - even though at times, such as after the specie resumption of 1879, federal officials were authorized to do so if requested.

text: The difference between a United States Note and a Federal Reserve Note is that a United States Note represented a "bill of credit" and was inserted by the Treasury directly into circulation free of interest. Federal Reserve Notes are backed by debt purchased by the Federal Reserve, and thus generate seigniorage for the Federal Reserve System, which serves as a lending intermediary between the Treasury and the public.

text: Fiat standard[edit]

text: Today, like the currency of most nations, the dollar is fiat money, unbacked by any physical asset. A holder of a federal reserve note has no right to demand an asset such as gold or silver from the government in exchange for a note.[27] Consequently, some proponents of the intrinsic theory of value believe that the near-zero marginal cost of production of the current fiat dollar detracts from its attractiveness as a medium of exchange and store of value because a fiat currency without a marginal cost of production is easier to debase via overproduction and the subsequent inflation of the money supply.

text: In 1963, the words "PAYABLE TO THE BEARER ON DEMAND" were removed from all newly issued Federal Reserve notes. Then, in 1968, redemption of pre-1963 Federal Reserve notes for gold or silver officially ended. The Coinage Act of 1965 removed all silver from quarters and dimes, which were 90% silver prior to the act. However, there was a provision in the act allowing some coins to contain a 40% silver consistency, such as the Kennedy Half Dollar. Later, even this provision was removed, with the last circulating silver-content halves minted in 1969. All previously silver coins minted for general circulation are now clad. During 1982, the composition of the cent was changed from copper to zinc with a thin copper coating. The content of the nickel has not changed since 1946.[citation needed] Silver and gold coins are produced by the U.S. government, but only as non-circulating commemorative pieces or in sets for collectors.

text: All circulating notes, issued from 1861 to present, will be honored by the government at face value as legal tender. This means that the federal government will accept old notes as payments for debts owed to the federal government (taxes and fees), or exchange old notes for new ones, but will not redeem notes for gold or silver, even if the note states that it may be thus redeemed. Some bills may have a premium to collectors.[citation needed]

text: The only exception to this rule is the $10,000 gold certificate of Series 1900, a number of which were inadvertently released to the public because of a fire in 1935. A box of them was literally thrown out a window. This set is not considered to be "in circulation" and, in fact, is stolen property. However, the government canceled these banknotes and removed them from official records. Their value, relevant only to collectors, is approximately one thousand US dollars.[28]

text: According to the Federal Reserve Bank of New York, there is $1.2 trillion in total US currency in worldwide circulation as of July 2013.[29]

text: Color and design[edit]

text: The federal government began issuing currency like the Spanish dollars during the American Civil War. As photographic technology of the day could not reproduce color, it was decided the back of the bills would be printed in a color other than black. Because the color green was seen as a symbol of stability, it was selected. These were known as "greenbacks" for their color and started a tradition of the United States' printing the back of its money in green. The author of that invention was chemist Christopher Der-Seropian.[citation needed] In contrast to the currency notes of many other countries, Federal Reserve notes of varying denominations are the same colors: predominantly black ink with green highlights on the front, and predominantly green ink on the back. Federal Reserve notes were printed in the same colors for most of the 20th century, although older bills called "silver certificates" had blue highlights on the front, and "United States notes" had red highlights on the front.

text: In 1928, sizing of the bills was standardized (involving a 25% reduction in their current sizes, compared to the older, larger notes nicknamed "horse blankets").[30] Modern U.S. currency, regardless of denomination, is 2.61 inches (66.3 mm) wide, 6.14 inches (156 mm) long, and 0.0043 inches (0.109 mm) thick. A single bill weighs about fifteen and a half grains (one gram) and costs approximately 4.2 cents for the Bureau of Engraving and Printing to produce.

text: Microprinting and security threads were introduced in the 1991 currency series.

text: Another series started in 1996 with the $100 note, adding the following changes:

text:
A larger portrait, moved off-center to create more space to incorporate a watermark.
The watermark to the right of the portrait depicting the same historical figure as the portrait. The watermark can be seen only when held up to the light (and had long been a standard feature of all other major currencies).
A security thread that will glow pink when exposed to ultraviolet light in a dark environment.[31] The thread is in a unique position on each denomination.
Color-shifting ink that changes from green to black when viewed from different angles. This feature appears in the numeral on the lower right-hand corner of the bill front.
Microprinting in the numeral in the note's lower left-hand corner and on Benjamin Franklin's coat.
Concentric fine-line printing in the background of the portrait and on the back of the note. This type of printing is difficult to copy well.
The value of the currency written in 14pt Arial font on the back for those with sight disabilities.
Other features for machine authentication and processing of the currency.

text: Annual releases of the 1996 series followed. The $50 note June 12, 1997, introduced a large dark numeral with a light background on the back of the note to make it easier for people to identify the denomination.[32] The $20 note in 1998 introduced a new machine-readable capability to assist scanning devices. The security thread glows green under ultraviolet light, and "USA TWENTY" and a flag are printed on the thread, while the numeral "20" is printed within the star field of the flag. The microprinting is in the lower left ornamentation of the portrait and in the lower left corner of the note front. As of 1998[update], the $20 note was the most frequently counterfeited note in the United States.

text: May 13, 2003, The Treasury announced that it would introduce new colors into the $20 bill, the first U.S. currency since 1905 (not counting the 1934 gold certificates) to have colors other than green or black. The move was intended primarily to reduce counterfeiting, rather than to increase visual differentiation between denominations. The main colors of all denominations, including the new $20 and $50, remain green and black; the other colors are present only in subtle shades in secondary design elements. This contrasts with notes of the euro, Australian dollar, and most other currencies, where strong colours are used to distinguish each denomination from the other.

text: The new $20 bills entered circulation October 9, 2003, the new $50 bills, September 28, 2004. The new $10 notes were introduced in 2006 and redesigned $5 bills began to circulate March 13, 2008. Each will have subtle elements of different colors, though will continue to be primarily green and black. The Treasury said it will update Federal Reserve notes every 7 to 10 years to keep up with counterfeiting technology. In addition, there have been rumors that future banknotes will use embedded RFID microchips as another anti-counterfeiting tool.[33]

text: The 2008 $5 bill contains significant new security updates. The obverse side of the bill includes patterned yellow printing that will cue digital image-processing software to prevent digital copying, watermarks, digital security thread, and extensive microprinting. The reverse side includes an oversized purple number 5 to provide easy differentiation from other denominations.[34]

text: On April 21, 2010, the U.S. Government announced a heavily redesigned $100 bill that featured bolder colors, color shifting ink, microlenses, and other features. It was scheduled to start circulating on February 10, 2011, but was delayed due to the discovery of sporadic creasing on the notes and "mashing" (when there is too much ink on the paper, the artwork on the notes are not clearly seen). The redesigned $100 bill was released October 8, 2013.[35] It costs 11.8 cents to produce each bill.[36]

text: "The soundness of a nation's currency is essential to the soundness of its economy. And to uphold our currency's soundness, it must be recognized and honored as legal tender and counterfeiting must be effectively thwarted," Federal Reserve Chairman Alan Greenspan said at a ceremony unveiling the $20 bill's new design. Prior to the current design, the most recent redesign of the U.S. dollar bill was in 1996.

text:
Current $20 bill front.

Current $20 bill back.

tag: table

text: As a result of a 2008 decision in an accessibility lawsuit filed by the American Council of the Blind, the Bureau of Engraving and Printing is planning to implement a raised tactile feature in the next redesign of each note, except the $1 and the current version of the $100 bill. It also plans larger, higher-contrast numerals, more color differences, and distribution of currency readers to assist the visually impaired during the transition period.[37] In 2016, the Treasury announced a number of design changes to the $5, $10 and $20 bills; to be introduced in this next redesign. The redesigns include:[38][39]

text:
The back of the $5 bill will be changed to showcase historical events at the pictured Lincoln Memorial by adding portraits of Marian Anderson (due to her famous performance there after being barred from Constitution Hall due to her race), Martin Luther King Jr.'s (due to his famous I Have A Dream speech), and Eleanor Roosevelt (who arranged Anderson's performance).
The back of the $10 bill will be changed to show a 1913 march for women's suffrage in the United States, plus portraits of Sojourner Truth, Lucretia Mott, Susan B. Anthony, Alice Paul, and Elizabeth Cady Stanton.
On the $20 bill, Andrew Jackson will move to the back (reduced in size, alongside the White House) and Harriet Tubman will appear on the front.


document_title: List of La Liga top scorers

question_text: how many laliga goals does ronaldo have this season

text: List of La Liga top scorers

text: Top scorers by season[edit]

text:
Season
Player
Club
Goals
Games
Ratio

1930–31
 Bata
Athletic Bilbao
27
17
1.59

1931–32
 Bata (2)
Athletic Bilbao
13[1]
18
0.72

1932–33
 Olivares, ManuelManuel Olivares
Real Madrid
16
14
1.14

1933–34
 Lángara, IsidroIsidro Lángara
Real Oviedo
26
18
1.44

1934–35
 Lángara, IsidroIsidro Lángara (2)
Real Oviedo
27
22
1.23

1935–36
 Lángara, IsidroIsidro Lángara (3)
Real Oviedo
28
21
1.33

1939–40
 Unamuno, VíctorVíctor Unamuno
Athletic Bilbao
20
22
0.91

1940–41
 Pruden, Pruden
Atlético Madrid
33
22
1.5

1941–42
 Mundo
Valencia
27
25
1.08

1942–43
 Martín, MarianoMariano Martín
Barcelona
30
23
1.3

1943–44
 Mundo (2)
Valencia
28
26
1.08

1944–45
 Zarra, TelmoTelmo Zarra
Athletic Bilbao
20
26
0.77

1945–46
 Zarra, TelmoTelmo Zarra (2)
Athletic Bilbao
24
18
1.33

1946–47
 Zarra, TelmoTelmo Zarra (3)
Athletic Bilbao
33
24
1.38

1947–48
 Pahiño, Pahiño
Celta de Vigo
20
22
0.91

1948–49
 César
Barcelona
27
24
1.13

1949–50
 Zarra, TelmoTelmo Zarra (4)
Athletic Bilbao
24
26
0.92

1950–51
 Zarra, TelmoTelmo Zarra (5)
Athletic Bilbao
38
30
1.27

1951–52
 Pahiño, Pahiño (2)
Real Madrid
28
27
1.04

1952–53
 Zarra, TelmoTelmo Zarra (6)
Athletic Bilbao
24
29
0.83

1953–54
 di Stéfano, AlfredoAlfredo di Stéfano
Real Madrid
27
28
0.96

1954–55
 Arza, JuanJuan Arza
Sevilla
28
29
0.97

1955–56
 di Stéfano, AlfredoAlfredo di Stéfano (2)
Real Madrid
24
30
0.8

1956–57
 di Stéfano, AlfredoAlfredo di Stéfano (3)
Real Madrid
31
30
1.03

1957–58
 Badenes, ManuelManuel Badenes
Real Valladolid
19
29
0.66

 di Stéfano, AlfredoAlfredo di Stéfano (4)
Real Madrid
19
30
0.63

 Alós, RicardoRicardo Alós
Valencia
19
29
0.66

1958–59
 di Stéfano, AlfredoAlfredo di Stéfano (5)
Real Madrid
23
28
0.82

1959–60
 Puskás, FerencFerenc Puskás
Real Madrid
25
24
1.04

1960–61
 Puskás, FerencFerenc Puskás (2)
Real Madrid
28
28
1

1961–62
 Seminario, JuanJuan Seminario
Real Zaragoza
25
30
0.83

1962–63
 Puskás, FerencFerenc Puskás (3)
Real Madrid
26
30
0.87

1963–64
 Puskás, FerencFerenc Puskás (4)
Real Madrid
21
25
0.84

1964–65
 Ré, CayetanoCayetano Ré
Barcelona
26
30
0.87

1965–66
 Luis Aragonés
Atlético Madrid
18[2]
28
0.64

1966–67
 Waldo
Valencia
24
30
0.8

1967–68
 Uriarte, FidelFidel Uriarte
Athletic Bilbao
22
24
0.92

1968–69
 Amancio
Real Madrid
14
29
0.48

 José Eulogio Gárate
Atlético Madrid
14
30
0.47

1969–70
 Amancio (2)
Real Madrid
16
29
0.55

 Aragonés, LuisLuis Aragonés (2)
Atlético Madrid
16
30
0.53

 Gárate, José EulogioJosé Eulogio Gárate (2)
Atlético Madrid
16
30
0.53

1970–71
 Gárate, José EulogioJosé Eulogio Gárate (3)
Atlético Madrid
17
28
0.61

 Rexach, CarlesCarles Rexach
Barcelona
17
28
0.61

1971–72
 Porta, EnriqueEnrique Porta
Granada
20
31
0.65

1972–73
 Marianín
Real Oviedo
19
32
0.59

1973–74
 Quini
Sporting de Gijón
20
34
0.59

1974–75
 Carlos
Athletic Bilbao
19
32
0.59

1975–76
 Quini (2)
Sporting de Gijón
21
34
0.62

1976–77
 Kempes, MarioMario Kempes
Valencia
24
34
0.71

1977–78
 Kempes, MarioMario Kempes (2)
Valencia
28
34
0.82

1978–79
 Krankl, HansHans Krankl
Barcelona
29
30
0.97

1979–80
 Quini (3)
Sporting de Gijón
24
34
0.71

1980–81
 Quini (4)
Barcelona
20
30
0.67

1981–82
 Quini (5)
Barcelona
27
32
0.84

1982–83
 Rincón, PoliPoli Rincón
Real Betis
20
30
0.67

1983–84
 Jorge da Silva
Real Valladolid
17
30
0.57

 Juanito
Real Madrid
17
31
0.55

1984–85
 Sánchez, HugoHugo Sánchez
Atlético Madrid
19
33
0.58

1985–86
 Sánchez, HugoHugo Sánchez (2)
Real Madrid
22
33
0.67

1986–87
 Sánchez, HugoHugo Sánchez (3)
Real Madrid
34
41
0.83

1987–88
 Sánchez, HugoHugo Sánchez (4)
Real Madrid
29
36
0.81

1988–89
 Baltazar
Atlético Madrid
35
36
0.97

1989–90
 Sánchez, HugoHugo Sánchez (5)
Real Madrid
38
35
1.09

1990–91
 Butragueño, EmilioEmilio Butragueño
Real Madrid
19
35
0.54

1991–92
 Manolo
Atlético Madrid
27
36
0.75

1992–93
 Bebeto
Deportivo
29
37
0.78

1993–94
 Romário
Barcelona
30
33
0.91

1994–95
 Zamorano, IvánIván Zamorano
Real Madrid
28
38
0.74

1995–96
 Pizzi, Juan AntonioJuan Antonio Pizzi
Tenerife
31
41
0.76

1996–97
 Ronaldo
Barcelona
34
37
0.92

1997–98
 Vieri, ChristianChristian Vieri
Atlético Madrid
24
24
1

1998–99
 Raúl
Real Madrid
25
37
0.68

1999–2000
 Ballesta, SalvaSalva Ballesta
Racing Santander
27
36
0.75

2000–01
 Raúl (2)
Real Madrid
24
36
0.67

2001–02
 Tristán, DiegoDiego Tristán
Deportivo
20
35
0.57

2002–03
 Makaay, RoyRoy Makaay
Deportivo
29
38
0.76

2003–04
 Ronaldo (2)
Real Madrid
24
32
0.75

2004–05
 Forlán, DiegoDiego Forlán
Villarreal
25
38
0.66

 Eto'o, SamuelSamuel Eto'o
Barcelona
25[3]
37
0.68

2005–06
 Eto'o, SamuelSamuel Eto'o (2)
Barcelona
26
34
0.76

2006–07
 van Nistelrooy, RuudRuud van Nistelrooy
Real Madrid
25
37
0.68

2007–08
 Güiza, DanielDaniel Güiza
Mallorca
27
37
0.73

2008–09
 Forlán, DiegoDiego Forlán (2)
Atlético Madrid
32
33
0.97

2009–10
 Messi, LionelLionel Messi
Barcelona
34
35
0.97

2010–11
 Ronaldo, CristianoCristiano Ronaldo
Real Madrid
40
34
1.18

2011–12
 Messi, LionelLionel Messi (2)
Barcelona
50
37
1.35

2012–13
 Messi, LionelLionel Messi (3)
Barcelona
46
32
1.44

2013–14
 Ronaldo, CristianoCristiano Ronaldo (2)
Real Madrid
31
30
1.03

2014–15
 Ronaldo, CristianoCristiano Ronaldo (3)
Real Madrid
48
35
1.37

2015–16
 Suárez, LuisLuis Suárez
Barcelona
40
35
1.11

2016–17
 Messi, LionelLionel Messi (4)
Barcelona
37
34
1.09

text: Top 30 goalscorers, all-time[edit]

text: Players in Bold are still active.

text:
[hide]Rank
Nat
Name
Years
Goals
Apps
Ratio

1

Lionel Messi
2004–
378
410
0.91

2

Cristiano Ronaldo
2009–
308
289
1.06

3

Telmo Zarra
1940–1955
251
278
0.9

4

Hugo Sánchez
1981–1994
234
347
0.67

5

Raúl
1994–2010
228
550
0.41

6

Alfredo Di Stéfano
1953–1966
227
329
0.69

7

César Rodríguez
1939–1955
223
353
0.63

8

Quini
1970–1987
219
448
0.49

9

Pahiño
1943–1956
210
278
0.76

10

Edmundo Suárez
1939–1950
195
231
0.84

11

Santillana
1970–1988
186
461
0.4

12

David Villa
2003–2014
185
352
0.53

13

Juan Arza
1943–1959
182
349
0.52

14

Guillermo Gorostiza
1929–1945
178
256
0.7

15

Samuel Eto'o
1998–2009
162
280
0.58

16

Luis Aragonés
1960–1974
160
360
0.44

17

Ferenc Puskás
1958–1966
156
180
0.87

18

Aritz Aduriz
2002–
154
399
0.39

19

Julio Salinas
1982–2000
152
417
0.36

20

Adrián Escudero
1945–1958
150
287
0.52

21

Daniel Ruiz
1974–1986
147
303
0.49

22

Raúl Tamudo
1997–2013
146
407
0.36

23

Silvestre Igoa
1941–1956
141
284
0.5

24

Manuel Badenes
1946–1959
139
201
0.69

Juan Araújo
1945–1956
207
0.67

José Mari Bakero
1980–1997
483
0.29

27

László Kubala
1951–1965
138
215
0.64

28

José Luis Panizo
1939–1955
136
325
0.42

29

Jesús María Satrústegui
1973–1986
133
297
0.45

30

Joaquín Murillo
1952–1964
132
227
0.58

text: Top 5 goalscorers, still active (Primera División only)[edit]

text:
Rank
Nat
Name
Years
Current club
Goals
Apps
Ratio

1

Lionel Messi
2004–
Barcelona
378
410
0.91

2

Cristiano Ronaldo
2009–
Real Madrid
308
289
1.07

3

Aritz Aduriz
2002–
Athletic Bilbao
154
399
0.38

4

Karim Benzema
2009–
Real Madrid
126
264
0.48

5

Antoine Griezmann
2010–
Atlético Madrid
115
275
0.42

text: Most hat-tricks in the League (at least 10)[edit]

text: Three or more goals in a single match. For the complete list of hat-tricks see List of La Liga hat-tricks.

text: Players in bold are still active

text: Players with at least 10 hat-tricks are shown in this table.

text:
Rank
Player
Hat-tricks
Last hat-trick

1
 Cristiano Ronaldo
29
18 March 2018

2
 Lionel Messi
20
7 April 2018

3
 Telmo Zarra
23
15 March 1953

4
 Alfredo di Stéfano
22
15 March 1964

5
 Mundo
19
4 March 1951

6
 César Rodríguez
15
19 October 1952

7
 Isidro Lángara
13
15 December 1946

8
 Ferenc Puskás
12
15 December 1963

9
 László Kubala
11
19 March 1961

 Pahiño
11
11 September 1955

 Manuel Badenes
11
29 March 1958

12
 Quini
10
7 October 1981

text: Source: BDFútbol


document_title: Wikipedia:Sauce for the goose is (not) sauce for the gander

question_text: meaning of the phrase sauce for the goose

text:
This page is an essay.
It contains the advice or opinions of one or more Wikipedia contributors. This page is not one of Wikipedia policies or guidelines, as it has not been thoroughly vetted by the community. Some essays represent widespread norms; others only represent minority viewpoints.

text:
WP:SAUCE
WP:GOOSE
WP:GANDER

text: This page in a nutshell: This phrase is employed to expose holding forth a "double standard." If some kind of behavior is wrong, it's probably wrong for both sides, not just one. Don't do it yourself either.

text: There's an old saying, "What is sauce for the goose is sauce for the gander." This meshes well with the Golden Rule, or ethic of reciprocity, which is a key moral principle in many religions and philosophies, and is often stated as "Do unto others as you wish to be done for you", or conversely, "Don't do unto others what you would not wish to be done to you."

text: Look up sauce for the goose in Wiktionary, the free dictionary.

text: Unfortunately, when the infighting here in Wikipedia gets heated, participants often forget this principle and do unto their opponents things that would not be fair to be done unto them, and sometimes add insult to injury by crying "fowl" if their opponents do in fact raise similar objections to their own actions (and those of their friends) to the ones they raised against the opponents in the first place. These "wars" can easily turn both parties into hypocrites.

text: Some of the sorts of things that violate this principle include:

text: Trying to squelch or discredit an opposing viewpoint by associating it with a banned editor who espoused something similar, when in fact some of your own viewpoints are similar to those of a different banned editor.

text: Insisting that some publication or Web site is not a reliable source when it's being used to support viewpoints you oppose, but turning around and insisting the same or a similar site or publication is a reliable source when it supports a viewpoint you agree with.

text: Demanding strict adherence to WP:BLP and WP:NPA when it comes to negative statements about yourself, your friends, and people you like, while making unrestrained ad hominem statements to badmouth people you dislike.

text: Insisting that comments you dislike on others' user pages be deleted under WP:SOAP, while defending similarly inflammatory comments on other user pages if you happen to agree or sympathize with them.

text: Supporting the deletion of an article about a marginally notable person, company, organization, band, Web site, or other thing that you personally dislike, while opposing the deletion of another one of a similar level of notability that you personally like.

text: Insisting that all policies and processes must be followed strictly when it suits you, but saying "screw process!" and Ignore All Rules when that suits you.

text: Saying harsh things about the insubordinate ingrates who fail to completely love, honor, and obey the ArbCom, Jimbo, and the other Powers That Be in Wikipedia... until ArbCom, Jimbo, or other TPTBs issue a ruling that you disagree with, at which point raising a loud objection and challenging the legitimacy of this exercise of power is called for.

text: Raising a major fuss about how your personal information has been "outed" by somebody else, and that they need to be immediately banned and the information oversighted right away... while you're posting similar personal information about that person yourself.

text: Demanding topic bans be strictly enforced where opponents of yours are concerned, while excusing ban violations on "your side" by saying an edit was just a trivial spelling correction, etc., and not really an actual violation even if it technically qualifies.

text: Calling it "harassment" when somebody you dislike keeps leaving warnings against you on your talk page after you have removed their prior warnings... but also calling it "harassment" when somebody you dislike removes the warnings you left against them on their talk page.

text: So what's the point? Simply that consistency is a virtue (never mind that other saying that "a foolish consistency is the hobgoblin of little minds"[1]!), and it's best to step back and think a little before you take a position that will seem in the light of day to be purely self-serving and hypocritical. Do unto thine enemies what you'd like to be done unto thy friends, and expect your good or bad karma to return threefold.


document_title: Prime Minister of Malaysia

question_text: who is the second prime minister of malaysia

text: Prime Minister of Malaysia

text: Appointment[edit]

text: According to the federal constitution, the Yang di-Pertuan Agong shall first appoint as Prime Minister to preside over the Cabinet and requires such Prime Minister to be a member of the Dewan Rakyat (House of Representatives) who in his judgment is likely to command the confidence of the majority of the members of that House and must not a Malaysian citizen by naturalisation or by registration. The Yang di-Pertuan Agong on the Prime Minister's advice shall appoint other Ministers from either Dewan Rakyat or Dewan Negara (Senate).

text: The Prime Minister and his cabinet ministers must take and subscribe in the presence of the Yang di-Pertuan Agong the oath of office and allegiance as well as the oath of secrecy before they can exercise the functions of office. The Cabinet shall be collectively responsible to Parliament of Malaysia. The members of the Cabinet shall not hold any office of profit and engage in any trade, business or profession that will cause conflict of interest. The Prime Minister's Department (sometimes referred to as the Prime Minister's Office) is the body and ministry in which the Prime Minister exercises its functions and powers.

text: If a government cannot get its appropriation (budget) legislation passed by the House of Representatives, or the house passes a vote of "no confidence" in the government, the Prime Minister is bound by convention to resign immediately. The Yang di-Pertuan Agong's choice of replacement prime minister will be dictated by the circumstances. Ministers other than the Prime Minister shall hold office during the pleasure of the Yang di-Pertuan Agong, unless the appointment of any Minister shall have been revoked by the Yang di-Pertuan Agong on the advice of the Prime Minister but any Minister may resign his office.

text: Following a resignation in other circumstances, defeated in an election or the death of a prime minister, the Yang di-Pertuan Agong will generally appoint as Prime Minister the person voted by the governing party as their new leader.

text: Powers[edit]

text: The power of the prime minister is subject to a number of limitations. Prime ministers removed as leader of his or her party, or whose government loses a vote of no confidence in the House of Representatives, must advise a new election of the lower house or resign the office. The defeat of a supply bill (one that concerns the spending of money) or unable to pass important policy-related legislation is seen to require the resignation of the government or dissolution of Parliament, much like a non-confidence vote, since a government that cannot spend money is hamstrung, also called loss of supply.

text: The prime minister's party will normally have a majority in the House of Representatives and party discipline is exceptionally strong in Malaysian politics, so passage of the government's legislation through the House of Representatives is mostly a formality.

text: Under the Constitution, the Prime Minister’s role includes advising the Yang di-Pertuan Agong on:

text:
the appointment of the federal ministers (full members of cabinet);
the appointment of the federal deputy ministers, parliamentary secretaries (non-full members of cabinet);
the appointment of 44 out of 70 Senators in the Dewan Negara;
the summoning and adjournment of sittings of the Dewan Rakyat;
the appointment of judges of the superior courts (which are the High Courts, the Court of Appeal and the Federal Court);
the appointment of the Attorney-General and the Auditor-General;
the appointment of the chairmen and members of the Judicial and Legal Service Commission, Election Commission, Police Force Commission, Education Service Commission, National Finance Council and Armed Forces Council; and
the appointment of the Governors of Malacca, Penang, Sabah and Sarawak.

text: Under Article 39 of the Constitution, executive authority is vested in the Yang di-Pertuan Agong. However, Article 40(1) states that in most cases, the Yang di-Pertuan Agong is bound to exercise his powers on the advice of the Cabinet or a minister acting under the Cabinet's general authority. Thus, most of the day-to-day work of governing is actually done by the Prime Minister and the Cabinet.

text: Caretaker Prime Minister[edit]

text: Under Article 55(3) of Constitution of Malaysia, the lower house of Parliament unless sooner dissolved by the Yang di-Pertuan Agong with his own discretion on the advice of the prime minister shall continue for five years from the date of its first meeting. Article 55(4) of the Constitution permits a delay of 60 days of general election to be held from the date of dissolution and Parliament shall be summoned to meet on a date not later than 120 days from the date of dissolution. Conventionally, between the dissolution of one Parliament and the convening of the next, the prime minister and the cabinet remain in office in a caretaker capacity.

text: Acting Prime Minister[edit]

text: From time to time prime ministers are required to leave the country on business and a deputy is appointed to take their place during that time. In the days before jet aeroplanes, such absences could be for extended periods.

text:
Abdul Razak Hussein was the Acting Prime Minister after the first Prime Minister, Tunku Abdul Rahman stepped down as Prime Minister for three months in 1959 to strengthen his party, the Alliance for the 1959 federal elections after it had lost two states, Kelantan and Terengganu, in the State Elections which at that time were held before the Federal contest.
Ismail Abdul Rahman occasionally acted as Acting Prime Minister when Tunku Abdul Rahman and Abdul Razak Hussein was on leave for going abroad.[3]
V. T. Sambanthan was called to serve as Acting Prime Minister and chair the cabinet meeting for a day when the former Prime Minister Abdul Razak Hussein was overseas and his deputy Ismail Abdul Rahman had died.[4]
In 1988, when UMNO as the founding member of the Barisan Nasional coalition was declared unlawful and illegal political party, Mahathir Mohamad was disqualified as the Barisan Nasional chairman. Ling Liong Sik became the new Chairman of the Barisan Nasional and served as an Acting Prime Minister for a couple of days until the new party, UMNO Baru was legalised by the Registrar of Societies (ROS).
Anwar Ibrahim acted as an Acting Prime Minister for two months started from 19 May 1997 as Mahathir Mohamad was on vacation.[5][6][7]

text: List of Prime Ministers of Malaysia[edit]

text:
Colour key (for political coalitions):
  Alliance Party
  Barisan Nasional
  Pakatan Harapan

text:
Portrait

Name
(birth and death)
Constituency

Term of office

Coalition (Party)

Duration

1

Tunku Abdul Rahman
(1903–1990)MLC for Sungei Muda, 1955–1959MP for Kuala Kedah, 1959–1973

31 August 1957

22 September 1970

Alliance Party (UMNO)

13 years, 22 days

1955, 1959, 1964, 1969

First Malayan Five-Year Plan; Malayan Emergency; Second Malayan Five-Year Plan;  National Education Policy; Indonesia–Malaysia confrontation; Malaysia Agreement; PAP–UMNO relations; Independence of Singapore Agreement 1965; 1966 Sarawak Emergency; First Malaysia Plan; Association of Southeast Asian Nations; Organisation of Islamic Cooperation; 13 May Incident; Served as Minister of Home Affairs, Minister of Foreign Affairs, Minister of External Affairs, Minister of Information and Broadcasting, Minister of Youth, Culture and Sports. He is often referred to as Father of Independence (Bapa Kemerdekaan) and Father of Malaysia (Bapa Malaysia).

2

Abdul Razak Hussein
(1922–1976)MLC for Semantan, 1955–1959MP for Pekan, 1959–1976

22 September 1970

14 January 1976

Alliance Party (UMNO)

5 years, 114 days

BN (UMNO)

1974

Razak Report; National Operations Council; 1971 constitutional amendments; Zone of Peace, Freedom and Neutrality; National Culture Policy; National Energy Policy; National Petroleum Policy; Second Malaysia Plan; Malaysian New Economic Policy; The youngest to be elected in the office, at the age of 48. Served as Minister of Education, Minister of Defence, Minister of Rural Development, Minister of National and Rural Development, Minister of Lands and Mines, Minister of Home Affairs, Minister of Foreign Affairs, Minister of Finance. He is referred to as Father of Development (Bapa Pembangunan).

3

Hussein Onn
(1922–1990)MP for Johore Bahru Timor, 1971–1974MP for Sri Gading, 1974–1981

14 January 1976

16 July 1981

BN (UMNO)

5 years, 183 days

1978

Third Malaysia Plan; 1977 Kelantan Emergency; Malaysian Technical Corporation Plan; Fourth Malaysia Plan. Served as Minister of Education, Minister of Commerce and Industry, Minister of Finance, Minister of Coordination of Public Corporations, Minister of Defence, Minister of Federal Territories. He is referred to as Father of Unity (Bapa Perpaduan).

4

Mahathir Mohamad
(b. 1925)MP for Kota Star Selatan, 1964–1969MP for Kubang Pasu, 1974–2004

16 July 1981

31 October 2003

BN (UMNO)

22 years, 107 days

1982, 1986, 1990, 1995, 1999

Clean, Fair and Trustworthy; Look East Policy; Privatisation Policy; Malaysia Incorporated Policy; Buy British Last; Leadership by Example; 70 Million Population Policy; Heavy Industry Policy; Application of Islamic Values Policy; 1983 constitutional amendments; Fifth Malaysia Plan; 1986 Sabah Emergency; Operation Lalang; 1988 constitutional amendments; Vision 2020; Sixth Malaysia Plan; 1993 constitutional amendments; Seventh Malaysia Plan; Eighth Malaysia Plan; He is the longest-serving Prime Minister of Malaysia. He led the BN into 5 consecutive election victories. Served as Minister of Education, Minister of Commerce and Industry, Minister of Defence, Minister of Home Affairs, Minister of Finance. He is referred to as Father of Modernisation (Bapa Pemodenan).

5

Abdullah Ahmad Badawi
(b. 1939)MP for Kepala Batas, 1978–2013

31 October 2003

3 April 2009

BN (UMNO)

5 years, 154 days

2004, 2008

Ninth Malaysia Plan. Served as Minister without Portfolio, Minister in the Prime Minister's Department, Minister of Education, Minister of Defence, Minister of Foreign Affairs, Minister of Home Affairs, Minister of Finance, Minister of Internal Security. He is referred to as Father of Human Capital Development (Bapa Pembangunan Modal Insan).

6

Najib Razak
(b. 1953)
MP for Pekan, Pahang, 1974-1982 1986-

3 April 2009

10 May 2018

BN (UMNO)

9 years, 37 days

2013

1MDB; Tenth Malaysia Plan; Eleventh Malaysia Plan; Prior to his appointment as PM, he served as Minister of Culture, Youth and Sports, Minister of Youth and Sports, Minister of Defence, Minister of Education, Minister of Finance.

(7)

Mahathir Mohamad
(b. 1925)MP for Langkawi, since 2018

10 May 2018

Incumbent

PH (PPBM)

67 days

2018

This is his second appointment as Prime Minister, 15 years after his retirement from politics. He was the fourth Prime Minister of Malaysia from 1981 to 2003 and referred as Father of Modernisation (Bapa Pemodenan). He is the only person to hold the position for two opposing political parties. He is the oldest Prime Minister to be elected at the age of 92.

text: Timeline[edit]

text: Living former Prime Ministers[edit]

text: Prime ministers are usually granted certain privileges after leaving office at government expense. Former prime ministers continue to be important national figures.

text:
Name
Term of office
Date of birth

Abdullah Ahmad Badawi
2003–2009
26 November 1939 (age 78)

Najib Razak
2009–2018
23 July 1953 (age 64)

text: The most recently deceased prime minister was Tunku Abdul Rahman (1903–1990), who died on 6 December 1990. Currently the oldest living former prime minister is Abdullah Ahmad Badawi at the age of 78.