title: Lyme disease

text: An mRNA vaccine designed to cause a strong fast immune response to tick saliva allowed the immune system to detect and remove the ticks from test animals before they were able to transmit the infectious bacteria. The vaccine contains mRNAs for the body to build 19 proteins in tick saliva which, by enabling quick development of erythema (itchy redness) at the bite site, protects guinea pigs against Lyme disease. It also protected the test animals if the tick is not removed if only one tick, but not three, remain attached.


title: Lyme disease

text: Canine vaccines have been formulated and approved for the prevention of Lyme disease in dogs. Currently, three Lyme disease vaccines are available. LymeVax, formulated by Fort Dodge Laboratories, contains intact dead spirochetes which expose the host to the organism. Galaxy Lyme, Intervet-Schering-Plough's vaccine, targets proteins OspC and OspA. The OspC antibodies kill any of the bacteria that have not been killed by the OspA antibodies. Canine Recombinant Lyme, formulated by Merial, generates antibodies against the OspA protein so a tick feeding on a vaccinated dog draws in blood full of anti-OspA antibodies, which kill the spirochetes in the tick's gut before they are transmitted to the dog.


title: Lyme disease

text: Antibiotics are the primary treatment. The specific approach to their use is dependent on the individual affected and the stage of the disease. For most people with early localized infection, oral administration of doxycycline is widely recommended as the first choice, as it is effective against not only "Borrelia" bacteria but also a variety of other illnesses carried by ticks. People taking doxycycline should avoid sun exposure because of higher risk of sunburns. Doxycycline is contraindicated in children younger than eight years of age and women who are pregnant or breastfeeding; alternatives to doxycycline are amoxicillin, cefuroxime axetil, and azithromycin. Azithromycin is recommended only in case of intolerance to the other antibiotics. The standard treatment for cellulitis, cephalexin, is not useful for Lyme disease. When it is unclear if a rash is caused by Lyme or cellulitis, the IDSA recommends treatment with cefuroxime or amoxicillin/clavulanic acid, as these are effective against both infections. Individuals with early disseminated or late Lyme infection may have symptomatic cardiac disease, Lyme arthritis, or neurologic symptoms like facial palsy, radiculopathy, meningitis, or peripheral neuropathy. Intravenous administration of ceftriaxone is recommended as the first choice in these cases; cefotaxime and doxycycline are available as alternatives.


title: Lyme disease

text: Treatment regimens for Lyme disease range from 14 days in early localized disease, to 14–21 days in early disseminated disease to 14–28 days in late disseminated disease. Neurologic complications of Lyme disease may be treated with doxycycline as it can be taken by mouth and has a lower cost, although in North America evidence of efficacy is only indirect. In case of failure, guidelines recommend retreatment with injectable ceftriaxone. Several months after treatment for Lyme arthritis, if joint swelling persists or returns, a second round of antibiotics may be considered; intravenous antibiotics are preferred for retreatment in case of poor response to oral antibiotics. Outside of that, a prolonged antibiotic regimen lasting more than 28 days is not recommended as no evidence shows it to be effective. IgM and IgG antibody levels may be elevated for years even after successful treatment with antibiotics. As antibody levels are not indicative of treatment success, testing for them is not recommended.


title: Lyme disease

text: Facial palsy may resolve without treatment; however, antibiotic treatment is recommended to stop other Lyme complications. Corticosteroids are not recommended when facial palsy is caused by Lyme disease. In those with facial palsy, frequent use of artificial tears while awake is recommended, along with ointment and a patch or taping the eye closed when sleeping.


title: Lyme disease

text: About a third of people with Lyme carditis need a temporary pacemaker until their heart conduction abnormality resolves, and 21% need to be hospitalized. Lyme carditis should not be treated with corticosteroids.


title: Lyme disease

text: People with Lyme arthritis should limit their level of physical activity to avoid damaging affected joints, and in case of limping should use crutches. Pain associated with Lyme disease may be treated with nonsteroidal anti-inflammatory drugs (NSAIDs). Corticosteroid joint injections are not recommended for Lyme arthritis that is being treated with antibiotics. People with Lyme arthritis treated with intravenous antibiotics or two months of oral antibiotics who continue to have joint swelling two months after treatment and have negative PCR test for Borrelia DNA in the synovial fluid are said to have antibiotic-refractory Lyme arthritis; this is more common after infection by certain Borrelia strains in people with certain genetic and immunologic characteristics. Antibiotic-refractory Lyme arthritis may be symptomatically treated with NSAIDs, disease-modifying antirheumatic drugs (DMARDs), or arthroscopic synovectomy. Physical therapy is recommended for adults after resolution of Lyme arthritis.


title: Lyme disease

text: Lyme disease's typical first sign, the erythema migrans (EM) rash, resolves within several weeks even without treatment. However, in untreated people, the infection often disseminates to the nervous system, heart, or joints, possibly causing permanent damage to body tissues.


title: Lyme disease

text: People who receive recommended antibiotic treatment within several days of appearance of an initial EM rash have the best prospects. Recovery may not be total or immediate. The percentage of people achieving full recovery in the United States increases from about 64–71% at end of treatment for EM rash to about 84–90% after 30 months; higher percentages are reported in Europe. Treatment failure, i.e. persistence of original or appearance of new signs of the disease, occurs only in a few people. Remaining people are considered cured but continue to experience subjective symptoms, e.g. joint or muscle pains or fatigue. These symptoms usually are mild and nondisabling.


title: Lyme disease

text: People treated only after nervous system manifestations of the disease may end up with objective neurological deficits, in addition to subjective symptoms. In Europe, an average of 32–33 months after initial Lyme symptoms in people treated mostly with doxycycline 200 mg for 14–21 days, the percentage of people with lingering symptoms was much higher among those diagnosed with neuroborreliosis (50%) than among those with only an EM rash (16%). In another European study, 5 years after treatment for neuroborreliosis, lingering symptoms were less common among children (15%) than adults (30%), and in the latter was less common among those treated within 30 days of the first symptom (16%) than among those treated later (39%); among those with lingering symptoms, 54% had daily activities restricted and 19% were on sick leave or incapacitated.


title: Lyme disease

text: Some data suggest that about 90% of Lyme facial palsies treated with antibiotics recover fully a median of 24 days after appearing and most of the rest recover with only mild abnormality. However, in Europe 41% of people treated for facial palsy had other lingering symptoms at followup up to 6 months later, including 28% with numbness or altered sensation and 14% with fatigue or concentration problems. Palsies in both sides of the face are associated with worse and longer time to recovery. Historical data suggests that untreated people with facial palsies recover at nearly the same rate, but 88% subsequently have Lyme arthritis. Other research shows that synkinesis (involuntary movement of a facial muscle when another one is voluntarily moved) can become evident only 6–12 months after facial palsy appears to be resolved, as damaged nerves regrow and sometimes connect to incorrect muscles. Synkinesis is associated with corticosteroid use. In longer-term follow-up, 16–23% of Lyme facial palsies do not fully recover.


title: Lyme disease

text: In Europe, about a quarter of people with Bannwarth syndrome (Lyme radiculopathy and lymphocytic meningitis) treated with intravenous ceftriaxone for 14 days an average of 30 days after first symptoms had to be retreated 3–6 months later because of unsatisfactory clinical response or continued objective markers of infection in cerebrospinal fluid; after 12 months, 64% recovered fully, 31% had nondisabling mild or infrequent symptoms that did not require regular use of analgesics, and 5% had symptoms that were disabling or required substantial use of analgesics. The most common lingering nondisabling symptoms were headache, fatigue, altered sensation, joint pains, memory disturbances, malaise, radicular pain, sleep disturbances, muscle pains, and concentration disturbances. Lingering disabling symptoms included facial palsy and other impaired movement.


title: Lyme disease

text: Recovery from late neuroborreliosis tends to take longer and be less complete than from early neuroborreliosis, probably because of irreversible neurologic damage.


title: Lyme disease

text: About half the people with Lyme carditis progress to complete heart block, but it usually resolves in a week. Other Lyme heart conduction abnormalities resolve typically within 6 weeks. About 94% of people have full recovery, but 5% need a permanent pacemaker and 1% end up with persistent heart block (the actual percentage may be higher because of unrecognized cases). Lyme myocardial complications usually are mild and self-limiting. However, in some cases Lyme carditis can be fatal.


title: Lyme disease

text: Recommended antibiotic treatments are effective in about 90% of Lyme arthritis cases, although it can take several months for inflammation to resolve and a second round of antibiotics is often necessary. Antibiotic-refractory Lyme arthritis also eventually resolves, typically within 9–14 months (range 4 months – 4 years); DMARDs or synovectomy can accelerate recovery.


title: Lyme disease

text: Reinfection is not uncommon. In a U.S. study, 6–11% of people treated for an EM rash had another EM rash within 30 months. The second rash typically is due to infection by a different Borrelia strain.


title: Lyme disease

text: People who have nonspecific, subjective symptoms such as fatigue, joint and muscle aches, or cognitive difficulties for more than six months after recommended treatment for Lyme disease are said to have post-treatment Lyme disease syndrome (PTLDS). As of 2016 the reason for the lingering symptoms was not known; the condition is generally managed similarly to fibromyalgia or chronic fatigue syndrome.


title: Lyme disease

text: Lyme disease occurs regularly in Northern Hemisphere temperate regions. There is a suggestion that tick populations and Lyme disease occurrence are increasing and spreading into new areas, due in part to the warming temperatures of climate change. However tick-borne disease systems are complex, and determining whether changes are due to climate change or other drivers can be difficult.


title: Lyme disease

text: In northern Africa, "B. burgdorferi sensu lato" has been identified in Morocco, Algeria, Egypt and Tunisia.


title: Lyme disease

text: Lyme disease in sub-Saharan Africa is presently unknown, but evidence indicates it may occur in humans in this region. The abundance of hosts and tick vectors would favor the establishment of Lyme infection in Africa. In East Africa, two cases of Lyme disease have been reported in Kenya.


title: Lyme disease

text: "B. burgdorferi sensu lato"-infested ticks are being found more frequently in Japan, as well as in northwest China, Nepal, Thailand and far eastern Russia. "Borrelia" has also been isolated in Mongolia.


title: Lyme disease

text: In Europe, Lyme disease is caused by infection with one or more pathogenic European genospecies of the spirochaete "B. burgdorferi sensu lato", mainly transmitted by the tick "Ixodes ricinus". Cases of "B. burgdorferi sensu lato"-infected ticks are found predominantly in central Europe, particularly in Slovenia and Austria, but have been isolated in almost every country on the continent. Number of cases in southern Europe, such as Italy and Portugal, is much lower. Diagnosed cases in some Western countries, such as Iceland, are rising. Lyme disease is rare in Iceland. On average around 6 to 7 cases are diagnosed every year, primarily localised infections presenting as erythema migrans. None of the cases had a definitive Icelandic origin and the yearly number of cases has not been increasing.


title: Lyme disease

text: In the United Kingdom the number of laboratory confirmed cases of Lyme disease has been rising steadily since voluntary reporting was introduced in 1986 when 68 cases were recorded in the UK and Ireland combined. In the UK there were 23 confirmed cases in 1988 and 19 in 1990, but 973 in 2009 and 953 in 2010. Provisional figures for the first 3 quarters of 2011 show a 26% increase on the same period in 2010.


title: Lyme disease

text: It is thought, however, that the actual number of cases is significantly higher than suggested by the above figures, with the UK's Health Protection Agency estimating that there are between 2,000 and 3,000 cases per year, (with an average of around 15% of the infections acquired overseas), while Dr Darrel Ho-Yen, Director of the Scottish Toxoplasma Reference Laboratory and National Lyme Disease Testing Service, believes that the number of confirmed cases should be multiplied by 10 "to take account of wrongly diagnosed cases, tests giving false results, sufferers who weren't tested, people who are infected but not showing symptoms, failures to notify and infected individuals who don't consult a doctor."


title: Lyme disease

text: Despite Lyme disease (Borrelia burgdorferi infection) being a notifiable disease in Scotland since January 1990 which should therefore be reported on the basis of clinical suspicion, it is believed that many GPs are unaware of the requirement. Mandatory reporting, limited to laboratory test results only, was introduced throughout the UK in October 2010, under the Health Protection (Notification) Regulations 2010.


title: Lyme disease

text: Although there is a greater number of cases of Lyme disease in the New Forest, Salisbury Plain, Exmoor, the South Downs, parts of Wiltshire and Berkshire, Thetford Forest and the West coast and islands of Scotland, infected ticks are widespread, and can even be found in the parks of London. A 1989 report found that 25% of forestry workers in the New Forest were seropositive, as were between 2% and 4–5% of the general local population of the area.


title: Lyme disease

text: Tests on pet dogs carried out throughout the country in 2009 indicated that around 2.5% of ticks in the UK may be infected, considerably higher than previously thought. It is speculated that global warming may lead to an increase in tick activity in the future, as well as an increase in the amount of time that people spend in public parks, thus increasing the risk of infection. However no published research has proven this to be so.


title: Lyme disease

text: Many studies in North America have examined ecological and environmental correlates of the number of people affected by Lyme disease. A 2005 study using climate suitability modelling of "I. scapularis" projected that climate change would cause an overall 213% increase in suitable vector habitat by 2080, with northward expansions in Canada, increased suitability in the central U.S., and decreased suitable habitat and vector retraction in the southern U.S. A 2008 review of published studies concluded that the presence of forests or forested areas was the only variable that consistently elevated the risk of Lyme disease whereas other environmental variables showed little or no concordance between studies. The authors argued that the factors influencing tick density and human risk between sites are still poorly understood, and that future studies should be conducted over longer time periods, become more standardized across regions, and incorporate existing knowledge of regional Lyme disease ecology.


title: Lyme disease

text: The range of ticks able to carry Lyme disease has expanded from a limited area of Ontario to include areas of southern Quebec, Manitoba, northern Ontario, southern New Brunswick, southwest Nova Scotia and limited parts of Saskatchewan and Alberta, as well as British Columbia. Cases have been reported as far east as the island of Newfoundland. A model-based prediction by Leighton "et al." (2012) suggests that the range of the "I. scapularis" tick will expand into Canada by 46 km/year over the next decade, with warming climatic temperatures as the main driver of increased speed of spread.


title: Lyme disease

text: A 2007 study suggests "Borrelia burgdorferi" infections are endemic to Mexico, from four cases reported between 1999 and 2000.


title: Lyme disease

text: In 2019, according to the CDC, there were approximately 35,000 confirmed and probable cases in the U.S. with incidences occurring in almost every state. The CDC is currently conducting research on evaluation and diagnostics of the disease and preliminary results suggest the number of new cases to be around 300,000.


title: Lyme disease

text: Lyme disease is the most common tick-borne disease in North America and Europe, and one of the fastest-growing infectious diseases in the United States. Of cases reported to the United States CDC, the ratio of Lyme disease infection is 7.9 cases for every 100,000 persons. In the ten states where Lyme disease is most common, the average was 31.6 cases for every 100,000 persons for the year 2005.


title: Lyme disease

text: Although Lyme disease has been reported in all states about 99% of all reported cases are confined to just five geographic areas (New England, Mid-Atlantic, East-North Central, South Atlantic, and West North-Central). New 2011 CDC Lyme case definition guidelines are used to determine confirmed CDC surveillance cases.


title: Lyme disease

text: Effective January 2008, the CDC gives equal weight to laboratory evidence from 1 a positive culture for "B. burgdorferi"; 2) two-tier testing (ELISA screening and Western blot confirming); or 3) single-tier IgG (old infection) Western blot. Previously, the CDC only included laboratory evidence based on (1) and (2) in their surveillance case definition. The case definition now includes the use of Western blot without prior ELISA screen.


title: Lyme disease

text: The number of reported cases of the disease has been increasing, as are endemic regions in North America. For example, "B. burgdorferi sensu lato" was previously thought to be hindered in its ability to be maintained in an enzootic cycle in California, because it was assumed the large lizard population would dilute the number of people affected by "B. burgdorferi" in local tick populations; this has since been brought into question, as some evidence has suggested lizards can become infected.


title: Lyme disease

text: Except for one study in Europe, much of the data implicating lizards is based on DNA detection of the spirochete and has not demonstrated that lizards are able to infect ticks feeding upon them. As some experiments suggest lizards are refractory to infection with "Borrelia", it appears likely their involvement in the enzootic cycle is more complex and species-specific.


title: Lyme disease

text: While "B. burgdorferi" is most associated with ticks hosted by white-tailed deer and white-footed mice, "Borrelia afzelii" is most frequently detected in rodent-feeding vector ticks, and "Borrelia garinii" and "Borrelia valaisiana" appear to be associated with birds. Both rodents and birds are competent reservoir hosts for "B. burgdorferi sensu stricto". The resistance of a genospecies of Lyme disease spirochetes to the bacteriolytic activities of the alternative complement pathway of various host species may determine its reservoir host association.


title: Lyme disease

text: Several similar but apparently distinct conditions may exist, caused by various species or subspecies of "Borrelia" in North America. A regionally restricted condition that may be related to "Borrelia" infection is southern tick-associated rash illness (STARI), also known as Masters disease. "Amblyomma americanum", known commonly as the lone-star tick, is recognized as the primary vector for STARI. In some parts of the geographical distribution of STARI, Lyme disease is quite rare (e.g., Arkansas), so people in these regions experiencing Lyme-like symptoms—especially if they follow a bite from a lone-star tick—should consider STARI as a possibility. It is generally a milder condition than Lyme and typically responds well to antibiotic treatment.


title: Lyme disease

text: In recent years there have been 5 to 10 cases a year of a disease similar to Lyme occurring in Montana. It occurs primarily in pockets along the Yellowstone River in central Montana. People have developed a red bull's-eye rash around a tick bite followed by weeks of fatigue and a fever.


title: Lyme disease

text: Lyme disease effects are comparable among males and females. A wide range of age groups is affected, though the number of cases is highest among 10- to 19-year-olds. For unknown reasons, Lyme disease is seven times more common among Asians.


title: Lyme disease

text: In South America, tick-borne disease recognition and occurrence is rising. In Brazil, a Lyme-like disease known as Baggio–Yoshinari syndrome was identified, caused by microorganisms that do not belong to the "B. burgdorferi sensu lato" complex and transmitted by ticks of the "Amblyomma" and "Rhipicephalus" genera. The first reported case of BYS in Brazil was made in 1992 in Cotia, São Paulo.


title: Lyme disease

text: The evolutionary history of "Borrelia burgdorferi" genetics has been the subject of recent studies. One study has found that prior to the reforestation that accompanied post-colonial farm abandonment in New England and the wholesale migration into the mid-west that occurred during the early 19th century, Lyme disease was present for thousands of years in America and had spread along with its tick hosts from the Northeast to the Midwest.


title: Lyme disease

text: John Josselyn, who visited New England in 1638 and again from 1663 to 1670, wrote "there be infinite numbers of ticks hanging upon the bushes in summertime that will cleave to man's garments and creep into his breeches, eating themselves in a short time into the very flesh of a man. I have seen the stockings of those that have gone through the woods covered with them."


title: Lyme disease

text: This is also confirmed by the writings of Peter Kalm, a Swedish botanist who was sent to America by Linnaeus, and who found the forests of New York "abound" with ticks when he visited in 1749. When Kalm's journey was retraced 100 years later, the forests were gone and the Lyme bacterium had probably become isolated to a few pockets along the northeast coast, Wisconsin, and Minnesota.


title: Lyme disease

text: Perhaps the first detailed description of what is now known as Lyme disease appeared in the writings of John Walker after a visit to the island of Jura (Deer Island) off the west coast of Scotland in 1764. He gives a good description both of the symptoms of Lyme disease (with "exquisite pain [in] the interior parts of the limbs") and of the tick vector itself, which he describes as a "worm" with a body which is "of a reddish color and of a compressed shape with a row of feet on each side" that "penetrates the skin". Many people from this area of Great Britain emigrated to North America between 1717 and the end of the 18th century.


title: Lyme disease

text: The examination of preserved museum specimens has found "Borrelia" DNA in an infected "Ixodes ricinus" tick from Germany that dates back to 1884, and from an infected mouse from Cape Cod that died in 1894. The 2010 autopsy of Ötzi the Iceman, a 5,300-year-old mummy, revealed the presence of the DNA sequence of "Borrelia burgdorferi" making him the earliest known human with Lyme disease.


title: Lyme disease

text: The early European studies of what is now known as Lyme disease described its skin manifestations. The first study dates to 1883 in Breslau, Germany (now Wrocław, Poland), where physician Alfred Buchwald described a man who for 16 years had had a degenerative skin disorder now known as acrodermatitis chronica atrophicans.


title: Lyme disease

text: At a 1909 research conference, Swedish dermatologist Arvid Afzelius presented a study about an expanding, ring-like lesion he had observed in an older woman following the bite of a sheep tick. He named the lesion "erythema migrans". The skin condition now known as borrelial lymphocytoma was first described in 1911.


title: Lyme disease

text: The modern history of medical understanding of the disease, including its cause, diagnosis, and treatment, has been difficult.


title: Lyme disease

text: Neurological problems following tick bites were recognized starting in the 1920s. French physicians Garin and Bujadoux described a farmer with a painful sensory radiculitis accompanied by mild meningitis following a tick bite. A large, ring-shaped rash was also noted, although the doctors did not relate it to the meningoradiculitis. In 1930, the Swedish dermatologist Sven Hellerström was the first to propose EM and neurological symptoms following a tick bite were related. In the 1940s, German neurologist Alfred Bannwarth described several cases of chronic lymphocytic meningitis and polyradiculoneuritis, some of which were accompanied by erythematous skin lesions.


title: Lyme disease

text: Carl Lennhoff, who worked at the Karolinska Institute in Sweden, believed many skin conditions were caused by spirochetes. In 1948, he used a special stain to microscopically observe what he believed were spirochetes in various types of skin lesions, including EM. Although his conclusions were later shown to be erroneous, interest in the study of spirochetes was sparked. In 1949, Nils Thyresson, who also worked at the Karolinska Institute, was the first to treat ACA with penicillin. In the 1950s, the relationship among tick bite, lymphocytoma, EM and Bannwarth's syndrome was recognized throughout Europe leading to the widespread use of penicillin for treatment in Europe.


title: Lyme disease

text: In 1970, a dermatologist in Wisconsin named Rudolph Scrimenti recognized an EM lesion in a person after recalling a paper by Hellerström that had been reprinted in an American science journal in 1950. This was the first documented case of EM in the United States. Based on the European literature, he treated the person with penicillin.


title: Lyme disease

text: The full syndrome now known as Lyme disease was not recognized until a cluster of cases originally thought to be juvenile rheumatoid arthritis was identified in three towns in southeastern Connecticut in 1975, including the towns Lyme and Old Lyme, which gave the disease its popular name. This was investigated by physicians David Snydman and Allen Steere of the Epidemic Intelligence Service, and by others from Yale University, including Stephen Malawista, who is credited as a co-discover of the disease. The recognition that the people in the United States had EM led to the recognition that "Lyme arthritis" was one manifestation of the same tick-borne condition known in Europe.


title: Lyme disease

text: Before 1976, the elements of "B. burgdorferi sensu lato" infection were called or known as tick-borne meningopolyneuritis, Garin-Bujadoux syndrome, Bannwarth syndrome, Afzelius's disease, Montauk Knee or sheep tick fever. Since 1976 the disease is most often referred to as Lyme disease, Lyme borreliosis or simply borreliosis.


title: Lyme disease

text: In 1980, Steere, "et al.", began to test antibiotic regimens in adults with Lyme disease. In the same year, New York State Health Dept. epidemiologist Jorge Benach provided Willy Burgdorfer, a researcher at the Rocky Mountain Biological Laboratory, with collections of "I. dammini" ["scapularis"] from Shelter Island, New York, a known Lyme-endemic area as part of an ongoing investigation of Rocky Mountain spotted fever. In examining the ticks for rickettsiae, Burgdorfer noticed "poorly stained, rather long, irregularly coiled spirochetes." Further examination revealed spirochetes in 60% of the ticks. Burgdorfer credited his familiarity with the European literature for his realization that the spirochetes might be the "long-sought cause of ECM and Lyme disease." Benach supplied him with more ticks from Shelter Island and sera from people diagnosed with Lyme disease. University of Texas Health Science Center researcher Alan Barbour "offered his expertise to culture and immunochemically characterize the organism." Burgdorfer subsequently confirmed his discovery by isolating, from people with Lyme disease, spirochetes identical to those found in ticks. In June 1982, he published his findings in Science, and the spirochete was named "Borrelia burgdorferi" in his honor.


title: Lyme disease

text: After the identification of "B. burgdorferi" as the causative agent of Lyme disease, antibiotics were selected for testing, guided by "in vitro" antibiotic sensitivities, including tetracycline antibiotics, amoxicillin, cefuroxime axetil, intravenous and intramuscular penicillin and intravenous ceftriaxone. The mechanism of tick transmission was also the subject of much discussion. "B. burgdorferi" spirochetes were identified in tick saliva in 1987, confirming the hypothesis that transmission occurred via tick salivary glands.


title: Lyme disease

text: Urbanization and other anthropogenic factors can be implicated in the spread of Lyme disease to humans. In many areas, expansion of suburban neighborhoods has led to gradual deforestation of surrounding wooded areas and increased border contact between humans and tick-dense areas. Human expansion has also resulted in a reduction of predators that hunt deer as well as mice, chipmunks and other small rodents—the primary reservoirs for Lyme disease. As a consequence of increased human contact with host and vector, the likelihood of transmission of the disease has greatly increased. Researchers are investigating possible links between global warming and the spread of vector-borne diseases, including Lyme disease.


title: Lyme disease

text: The term "chronic Lyme disease" is controversial and not recognized in the medical literature, and most medical authorities advise against long-term antibiotic treatment for Lyme disease. Studies have shown that most people diagnosed with "chronic Lyme disease" either have no objective evidence of previous or current infection with "B. burgdorferi" or are people who should be classified as having post-treatment Lyme disease syndrome (PTLDS), which is defined as continuing or relapsing non-specific symptoms (such as fatigue, musculoskeletal pain, and cognitive complaints) in a person previously treated for Lyme disease.


title: Lyme disease

text: The 2008 documentary "Under Our Skin" is known for promoting controversial and unrecognized theories about "chronic Lyme disease".


title: Lyme disease

text: Prevention of Lyme disease is an important step in keeping dogs safe in endemic areas. Prevention education and a number of preventive measures are available. First, for dog owners who live near or who often frequent tick-infested areas, routine vaccinations of their dogs is an important step.


title: Lyme disease

text: Another crucial preventive measure is the use of persistent acaricides, such as topical repellents or pesticides that contain triazapentadienes (Amitraz), phenylpyrazoles (Fipronil), or permethrin (pyrethroids). These acaricides target primarily the adult stages of Lyme-carrying ticks and reduce the number of reproductively active ticks in the environment. Formulations of these ingredients are available in a variety of topical forms, including spot-ons, sprays, powders, impregnated collars, solutions, and shampoos.


title: Lyme disease

text: Examination of a dog for ticks after being in a tick-infested area is an important precautionary measure to take in the prevention of Lyme disease. Key spots to examine include the head, neck, and ears.


title: Lyme disease

text: In dogs, a serious long-term prognosis may result in glomerular disease, which is a category of kidney damage that may cause chronic kidney disease. Dogs may also experience chronic joint disease if the disease is left untreated. However, the majority of cases of Lyme disease in dogs result in complete recovery with, and sometimes without, treatment with antibiotics. In rare cases, Lyme disease can be fatal to both humans and dogs.


title: Thanos

text: Thanos is a supervillain appearing in American comic books published by Marvel Comics. He was created by writer-artist Jim Starlin, and first appeared in "The Invincible Iron Man" #55 (cover date February 1973). An Eternal–Deviant warlord from the moon Titan, Thanos is regarded as one of the most powerful beings in the Marvel Universe. He has clashed with many heroes including the Avengers, the Guardians of the Galaxy, the Fantastic Four, the Eternals, and the X-Men.


title: Thanos

text: In creating Thanos, Starlin drew inspiration from Jack Kirby's "New Gods" series for DC Comics, particularly the character of Darkseid. Thanos is usually portrayed as a villain, although many stories depict him as believing his actions to be justified. Perhaps the character's best-known storyline is "The Infinity Gauntlet" (1991), the culmination of several story arcs that see him gather the six Infinity Gems and use them to kill half of the universe's population, including many of its heroes, to woo Mistress Death, the living embodiment of death in the Marvel Universe. Although these events were later undone, the storyline has remained one of the most popular published by Marvel.


title: Thanos

text: Debuting in the Bronze Age of comic books, the character has appeared in almost five decades of Marvel publications, as well as many media adaptations, including animated television series and video games.


title: Thanos

text: In the Marvel Cinematic Universe, the character was first played by Damion Poitier in the film "The Avengers" (2012) and then by Josh Brolin in "Guardians of the Galaxy" (2014), "" (2015), "" (2018), "" (2019), and the first season of the animated series "What If...?" (2021).


title: Thanos

text: Writer-artist Jim Starlin conceived of Thanos of Titan during college psychology classes. As Starlin described:


title: Thanos

text: Thanos's first appearance was in "The Invincible Iron Man" #55 (February 1973), featuring a story by Jim Starlin that was co-scripted by Mike Friedrich. The storyline from that issue continued through "Captain Marvel" #25–33 (bi-monthly: March 1973 – Jan. 1974), "Marvel Feature" #12 (Nov. 1973), "Daredevil" #107 (Jan. 1974), and "Avengers" #125 (July 1974). He returned in an extended storyline that spanned "Strange Tales" #178–181 (Feb.–Aug. 1975), "Warlock" #9-11 (Oct. 1975 – Jan. 1976), "Marvel Team Up" #55 (March 1977), and the 1977 Annuals for "Avengers" and "Marvel Two-in-One" (Thanos does not actually appear until the end of "Warlock" #9). He was also featured in a short backup story in "Logan's Run" #6 (June 1977) and had a small role in the "Death of Captain Marvel" graphic novel (April 1982).


title: Thanos

text: The character was revived in "Silver Surfer" vol. 3, #34 (Feb. 1990) and guest-starred until issue #59 (November 1991), while simultaneously appearing in "The Thanos Quest" #1–2 (Sept.–Oct. 1990) and "The Infinity Gauntlet" #1–6 (July–Dec. 1991). After an appearance in "Spider-Man" #17 (Dec. 1991), Thanos had a recurring role in "Warlock and the Infinity Watch" #1–42 (Feb. 1992 – Aug. 1995). This was followed by crossover appearances in "Infinity War" #1–6 (June – Nov. 1992), "Infinity Crusade" #1–6 (June – Nov. 1993), "Silver Surfer" vol. 3, #86–88 (Nov. 1993 – Jan. 1994), "Warlock Chronicles" #6–8, "Thor" #468–471 (Nov. 1993 – Feb. 1994), "Namor The Sub-Mariner" #44 (Nov. 1993), "Secret Defenders" #11–14 (Jan.–April 1994), "Cosmic Powers" #1–6 (March–July 1994), and "Cosmic Powers Unlimited" #1 (May 1995).


title: Thanos

text: Thanos appeared in a connected storyline in "Ka-Zar" vol. 2, #4–11 (Aug. 1997 – March 1998), "Ka-Zar Annual" (1997), and the "X-Man" and "Hulk Annual" (1998), before featuring in "Thor" vol. 2, #21–25 (March–July 2000) and the 2000 Annual. The character was next used in "Captain Marvel" vol. 4, #17–19 (June–Aug. 2001), "Avengers: Celestial Quest" #1–8 (Nov. 2001 – June 2002), "Infinity Abyss" #1–6 (Aug.–Oct. 2002) and "" #1–6 (May–Aug 2003).


title: Thanos

text: In 2004 Thanos received an eponymous title that ran for 12 issues. In 2006, the character played an important role in "Annihilation: Silver Surfer" #1–4 (June – Sept. 2006) and "Annihilation" #1–6 (Oct. 2006 – March 2007). The character was re-introduced in "Guardians of the Galaxy" vol. 2, #24–25 (April–May 2010) and played a major role in "The Thanos Imperative: Ignition" (June 2010) and "The Thanos Imperative" #1–6 (July–Dec. 2010).


title: Thanos

text: The character returned in "Avengers Assemble" #1 (March 2012). A mini-series titled "Thanos: Son of Titan" by Joe Keatinge was planned for publication in August 2012, but was cancelled.


title: Thanos

text: The character's origin was expanded in the five-issue "Thanos Rising" miniseries by Jason Aaron and Simone Bianchi which was published monthly beginning in April 2013. Later that same year, Thanos played a central role in the "Infinity" miniseries written by Jonathan Hickman and drawn by Jim Cheung, Jerome Opeña, and Dustin Weaver.


title: Thanos

text: In May 2014, Jim Starlin and Ron Lim worked together on the one-shot "Thanos Annual", which is a prelude to a new trilogy of original graphic novels. The first, "Thanos: The Infinity Revelation", was released the following August. Beginning in February 2015, Starlin also penned a four-issue miniseries titled "Thanos vs. Hulk", which was set prior to the graphic novels. The second installment in the trilogy, "Thanos: The Infinity Relativity", was released in June, 2015. The third graphic novel, "Thanos: The Infinity Finale", as well as the connected mini-series "The Infinity Entity" were published in 2016.


title: Thanos

text: At the same time Starlin was writing these graphic novels and tie-ins, the character also appeared in "New Avengers" #23–24 (Oct–Nov 2014), "Guardians of the Galaxy" vol. 3, #18–20 (Oct–Dec 2014), "Legendary Star-Lord" #4 (Dec 2014), a six-issue miniseries titled "Thanos: A God Up There Listening" (Dec 2014), "Avengers" vol. 5, #40–41 (Mar–Apr 2015), and "Deadpool" vol. 3, #45 ("#250") (Jun 2015). Thanos also played a major role in the five-issue miniseries "The Infinity Gauntlet" vol. 2, (July 2015 – Jan 2016), a tie-in of the cross-over "Secret Wars" (2015).


title: Thanos

text: In 2017, as part of Marvel NOW!, Thanos received his own solo title written by Jeff Lemire and drawn by Mike Deodato. After 11 issues, Donny Cates and Geoff Shaw took over as the creative team. This storyline crossed over with Donny Cates' Cosmic Ghost Rider storyline.


title: Thanos

text: In 2021, Thanos was later reintroduced as a primary antagonist in the comic series "Eternals" vol. 5, #1-12, by the writer Kieron Gillen and artist Esad Ribić, and plays a prominent role in exploring Eternals mythos and retcons.


title: Thanos

text: Thanos was born on Saturn's moon Titan as the son of Eternals A'lars and Sui-San, the nephew of Zuras, and the grandnephew of Uranos. His brother is Eros of Titan. Thanos carries the Deviants gene, and as such, shares the physical appearance of the Eternals' cousin race. Shocked by his appearance and the belief that he would destroy all life in the universe, Sui-San went insane and attempted to kill him, but she was stopped by A'lars. During his school years, Thanos was a pacifist and would only play with his brother Eros and pets. By adolescence, Thanos had become fascinated with nihilism and entropy, worshipping and eventually falling in love with the physical embodiment of Mistress Death.


title: Thanos

text: At some point in his youth, a younger Thanos was sent to Earth by Mephisto where he fought the prehistoric Avengers where he was repelled.


title: Thanos

text: As an adult, Thanos augmented his physical strength and powers through his superior scientific knowledge using a combination of mysticism and cybernetic enhancements. He also attempted to create a new life for himself by siring many children as well as becoming a pirate. He finds no fulfillment in either until he is visited again by Mistress Death, for whom he murders his offspring and his pirate captain.


title: Thanos

text: Wishing to impress Mistress Death, Thanos gathers an army of villainous aliens and begins a nuclear bombardment of Titan that kills millions of his race. Seeking universal power in the form of the Cosmic Cube, Thanos travels to Earth. Prior to landing, his vessel destroys a nearby car as a family witnesses his arrival. Unbeknownst to Thanos, two of the family members in the vehicle survive: the father's spirit is preserved by the Titanian cosmic entity Kronos and is given a new form as Drax the Destroyer while the daughter is found by Thanos's father, Mentor, and is raised to become the heroine Moondragon. Thanos eventually locates the Cube, and also attracts the attention of Mistress Death. Willing the Cube to make him omnipotent, Thanos then discards the Cube. He imprisons Kronos and taunts Kree hero Captain Marvel, who, with the aid of superhero team the Avengers and ISAAC (a super-computer based on Titan), is eventually able to defeat Thanos by destroying the Cube.


title: Thanos

text: Thanos later comes to the aid of Adam Warlock in a war against the Magus and his religious empire. During the process, he ends up adopting Gamora in order to use her as his assassin and kill Adam Warlock before becoming Magus. During this alliance Thanos cultivates a plan to reunite with Mistress Death, and secretly siphons off the energies of Warlock's Soul Gem, combining these with the power of the other Infinity Gems to create a weapon capable of destroying a star. Warlock summons the Avengers and Captain Marvel to stop Thanos, although the plan is foiled when Thanos kills Warlock. The Titan regroups and captures the heroes, who are freed by Spider-Man and the Thing. Thanos is finally stopped by Warlock, whose spirit emerges from the Soul Gem and turns the Titan to stone. Thanos's spirit eventually reappears to accompany a dying Captain Marvel's soul into the realm of Death.


title: Thanos

text: During the "Infinity Saga" storyline, Thanos is eventually resurrected and collects the Infinity Gems once again. He uses the gems to create the Infinity Gauntlet, making himself omnipotent, and erases half the living things in the universe to prove his love to Death. This act and several other acts are soon undone by Nebula and Adam Warlock. Warlock reveals that Thanos has always allowed himself to be defeated because the Titan secretly knows he is not worthy of ultimate power. Thanos joins Warlock as part of the Infinity Watch and helps him to defeat first his evil and then good personas, and cure Thor of "warrior Madness".


title: Thanos

text: Thanos later recruits a team of Earth-bound super-villains and puts them under the field leadership of Geatar in a mission to capture an ancient robot containing the obscure knowledge of a universal library and extract its data. Thanos uses information from the robot to plot against and battle Tyrant, the first creation of Galactus turned destroyer. When trapped in an alternate dimension, Thanos employs the aid of the brother of Ka-Zar, Parnival Plunder and later the Hulk to escape, although both attempts are unsuccessful. Thanos is eventually freed and comes into conflict with Thor, aligning himself with Mangog in a scheme to obtain powerful mystical and cosmic talismans which will allow him to destroy all life in the universe, and during their battles Thanos decimates the planet Rigel-3.


title: Thanos

text: Thanos then uses the heroes Thor and Genis-Vell (Captain Marvel's son) against the death god Walker, who attempts to woo Mistress Death and then destroy the entity after being rejected. Thanos then devises a plan to become the All-Father of a new pantheon of gods created by himself. Thanos, however, finds himself opposed by the Avengers' former member Mantis and her son Quoi, who apparently is destined to be the Celestial Messiah. Thanos abandons this plan after having to unite with Mistress Death to destroy the "Rot", a cosmic aberration in deep space caused by Thanos's incessant love for Death. Thanos also once conducted extensive research on genetics, studying many of the universe's heroes and villains before cloning them, and gene-spliced his own DNA into the subjects. Although he later abandons the project, five clones survive, being versions of Professor X, Iron Man, Gladiator, Doctor Strange, and Galactus respectively. A sixth and unnamed version of Thanos also appears, and it is revealed the incarnations of Thanos encountered in the past by Thor and Ka-Zar were actually clones. The true Thanos – with the aid of Adam Warlock, Gamora, Pip the Troll, Spider-Man, Captain Marvel, and Dr. Strange – destroys the remaining clones.


title: Thanos

text: When the ancient Egyptian pharaoh Akhenaten uses a source of cosmic power, the Heart of the Universe, to seize power in present-day Earth (killing most of Earth's heroes in the process), Thanos uses a time-travel stratagem to defeat him. Thanos then uses the Heart of the Universe to reverse Akhenaten's actions and was also compelled to correct a flaw in the universe, for which Mistress Death kisses him, and speaks to him for the first time. Changed by the experience, Thanos advises confidant Adam Warlock he will no longer seek universal conquest.


title: Thanos

text: Thanos decides to atone for the destruction of Rigel-3, and agrees to aid a colony of Rigellians in evacuating their planet before Galactus can consume it. During the course of this mission Thanos learns Galactus is collecting the Infinity Gems in an effort to end his unyielding hunger. Thanos later learns Galactus is being manipulated into releasing a multiversal threat called Hunger, which feeds on entire universes. Despite opposition from Thanos, Galactus unwittingly frees the entity, and when its intentions are revealed, the pair team up and attempt to destroy it.


title: Thanos

text: En route to the Kyln, an intergalactic prison, Thanos meets Death for the first time since re-building existence with the Heart of the Universe. Death claims to be worth wooing, but says Thanos must offer something other than death. At the Kyln Thanos encounters Peter Quill, who has retired himself from the role of Star-Lord, and the Strontian warrior Gladiator of the Shi'ar Empire, who are both prisoners, as well as the Beyonder, who has been rendered amnesiac by its choice to assume a humanoid female form. Thanos battles the Beyonder, causing its mind to shut down and leaving its power trapped within a comatose physical form. Thanos then instructs the Kyln officers to keep the Beyonder on life support indefinitely in order to prevent the entity from being reborn. The destruction frees Thanos and his fellow inmates, and he finds himself accompanied by the chaos-mite Skreet in his plans to leave the remains of the prison. He discovers, however, that the destruction wrought by the battle with the Beyonder has freed the last prisoner brought in by Peter Quill before he gave up the title of Star-Lord: the Fallen One, revealed to be the true first Herald of Galactus, who had been held in a container deep in the Kyln. Thanos defeats the former Herald and places him under complete mental control. He later appears in Wisconsin attempting to charge a weapon called the Pyramatrix with the life force of everyone on Earth until he is defeated by Squirrel Girl. After the battle, Uatu the Watcher appears and confirms to Squirrel Girl that she defeated the real Thanos, not a clone or copy.


title: Thanos

text: During the Annihilation War, Thanos allies himself with the genocidal villain Annihilus. When the Annihilation Wave destroys the Kyln, Thanos sends the Fallen to check on the status of the Beyonder, whose mortal form he finds has perished. Before the Fallen can report back to Thanos it encounters Tenebrous and Aegis: two of Galactus's ancient foes. Thanos convinces Tenebrous and Aegis to join the Annihilation Wave in order to get revenge on Galactus, and they subsequently defeat the World Devourer and the Silver Surfer. Annihilus desires the secret of the Power Cosmic and asks Thanos to study Galactus. Once Thanos learns Annihilus's true goal is to use the Power Cosmic to destroy all life and remain the sole survivor, he decides to free Galactus. Drax the Destroyer kills Thanos before he can do so but discovers that Thanos had placed a failsafe device to allow Silver Surfer to free Galactus in the event that Annihilus betrayed him. During a climactic battle with Annihilus, Nova is near death and sees Thanos standing with Mistress Death.


title: Thanos

text: During "The Thanos Imperative" storyline, a cocoon protected by the Universal Church of Truth is revealed to be hiding Thanos, who has been chosen by Oblivion to be the new Avatar of Death. Resurrected before his mind could be fully formed, Thanos goes on a mindless rampage before being captured by the Guardians of the Galaxy. Thanos pretends to aid the Guardians against the invading Cancerverse, and after discovering its origin kills an alternate version of Mar-Vell, the self-proclaimed Avatar of Life. This causes the collapse of the Cancerverse, and Nova sacrifices himself in an attempt to contain Thanos inside the imploding reality. Thanos escapes and returns to Earth seeking an artificial cosmic cube. He forms an incarnation of the criminal group Zodiac to retrieve it, but he is defeated by the Avengers and the Guardians of the Galaxy and remanded to the custody of the Elders of the Universe.


title: Thanos

text: During the "Infinity" storyline, Thanos soon invades Earth again after being informed that most of the Avengers have temporarily left the planet. He launches an assault on Attilan, which he offers to spare in exchange for the deaths of all Inhumans between the ages of 16 and 22. Black Bolt later informs the Illuminati that the true purpose of the invasion is to find and kill Thane, an Eternal/Inhuman hybrid that Thanos had secretly fathered years earlier. Thanos is trapped in a pocket limbo of stasis by his son. Thanos is freed by Namor and was among the villains that joined his Cabal to destroy other worlds. Thanos later meets his end on Battleworld, where he is easily killed by God Emperor Doom during an attempted insurrection.


title: Thanos

text: Investigating a temporal anomaly on Titan during "The Infinity Conflict", Thanos finds Pip the Troll and an older Eros who has come from the future. Eros tells him about an enemy made out darkness that will destroy Thanos in the future. Eros and Thanos craft a plan, but when they go to implement it Thanos is confronted by his future self who tells him to alter the plan to ensure his safety. The future Thanos then takes control of the past Thanos' body. Under the control of his future self, Thanos began searching through ancient temples and sites to find something that would allow him to eventually become like his future. Through his journey he was also forced to kill Adam Warlock who might interfere with his future's plan. After being unable to locate Eros, his future self tells Thanos that Eros was extremely important to his cosmic masterwork. Then after locating an moving comet Thanos goes to the comet which contained a treasure more powerful than the Infinity Gems. Despite the speed of comet being enough to immediately vaporize any being Thanos was able to get it since he "existed outside the norm". With this artifact Thanos was able to absorb every cosmic being that exists in his universe, eventually facing Eternity and Infinity. Despite their best effort Thanos defeats them and absorbs the two beings. He then merges with his future self finally taking the battle to the Living Tribunal and the One Above All. Facing the One Above All and the Living Tribunal, Thanos' future self went on to absorb both of them becoming the entirety of the Multiverse. As the multiverse began dying, while his future self searched for Eros, present Thanos was locked away within his future's psyche not allowed to interfere. In a desperate ditch effort to prevent all of this Eros, alongside Pip, travel to different points of Thanos' past and tell him he is not alone and that he is loved. However, it is all in vain as Thanos simply did not care, but these temporal paradoxes did allow present Thanos to use that little access of his future's power to talk to Eros through his past selves. He directs Eros and Pip to his future's psyche and had Eros free him, but unfortunately this allows future Thanos to finally find Eros and had him absorbed inside his universe. Then Adam Warlock came and refuses to free Thanos because he would end up as Eros and tells Thanos that trust would be the only thing that would stop future Thanos. As his future self saw that existence was just a never-endless cycle which trapped all beings decided to commit suicide and "free" everyone from this "torture". Thankfully, Kang prevented Eros from going to talk to Thanos' past selves which allowed him to avoid capture. This caused future Thanos to get distracted which allowed present Thanos to take control and reset everything prior to his future machinations, while erasing his future in the process.


title: Thanos

text: When Thanos prepares to raid a Project Pegasus facility to steal a Cosmic Cube during the "Civil War II" storyline, he is ambushed and defeated by a team of Avengers who were tipped off by a vision from Ulysses Cain. During their battle, he mortally wounds War Machine and critically injures She-Hulk. After his defeat, he is imprisoned in the Triskelion, and manipulates Anti-Man into facilitating his escape. Thanos goes on a killing spree, but Black Panther, Blue Marvel and Monica Rambeau are able to stop him by devising a device that blocks the electrical synapses in his brain.


title: Thanos

text: Thanos somehow later recovers during the "Thanos Returns" story and escapes captivity, and reclaims his Black Order forces from Corvus Glaive. After retaking command of his Black Quadrant outpost, Thanos discovers that he is dying. Thanos tries to force his father, Mentor, to find a cure for his malady, but kills him when he is unable to. Soon after Thanos would be battered and detained by the Shi'ar Imperial Guard after he invaded the very planet station of his father's facility sitting in their territory. A quick jump into the future shows Thanos's estranged son Thane having bested his mad father with the personification of death at his side. Presently locked within a maximum security cosmic Alcatraz, Thanos sits alone within a cell as his sickness ravages his body. All while being mocked by its prison warden whom he lured into a false sense of security in order to escape; ripping off his arm for escape access and murdering half his personal staff in a bid for freedom. Having narrowly escaped his imprisonment before its self-destruction, Thanos retreats to a hidden outpost where a roving mercenary colony loyal only to him was once stationed. Only to find it decimated at the hand of the new lover of Mistress Death; who reveals that she had stricken her former avatar with his fatal sickness, being his son Thane, now boasting the power of the Phoenix Force. Whom under her coaxing, had banished the mad titan back to the decimated Moon of Titan now entirely stripped of his godlike powers. For the next few months, Thanos would survive alone and all but powerless in the ruins of his home city. Surviving off the flesh of mutated vermin and being accosted by local scavengers who preyed upon him in his weakened condition, he is soon picked up by the unlikely crew of Thane's betrayed cohorts Tryco Slatterus, his adopted daughter Nebula and his brother Eros of Titan. Having heard of their plight, the three were dismayed to find Thanos stripped of all he was and had ever been; his second daughter only agreeing to come along so she could kill her father, immediately assaulted him. Starfox was able to preempt her attempt at patricide while inviting his wayward tyrant of a brother aboard their vessel. Thanos mentioned the only way for him to be relieved of his mortality was to seek out the God Quarry heralded by The Witches of Infinity. Starfox initially wrote this off as fable and folklore. Now on the path to the cosmic coven set at the edge of the known universe, Thanos and crew stop short of a black hole, knowing full well that it is where the witches make their home. The Mad Titan jumps into the pinhole of nothingness alongside his brother, whom not trusting his butcherous sibling with the supposed infinite power of said collective; having survived the crushing force of the singularity they dove into, Thanos and Eros are greeted by the Coven at the godly graveyard. Thanos demands the three that are one to return his godhood to him. Starfox tries his best to charm the enchantresses only to be rebuked by them, much to Thanos's joy when they prematurely aged him. Seeing as it was neither their place to destroy nor turn away those seeking them, The Witches profess the only way for the warlord to be made whole again was to climb down into the God Quarry and await a trial that would test his soul. Immediately after setting foot within the graveyard of old gods, Thanos is subsumed into the bedrock within which they rest. As his journey of the core being commenced, Thanos's trial began with him as leader of earth and the universes greatest champions, the Avengers. But he is unable to escape the nagging feeling that he has forgotten something, till the quarry itself wearing the guise of Falcon reminds him of who he used to be; tempting him to live as a hero and a man at peace for the first time in his immortal life. But Thanos laughs maniacally as he coldly rebukes such a path, ruthlessly killing his would be friends and allies while choosing to remain whom he always was. His cosmic might returned to him, Thanos is freed from the God Quarry, wherein he immediately accosts his brother Eros and threatens the coven to release him from their domain so that he might do away with Thane once and for all.


title: Thanos

text: Around the time of the New Thor's appearance, Thanos is approached by a mysterious hooded woman, who proposes an alliance. He tasks her with bringing him the hammer of the deceased Ultimate Thor. The woman fails, but removes her disguise to reveal herself as Hela, the Norse goddess of death. She tells Thanos that she needs his help to reclaim Hel, and in exchange, offers to give him the one thing he has been searching for his entire life: death. After this, the two kiss.


title: Thanos

text: Some time after his battle with Thane during the "Thanos Wins" story, Thanos travels to the Chitauri homeworld. However, upon subjugating the planet, he is attacked by a being identified only as The Rider, who captures Thanos and uses a piece of the fractured Time Stone to bring Thanos millions of years into the future, where he encounters an elderly version of himself who has destroyed nearly all life in the universe. At first, Thanos believes it to be some sort of trick, but is convinced once the future Thanos utters the name Dione, which Thanos's mother had planned to name him before she went insane. King Thanos reveals he needs his younger self's assistance to defeat the Fallen One, the last being left in the Universe, so that he may finally reunite with Death. The Fallen One soon arrives, revealed to be a darkened Silver Surfer armed with the hordes of Annihilus and the deceased Thor's Mjolnir, using the latter to swiftly kill the Rider. The Surfer is distracted by the feral Hulk that Thanos kept chained in his basement, allowing the two Thanos to kill him using Surtur's Twilight Sword. Upon the Surfer's death, Death arrives, and Thanos realizes the true reason that King Thanos brought him into the future: so that King Thanos can finally die, reasoning that if he must die, it can only be at the hands of himself. At first, Thanos is more than happy to oblige his future counterpart's request, but quickly stops, disappointed at how pathetic and submissive his older self has become. Resolving to never become as pathetic and complacent as King Thanos has become, Thanos uses the fragment of the Time Stone and the Power Cosmic left in the Surfer's corpse to return to the present day. As the future begins to crumble around him, King Thanos realizes that his younger self has taken the steps necessary to ensure that this timeline will never take place. As he fades into nothingness, King Thanos asks Death what his younger self did, to which she simply responds "he won."


title: Thanos

text: During the "Infinity Wars" storyline, Thanos later discovers that the Infinity Stones are being collected once again and begins plotting to reassemble his gauntlet. However, he is assaulted by Requiem, whom he apparently recognizes, and is quickly killed. She then destroys the Infinity Gauntlet and also commands the Chitauri loyal to Thanos to die.


title: Thanos

text: In a prelude to the "" storyline, Thanos is revived by the Eternals. After receiving a vote from the Uni-Mind, Thanos becomes the Prime Eternal and kills Druig. He has Druig revived and visits Uranos in the Exclusion where Thanos learns the Eternals' three principals. After Druig departs, Uranos gives Thanos an imprint key that enables an armory to access the fail-safe that Uranos put in to destroying the Machine. Thanos is told by the Eternal scientist Domo that his genes derriving from Eternals and Deviants is the reason why the Machine doesn't recognize him as an Eternal. As Thanos fights the Eternals, Druig betrays Thanos and activates the fail-safe in Thanos' armor which causes Thanos to die from his mutation. With Thanos gone, Druig becomes the new Prime Eternal.


title: Thanos

text: Thanos is a mutant member of the race of superhumans known as the Titanian Eternals. The character possesses abilities common to the Eternals, but amplified to a higher degree through a combination of his mutant–Eternal heritage, bionic amplification, mysticism, and power bestowed by the abstract entity, Death. Demonstrating enormous superhuman strength, speed, stamina, immortality and invulnerability among other qualities, Thanos can absorb and project vast quantities of cosmic energy, and is capable of telekinesis and telepathy. He can manipulate matter and live indefinitely without food, air or water, cannot die of old age, is immune to all terrestrial diseases, and has high resistance to psychic assaults. Thanos is also an accomplished hand-to-hand combatant, having been trained in the art of war on Titan.


title: Thanos

text: Thanos has proven himself capable of briefly holding his own in battle against Odin, and of blasting Galactus off his feet.


title: Thanos

text: Thanos is a supergenius in virtually all known fields of advanced science and has created technology far exceeding that which is found on contemporary Earth. He often employs a transportation chair capable of space flight, force field projection, teleportation, time travel, and movement through alternate universes. Thanos is also a master strategist and uses several space vessels, at least three under the name "Sanctuary", as a base of operations.


title: Thanos

text: The Reddit forum /r/ThanosDidNothingWrong, dedicated to sharing theories and memes about the character, went viral in July 2018 when it was announced that half of the forum's subscribers would be banned, mirroring Thanos’ plan to eradicate half of all life in the universe. The number of subscribers rose from 100,000 users in June, to over 700,000 on July 9, leading to over 350,000 users being banned, the largest such banning in Reddit's history.


title: Thanos

text: A May 2019 "Forbes" column posited that "Thanos did nothing wrong" has become a popular internet meme, and that the film "Endgame" provides some evidence in favor of this view, in particular when Captain America says, "I saw a pod of whales when I was coming over the bridge . . . There's fewer ships, cleaner water." The author notes that given the contemporary extinction crisis driven by human actions, "you could indeed argue that Thanos did nothing wrong -- and in the long run, the villain might have actually saved the world."


title: Thanos

text: In the 1996 Amalgam Comics books published jointly by DC Comics and Marvel, Thanos was merged with Darkseid to become "Thanoseid".


title: Thanos

text: In the alternate universe limited series "Earth X", Thanos dwells in the Realm of the Dead with the entity Death. Additionally, this version's mother was a Skrull, which Death used in combination with her own secret to make him believe that she was his mother. When the deception is revealed, he uses the Ultimate Nullifier on Death.


title: Thanos

text: In an alternate reality depicted in the "Heroes Reborn" miniseries, Thanos places the Infinity Gems in Infinity Rings and fights Doctor Spectrum.


title: Thanos

text: After having witnessed a fight between the prehistoric Avengers and a younger Thanos, an alternate version of Doctor Doom called Doom Supreme is persuaded by Mephisto to put together a variation of the Multiversal Masters of Evil made from the evilest villains in the Multiverse and conquer it while saving Earth-616 for last. One of it's recruits is a variation of the younger Thanos called Kid Thanos. Kid Thanos accompanied Doom Supreme in attacking Avengers Mountain. They fought Black Panther, Namor, and Valkyrie up to the point where Avengers Mountain exploded. Afterwards, both of them had spoken with Mephisto and Iron Inquisitor before rejoining with the other Multiversal Masters of Evil members so that they can get back to work.


title: Thanos

text: Kid Thanos was with the Multiversal Masters of Evil when they attacked an unidentified Earth. Afterwards, they were attacked by Ghost Rider where he used his Hell Charger to knock down Kid Thanos and Hound.


title: Thanos

text: Thanos features in the limited series "Marvel Zombies 2", set in the alternate universe of Earth-2149. Having been "zombified" and recruited into the cosmically powered Galacti, the character is killed by a cosmic-powered Hulk after an altercation over food.


title: Thanos

text: The Ultimate Marvel imprint title "Ultimate Fantastic Four" features an alternate universe version of Thanos who is the ruler of Acheron and has a son called Ronan the Accuser who is in possession of a Cosmic Cube), a vast empire consisting of thousands of worlds on another plane of existence.


title: Thanos

text: Thanos appears in the first three phases of the Marvel Cinematic Universe's films, known collectively as the "Infinity Saga", primarily portrayed by Josh Brolin via motion capture. Alternate timeline versions of Thanos also appear in the Disney+ animated series, "What If...?", with Brolin reprising the voice role.


title: Thanos

text: A number of the stories featuring Thanos have been republished into trade paperbacks and other collected editions:


title: American Revolution

text: The American Revolution was an ideological and political revolution that occurred in British America between 1765 and 1791. The Americans in the Thirteen Colonies formed independent states that defeated the British in the American Revolutionary War (1775–1783), gaining independence from the British Crown and establishing the United States of America as the first nation-state founded on Enlightenment principles of liberal democracy.


title: American Revolution

text: American colonists objected to being taxed by the Parliament of Great Britain, a body in which they had no direct representation. Before the 1760s, Britain's American colonies had enjoyed a high level of autonomy in their internal affairs, which were locally governed by colonial legislatures. During the 1760s, however, the British Parliament passed a number of acts that were intended to bring the American colonies under more direct rule from the British metropole and increasingly intertwine the economies of the colonies with those of Britain. The passage of the Stamp Act of 1765 imposed internal taxes on official documents, newspapers and most things printed in the colonies, which led to colonial protest and the meeting of representatives from several colonies at the Stamp Act Congress. Tensions relaxed with the British repeal of the Stamp Act, but flared again with the passage of the Townshend Acts in 1767. The British government deployed troops to Boston in 1768 to quell unrest, leading to the Boston Massacre in 1770. The British government repealed most of the Townshend duties in 1770, but retained the tax on tea in order to symbolically assert Parliament's right to tax the colonies. The burning of the "Gaspee" in Rhode Island in 1772, the passage of the Tea Act of 1773 and the resulting Boston Tea Party in December 1773 led to a new escalation in tensions. The British responded by closing Boston Harbor and enacting a series of punitive laws which effectively rescinded Massachusetts Bay Colony's privileges of self-government. The other colonies rallied behind Massachusetts, and twelve of the thirteen colonies sent delegates in late 1774 to form a Continental Congress for the coordination of their resistance to Britain. Opponents of Britain were known as "Patriots" or "Whigs", while colonists who retained their allegiance to the Crown were known as "Loyalists" or "Tories."


title: American Revolution

text: Open warfare erupted when British regulars sent to capture a cache of military supplies were confronted by local Patriot militia at Lexington and Concord on April 19, 1775. Patriot militia, joined by the newly formed Continental Army, then put British forces in Boston under siege by land and they withdrew by sea. Each colony formed a Provincial Congress, which assumed power from the former colonial governments, suppressed Loyalism, and contributed to the Continental Army led by Commander in Chief General George Washington. The Patriots unsuccessfully attempted to invade Quebec and rally sympathetic colonists there during the winter of 1775–76.


title: American Revolution

text: The Continental Congress declared British King George III a tyrant who trampled the colonists' rights as Englishmen, and they pronounced the colonies free and independent states on July 4, 1776. The Patriot leadership professed the political philosophies of liberalism and republicanism to reject rule by monarchy and aristocracy. The Declaration of Independence proclaimed that all men are created equal, though it was not until later centuries that constitutional amendments and federal laws would incrementally grant equal rights to African Americans, Native Americans, poor white men, and women.


title: American Revolution

text: The British captured New York City and its strategic harbor in the summer of 1776. The Continental Army captured a British army at the Battle of Saratoga in October 1777, and France then entered the war as an ally of the United States, expanding the war into a global conflict. The British Royal Navy blockaded ports and held New York City for the duration of the war, and other cities for brief periods, but they failed to destroy Washington's forces. Britain's priorities shifted southward, attempting to hold the Southern states with the anticipated aid of Loyalists that never materialized. British general Charles Cornwallis captured an American army at Charleston, South Carolina in early 1780, but he failed to enlist enough volunteers from Loyalist civilians to take effective control of the territory. Finally, a combined American and French force captured Cornwallis' army at Yorktown in the fall of 1781, effectively ending the war. The Treaty of Paris was signed on September 3, 1783, formally ending the conflict and confirming the new nation's complete separation from the British Empire. The United States took possession of nearly all the territory east of the Mississippi River and south of the Great Lakes, with the British retaining control of northern Canada, and French ally Spain taking back Florida.


title: American Revolution

text: Among the significant results of the American victory were American independence and the end of British mercantilism in America, opening up worldwide trade for the United States—including resumption with Britain. Around 60,000 Loyalists migrated to other British territories, particularly to Canada, but the great majority remained in the United States. The Americans soon adopted the United States Constitution, replacing the weak wartime Confederation and establishing a comparatively strong national government structured as a federal republic, which included an elected executive, a national judiciary, and an elected bicameral Congress representing states in the Senate and the population in the House of Representatives. It is the world's first federal democratic republic founded on the consent of the governed. Shortly after a Bill of Rights was ratified as the first ten amendments, guaranteeing a number of fundamental rights used as justification for the revolution.


title: American Revolution

text: From the start of English colonization of the Americas, the English government pursued a policy of mercantilism, consistent with the economic policies of other European colonial powers of the time. Under this system, they hoped to grow England's economic and political power by restricting imports, promoting exports, regulating commerce, gaining access to new natural resources, and accumulating new precious metals as monetary reserves. Mercantilist policies were a defining feature of several English American colonies from their inception. The original 1606 charter of the Virginia Company regulated trade in what would become the Colony of Virginia. In general, the export of raw materials to foreign lands was banned, imports of foreign goods were discouraged, and cabotage was restricted to English vessels. These regulations were enforced by the Royal Navy.


title: American Revolution

text: Following the parliamentarian victory in the English Civil War, the first mercantilist legislation was passed. In 1651, the Rump Parliament passed the first of the Navigation Acts, intended to both improve England's trade ties with its colonies and to address Dutch domination of the trans-Atlantic trade at the time. This led to the outbreak of war with the Netherlands the following year. After the Restoration, the 1651 Act was repealed, but the Cavalier Parliament passed a series of even more restrictive Navigation Acts. Colonial reactions to these policies were mixed. The Acts prohibited exports of tobacco and other raw materials to non-English territories, which prevented many planters from receiving higher prices for their goods. Additionally, merchants were restricted from importing certain goods and materials from other nations, harming profits. These factors led to smuggling among colonial merchants, especially following passage of the Molasses Act. On the other hand, certain merchants and local industries benefitted from the restrictions on foreign competition. The restrictions on foreign-built ships also greatly benefitted the colonial shipbuilding industry, particularly of the New England colonies. Some argue that the economic impact was minimal on the colonists, but the political friction which the acts triggered was more serious, as the merchants most directly affected were also the most politically active.


title: American Revolution

text: King Philip's War was fought from 1675 to 1678 between the New England colonies and a handful of indigenous tribes. It was fought without military assistance from England, thereby contributing to the development of a unique American identity separate from that of the British people. The Restoration of King Charles II to the English throne also accelerated this development. New England had strong Puritan heritage and had supported the parliamentarian Commonwealth government that was responsible for the execution of his father, Charles I. Massachusetts did not recognize the legitimacy of Charles II's reign for more than a year after its onset. Charles II thus became determined to bring the New England colonies under a more centralized administration and direct English control in the 1680s. The New England colonists fiercely opposed his efforts, and the Crown nullified their colonial charters in response. Charles' successor James II finalized these efforts in 1686, establishing the consolidated Dominion of New England, which also included the formerly separate colonies of New York and New Jersey. Edmund Andros was appointed royal governor, and tasked with governing the new Dominion under his direct rule. Colonial assemblies and town meetings were restricted, new taxes were levied, and rights were abridged. Dominion rule triggered bitter resentment throughout New England; the enforcement of the unpopular Navigation Acts and the curtailing of local democracy greatly angered the colonists. New Englanders were encouraged, however, by a change of government in England which saw James II effectively abdicate, and a populist uprising in New England overthrew Dominion rule on April 18, 1689. Colonial governments reasserted their control after the revolt. The new monarchs, William and Mary, granted new charters to the individual New England colonies, and democratic self government was restored. Successive Crown governments made no attempts to restore the Dominion.


title: American Revolution

text: Subsequent British governments continued in their efforts to tax certain goods however, passing acts regulating the trade of wool, hats, and molasses. "The Molasses Act of 1733" was particularly egregious to the colonists, as a significant part of colonial trade relied on molasses. The taxes severely damaged the New England economy and resulted in a surge of smuggling, bribery, and intimidation of customs officials. Colonial wars fought in America were also a source of considerable tension. For example, New England colonial forces captured the fortress of Louisbourg in Acadia during King George's War in 1745, but the British government then ceded it back to France in 1748 in exchange for Chennai, which the British had lost in 1746. New England colonists resented their losses of lives, as well as the effort and expenditure involved in subduing the fortress, only to have it returned to their erstwhile enemy, who would remain a threat to them after the war.


title: American Revolution

text: Some writers begin their histories of the American Revolution with the British coalition victory in the Seven Years' War in 1763, viewing the French and Indian War as though it were the American theater of the "Seven Years' War". Lawrence Henry Gipson writes:


title: American Revolution

text: The Royal Proclamation of 1763 redrew boundaries of the lands west of newly-British Quebec and west of a line running along the crest of the Allegheny Mountains, making them indigenous territory and barred to colonial settlement for two years. The colonists protested, and the boundary line was adjusted in a series of treaties with indigenous tribes. In 1768, the Iroquois agreed to the Treaty of Fort Stanwix, and the Cherokee agreed to the Treaty of Hard Labour followed in 1770 by the Treaty of Lochaber. The treaties opened most of what is present-day Kentucky and West Virginia to colonial settlement. The new map was drawn up at the Treaty of Fort Stanwix in 1768, which moved the line much farther to the west, from the green line to the red line on the map at right.


title: American Revolution

text: In 1764 Parliament passed the Sugar Act, decreasing the existing customs duties on sugar and molasses but providing stricter measures of enforcement and collection. That same year, Prime Minister George Grenville proposed direct taxes on the colonies to raise revenue, but he delayed action to see whether the colonies would propose some way to raise the revenue themselves.


title: American Revolution

text: Grenville had asserted in 1762 that the whole revenue of the custom houses in America amounted to one or two thousand pounds sterling a year, and that the English exchequer was paying between seven and eight thousand pounds a year to collect. Adam Smith wrote in "The Wealth of Nations" that Parliament "has never hitherto demanded of [the American colonies] anything which even approached to a just proportion to what was paid by their fellow subjects at home." Benjamin Franklin would later testify in Parliament in 1766 to the contrary, reporting that Americans already contributed heavily to the defense of the Empire. He argued that local colonial governments had raised, outfitted, and paid 25,000 soldiers to fight France in just the French and Indian War alone—as many as Britain itself sent—and spent many millions from American treasuries doing so.


title: American Revolution

text: Parliament finally passed the Stamp Act in March 1765, which imposed direct taxes on the colonies for the first time. All official documents, newspapers, almanacs, and pamphlets were required to have the stamps—even decks of playing cards. The colonists did not object that the taxes were high; they were actually low. They objected to their lack of representation in the Parliament, which gave them no voice concerning legislation that affected them. The British were, however, reacting to an entirely different issue: at the conclusion of the recent war the Crown had to deal with approximately 1,500 politically well-connected British Army officers. The decision was made to keep them on active duty with full pay, but they—and their commands—also had to be stationed somewhere. Stationing a standing army in Great Britain during peacetime was politically unacceptable, so they determined to station them in America and have the Americans pay them through the new tax. The soldiers had no military mission however; they were not there to defend the colonies because there was no current threat to the colonies.


title: American Revolution

text: The Sons of Liberty formed shortly after the Act in 1765, and they used public demonstrations, boycotts, and threats of violence to ensure that the British tax laws were unenforceable. In Boston, the Sons of Liberty burned the records of the vice admiralty court and looted the home of chief justice Thomas Hutchinson. Several legislatures called for united action, and nine colonies sent delegates to the Stamp Act Congress in New York City in October. Moderates led by John Dickinson drew up a Declaration of Rights and Grievances stating that taxes passed without representation violated their rights as Englishmen, and colonists emphasized their determination by boycotting imports of British merchandise.


title: American Revolution

text: The Parliament at Westminster saw itself as the supreme lawmaking authority throughout the Empire and thus entitled to levy any tax without colonial approval or even consultation. They argued that the colonies were legally British corporations subordinate to the British Parliament, and they pointed to numerous instances where Parliament had made laws in the past that were binding on the colonies. Parliament insisted that the colonists effectively enjoyed a "virtual representation", as most British people did, since only a small minority of the British population elected representatives to Parliament. However, Americans such as James Otis maintained that there was no one in Parliament responsible specifically for any colonial constituency, so they were not "virtually represented" by anyone in Parliament at all.


title: American Revolution

text: The Rockingham government came to power in July 1765, and Parliament debated whether to repeal the stamp tax or to send an army to enforce it. Benjamin Franklin made the case for repeal, explaining that the colonies had spent heavily in manpower, money, and blood defending the empire in a series of wars against the French and indigenous people, and that further taxes to pay for those wars were unjust and might bring about a rebellion. Parliament agreed and repealed the tax on February 21, 1766, but they insisted in the Declaratory Act of March 1766 that they retained full power to make laws for the colonies "in all cases whatsoever". The repeal nonetheless caused widespread celebrations in the colonies.


title: American Revolution

text: In 1767, the Parliament passed the Townshend Acts which placed duties on a number of staple goods, including paper, glass, and tea, and established a Board of Customs in Boston to more rigorously execute trade regulations. The new taxes were enacted on the belief that Americans only objected to internal taxes and not to external taxes such as custom duties. However, in his widely read pamphlet, Letters from a Farmer in Pennsylvania, John Dickinson argued against the constitutionality of the acts because their purpose was to raise revenue and not to regulate trade. Colonists responded to the taxes by organizing new boycotts of British goods. These boycotts were less effective, however, as the goods taxed by the Townshend Acts were widely used.


title: American Revolution

text: In February 1768, the Assembly of Massachusetts Bay issued a circular letter to the other colonies urging them to coordinate resistance. The governor dissolved the assembly when it refused to rescind the letter. Meanwhile, a riot broke out in Boston in June 1768 over the seizure of the sloop "Liberty", owned by John Hancock, for alleged smuggling. Customs officials were forced to flee, prompting the British to deploy troops to Boston. A Boston town meeting declared that no obedience was due to parliamentary laws and called for the convening of a convention. A convention assembled but only issued a mild protest before dissolving itself. In January 1769, Parliament responded to the unrest by reactivating the Treason Act 1543 which called for subjects outside the realm to face trials for treason in England. The governor of Massachusetts was instructed to collect evidence of said treason, and the threat caused widespread outrage, though it was not carried out.


title: American Revolution

text: On March 5, 1770, a large crowd gathered around a group of British soldiers on a Boston street. The crowd grew threatening, throwing snowballs, rocks, and debris at them. One soldier was clubbed and fell. There was no order to fire, but the soldiers panicked and fired into the crowd. They hit 11 people; three civilians died of wounds at the scene of the shooting, and two died shortly after the incident. The event quickly came to be called the Boston Massacre. The soldiers were tried and acquitted (defended by John Adams), but the widespread descriptions soon began to turn colonial sentiment against the British. This accelerated e downward spiral in the relationship between Britain and the Province of Massachusetts.


title: American Revolution

text: A new ministry under Lord North came to power in 1770, and Parliament withdrew all taxes except the tax on tea, giving up its efforts to raise revenue while maintaining the right to tax. This temporarily resolved the crisis, and the boycott of British goods largely ceased, with only the more radical patriots such as Samuel Adams continuing to agitate.


title: American Revolution

text: In June 1772, American patriots, including John Brown, burned a British warship that had been vigorously enforcing unpopular trade regulations, in what became known as the "Gaspee" Affair. The affair was investigated for possible treason, but no action was taken.


title: American Revolution

text: In 1772, it became known that the Crown intended to pay fixed salaries to the governors and judges in Massachusetts, which had been paid by local authorities. This would reduce the influence of colonial representatives over their government. Samuel Adams in Boston set about creating new "Committees of Correspondence", which linked Patriots in all 13 colonies and eventually provided the framework for a rebel government. Virginia, the largest colony, set up its Committee of Correspondence in early 1773, on which Patrick Henry and Thomas Jefferson served.


title: American Revolution

text: A total of about 7,000 to 8,000 Patriots served on Committees of Correspondence at the colonial and local levels, comprising most of the leadership in their communities. Loyalists were excluded. The committees became the leaders of the American resistance to British actions, and later largely determined the war effort at the state and local level. When the "First Continental Congress" decided to boycott British products, the colonial and local Committees took charge, examining merchant records and publishing the names of merchants who attempted to defy the boycott by importing British goods.


title: American Revolution

text: In 1773, private letters were published in which Massachusetts Governor Thomas Hutchinson claimed that the colonists could not enjoy all English liberties, and in which Lieutenant Governor Andrew Oliver called for the direct payment of colonial officials. The letters' contents were used as evidence of a systematic plot against American rights, and discredited Hutchinson in the eyes of the people; the colonial Assembly petitioned for his recall. Benjamin Franklin, postmaster general for the colonies, acknowledged that he leaked the letters, which led to him being berated by British officials and removed from his position.


title: American Revolution

text: Meanwhile, Parliament passed the Tea Act lowering the price of taxed tea exported to the colonies, to help the British East India Company undersell smuggled untaxed Dutch tea. Special consignees were appointed to sell the tea to bypass colonial merchants. The act was opposed by those who resisted the taxes and also by smugglers who stood to lose business. In most instances, the consignees were forced by the Americans to resign and the tea was turned back, but Massachusetts governor Hutchinson refused to allow Boston merchants to give in to pressure. A town meeting in Boston determined that the tea would not be landed, and ignored a demand from the governor to disperse. On December 16, 1773, a group of men, led by Samuel Adams and dressed to evoke the appearance of indigenous people, boarded the ships of the East India Company and dumped £10,000 worth of tea from their holds (approximately £636,000 in 2008) into Boston Harbor. Decades later, this event became known as the Boston Tea Party and remains a significant part of American patriotic lore.


title: American Revolution

text: The British government responded by passing several measures that came to be known as the Intolerable Acts, further darkening colonial opinion towards England. They consisted of four laws enacted by the British parliament. The first was the Massachusetts Government Act which altered the Massachusetts charter and restricted town meetings. The second act was the Administration of Justice Act which ordered that all British soldiers to be tried were to be arraigned in Britain, not in the colonies. The third Act was the Boston Port Act, which closed the port of Boston until the British had been compensated for the tea lost in the Boston Tea Party. The fourth Act was the Quartering Act of 1774, which allowed royal governors to house British troops in the homes of citizens without requiring permission of the owner.


title: American Revolution

text: In response, Massachusetts patriots issued the Suffolk Resolves and formed an alternative shadow government known as the "Provincial Congress" which began training militia outside British-occupied Boston. In September 1774, the First Continental Congress convened, consisting of representatives from each colony, to serve as a vehicle for deliberation and collective action. During secret debates, conservative Joseph Galloway proposed the creation of a colonial Parliament that would be able to approve or disapprove acts of the British Parliament, but his idea was tabled in a vote of 6 to 5 and was subsequently removed from the record. Congress called for a boycott beginning on 1 December 1774 of all British goods; it was enforced by new local committees authorized by the Congress.


title: American Revolution

text: Massachusetts was declared in a state of rebellion in February 1775 and the British garrison received orders to disarm the rebels and arrest their leaders, leading to the Battles of Lexington and Concord on 19 April 1775. The Patriots laid siege to Boston, expelled royal officials from all the colonies, and took control through the establishment of Provincial Congresses. The Battle of Bunker Hill followed on June 17, 1775. It was a British victory—but at a great cost: about 1,000 British casualties from a garrison of about 6,000, as compared to 500 American casualties from a much larger force. The Second Continental Congress was divided on the best course of action, but eventually produced the Olive Branch Petition, in which they attempted to come to an accord with King George. The king, however, issued a Proclamation of Rebellion which declared that the states were "in rebellion" and the members of Congress were traitors.


title: American Revolution

text: The war that arose was in some ways a classic insurgency. As Benjamin Franklin wrote to Joseph Priestley in October 1775:


title: American Revolution

text: In the winter of 1775, the Americans invaded newly-British Quebec under generals Benedict Arnold and Richard Montgomery, expecting to rally sympathetic colonists there. The attack was a failure; many Americans who weren't killed were either captured or died of smallpox.


title: American Revolution

text: In March 1776, the Continental Army forced the British to evacuate Boston, with George Washington as the commander of the new army. The revolutionaries now fully controlled all thirteen colonies and were ready to declare independence. There still were many Loyalists, but they were no longer in control anywhere by July 1776, and all of the Royal officials had fled.


title: American Revolution

text: Following the Battle of Bunker Hill in June 1775, the Patriots had control of Massachusetts outside the Boston city limits, and the Loyalists suddenly found themselves on the defensive with no protection from the British army. In all 13 colonies, Patriots had overthrown their existing governments, closing courts and driving away British officials. They held elected conventions and "legislatures" that existed outside any legal framework; new constitutions were drawn up in each state to supersede royal charters. They proclaimed that they were now "states", no longer "colonies".


title: American Revolution

text: On January 5, 1776, New Hampshire ratified the first state constitution. In May 1776, Congress voted to suppress all forms of crown authority, to be replaced by locally created authority. Virginia, South Carolina, and New Jersey created their constitutions before July 4. Rhode Island and Connecticut simply took their existing royal charters and deleted all references to the crown. The new states were all committed to republicanism, with no inherited offices. They decided what form of government to create, and also how to select those who would craft the constitutions and how the resulting document would be ratified. On 26 May 1776, John Adams wrote James Sullivan from Philadelphia warning against extending the franchise too far:


title: American Revolution

text: The resulting constitutions in states such as Maryland, Virginia, Delaware, New York, and Massachusetts featured:


title: American Revolution

text: The radical provisions of Pennsylvania's constitution lasted only 14 years. In 1790, conservatives gained power in the state legislature, called a new constitutional convention, and rewrote the constitution. The new constitution substantially reduced universal male suffrage, gave the governor veto power and patronage appointment authority, and added an upper house with substantial wealth qualifications to the unicameral legislature. Thomas Paine called it a constitution unworthy of America.


title: American Revolution

text: In April 1776, the North Carolina Provincial Congress issued the Halifax Resolves explicitly authorizing its delegates to vote for independence. By June, nine Provincial Congresses were ready for independence; one by one, the last four fell into line: Pennsylvania, Delaware, Maryland, and New York. Richard Henry Lee was instructed by the Virginia legislature to propose independence, and he did so on June 7, 1776. On June 11, a committee was created by the Second Continental Congress to draft a document explaining the justifications for separation from Britain. After securing enough votes for passage, independence was voted for on July 2.


title: American Revolution

text: The Declaration of Independence was drafted largely by Thomas Jefferson and presented by the committee; it was unanimously adopted by the entire Congress on July 4, and each colony became an independent and autonomous state. The next step was to form a union to facilitate international relations and alliances.


title: American Revolution

text: The Second Continental Congress approved the Articles of Confederation and Perpetual Union for ratification by the states on November 15, 1777; the Congress immediately began operating under the Articles' terms, providing a structure of shared sovereignty during prosecution of the war and facilitating international relations and alliances with France and Spain. The Articles were fully ratified on March 1, 1781. At that point, the Continental Congress was dissolved and a new government of the United States in Congress Assembled took its place on the following day, with Samuel Huntington as presiding officer.