The 65 Year Battle over the Deceased Wife's Sister's Marriage Act
Until 1907, it was illegal in England for a man to marry the sister of his dead wife.
Until 1907, it was illegal in England for a man to marry the sister of his dead wife.
Swimming pools, fancy cars, and a lawyer on speed dial — they're all the trappings of fame. Sometimes when notable people fight the law, we all win.
Boat and ship, same thing right? Wrong! Only experienced mariners are able to differentiate them. Heres how!
If you look at a map of North America, you’ll notice that the Canada–United States border is strikingly straight from the Pacific Ocean to about a third of the way across Minnesota, where it hiccups and then squiggles the rest of the way to the Atlantic O
After the tri-state area was devastated by Hurricane Sandy, food, gas, and power were in high demand but short supply. In those situations, people get desperate, and they sometimes become violent, throwing not just common courtesy, but also any sense of w
“Happy Birthday to You” has been used in hundreds of movies, countless advertisements, an estimated 1,500,000+ singing telegrams, and been the basis for pieces by classical composers like Igor Stravinsky and Aaron Copland. It’s arguably the most recognize
Spoiler Alert: It's not. The purpose of the tag is to assure consumers that they’re buying a new, never-been-used product and to let them know exactly what’s inside it.
Facts become very easy to copyright when they aren’t true. Here are people, places and things that exist only on paper, solely to thwart would-be info burglars.
On a December night in 1919, a 23-year-old soldier named William N. Bishop managed to slip out of the stockade at Virginia’s Camp A.A. Humphreys and escape into the surrounding woods. Unable to locate Bishop, the army requested the assistance of the U.S.
Did you know that today is Peace Officers Memorial Day? In honor of those who put their lives on the line to protect and serve their communities, here are some great vintage photos of law enforcement officers from the past 125 years. As always, you can fi
Image credit: National Archives On a Sunday afternoon in Washington, D.C., in 1859, Philip Barton Key, son of the man who wrote “The Star Spangled Banner,” stood in the park and waved his handkerchief in the air. He was attempting to signal his girlfrien
Clement Laird Vallandigham was never a household name, but during the era of the Civil War, he led an interesting and amazing life that ended abruptly and bizarrely. Over the course of his career, Vallandigham edited the Dayton Empire, practiced law, ser
You hear the term all the time, but is there really anything special about grand juries? Not on the surface. Like a regular trial jury, a grand jury is selected and sworn in by a court, and are often, in fact, pulled from the same pool of people as trial
Last Wednesday (January 18), Wikipedia and other sites went dark in a protest of pending legislation before the US Congress. Now that the dust has settled, here are some details of what happened. Let the Backpedaling Begin On Friday (January 20) Lamar
If you're in the US you speak English and you visit Wikipedia today, you'll see a glimpse of the page you were trying to access, then you'll see the blackout message above. You'll see similar messages from Google, Reddit, and others. Why? Although each
You may have heard about some new bills making their way through the U.S. Congress, related to piracy on the internet. But what are they and what's the big deal? Here's a simple guide to what the laws are and why so many internet nerds (like myself) are
Last night, Law & Order: SVU did that “ripped from the headlines” thing where they borrow elements of real-world criminal cases or address current issues in law enforcement. The episode, “Double Strands,” revolved around a topic I've been reading a lot ab
This week we're running a series of posts by Matt Soniak about Abraham Lincoln's foray into forensic meteorology. If you missed the first, second, or third installments of the series, check them out. Lincoln had secured an acquittal for Duff Armstrong l
This week we're running a series of posts by Matt Soniak about Abraham Lincoln's foray into forensic meteorology. If you missed the first or second installments of the series, check them out. May 3, 1858. Cass County, Illinois. The Circuit Court of Cass
This week we're running a series of posts by Matt Soniak about Abraham Lincoln's foray into forensic meteorology. If you missed the first installment yesterday, check it out. In the summer of 1831, 22-year-old Abraham Lincoln arrived in New Salem, a smal
This week we're running a special series by Matt Soniak about Abraham Lincoln's foray into forensic meteorology. Check back each day for a new installment! August 29, 1857. Mason County, Illinois. The night James Metzger got hit in the head, Walker’s Gr
Courtroom sketch artist Shepard (in red) shows one of her drawings of the Martha Stewart trial to a reporter. © Ramin Talaie/Corbis/2004 Why can't they just use a photographer? In many cases in the US (and the UK and Canada), cameras aren't allowed into
Truth is stranger than fiction, and one place that becomes very clear is in Law & Order episodes that were ripped from the headlines. Sure, the episodes themselves are entertaining, but the original inspiration for the episode is often so bizarre that it
Today in 1893, the US Supreme Court ruled that the tomato was a vegetable, not a fruit. The relevant case (Nix v. Hedden) involved tariffs -- the US had an import tariff on vegetables, but not fruit. So when a tomato importer (the Nix family) claimed th