50 Fun Facts About Marriage

Which 1967 US Supreme Court case, named for the couple who brought it, ended state bans on interracial marriage?

Loving v. Virginia began when police found the Lovings asleep at home. Mildred Loving pointed to the marriage certificate on the bedroom wall, but the couple were charged anyway.

Which country hosts the Wife Carrying World Championships, where the winner's prize is the wife's weight in beer?

Finland has staged the race in the town of Sonkajärvi since 1992. Men haul their partners over a 253.5-metre obstacle course, and a heavier wife means more beer.

What did William Shakespeare's will famously leave to his wife, Anne Hathaway, in a line squeezed in late?

His second-best bed was written in between the lines of the will. Most of the estate went to his daughter Susanna and her husband, and scholars still argue over what the bequest meant.

Which Welsh actor did Elizabeth Taylor marry twice, in 1964 and again in 1975?

Richard Burton was her co-star in Cleopatra before he was her husband. She married eight times to seven men; the pair divorced in 1974 and remarried the following year.

Which naturalist listed the pros and cons of marrying on scrap paper before proposing to his cousin Emma Wedgwood?

Charles Darwin headed his two columns Marry and Not Marry. A constant companion, he noted, would be better than a dog anyhow; the price was less money for books.

Which pop star's 2004 marriage to childhood friend Jason Alexander lasted just 55 hours?

Britney Spears wed him at a Las Vegas chapel in January 2004. A court undid the marriage after a petition said she had lacked understanding of her actions.

Which future First Lady set her 1905 wedding date to suit her uncle, the sitting US president?

Eleanor Roosevelt married Franklin, her fifth cousin once removed, so her surname never changed. Her uncle Theodore was due in New York that day, which settled the date.

Which US president, Abraham Lincoln's immediate predecessor, is the only one who never married?

James Buchanan stayed a bachelor all his life, so his orphaned niece Harriet Lane served as White House hostess during his term.

In which British territory did John Lennon marry Yoko Ono in 1969, days before their Amsterdam bed-in?

Gibraltar hosted the ceremony on 20 March 1969. The couple then spent their honeymoon in bed at the Amsterdam Hilton, inviting the world's press in every day.

Which 1987 film casts Peter Cook as the Impressive Clergyman at the rushed ceremony for Buttercup and Humperdinck?

The Princess Bride has Humperdinck impatiently hurry the ceremony along before sending Buttercup to her chambers. Cook made his name as half of a comedy double act with Dudley Moore.

Which New York Yankees legend was married to Marilyn Monroe for just nine months in 1954?

Joe DiMaggio stayed devoted long after the split. When Monroe died he had half a dozen red roses delivered to her crypt three times a week for 20 years.

Which country singer proposed to June Carter on stage during a 1968 concert in London, Ontario?

Johnny Cash asked her mid-show, 13 years after the two first met backstage at the Grand Ole Opry. They married the following week in Kentucky.

Which twice-divorced American did Edward VIII give up the British throne to marry?

Wallis Simpson became Duchess of Windsor when they wed six months after the abdication, but she was never allowed to share her husband's style of Royal Highness.

Which US state was admitted to the Union in 1896 only after agreeing to outlaw polygamy?

Utah had been kept waiting by long disputes between its dominant Mormon community and Congress. The ban had to be written into the new state constitution.

Which biblical king of Israel is said to have had 700 wives and 300 concubines?

Solomon paid for it, in the Bible's telling: his foreign wives turned his heart after other gods, and the kingdom was divided after his death as punishment.

Which Greek goddess of marriage spends much of her mythology punishing the lovers of her husband Zeus?

Hera was also worshipped as the protector of women in childbirth, yet the myths dwell on her jealous revenge against Zeus's many lovers and their children.

Which novel about the five Bennet sisters opens with a famous line on rich single men needing wives?

Pride and Prejudice makes marriage its central idea from that first sentence. The irony is that in Austen's society it was single women without a fortune who needed the match.

In which Victorian novel is a wedding halted by news that the groom, Mr Rochester, already has a wife?

Jane Eyre has a lawyer stop the ceremony to reveal that Rochester married Bertha Mason years before. He keeps her locked away on the top floor of Thornfield Hall.

Which character in a Dickens novel, jilted on her wedding day, wears her wedding dress for the rest of her life?

Miss Havisham also wears only one shoe and leaves the wedding cake uneaten on the table, shut away in her decaying mansion, Satis House.

Which Cuban-born bandleader played Ricky Ricardo opposite his real-life wife Lucille Ball in a 1950s sitcom?

Desi Arnaz married Ball in 1940, and together they founded Desilu Productions, the company that made the sitcom. It outlasted the marriage, which ended in divorce.

In Friends, whose name does Ross say by mistake instead of Emily's during his London wedding vows?

Rachel is in the room when he says it, and the camera settles on her shocked face. The season ends there, with the registrar asking Emily whether he should carry on.

Whose 1955 hit Love and Marriage later became the theme song of the sitcom Married... with Children?

Frank Sinatra introduced the song in a 1955 television production of Thornton Wilder's Our Town. His single reached number five on the Billboard chart.

Which North American tourist spot has long marketed itself as the honeymoon capital of the world?

Niagara Falls recorded its first honeymooners in 1801: Theodosia Burr Alston, daughter of Vice President Aaron Burr, and her husband Joseph. Railroads later advertised the trip to couples.

Which tennis champion married Andre Agassi in 2001 with only the couple's mothers as witnesses?

Steffi Graf started dating Agassi after the 1999 French Open, and the wedding two years later was held quietly at their home in Las Vegas.

Which church founder entered the record books in 1988 by marrying 6,516 identically dressed couples at once?

Sun Myung Moon picked many of the partners himself, sometimes from photographs. His Unification Church had already wed more than 2,000 couples at Madison Square Garden in 1982.

Which carved wooden gift did Welsh suitors traditionally give a young woman as a sign of romantic intent?

A spoon, known as a lovespoon, was meant to prove to her father that the suitor could work wood and provide for a family. The earliest dated one in Wales is from 1667.

Which musical features Yente the matchmaker arranging marriages in the Russian village of Anatevka?

Fiddler on the Roof has eldest daughter Tzeitel reject Yente's match with a wealthy older butcher so that she can marry Motel, the poor tailor she grew up with.

Which last wife of Henry VIII outlived the king and went on to marry a fourth husband?

Catherine Parr wed Thomas Seymour about six months after Henry died. With four husbands in all, she is the most-married English queen.

Which legal ruling, sought by Henry VIII from the Pope in 1527, treats a marriage as if it never took place?

An annulment is usually retroactive, unlike a divorce, which ends a valid marriage. When Pope Clement VII would not grant one, Henry made himself Supreme Head of the Church of England.

Which empress did Napoleon part from in 1810 because she had not given him an heir?

Joséphine agreed to end the marriage so that the emperor could remarry in the hope of a son. She retired to the Château de Malmaison, noted for the rose garden she supervised.

Which English tobacco planter did Pocahontas marry in 1614, bringing eight years of peace to Jamestown?

John Rolfe was the first settler in the colony to grow tobacco successfully for export. The calm that followed the wedding became known as the Peace of Pocahontas.

Which German royal did Queen Victoria propose to in 1839, five days after he arrived at Windsor?

Prince Albert was her first cousin, and a match between them had been talked of in the family since they were small children. They married in February 1840.

Which Scottish border village became famous for runaway weddings conducted over a blacksmith's anvil?

Gretna Green was often the first village eloping couples reached after a law tightened the rules in England in 1754. Its blacksmiths became known as anvil priests.

What is the term for one woman having several husbands at once, as when Tibetan brothers share a wife?

Polyandry among brothers had a practical point: with every son married to the same wife, the family's land stayed intact instead of being divided between them.

Which word for an unmarried woman originally named a job done by women who made thread from wool?

Spinster first meant a woman who spun for a living. The work was so often done by unmarried women that legal documents used the word for them from the 1600s on.

Which American suffragist caused a stir by keeping her own surname after marrying Henry Blackwell in 1855?

Lucy Stone saw a wife giving up her surname as the legal erasure of a married woman's identity. A league named after her later fought for other women's right to do the same.

Which Gillian Flynn thriller opens on Nick and Amy Dunne's fifth wedding anniversary?

Gone Girl has Amy leave her clues in the form of the couple's traditional anniversary treasure hunt, which is how her husband, Nick, works out what she has planned.

Which wife of Odysseus stalled her suitors for three years by secretly undoing her weaving every night?

Penelope claimed she would pick a suitor once she had finished a burial shroud for Odysseus's elderly father, Laertes. One of her own maids finally gave the trick away.

Which storyteller of the One Thousand and One Nights survives marriage to a murderous king by telling tales?

Scheherazade wed King Shahryar, who had taken to marrying a virgin each night and having her executed at dawn. Her linked stories kept her alive, and saved the women of the kingdom.

Which Henrik Ibsen play caused an outcry in 1879 by ending with Nora walking out on her husband?

A Doll's House so worried Ibsen's German agent that the playwright was pushed into writing an alternative ending in which Nora stays. He called the change a barbaric outrage.

Which Shakespeare comedy follows Petruchio as he courts and marries Katherina, the elder daughter of a Paduan lord?

The Taming of the Shrew gives the pair a chaotic wedding, at which Petruchio strikes the priest and drinks the communion wine.

Which country became the first to legalise same-sex marriage by a nationwide popular vote, in 2015?

Ireland approved the change at a referendum on 22 May 2015, with 62% of voters in favour. The first ceremonies were held that November.

Whose 1469 marriage to Ferdinand of Aragon laid the basis for a unified Spain?

Isabella of Castile reigned alongside her husband as one of the Catholic Monarchs, and the couple went on to finance Christopher Columbus's 1492 voyage.

Which European dynasty won so many lands by marriage that a Latin verse told happy Austria to wed, not fight?

The Habsburgs could let others wage war, the couplet says, because Venus gave them kingdoms. Emperor Maximilian I's matches for his grandchildren made the family central Europe's leading dynasty.

Which European country's civil code allows a person to marry a partner who has already died?

France wrote its current rule in 1959, after a dam burst at Malpasset killed a pregnant woman's husband-to-be. A similar law had existed during the First World War.

Which Canadian province has required married people to keep their birth surnames as legal names since 1981?

Quebec passed the rule to promote gender equality. Even a woman who married elsewhere is expected to go by her birth name for legal purposes once she lives in the province.

What prize do couples win at Great Dunmow by swearing they have not regretted marrying for a year and a day?

A side of bacon, called a flitch, was already a famous reward when Chaucer mentioned it. Claimants now plead their case at a mock trial before a jury of six maidens and six bachelors.

What name is given to the notices of an intended marriage read out in church on three Sundays beforehand?

The banns give anyone the chance to raise a legal objection, such as an existing spouse. Marriage licences later offered a paid way to skip the notice period.

Which Oscar-winning actress was married to Paul Newman for fifty years, until his death in 2008?

Joanne Woodward met Newman on the stage drama Picnic in the early 1950s. They married in 1958 and kept working together, with Newman sometimes directing her films.

Which band did Paul McCartney form in 1971 with his wife Linda playing keyboards?

Wings struggled for credibility at first, with critics and fans ridiculing Linda's place as keyboard player. She stayed in the line-up until the band ended in 1981.