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Marriage

26-28
32
15-21
22-25
58-65
45-60
60-73
69-71
73-78
12-16
61-69
97
381-384
566-572
902-908
310-312
930-954
517-524
615-620
312-314
472-473
474-475
481-482
899-903
955-959
771-773
180-196
265-272
632-650
436-441
103-116
794
490-506
321-337
764-767
87-91
850-853
706-707
558-559
564-569
570
852-853
561-562
772-793
706
127
844
844
419
577-598
222-231
155-156
84
554
Mar 2006Percentage change in the amount of housework done by women after they marry for the first time: +17
Source:

Sanjiv Gupta, University of Michigan (Ann Arbor)

Mar 2006Percentage change in the amount of housework done by men after they marry for the first time: ‒33
Source:

Sanjiv Gupta, University of Michigan (Ann Arbor)

Mar 2006Rank of 2004 among years when the most U.S. babies were born out of wedlock: 1
Source:

National Center for Health Statistics (Hyattsville, Md.)

Aug 2005Percentage of newlywed couples who report having had a physically violent fight in the year before marriage : 37
Source:

Kenneth Leonard and Julie Schumacher, Research Institute on Addictions (Buffalo)

Jun 2005Number of federal benefits in the United States that are tied directly to marriage: 1,138
Source:

U.S. General Accounting Office

Jun 2004Estimated revenue lost by an Oregon county since it suspended granting heterosexuals marriage licenses last March : $2,000
Source:

Benton County Records Office (Corvallis, Oreg.)/Harper's research

Jun 2004Minimum number of times a Houston woman stabbed her husband last year : 193
Source:

Harris County Medical Examiner's Office (Houston)

May 2004Percentage of the 958 same-sex unions granted to Vermont residents since July 2000 that have since been dissolved : 3
Source:

Vermont Department of Health (Burlington)

May 2004Percentage of U.S. heterosexual marriages that are dissolved within five years : 20
Source:

National Center for Health Statistics (Hyattsville, Md.)

May 2004Median household income of a U.S. heterosexual couple with children : $59,461
Source:

U.S. Census Bureau

Jul 2003Number of years Neil Bush was married before asking his wife for a divorce via email last summer: 22
Source:

Elite Model Management (N.Y.C.)/Harper's research

Jul 2003Percentage of married U.S. couples that are raising children: 46
Source:

U.S. Census Bureau

Feb 2001Chances that an Alabama voter voted against legalizing marriage between blacks and whites last November: 2 in 5
Source:

Elections Division, Office of the Secretary of State (Montgomery, Ala.)

Jun 2000Number of Japanese couples who used Dolly the cloned sheep in their wedding photo before researchers ended the practice: 1
Source:

Roslin Institute (Roslin, Scotland)

Jun 2000Number of “marriage studies” majors learning “the art of getting and staying married” last term at a Pennsylvania college: 8
Source:

Allentown College of St. Francis de Sales (Center Valley, Pa.)

Jun 2000Amount Shell Oil paid last year to sponsor the wedding reception of the King of Buganda, Uganda: $3,000
Source:

Royal Dutch Shell Group (London)

Jun 2000Chance that the husband in a two-income U.S. household earns less than his wife: 1 in 3
Source:

National Bureau of Economic Research (Cambridge, Mass.)

Feb 2000Years after 1993's Baby Jessica custody ruling that both her birth parents and her adoptive parents filed for divorce: 6
Source:

Harper's research

Feb 2000Ratio of the divorce rate in New York State in 1998 to the rate in Arkansas: 2:3
Source:

National Center for Health Statistics (Hyattsville, Md.)

Jun 1999Percentage of Alabamans who oppose removing the state's constitutional ban on interracial marriage: 26
Source:

Alabama Education Association (Montgomery)

Jun 1999Ratio of husbands who say they fell in love with their spouse at first sight to wives who say this: 2:1
Source:

Just Married, Andrew McMeel Publishing (Kansas City, Mo.)

Jun 1999Percentage of newlyweds who say they consummated their relationship on the first date: 17
Source:

Just Married, Andrew McMeel Publishing (Kansas City, Mo.)

Jun 1999Last date on which it was legal in Utah for 14-year-olds to marry: 5/2/99
Source:

Utah State Legislature (Salt Lake City)

Jun 1999Rank of people on their third marriage among spouses who say “I love you” most often: 1
Source:

Just Married, Andrew McMeel Publishing (Kansas City, Mo.)

Jan 1999Percentage of the funds spent fighting Alaska's gay-marriage initiative last year that came from the Mormon Church: 79
Source:

Alaska Public Offices Commission (Anchorage)

Aug 1998Total number of marriages experienced by the co-authors of Staying Married and Loving It : 5
Source:

William Morris Agency (N.Y.C.)

Jun 1998Percentage of Americans who believe that “adultery can sometimes be good for a marriage”: 22
Source:

Princeton Survey Research Associates (Princeton, N.J.)

July 7, 2007An Iowa State University study suggested that the happiest marriages are those in which the husband defers to the wife in all decisions.
Source:

Reuters

February 6, 2007In Washington state, proponents of same-sex marriage pursued legislation that would annul all connubial unions still barren after three years.
Source:

Washington News

January 16, 2007Researchers found that the majority of women in the United States are living without a spouse.
Source:

NY Times

December 7, 2006 Democrats in Congress announced that beginning in January members of the House would work five days a week. “Keeping us up here eats away at families,” said Rep. Jack Kingston (R., Georgia), who spends more than half his week at home. “Marriages suffer. The Democrats could care less about families--that's what this says.” The Democrats were also trying to stop smoking on the Hill, and attempting to block a $3,300 congressional raise.
Source 1:

Washington Post

Source 2:

Washington Post

Source 3:

Washington Post

November 8, 2006The civil war in Iraq was breaking up marriages. “I love my husband, but my family has forced me to divorce him,” said Hiba Sami, a Shiite woman who was married to a Sunni man for 18 years. “We have four children and every day they cry because they miss their father.”
Source:

Reuters Alertnet

August 29, 2006Warren Steed Jeffs, who reportedly has 80 wives and 250 children and serves as the leader of a polygamist Mormon sect, was arrested in Nevada on suspicion of arranging marriages between underage girls and older men.
Source:

AP via New York Times

July 25, 2006In Maryland one U.S. Senate candidate said he did not knowingly pay for 20 heroin addicts to come to his campaign rally, while another was arrested for raping his 19-year-old mail-order bride.
Source:

Washington Times

July 19, 2006U.S. Representative Phil Gingrey of Georgia claimed that God supported a Constitutional amendment banning same-sex marriages. “I think,” he said, “God has spoken very clearly on this issue.” “It's part of God's plan,” said Texas Congressman John Carter, “for the future of mankind.” “We best not,” said Colorado Representative Bob Beauprez, “be messing with His plan.”
Source:

Washington Post

July 7, 2006The high courts of Georgia and New York both upheld bans on gay marriage.
Source:

Forbes

July 1, 2006In Rajasthan, India, a low-caste bridegroom on a horse was stoned by onlookers when a camel in his wedding procession ran amok.
Source:

Hindustan Times

June 2, 2006A woman married a cobra in the Indian state of Orissa. “Though snakes cannot speak or understand,” said the bride, “we communicate in a peculiar way.”
Source:

Breitbart

May 5, 2006 Kansas raised its minimum marriage age to 15.
Source:

MSNBC

August 22, 2005In Iraq ten people were shot dead north of Baghdad, a family of five was killed by gunmen in Samarra, and the U.S. military denied bombing a wedding party in Hit.
Source 1:

MSNBC

Source 2:

Reuters

Source 3:

Reuters

August 10, 2005Women in Sudan were committing adultery so that they could be arrested and thus obtain a divorce; Sudanese men are often resistant to divorce because it requires them to return a bride's dowry. “He wasn't caring for me,” said Ding Maker, an imprisoned woman whose dowry was 90 cows. “I don't mind staying here.”
Source:

Washington Post

July 26, 2005A Nebraska man was charged with having sex with the thirteen-year-old girl whom he had wed legally in Kansas.
Source:

AP

July 18, 2005Investigations into the expenses of former Tyco executive Dennis Kozlowski revealed that Kozlowski had once held an extravagant bachelor party for his son-in-law. “It wasn't like a three-ring circus,” said the son-in-law's father. “It was a nice party. There was only one dwarf.”
Source:

New York Daily News

June 3, 2005A British man, happily married for eighty years, was asked for the secret to marital bliss. “'Yes, dear',” he explained.
Source:

Mail & Guardian

April 30, 2005Surveys found that at least one third of the wives in Kyrgyzstan had been abducted and forced to marry against their will. “I told him I didn't want to date anyone,” said one woman, “so he decided to kidnap me the next day.”
Source:

New York Times

March 18, 2005A judge in Pennsylvania refused to let two first cousins marry.
Source:

Boston.com

March 1, 2005Most Hungarian adults were found to be single.
Source:

AFP

January 12, 2005In India, men were calling tsunami relief help lines, offering to marry women who lost their husbands in the recent disaster. “I have no caste barriers, and my parents are very supportive of my decision,” said one caller.
Source:

Times of India

January 11, 2005 Nas married Kelis.
Source:

USA Today

January 10, 2005Jennifer Aniston dumped Brad Pitt,
Source:

News.com.au

December 16, 2004Scientists announced that 70.6 percent of husbands are obese.
Source:

New York Times

December 9, 2004 Canada's supreme court ruled that the government can define marriage to include same-sex couples.
Source:

AP

December 3, 2004The U.S. ambassador to the United Nations, John Danforth, resigned in order to spend more time with his wife of forty-seven years.
Source:

New York Times

November 6, 2004 Saskatchewan legalized gay marriage.
Source:

New York Times

November 4, 2004Eleven states passed ballot initiatives banning gay marriage.
Source:

New York Times

October 15, 2004A Dutch princess notified her husband in a newspaper advertisement that she wants a divorce.
Source:

Agence France-Presse

October 2, 2004 Spain's cabinet approved a measure legalizing gay marriage.
Source:

New York Times

September 15, 2004Two Canadian lesbians were granted a divorce.
Source:

New York Times

August 25, 2004 Dick Cheney said that he opposes a constitutional amendment banning gay marriage; he explained that he has a gay daughter and that marriage policy is best left to the states.
Source:

Washington Post

August 13, 2004Governor James McGreevey of New Jersey announced that he is a "gay American" and resigned. "I am here today because, shamefully, I engaged in an adult consensual affair with another man, which violates my bonds of matrimony," he said. "It was wrong. It was foolish. It was inexcusable."
Source:

Men's News Daily

August 6, 2004Two Nigerian policemen were shot and two were stabbed in a battle with wife swappers.
Source:

Reuters

August 4, 2004 Missouri's voters approved a constitutional amendment banning gay marriage.
Source:

Reuters

July 22, 2004It was reported that one of the first lesbian couples to get married in Canada filed for divorce within five days, though Canadian law does not yet recognize same-sex divorce.
Source:

Globe and Mail

July 15, 2004The Senate killed a proposal for a constitutional amendment banning gay marriage, and
Source:

New York Times

July 13, 2004A runaway cement truck killed 17 guests at a wedding party in Java, Indonesia.
Source:

Straits Times

June 25, 2004Happy married women have healthier hearts than lonely unhappy women.
Source:

Reuters

May 22, 2004 American forces attacked what survivors said was a wedding party in Iraq, near the Syrian border, and killed at least 43 people, including 12 women and 14 children; U.S. military officials said they had attacked a safehouse for foreign fighters and that there was no evidence of a wedding; confronted with video footage that strongly supported survivors' claims, an official said: "There may have been some kind of celebration. Bad people have celebrations, too."
Source:

Associated Press, New York Times

May 17, 2004 Homosexuals were lining up to get married in Massachusetts, and President Bush again called for a constitutional amendment banning gay marriage.
Source:

CNN

May 8, 2004 Chile legalized divorce.
Source:

Associated Press

April 28, 2004Scientists discovered that women tend to marry men who look like their fathers.
Source:

New Scientist

March 27, 2004Benton County, Oregon, decided to stop issuing marriage licenses to heterosexuals.
Source:

New York Times

March 6, 2004Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger, who was named as the new executive editor of Muscle and Fitness and Flex magazines, said it was fine with him if voters want to change the law to permit gay marriage.
Source:

New York Times

March 3, 2004 Homosexuals continued to get married around the country.
Source:

Associated Press

February 25, 2004 President Bush came out in favor of a constitutional amendment banning gay marriage.
Source:

CNN

February 21, 2004A federal judge declined to ban homosexual marriages in San Francisco because opponents had failed to show that the weddings were causing "immediate harm."
Source:

New York Times

February 21, 2004King Norodom Sihanouk said that Cambodian homosexuals should be permitted to marry.
Source:

Associated Press

February 18, 2004 Homosexuals were lining up to get married in San Francisco.
Source:

New York Times

January 14, 2004 President Bush changed his mind and decided to let Canada bid on Iraqi reconstruction projects, and he announced a new plan to spend $1.5 billion to promote heterosexual marriage.
Source:

New York Times

December 22, 2003 Marriage makes women happier, a new study found, but men feel better while living in sin.
Source:

New Scientist

December 18, 2003The Journal of Marriage and Family reported that most American parents yell at their kids.
Source:

Reuters

December 17, 2003 President Bush came out in favor of a constitutional amendment outlawing homosexual marriage.
Source:

Associated Press

November 19, 2003The Massachusetts Supreme Judicial Court ruled that homosexuals have the right to get married.
Source:

New York Times

September 5, 2003The Coptic Orthodox Church of Egypt condemned gay marriage.
Source:

New York Times

July 31, 2003 President Bush announced his opposition to same-sex unions.
Source:

New York Times

July 27, 2003The Malaysian government decreed that a man may divorce his wife via text message; under Islamic Sharia law men are allowed to divorce their wives by uttering the word "talaq" ("I divorce you") three times.
Source:

BBC

July 2, 2003Senator Bill Frist called for a constitutional amendment banning gay marriage.
Source:

New York Times

March 4, 2003 A three-year-old boy and a six-month-old girl were married in Nepal; the ceremony was briefly halted after the bride got fussy but resumed after both the bride and groom were breast-fed.
January 14, 2003 In Nigeria, an Islamic court ordered that a man who cut off his wife's leg because he believed she was cheating on him must have his own leg cut off without anesthesia.
November 20, 2001Seven thousand virgins in Tanzania got together and promised not to have sex until marriage.
August 28, 2001After 26 years of deliberation, Brazil decided to throw out a law that allows a man to annul his marriage if he finds his bride is not a virgin; the new code will take effect in two years.
August 21, 2001A Zambian archbishop renounced his marriage, which was performed by the Rev. Sun Myung Moon, and reconciled with the Pope, who had threatened to excommunicate him; the bishop's wife said her husband was a prisoner of the Vatican and went on a hunger strike.
August 14, 2001 Singapore's highest Islamic authorities declared that Muslim men, who can divorce their wives by stating “I divorce you” three times in quick succession, may not do so via cell phone text messages.
August 14, 2001In Nigeria, an Islamic court refused to allow a woman to divorce her husband because his penis was too large.
July 24, 2001 Trade unions and human-rights groups filed suit against Coca-Cola for allegedly hiring right-wing death squads to terrorize workers at bottling plants in Colombia.
May 15, 2001 Alabama raised the legal marriage age to 16.
January 2, 2001 Russian women were not getting married and having children because too many Russian men were not earning enough money; the New York Times considered this to be yet another example of “freedom's toll.” A woman succeeded in introducing DNA evidence of infidelity into a divorce proceeding, a first.
December 5, 2000Velupillai Prabhakaran, leader of Sri Lanka's Tamil Tigers rebel group, announced that he was ready to negotiate a peace; the government issued a press release saying they would fight “until the enemy is totally eliminated.” Venezuela's supreme court ruled that President Hugo Chávez can proceed with a referendum to ban independent labor unions and replace them with one national government-controlled union loyal to President Hugo Chávez.
November 14, 2000 Germany's lower house of parliament passed a limited gay-marriage bill.
November 0, 2000 Connecticut legalized gay marriage.
Source:

The Washington Post

September 19, 2000Dutch legislators thumped their desks enthusiastically as they passed a law giving gay couples full marriage rights.
September 12, 2000Gloria Steinem was married at the home of Wilma Mankiller.
August 29, 2000 A new biography of former president Richard M. Nixon revealed that he medicated himself with Dilantin, a mood-altering drug, without a prescription; the book also charges that Nixon beat his wife.
August 22, 2000Newt Gingrich married a former aid, Callista Bisek, in Alexandria, Virginia; it was the former House Speaker's third marriage.
August 1, 2000The House of Representatives voted unanimously to ban the execution of pregnant women in response to remarks by Vice President Al Gore that a “the principle of a woman's right to choose governs in that case.” British Columbia asked the Canadian supreme court to affirm the validity of gay marriage.

May 2012

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