Since World War I, the French government was allowed what's called posthumous marriage. It started when a few women were married to soldiers that had died a few weeks earlier. In the 1950s, that practice was extended to civilians.
Nowadays, anyone in France can file for posthumous marriage. They have to send a request to the President of France. It makes it's way down the chain. Two requirements must be met: The couple must have had wedding plans originally, and the family of the deceased has to approve. Then, it gets kicked back up to the President. About 75% of cases are approved.
The reason people do this is mostly to legitimize children a woman may have, or for emotional reasons. The law does not permit the living spouse to receive any of the other spouse's money or property. People cannot do this for financial gain.
Everyone's probably been perplexed at some point as to why dogs love to stick their heads out of moving car windows. Turns out, it's not that they really like the feeling of the wind. It's because they get an awesome overload of smells.
It might seem strange to us, but consider that we only have about 5 million olfactory receptors, while a dog has more than 225 million receptors. Our olfactory membranes are about the size of a postage stamp, while a dog's is the size of a handkerchief.
To a dog, sticking his head out the window of a moving car is the equivalent of a human going from a standard television TV to a giant IMAX movie screen and trying to soak in all the colors and visuals that it entails.
If you're scared of flying, this might give you comfort or make you more terrified. The truth is: Airplanes get struck by lightning all the time. In fact, the average US airliner will be hit by lightning once a year.
If that scares you, take comfort in this: Lightning has not caused an airliner crash in the USA or of a U.S. Airline plane anywhere in more than 50 years. The last time that happened was in 1962, when a PanAm Boeing 707 got hit and a spark ignited fuel vapor in a tank.
After that happened, the rules changed to prevent a spark from ever doing that. However, pilots still avoid thunderstorms because there are a lot of other dangers like wind speeds and visibility that can be dangerous. However, next time you're on a plane and it gets hit by lightning, don't worry: That won't do the plane any harm.
Lou Pearlman was the successful impresario behind some of the biggest bands in the 1990s. He was responsible for both the Backstreet Boys and 'N Sync. Turns out, he was also the Backstreet Boy. Well, technically at least.
Pearlman was technically the sixth member of the Backstreet Boys so that he could get paid as a member. He was triple dipping in the BSB venture: As a manager, producer and band member. The 5 members filed a suit when they found out that they had only received $300,000 for their work when Pearlman had made millions.
'NSync, Aaron Carter, LFO, Take 5, Aaron Carter, Natural US5, Smilez and Southstar and others were also represented by him. They all sued him. Pearlman was eventually convicted of perpetrating one of the largest and longest-runnning Ponzi schemes. He was convicted in 2008 and sentenced to up to 25 years in prison.
Did you know that you can literally hike from the Pacific to the Atlantic ocean on a single hiking trail? It's called the American Discovery Trail and it spans over 6,800 miles. It's the only non-motorized coast-to-coast trail.
The trail passes through 14 national parks and 16 national forests. It also passes through 15 states, 10 National Historic Trails, and 23 Natural Recreation Trails. Surprisingly, the first time the trail was hiked coast to coast was in 2005.
Marcia and Ken Powers, couple from Pleasanton California started out from Cate Henlopen State Park in Delaware and finished in Point Reyes, California. They walked 5,058 miles by foot. It took them from February 27, 2005 to October 15, 2005 to complete their trek.