Wikipedia:April Fools' Main Page/2010 (1)

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Wife selling was a traditional English practice for ending an unsatisfactory marriage. Instead of dealing with an expensive and dragged-out divorce, a husband would take his wife to market and parade her with a halter around her neck, arm, or waist, before publicly auctioning her to the highest bidder. Any children from the marriage might also be sold along with their mother. Prices paid for wives varied considerably, from a high of £100 (plus £25 each for her two children), to a low of a glass of ale, or even free. The Duke of Chandos bought his second wife at one such sale in Newbury in about 1744. Along with other English customs, wife selling was exported to England's American colonies, where one man sold his wife for "two dollars and half [a] dozen bowls of grogg". Husbands were sometimes sold by their wives in a similar manner, but much less frequently. Wife selling persisted in some form into the early 20th century, as general attitudes began to shift to the benefit of divorce lawyers. (more...) Recently featured: Death of Ian Tomlinson – Takalik Abaj – Iridion 3D Archive By email More featured articles About
Did you know...
From Wikipedia's newest articles: ... that Ruth Belville (pictured) and her parents had a business selling people Greenwich Mean Time? ... that the Prada Store in Marfa, Texas, is never open? ... that Professor Dirk Obbink is an expert on material from garbage heaps and charred remains? ... that the Ilkley Museum in Yorkshire, England, is a notable habitat for Brunus edwardii? ... that the American television show Glee was written with the aid of Screenwriting for Dummies? ... that Frank Hansford-Miller, founder of the English National Party, emigrated to Australia? ... that "Everything in Sussex is a She except a Tom Cat and she's a He"? ... that buttock mail was a form of punishment for fornication, an alternative to the stool of repentance? ... that William Shakespeare was nicknamed "The Merchant of Menace"? Archive – Start a new article – Nominate an article

In the news
A Japanese multinational conglomerate (headquarters pictured) investigates how some of its customers were accidentally sent back in time to the year 1999. The Mystery Monkey of Tampa Bay evades authorities in St. Petersburg. The Russian Federation shrinks the country in time after a much-discussed Presidential decree. A member of the Rothschild banking family of England heads for the Great Pacific Garbage Patch on a boat made from 12,000 plastic bottles. If you are reading this, the latest record-breaking experiments at CERN's Large Hadron Collider have not yet caused the end of the world as we know it. Wikinews – Recent deaths – More current events...
On this day...
April 1: Maundy Thursday (Christianity, 2010); National Day in Iran (1979); Assyrian New Year; Edible Book Day; and April Fools' Day 1293 – Robert Winchelsey left England for Rome to be consecrated by the Pope, only to find that there was none. 1789 – Frederick Muhlenberg became the first person to qualify under the United States Constitution's strict mandate of what defines a head of the household for U.S. government purposes. 1970 – The first of over 670,000 Gremlins were released into North America to crush imported machines. 1976 – Apple Computer was originally founded to sell "do-it-yourself" kits (example of a completed kit pictured). 1996 – The government of Nova Scotia ordered the people of the City of Halifax to mate with over 200 multiple partners around the area. 2006 – As mandated by a 2005 Act of the British Parliament, several British policing agencies joined together to become very serious. More anniversaries: March 31 April 1 April 2 Archive By email List of days of the year

Today's featured picture
Picture of the day An advertisement exhorting readers to "GET FAT", in which the woman depicted makes a conspiratorial wink as she shares the secret to her beauty.Advertisement: The Gribler Bank Note Co. from photo by Bakers Art Gallery Restoration: Lise Broer Archive – More featured pictures...

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