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- The curtain or veil used by some Hindus and Moslems to seclude or hide their women from strangers is called a "purdah."
- Margaret Sanger was jailed for a month, in 1917, in a workhouse for founding a clinic that dispensed contraceptives.
- In the Middle Ages, the highest court in France ordered the execution of a cow for injuring a human.
- A girl, in the Vacococha tribe of Peru, to prepare her for marriage at the age of 12, is placed in a basket in the hut of her prospective in-laws and must remain suspened over an open fire night and day for 3 months.
- The Spanish Inquisition once condemned the entire Netherlands to death for heresy.
- During the eighteenth century, books that were considered offensive were sometimes punished by being whipped.
- In the marriage ceremony of the ancient Inca Indians of Peru, the couple was considered officially wed when they took off their sandals and handed them to each other.
- In 1968, a convention of beggars in Dacca, India, passed a resolution demanding that the minimum amount of alms be fixed at 15 paisa (three cents).
- Because of heavy traffic congestion, Julius Caesar banned all wheeled vehicles from Rome during daylight hours.
- Talking on a cellular phone while driving is against the law in Israel.
- In Milan, Italy, there is a law on the books that requires a smile on the face of all citizens at all times. Exemptions include time spent visiting patients in hospitals or attending funerals. Otherwise, the fine is $100 if they are seen in public without a smile on their face.
- The minimum age set in the U.S. Constitution for the President of the United States is 35.
- In Athens, Greece, a driver's license can be taken away by law if the driver is deemed either "unbathed" or "poorly dressed".
- Impotence is grounds for divorce in 24 U.S. states.
- The murder rate in the Unted States is 200 times greater than in Japan. In Japan no private citizen can buy a handgun legally.
- The movie 'Cleopatra', starring Elizabeth Taylor, was banned from Egypt in 1963 because she was a Jewish convert.
- Golf was banned in England in 1457 because it was considered a distraction from the serious pursuit of archery.
- It is illegal to marry the spouse of a grandparent in Maine, Maryland, South Carolina, and Washington, DC.
- The son of a lowly bookie, Peter O'Toole attended a Catholic school where the nuns beat him to correct his left-handedness.
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