MOMENTS IN TIME

The History Channel

• On Jan. 6, 1759, a 26-year-old George Washington marries Martha Dandridge Custis. Historical documents have revealed that Martha may not have been the great love of Washington’s life. He wrote cryptic yet passionate love letters to Sally Fairfax, the wife of his friend George Fairfax.

• On Jan. 1, 1863, a farmer named Daniel Freeman submits the first claim under the new Homestead Act for a property near Beatrice, Neb. By the 1890s, many homesteaders found that farming 160 acres of such dry land was nearly impossible. At least half of the original homesteaders abandoned th...