This Week's Best Old Photos.

Settling the West; Blue jeans; Jimmy Stewart; Segregation; Hamburger Hill; Cheers.

May 20, 1862: President Lincoln signs the Homestead Act, entitling applicants who are at least 21 years old or who are the heads of a household to receive free legal title to 160 acres of federal land if they live on the land and grow crops or raise livestock there for at least five years.

Single or widowed women, as the heads of their households, are e…