"That fatal first of Jan'y 41" is how Abraham Lincoln referred to the day the "understanding" between he and Mary Todd came to an end. Numerous speculations exist of why their engagement was broken off, yet no one knows for sure. But by September, 1842 the engagement seemed to be back on with their wedding taking place in November, 1842.

Although they were not officially engaged Theodore Roosevelt and Edith Carrow had been childhood friends and certainly felt affection for one another even after Theodore went away to Harvard. But in the summer of 1878, after spending several fun days together, they were alone in the summerhouse, some sort of disagreement occurred, and they broke up. Two years later Theodore married Alice Lee, who died just four years later. Two years after that, Edith and TR were finally married.