The Donner Party was a group of American pioneers who set out for California in a wagon train, but became snowbound in the Sierra Nevada mountains in November 1846. Running out of food, some resorted to cannibalism to survive. The journey west usually took between four and six months, but the Donner Party had been slowed by following a new route called the Hastings Cutoff, which crossed the Rocky Mountains' Wasatch Range and the Great Salt Lake Desert in present-day Utah. They lost many cattle and wagons in the rugged terrain, and divisions formed within the group. Their food supplies ran low after they became trapped by an early, heavy snowfall high in the mountains. In mid-December some of the group set out on foot and were able to obtain help. Of the 87 members of the party, 48 survived to reach California. Historians have described the episode as one of the most spectacular tragedies in California history.

Read more: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Donner_Party

_______________________________ Today's selected anniversaries:

1892:

Liverpool F.C., one of England's most successful football clubs, was founded. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Liverpool_F.C.

1937:

Half a year after abdicating the British throne, Edward, Duke of Windsor, married American socialite Wallis Simpson in a private ceremony in France. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wallis_Simpson

1969:

During a SEATO exercise in the South China Sea, a collision between HMAS Melbourne and USS Frank E. Evans resulted in the latter vessel being cut in two and the deaths of 74 personnel. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/USS_Frank_E._Evans

1982:

A failed assassination attempt was made on Shlomo Argov, the Israeli ambassador to the United Kingdom, which event was later used as justification for the First Lebanon War. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Shlomo_Argov

_____________________________ Wiktionary's word of the day:

tandem: 1. One behind the other; in single file. 2. (figurative) In close collaboration; collaboratively, cooperatively. 3. (countable) A carriage pulled by two or more draught animals (generally draught horses) harnessed one behind the other, both providing pulling power but only the animal in front being able to steer. 4. (by extension, countable) 5. Two draught animals (generally draught horses) harnessed one behind the other. 6. A thing with two components arranged one behind the other. 7. (specifically, cycling) Short for tandem bicycle (“a bicycle or tricycle in which two people sit one behind the other, both able to pedal but only the person in front being able to steer”). 8. (medicine) A hollow metal tube containing radioactive material, inserted through the vagina into the uterus to treat gynecological cancer. 9. (figurative) 10. (countable) A group of two or more machines, people, etc., working together; hence (uncountable), close collaboration. 11. (uncountable, education) A method of language learning based on mutual exchange, where ideally each learner is a native speaker in the language the other person wants to learn. [...] https://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/tandem

___________________________ Wikiquote quote of the day:

Manners are the shadows of virtues; the momentary display of those qualities which our fellow creatures love, and respect.   --Sydney Smith https://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Sydney_Smith