The Donner Party was a group of American pioneers who set out for California in a wagon train. Delayed by a series of mishaps, they were snowbound in the Sierra Nevada mountain range from November 1846 to February 1847. Some of the emigrants resorted to cannibalism to survive, eating the bodies of those who had succumbed to starvation and sickness. 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 across Utah's Wasatch Mountains and the Great Salt Lake Desert. 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:

1895:

Backed by Samuel J. Tilden, the Astor and Lenox libraries agreed to merge and form the New York Public Library (pictured in 1908), now the second-largest in the U.S. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/New_York_Public_Library

1951:

Delegates of the 14th Dalai Lama and the government of the newly established People's Republic of China signed the Seventeen Point Agreement, affirming Chinese sovereignty over Tibet. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Seventeen_Point_Agreement

1999:

Professional wrestler Owen Hart died immediately before a match after dropping 70 feet (21 m) onto the ring during a botched entrance. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Over_the_Edge_%281999%29

_____________________________ Wiktionary's word of the day:

pall: 1. (transitive) To make vapid or insipid; to make lifeless or spiritless; to dull, to weaken. 2. (intransitive) To become dull, insipid, tasteless, or vapid; to lose life, spirit, strength, or taste. https://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/pall

___________________________ Wikiquote quote of the day:

Only the dreamer shall understand realities, though, in truth, his dreaming must not be out of proportion to his waking!   --Margaret Fuller https://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Margaret_Fuller