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James and Margret Reed of the Donner Party

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. (Full article...)

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Did you know ...

Royal Game of Ur board, c. 2500 BCE

... that scholars disagree on whether the earliest-known game boards (example pictured) date to the Neolithic or the Early Bronze Age?
... that the Estado Novo deprived Aurora Rodrigues of sleep for more than two weeks to induce hallucinations?
... that the Hogmanay special Live into 85 was so shambolic it ended a 32-year tradition?
... that Casey Washington made the game-winning score that ended a record nine-overtime college football game?
... that the distinctive coloration of the giant panda appears to serve as camouflage in both winter and summer?
... that Saparinah Sadli defended one of her former students when Indonesia's State Intelligence Agency challenged her gendered exploration of the New Order regime?
... that the 18th-century hymn "Alas! and Did My Saviour Bleed" has been criticised because its lyrics have singers call themselves a "worm"?
... that Elizabeth Yeampierre has called Puerto Rico the "poster child for climate injustice" due to the devastation caused by Hurricane Maria?
... that Boston's World's Museum was a theatre, an aquarium, a menagerie, and a freak show?

In the news

Donald Trump

Former U.S. president Donald Trump (pictured) is found guilty on all 34 counts of falsifying business records.
In Indy car racing, Josef Newgarden wins the Indianapolis 500.
In cricket, the Kolkata Knight Riders defeat Sunrisers Hyderabad to win the Indian Premier League.
Gitanas Nausėda is re-elected as president of Lithuania.
A landslide in Papua New Guinea's Enga Province leaves thousands of people missing and presumed dead.

On this day

June 3: Martyrs Day in Uganda; King's Official Birthday in New Zealand (2024); Western Australia Day (2024)

Silhouette of Jack Jouett

1781 – American Revolutionary War: Jack Jouett (pictured) rode 40 miles (64 km) to warn Thomas Jefferson and the Virginia legislature of British cavalry who had been sent to capture them.
1892 – Liverpool F.C., one of England's most successful football clubs, was founded.
1937 – Half a year after abdicating the British throne, Edward, Duke of Windsor, married American socialite Wallis Simpson in a private ceremony in France.
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.
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.

Garret Hobart (b. 1844)
Eric A. Havelock (b. 1903)
Franz Kafka (d. 1924)
Pierre Poilievre (b. 1979)

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From today's featured list

Alan Turing

The Turing Award is an annual prize given by the Association for Computing Machinery for contributions of lasting and major technical importance to computer science. It is generally recognized as the highest distinction in the field of computer science and is often referred to as the "Nobel Prize of Computing". The award is named after Alan Turing (pictured), who was a British mathematician and reader in mathematics at the University of Manchester. Turing is often credited as being the founder of theoretical computer science and artificial intelligence, and a key contributor to the Allied cryptanalysis of the Enigma cipher during World War II. The first recipient, in 1966, was Alan Perlis of Carnegie Mellon University. The youngest recipient was Donald Knuth, who won in 1974 at the age of 36, while the oldest recipient was Alfred Aho, who won in 2020 at the age of 79. As of 2024, 77 people have been awarded the Turing Prize. (Full list...)

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Today's featured picture

Laothoe populi, the poplar hawk-moth, is a moth of the family Sphingidae. The species is found throughout the Palearctic realm and the Near East, and is one of the most common members of the family in the region. The larvae are pale green on first hatching, at which point they are known as hornworms, later developing yellow diagonal stripes on the sides, and pink spiracles. This photograph, taken in Saint-Quentin-en-Tourmont, France, shows a late instar of L. populi.

Photograph credit: Charles J. Sharp

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