Wikipedia:Main Page history/2019 May 23

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From today's featured article

James and Margaret Reed,
members of the Donner Party

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. (Full article...)

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Aretha Franklin

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... that the 1854–55 Royal Commission on the Inns of Court recommended that the inns combine into a single university of law?
... that during World War II, Wang Daheng quit his doctoral studies to help develop optical glass in the UK, and later became the "father of optical engineering" in China?
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In the news

Joko Widodo

Joko Widodo (pictured) is re-elected President of Indonesia, and his party, PDI-P, wins the largest share of legislative votes.
The Netherlands, represented by Duncan Laurence with the song "Arcade", wins the Eurovision Song Contest.
The Ibiza affair, a political scandal, causes the collapse of the Austrian government and triggers a snap election.
The Liberal–National Coalition, led by Prime Minister Scott Morrison, wins the most seats in the Australian federal election.
Taiwan becomes the first state in Asia to legalize same-sex marriage.

On this day

May 23: Lag BaOmer (Judaism, 2019)

New York Public Library in 1908

1706 – War of the Spanish Succession: The Grand Alliance armies routed the Franco-Spanish-Bavarian army in Ramillies, present-day Belgium.
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.
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.
1999 – Professional wrestler Owen Hart died immediately before a match after dropping 70 feet (21 m) onto the ring during a botched entrance.

William Bradford (d. 1752) · Franz Xaver von Baader (d. 1841) · Ruth Fernández (b. 1919)

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Today's featured picture

Arena Glacier is a glacier located on Trinity Peninsula, the northernmost region of the Antarctic Peninsula. The glacier is 3 miles (5 km) long and flows northeast from Mount Taylor into Hope Bay, 2 miles (3 km) southwest of Sheppard Point. The Falkland Islands Dependencies Survey mapped the area in 1948 and 1955. They also chose the name Arena Glacier, due to the flat ice floor in the upper half, which was surrounded by the steep slopes of the Twin Peaks, Mount Taylor and Blade Ridge, resembling an arena.

This photograph, taken in 2016, is a view at a distance, showing the glacier flowing into Hope Bay.

Photograph credit: Andrew Shiva

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