seen in August entering Baffin Bay. 1846 - The Donner Party, a party of American settlers in wagon trains, became stranded in the snow-covered Sierra Nevada in California and resorted to cannibalism to survive. April 25, 1847 – The brig Exmouth carrying Irish emigrants from Derry bound for Quebec is wrecked off Islay with only three survivors from more than 250 on board. August 24, 1848 – The U.S. barque Ocean Monarch is burnt out off the Great Orme, North Wales, with the loss of 178, chiefly emigrants. May 3, 1849 – The Mississippi River levee at Sauvé's Crevasse breaks, flooding much of New Orleans, Louisiana. May 10, 1849 – The Astor Place Riot takes place in Manhattan over a dispute between two Shakespearean actors. Over 20 people are killed. May 17, 1849 – The St. Louis Fire starts when a steamboat catches fire and nearly burns down the entire city. 1849 – Seven of the "best known" opium clippers go missing: Sylph, Coquette, Kelpie, Greyhound, Don Juan, Mischief, and Anna Eliza. Cholera The third cholera pandemic happened during the 1840s, which researchers at UCLA believe may have started as early as 1837 and lasted until 1863. This pandemic was considered to have the highest fatalities of the 19th-century epidemics. It originated in India (in Lower Bengal), spreading along many shipping routes in 1846. Over 15,000 people died of cholera in Mecca in 1846. In Russia, between 1847 and 1851, more than one million people died in the country's epidemic. A two-year outbreak began in England and Wales in 1848, and claimed 52,000 lives. In London, it was the worst outbreak in the city's history, claiming 14,137 lives, over twice as many as the 1832 outbreak. Cholera hit Ireland in 1849 and killed many of the Irish Famine survivors, already weakened by starvation and fever. In 1849, cholera claimed 5,308 lives in the major port city of Liverpool, England, an embarkation point for immigrants to North America, and 1,834 in Hull, England. In 1849, a second major outbreak occurred in Paris. Cholera, believed spread from Irish immigrant ship(s) from England to the United States, spread throughout the Mississippi river system, killing over 4,500 in St. Louis and over 3,000 in New Orleans. Thousands died in New York, a major destination for Irish immigrants. The outbreak that struck Nashville in 1849–1850 took the life of former U.S. President James K. Polk.