Daily Quiz for May 21, 2007

The 1857 Mountain Meadows Massacre of the Fancher emigrant wagon train in Utah Territory was carried out by Mormons fearful of an impending invasion by the U.S. Army. On September 11, 1857, church patriarch and adopted son of Brigham Young, John D. Lee, offered safe passage to the nearly 150 men, women and children on the Fancher train crossing Mormon Utah bound for California, if they left their weapons, livestock and wagons behind?ostensibly to appease hostile Indians. Once unarmed, all but the youngest children were slaughtered. Lee, who first blamed the massacre on Indians, was tried, convicted and executed in 1877 for his role in the killings.