on the north coast of Cornwall, England. It is composed mainly of marine
sand, more than 60 per cent of which is derived from marine shells
making it an important source of agricultural lime which has been
collected for hundreds of years. According to tradition, the Doom Bar
formed in the reign of Henry VIII, damaging the prosperity of the port
of Padstow a mile up the estuary. Until the 20th century, access to
Padstow's harbour was via a narrow and difficult channel between the
Doom Bar and the cliffs at Stepper Point, and many ships were wrecked on
the Doom Bar, including the 12-gun schooner HMS Whiting in 1816. In the
early 20th century the main channel moved away from the cliffs, and
continued dredging has made it much safer for boats, but deaths have
occurred on the bar as recently as 1997. A Cornish folklore legend
relates that a mermaid created the bar as a dying curse on the harbour
after she was shot by a local man. The Doom Bar has been used in poetry
to symbolise feelings of melancholy, and it has given its name to the
flagship ale from Sharp's Brewery.
Read more: <https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Doom_Bar>
_______________________________
Today's selected anniversaries:
453 BC:
The house of Zhao defeated the house of Zhi, ending the
Battle of Jinyang, a military conflict between the elite families of the
State of Jin during the Spring and Autumn period of China.
<https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Battle_of_Jinyang>
1886:
In Atlanta, American pharmacist John Pemberton first sold his
carbonated beverage Coca-Cola as a patent medicine, claiming that it
cured a number of diseases.
<https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Coca-Cola>
1924:
Lithuania signed the Klaipėda Convention with the nations of
the Conference of Ambassadors, taking the Klaipėda Region from East
Prussia and making it into an autonomous region under unconditional
sovereignty of Lithuania.
<https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Klaip%C4%97da_Convention>
1972:
Four members of Black September hijacked Sabena Flight 571 to
demand the release of 315 convicted Palestinian terrorists.
<https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sabena_Flight_571>
1984:
The Soviet Union announced the boycott of the Summer Olympics
in Los Angeles, citing security concerns and stated that "chauvinistic
sentiments and an anti-Soviet hysteria [were] being whipped up in the
United States".
<https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/1984_Summer_Olympics_boycott>
_____________________________
Wiktionary's word of the day:
adversity:
1. (uncountable) The state of adverse conditions; state of misfortune or
calamity.
2. (countable) An event that is adverse; calamity.
<https://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/adversity>
___________________________
Wikiquote quote of the day:
 The growth of the human mind is part of the growth of
civilization; it is the state of civilization at any given moment that
determines the scope and possibilities of human ends and values. The
mind can never foresee its own advance.
--Friedrich Hayek
<https://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Friedrich_Hayek>
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