The Doom Bar is a sandbar at the mouth of the estuary of the River Camel 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