Presque Isle State Park is a 3,112-acre (1,259 ha) Pennsylvania state park on an arching, sandy peninsula that juts into Lake Erie, near the city of Erie, Pennsylvania. The peninsula was formed from glacial deposits more than 14,000 years ago, and is constantly being reshaped by waves and wind. There are seven ecological zones within the park, each with a different plant and animal community. The Erielhonan, a Native American tribe who gave their name to Lake Erie, probably lived on Presque Isle, which was named by the French in the 1720s. A French fort was built nearby, followed by a British and then an American fort. During the War of 1812 the peninsula sheltered the fleet of Commodore Oliver Hazard Perry. With the growing importance of shipping on Lake Erie in the 19th century, several lighthouses were built on Presque Isle. In 1876 the US Life-Saving Service opened a station, still in use and operated by the US Coast Guard. Presque Isle became a state park in 1921, and a National Natural Landmark in 1967.

Read more: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Presque_Isle_State_Park

_______________________________ Today's selected anniversaries:

1809:

Napoleonic Wars: In the Bay of Bengal, a French frigate squadron captured three East Indiamen mainly carrying recruits for the Indian Army. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Action_of_18_November_1809

1872:

American suffragette Susan B. Anthony was arrested and fined $100 for having voted in the U.S. presidential election in Rochester, New York, two weeks prior. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Susan_B._Anthony

1956:

In the Polish embassy in Moscow, Soviet leader Nikita Khrushchev said "We will bury you" while addressing Western envoys, prompting them to leave the room. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/We_will_bury_you

1987:

In London, an underground fire killed 31 people at King's Cross St. Pancras tube station. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/King%27s_Cross_fire

2012:

Pope Tawadros II of Alexandria took office as the 118th Pope of the Coptic Orthodox Church of Alexandria. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pope_Tawadros_II_of_Alexandria

_____________________________ Wiktionary's word of the day:

swingeing: 1. (chiefly Britain) Huge, immense. 2. Heavy, powerful, scathing. https://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/swingeing

___________________________ Wikiquote quote of the day:

There were a lot of utopias in the nineteenth century, wonderful societies that we might possibly construct. Those went pretty much out of fashion after World War I. And almost immediately one of the utopias that people were trying to construct, namely the Soviet Union, threw out a writer called Zamyatin who wrote a seminal book called We, which contains the seeds of Orwell and Huxley. Writers started doing dystopias after we saw the effects of trying to build utopias that required, unfortunately, the elimination of a lot of people before you could get to the perfect point, which never arrived. … I don’t believe in a perfect world. I don’t believe it’s achievable, and I believe the people who try to achieve it usually end up turning it into something like Cambodia or something very similar because purity tests set in. Are you ideologically pure enough to be allowed to live? Well, it turns out that very few people are, so you end up with a big powerful struggle and a mass killing scene.   --Margaret Atwood https://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Margaret_Atwood