Sheffield is a city and metropolitan borough in the north of England. Its name originates from the River Sheaf that runs through the town. The city has grown from its industrial roots to encompass a wide economic base. It has become world famous for its production of steel. Many innovations in the industry have been developed locally, including crucible and stainless steel. This fuelled an almost tenfold increase in the population since the start of Industrial Revolution. It gained its city charter in 1893 and became officially titled the City of Sheffield. International competition caused a decline in local industry during the 1970s and '80s, impacting on Sheffield's population. In recent years the city has attempted to reinvent itself as a sporting and technology city; there are signs that this is reversing its fortunes. The present city boundaries were set in 1974, when the former county borough of Sheffield merged with Stocksbridge Urban District and two parishes from the Wortley Rural District. This area includes a significant part of the countryside surrounding the main urban region. Roughly a third of Sheffield lies in the Peak District National Park (no other English city has a national park within its boundary), and Sheffield is England's greenest city, containing over 150 woodlands and 50 public parks.
Read the rest of this article: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sheffield
_______________________________ Today's selected anniversaries:
1472: James III of Scotland annexed the Orkney and Shetland Islands from Denmark-Norway. (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Orkney_Islands)
1810: Andreas Hofer, a Tyrolean patriot and the leader of a rebellion against Napoleon's forces, was executed. (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Andreas_Hofer)
1913: King O'Malley drove in the first survey peg to mark the commencement of work on the construction of Canberra, Australia. (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/History_of_Canberra)
1959: The Avro Arrow supersonic jet fighters programme in Canada was cancelled by the Diefenbaker government amid much political debate. (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Avro_Arrow)
1965: The Ranger 8 spacecraft successfully transmitted 7,137 photographs of the moon in the final 23 minutes of its mission before crashing in Mare Tranquillitatis. (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ranger_8)
_____________________ Wikiquote of the day:
"We picked up everything we could get our hands on. Not that we needed all that for the trip, but once you get locked into a serious drug-collection, the tendency is to push it as far as you can. The only thing that really worried me was the ether. There is nothing in the world more helpless and irresponsible and depraved than a man in the depths of an ether binge. And I knew we'd get into that rotten stuff pretty soon." -- Hunter S. Thompson (http://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Hunter_S._Thompson)