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
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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)
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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)