Wikipedia:Main Page history/2013 June 8

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From today's featured article

Norman Selfe (1839–1911) was an Australian engineer, naval architect, inventor, urban planner and outspoken advocate of technical education. After immigrating to Sydney with his family from England as a boy he became an apprentice engineer, following his father's trade. Selfe designed many bridges, docks, boats, and much precision machinery for the city. He also introduced new refrigeration, hydraulic, electrical and transport systems. For these achievements he received international acclaim during his lifetime. Decades before the Sydney Harbour Bridge was built, the city came close to building a Selfe-designed steel cantilever bridge across the harbour after he won the second public competition for a bridge design. Selfe was commemorated in his lifetime by the name of the Sydney suburb of Normanhurst. He was energetically involved in organisations such as the Sydney Mechanics' School of Arts and the Australian Historical Society, and fought consistently for the establishment of an independent system of technical education. He was acknowledged upon his death as one of the best-known people in, and greatest individual influences upon, the city of Sydney. (Full article...)

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Did you know...

From Wikipedia's newest content:

... that after building the first concrete barn in the United States (pictured) on his farm in Chappaqua, New York, Horace Greeley said it would be "abidingly useful long after I shall have been utterly forgotten"?

... that Abujmarh, a hilly forest area in India, was proposed as a biosphere reserve by the country's Ministry of Environment and Forests in 2008?

... that the oil industry in Singapore generates five percent of the country's gross domestic product?

... that Said Amirov, the mayor of Makhachkala, has survived fifteen assassination attempts, including one that left him wheelchair-bound?

... that the 1970 edition of the National Atlas of the United States was too expensive for most Americans?

... that Knuthenborg was once Denmark's largest private estate?

... that the Bach cantata Süßer Trost, mein Jesus kömmt, BWV 151 opens in a "mood of iridescent transparency"?

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In the news

The US National Security Agency's PRISM program is revealed as using surveillance of user data from major technology companies.

Following a conviction on charges of corruption, former Slovenian Prime Minister Janez Janša (pictured) is sentenced to two years in prison.

The oldest known primate skeleton, Archicebus achilles, 55 million years old, is described from a discovery in China.

In the Syrian civil war, government forces retake the strategic town of al-Qusayr.

Heavy flooding causes widespread damage across Central Europe.

After Jairo Mora Sandoval is murdered protecting leatherback sea turtle nests, the Costa Rican government opens talks with environmental groups on reforming the nation's environmental policy.

Recent deaths: Esther Williams – Deacon Jones

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On this day...

June 8: World Oceans Day

1783 – Iceland's Laki craters began an eight-month eruption, triggering major famine and massive fluorine poisoning.

1856 – Descendants of Tahitians and the HMS Bounty mutineers settled on Norfolk Island, an abandoned British penal colony.

1959 – The U.S. Navy submarine USS Barbero fired a Regulus cruise missile (example pictured), equipped with US Post Office Department containers, in an attempt to deliver mail via rocket.

1982 – Falklands War: The Argentine Air Force attacked British transport ships as they were unloading their supplies off Bluff Cove in the Falkland Islands, killing 56 British servicemen and wounding 150 others.

2007 – A major storm in New South Wales, Australia, beached the bulk carrier ship MV Pasha Bulker.

More anniversaries: June 7 – June 8 – June 9

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It is now June 8, 2013 (UTC) – Reload this page

Today's featured picture

Male (top) and female Freckled Ducks (Stictonetta naevosa). Native to southern Australia, the species is protected by law. The ducks are easily identified by their large heads with a peaked crown.

Photo: Benjamint444

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