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.
Read more: <https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Norman_Selfe>
_______________________________
Today's selected anniversaries:
1783:
Iceland's Laki craters began an eight-month eruption,
triggering major famine and massive fluorine poisoning.
<https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Laki>
1856:
Descendants of Tahitians and the HMS Bounty mutineers settled
on Norfolk Island, an abandoned British penal colony.
<https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Norfolk_Island>
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.
<https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rocket_mail>
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.
<https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bluff_Cove_Air_Attacks>
2007:
A major storm in New South Wales, Australia, beached the bulk
carrier ship MV Pasha Bulker.
<https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/MV_Pasha_Bulker>
_____________________________
Wiktionary's word of the day:
oneironaut:
A person who explores dream worlds, usually associated with lucid
dreaming.
<https://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/oneironaut>
___________________________
Wikiquote quote of the day:
Remember there's no such thing as a small act of kindness.
Every act creates a ripple with no logical end.
--Scott Adams
<https://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Scott_Adams>
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