Rocscience Inc.'s Technical Workshop: Finite Element Modelling of Underground Excavations begins on Aug 26th 2026
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On This Day | August 28

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2008
The Shanghai World Financial Center opened

The Shanghai World Financial Center is a supertall skyscraper located in the Pudong district of Shanghai. It is a mixed-use skyscraper, consisting of offices, hotels, conference rooms, observation decks, and ground-floor shopping malls. On 14 September 2007, the skyscraper was topped out at 492 meters (1,614.2 ft), making it the 2nd tallest building in the world on completion (the tallest at the time being Taipei 101), the tallest building in the world by roof height only, and the tallest in China.

1990
1990 Plainfield tornado

The 1990 Plainfield tornado was a devastating tornado that occurred on the afternoon of Tuesday, August 28, 1990. The violent tornado killed 29 people and injured 353. It is the only F5/EF5 rated tornado ever recorded in August in the United States, and the only F5 tornado to strike the Chicago area.

1902
Arthur Casagrande was born

Arthur Casagrande was an American civil engineer born in Austria-Hungary who made important contributions to the fields of engineering geology and geotechnical engineering during its infancy. Renowned for his ingenious designs of soil testing apparatus and fundamental research on seepage and soil liquefaction, he is also credited for developing the soil mechanics teaching programme at Harvard University during the early 1930s that has since been modelled in many universities around the world.

1853
Vladimir Shukhov was born

Renowned for his pioneering works on new methods of analysis for structural engineering, Vladimir Grigoryevich Shukhov was a Russian Empire and Soviet engineer-polymath, scientist and architect. He is the inventor of the first cracking method, and his methods led to breakthroughs in industrial design of the world's first hyperboloid structures, diagrid shell structures, tensile structures, gridshell structures, oil reservoirs, pipelines, boilers, ships and barges.

1839
William Smith died

William 'Strata' Smith was an English geologist, credited with creating the first detailed, nationwide geological map of any country. At the time his map was first published he was overlooked by the scientific community; his relatively humble education and family connections prevented him from mixing easily in learned society. Financially ruined, Smith spent time in debtors' prison. It was only late in his life that Smith received recognition for his accomplishments, and became known as the "Father of English Geology".

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Engineering Properties and Laboratory Testing

Aug, 21, 2026 | Education

Tensile Force-Strain Response Geogrid tensile properties are normally reported as force per unit wi...

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South Korea city hit by almost a metre of rain and deadly landslide

Aug, 18, 2026 | News

Torrential rain has triggered a deadly landslide in Geoje, South Korea, after the southern city rece...

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GroutForce™ Displacement Piles: Design Methods, Test Results & HeliCAP® Engineering Workshop

Aug, 20, 2026 | Event

Discover how GroutForce™ Displacement Piles provide a high-capacity foundation solution by utilizing...

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Granada earthquake injures three and disrupts historic city sites

Aug, 18, 2026 | News

A shallow earthquake has struck southern Spain, injuring at least three people and damaging building...

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Century-old New York rail tunnel rebuilt after corrosive flood damage

Aug, 17, 2026 | News

Amtrak has reopened Line 2 of the East River Tunnel in New York, completing the first major phase of...

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Reinforcement and Stabilization Mechanisms

Aug, 18, 2026 | Education

Tensile Reinforcement The most fundamental mechanism is tensile reinforcement. As the soil mass ten...