On July 19, 1545, the Tudor warship Mary Rose sank off Portsmouth. In 1982, the wreck was salvaged in one of the most complex and expensive projects in the history of maritime archaeology.
On this day in 1843, Isembard Kingdom Brunel’s steamship SS Great Britain was launched. The ship was at that time the world's largest with a weight of 3,270 tons and a length of 98 meters.
On this day in 1864, the Qing Dynasty of China finally achieved victory over the Taiping Rebellion by capturing the Taiping capital of Nanjing.
On this day in 1949, Laos declared independence from its colonial ruler France.
On this day in 1983, the first three-dimensional reconstruction of a human head in a CT was published.