The Mary Rose was a warship of the English Tudor navy of King
Henry VIII in the first half of the 16th century. During four decades
of service in wars against France, Scotland and Brittany, she was one
of the largest ships in the English navy and one of the earliest ships
specially built for warfare. The Mary Rose is well-known today due to
the fact that she sank intact on 19 July 1545 in the battle of the
Solent north of the Isle of Wight, while leading an attack on French
galleys. The wreck of the Mary Rose was rediscovered in 1971 and
salvaged in October 1982 by the Mary Rose Trust in one of the most
complex and expensive projects in the history of maritime archaeology.
Though much of the ship has deteriorated, the surviving section of the
hull, with thousands of artefacts, is immeasurable value as a time
capsule of the Tudor period. The excavation and salvage of the Mary
Rose has since become a milestone in the field of maritime archaeology,
comparable only to the raising of the Swedish 17th-century warship Vasa
in 1961. The finds include weapons, sailing equipment, naval supplies
and a wide array of objects used by the crew, providing detailed
knowledge of the era in which the ship was built, in peacetime as in
war. Many of the artefacts are unique to the Mary Rose and have
provided insights into topics ranging from naval warfare to the history
of musical instruments. While undergoing conservation, the remains of
the hull and many of its related artefacts have been on display since
the mid-1980s in the Mary Rose Museum in the Portsmouth Historic
Dockyard.
Read the rest of this article:
<http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mary_Rose>
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Today's selected anniversaries:
1843:
SS Great Britain, the first ocean-going ship that had both an iron hull
and a screw propeller, launched from Bristol, UK.
<http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/SS_Great_Britain>
1848:
The two-day Women's Rights Convention, the first women's rights and
feminist convention held in the United States, opened in Seneca Falls,
New York.
<http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Seneca_Falls_Convention>
1870:
A dispute over who would become the next Spanish monarch following the
deposition of Isabella II during the 1868 Glorious Revolution led
France to declare war on Prussia.
<http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Franco-Prussian_War>
1916:
World War I: Australian forces engaged the Germans at the Battle of
Fromelles in France, described as "the worst 24 hours in Australia's
entire history" since 5,533 Australian soldiers were eventually killed,
wounded or taken prisoner in the failed operation.
<http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Battle_of_Fromelles>
1947:
Burmese nationalist Aung San and six members of his newly formed
cabinet were assassinated during a cabinet meeting.
<http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Aung_San>
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Wiktionary's word of the day:
oftentimes (adv):
1. Frequently.
2. Repeatedly
<http://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/oftentimes>
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Wikiquote quote of the day:
Old anchormen, you see, don't fade away; they just keep coming back for
more. And that's the way it is...
--Walter Cronkite
<http://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Walter_Cronkite>