Isambard Kingdom Brunel dies in his London home from the effects of a stroke

Isambard Kingdom Brunel was born to an engineer father in Portsea, near Portsmouth in England in 1806. The most famous engineer of his day, he revolutionized the digging of tunnels, pioneering the machinery used to this day; built a hundred bridges over the most daunting obstacles; laid a thousand miles of railway track; and brought ship-building into the modern era with his all-metal, propeller-driven, steam ships, the Great Britain and the Great Eastern. He suffered a stroke and died ten days later in his home on Duke Street in London. (By John Osborne)