Titanic sinks on maiden voyage
April 15, 1912
Four days out of Southampton the largest ship ever built struck an iceberg on a glassy North Atlantic night. There were lifeboats for only half the two thousand two hundred aboard. Fifteen hundred drowned or froze in black water. The century's faith in engineering progress took its first very public wound.
In context
Also in 1912 (4 other events on record)
- First Balkan War breaks out · Europe · War
- Wegener proposes continental drift · Europe · Science
- Paul Ehrlich's magic bullet · Europe · Science
- Fenway Park opens · North America · Culture
Before and after in Europe
Before and after in Disaster
Era
Modern Era (1901–2000), one of 590 events from that era on Saeculum.