Today is the 103rd anniversary of the sinking of the Titanic, a maritime disaster that horrified people when they first got the news in 1912 – and has fascinated the public ever since. The immediate horror was the grim news that more than 1,500 people died when the Titanic sank at 2:20 a.m. on 15 April 1912 after hitting an iceberg on her maiden voyage. The shock was that this supposedly unsinkable, absolutely huge ship (at more than 882 feet long, the Titanic was the largest ship in the world when it was launched) was entirely sinkable after all.
The fascination with the infamous shipwreck ever since has been in trying to imagine what the Titanic’s crew and passengers went through that awful night, with some of the survivors telling stories of incredible heroism – and acute suffering. The Titanic’s hold on the public was cemented by the overwhelming achievement of James Cameron’s film Titanic in 1997 – a runaway success that won 11 Oscars at the Academy Awards, including Best Picture and Best Director, and earned a staggering $2.18 billion at the box office.
Here are four articles we’ve published on the GenealogyBank blog, providing some interesting stories, insights and information about the Titanic disaster.
1) Amazing Survival Stories of Last Moments on the ‘Titanic’ Ship
2) Tracing ‘Titanic’ Genealogy: Survivor Passenger Lists & More
3) Eating on the ‘Titanic’: Massive Quantities of Food on the Menu
4) Elizabeth Gladys Dean (1912-2009) Last Titanic Survivor Dies
Did you have any ancestors aboard the Titanic? Please share your family stories with us in the comments.