R.M.S. Titanic - Chronology

1909: Construction of Titanic begins in Belfast, Ireland.

1911, May 31: The hull of the R.M.S.Titanic is launched. Shortly after 12:15.

1912, March 31: The outfitting of Titanic is completed.

1912, April 10: Sailing day.

• 9:30AM: Passengers begin to board the ship in Southampton.
• Noon: The Titanic casts off and begins her maiden voyage.

1912, April 11:

• 1:30 PM: The Titanic leaves Queenstown, Ireland, for New York.

1912, April 12 and 13: The Titanic sails through calm, clear weather.

1912, April 14: Seven ice warnings received during the day.

• 11:40 PM: The lookouts report an iceberg dead ahead. Titanic strikes the iceberg on the starboard side of her bow.
• 11:50 PM: Water rises 14 feet in the forward part of the ship.

1912, April 15:

• 12:00 AM: The captain orders wireless to begin sending distress signals.
• 12:05 AM: Crews begin uncovering the lifeboats. There is enough room in the lifeboats for only about half of the estimated 2,227 people onboard.
• 12:25 AM: The loading of the lifeboats, "women and children first", begins.
• 12:45 AM: The first lifeboat is safely away.
• 2:05 AM: The last lifeboat leaves. More than 1,500 people are left onboard the sinking ship. The list on the Titanic's decks grows steeper and steeper.
• 2:17 AM: The last wireless call for help is sent out. Captain Smith declares, "It's every man for himself!" The Titanic's bow plunges under.
• 2:18 AM: The ship's lights blink once and then go out. Several survivors see the ship break in two. The bow begins its 2 1/2 mile descent to the ocean floor.
• 2:20 AM: The Titanic's stern section settles back into the water, becoming level for a few moments. Slowly it fills with water, tilts its end high into the air, and sinks.
• 4:10 AM: The first lifeboat is picked up by Carpathia.
• 8:50 AM: The Carpathia leaves the area bound for New York, carrying 705 survivors.

1912, April 15: Aviatrix Harriet Quimbey becomes the first woman to fly the English Channel. Coming the same day as news of the Titanic sinking, her accomplishment is forgotten. She is killed in an airplane crash one year later.

1912, April 18: Carpathia arrives in New York City with survivors.

1912, April 19: The U.S. Senate Inquiry led by Michigan Senator William Smith opens at New York's Waldorf-Astoria. The inquiry recommends that the number of lifeboats be increased and a 24-hour radio watch be established on all ships.

1912, April 21: The Mackay-Bennett recovers the first of 306 bodies, including J.J. Astor's. Unclaimed victims are buried at sea or in Halifax, Nova Scotia, cemeteries.

1912, May 3: The British Inquiry, the Mersey Commission, convenes in London.

1912, June: Titanic's last body is recovered. The remains of First-Class Saloon steward W.F. Cheverton are buried at sea by the steamer Ilford.

1912, August: Madeleine Astor gives birth to a son. She names him for her husband lost in the sinking. Also that month Stanley Lord resigns his position with the Leyland Line as a result of the Mersey commission findings.

1916: The Britannic, Titanic's sister, in service as a hospital ship during World War One, strikes a German mine in the Aegean Sea and sinks within an hour.

1917: The Californian is torpedoed by a German submarine in World War One and sinks.

1918: The Carpathia is torpedoed by a German submarine in World War One and sinks.

1934: The Great Depression forces a merger between the White Star and Cunard lines.

1940: Madeline Astor dies in Palm Beach. She had been married to an Italian prize fighter.

1952: Titanic's second officer Charles Lightoller dies at age 78.

1953: 20th Century Fox releases Titanic starring Barbara Stanwyck and Clifton Webb. The ship model used in the filming is now on display at the Marine Museum in Fall River, Mass.

1955: Walter Lord publishes A Night to Remember. The classic exposes new generations to the Titanic legend.

1958: A Night to Remember becomes a British film starring Kenneth More, Honor Blackman, and a young David McCallum as telegraph operator Harold Bride.

1960: The musical The Unsinkable Molly Brown opens on Broadway.

1965: Frederick Fleet, the lookout who was the first person to see the iceberg, dies in Southampton at 76. He sold newspapers on street corners in that town.

1965: Irwin Allen's sci-fi program Time Tunnel debuts on TV with the episode Rendezvous With Yesterday that has scientists James Darren and Robert Colbert landing on the Titanic.

1967: Survivor schoolmaster Lawrence Beesley, who was praised for his written account of the disaster dies at age 89.

1980: Clive Cusslers Raise the Titanic becomes a film starring Jason Robards, Anne Archer, and Alec Guinness.

1985, September 1: Scientist Dr. Robert Ballard and Jean Louis Michel discovered the Titanic wreck site.

1986-1994: Numerous expeditions retrieve artifacts from the wreck site. Critics accuse the salvage operations of grave robbing. Supporters of the recovery efforts say they are preserving history and trying to answer unresolved questions about the disaster.

1990: Renowned science-fiction author Arthur C. Clarke publishes a novel about raising the Titanic--Ghost of the Grand Banks.

1996: Eva Hart, the last survivor with articulate memories of the sinking, dies in England at age 91

1996: Production begins on 20th Century Fox's second movie about the disaster. Titanic, directed by James Cameron and starring Kate Winslet and Leonardo DiCaprio, will premiere in 1997. It is reported to cost $100 million.

1996, August 26: An expedition to the wreck site--tries, but fails--to bring up an 11-ton piece of the hull.