Under the Sea
April 15, 1912 - The British passenger liner, the RMS Titanic, sunk in the North Atlantic at 2:20am,
two and a half hours after hitting an iceberg.  The sinking resulted in the
deaths of 1,517 of the 2,223 people on board. An often cited reason for the
high number of casualties was an insufficient number of life boats.
Interestingly, while the number of lifeboats available was not enough to hold
all of the passengers and crew, the Titanic actually carried more lifeboats
than was required. At the time, the number of lifeboats required was determined
by a ship's gross register tonnage, rather than her human capacity. Had all of
the ships 20 lifeboats been filled to capacity 1,178 people should have
survived the sinking as opposed to the 706 who actually survived. One reason
the lifeboats were not launched at full capacity was reluctance on the part of
passengers to abandon the Titanic.
The ship's design was such that there was very little risk of unequal flooding
so it sank with only a few degrees list. In addition, the electric power plant
was operated by the ship's engineers until the end. Hence the ship showed
no outward signs of being in imminent danger until it was too late.
|
Before GPS
April 15, 1924 - Rand McNally published its first road atlas,
called the Auto Chum. Still millions of women continue to nag their husbands to stop
and ask for directions. |
|
Coup d'e Flop
April 17, 1961 - A group of CIA financed and trained Cuban exiles invaded Cuba at the Bay of Pigs with the intent of overthrowing communist leader
Fidel Castro. Having previously coordinated an overthrow of the Guatemalan government
in 1954, the CIA believed it could successfully topple the new Cuban
leadership. After three days of fighting, most of the 1,300 invading guerrillas were
either captured or killed by Cuban forces. The failed operation severely
embarrassed the Kennedy Administration and served only to strengthen Castro's leadership
position. |
|
We Got Nothing
April 18, 1930 - The BBC Radio news broadcast famously announced, "There is no news today."
|
