(C) Daily Kos
This story was originally published by Daily Kos and is unaltered.
. . . . . . . . . .
04/14 Open Thread - The Titanic [1]
['This Content Is Not Subject To Review Daily Kos Staff Prior To Publication.']
Date: 2025-04-14
Word of The Day: Today;s word is Hubris
At 11:40 pm on April 14, 1912, the ship, RMS Titanic struck an iceberg and began to sink, a process it completed between 2:10 and 2:15 am on the morning of the fifteenth. Approximately 1,500 people died, making this one of the deadliest peacetime sinkings of a single ship. I, personally, did not see the movie and ergo must rely upon printed information sources. (I had already seen The Poseidon Adventure and figured that nobody would ever top Shelly Winters' performance in a sinking boat flick.) But I digress. ..
The RMS Titanic was built in the British colonial town of Belfast. It was, at the time of its sailing the largest ship afloat, being 882 feet 9 inches long with a maximum beam of 92 feet 6 inches and a height from the base of the keel to the top of the bridge of 104 feet. It was an "Ocean Liner", which is to say a passenger ship, a very luxurious and even opulent one. It was considered to be state of the art and up-to-date, and all that. It was also considered to be unsinkable (see word of the day, supra). It had 16 water tight compartments separated by 15 bulkheads which extended above the waterline. As long as 4 or less of these compartments were flooded, the ship would stay afloat. The hull was comprised of steel plates which varied from 1 to 1.5 inches thick. Though arguably state of the art, the steel in the hull tended to become especially brittle when cold and the rivets holding it together also had a tendency to become brittle when cold. In addition the bulkheads were not sealed at the top. Given a sufficient tilt of the ship, water in one compartment could flow over the top of the bulkhead and into the next compartment.
The collision with the iceberg dented the hull in such a fashion that the steel plates in the hull buckled and created a series of openings that allowed sea water to flood into 5 of the 16 "watertight" compartments. The ship began sinking bow first and quickly reached an angle such that water began flowing from the damaged compartments into other compartments, speeding up the sinking process. Finally, the stern which had been hanging unsupported in the air, broke off and sank separately. Like many other ship of the day, the Titanic only carried enough lifeboats for about half of the passengers and crew and most of them were actually launched when barely half full. Many persons were trapped in the hull and the rest of those not in the lifeboats were in 28 degree fahrenheit (-2 degree centigrade) water except for 5 who were rescued by lifeboats.
An April 1561 broadsheet in Nuremberg told of an April 14 aerial battle in and out of the sun between various assorted objects which eventually fell to earth in clouds of smoke. The article asserts that many people observed this phenomenon. There is no report anywhere by anybody of anyone attempting to track any of these things down to see what they were. This, to me, seems to be a most curious lack of curiosity on the part of the townspeople.
On this date in 1865, Abraham Lincoln became the first US President to be assassinated. His was the second attempted assassination of a US president. So far, there have been 4 successful assassinations of US Presidents out of over 10 attempts.
-
**********
On this day in history:
-
1395 – Timur (Tamerlane) defeated the army of the Golden Horde, starting the khanate's permanent military decline.
1561 – An apparition on the sun was reported over Nuremberg and described as an aerial battle.
1775 – The first slavery abolition society in North America was organized in Philly by Ben Franklin and Benjamin Rush
1816 – A slave rebellion broke out in British ruled Barbados,
1865 – U.S. President Abraham Lincoln was shot in Ford's Theatre by John Wilkes Booth
1890 – The Pan-American Union was founded by the First International Conference of American States
1909 – The Adana massacre began
1912 – The RMS Titanic hit an iceberg in the North Atlantic and began to sink.
1928 – The Bremen completed the first successful transatlantic airplane flight from east to west.
1929 – The inaugural Monaco Grand Prix was won by William Grover-Williams driving a Bugatti Type 35
1931 – The Second Spanish Republic and the Catalan Republic were both proclaimed
1935 – The Black Sunday dust storm swept across the Oklahoma and Texas panhandles
1944 – Bombay explosion: A massive explosion in Bombay harbor killed 300 and caused economic damage valued at 20 million pounds. 1958 – Sputnik 2, carrying Laika, fell from orbit after a mission duration of 162 days.
1981 – The first operational Space Shuttle, Columbia, completed its first test flight.
1988 – The Soviet Union agreed to withdraw its troops from Afghanistan.
1994 – Two U.S. Air Force planes mistakenly downed two U.S. Army helicopters in the Iraq no-fly zone, killing 26 people.
1999 – NATO mistakenly bombed a convoy of ethnic Albanian refugees.killing 75.
2002 – Venezuelan president Hugo Chávez returned to office two days after being ousted and arrested by the country's military. 2003 – The Human Genome Project was completed
2014 – Boko Haram abducted 276 girls from a school in Chibok, Nigeria
-
**********
Some people who were born on this day:
I can not think of any circumstances in which advertising would not be an evil.
~~ Arnold J Toynbee
1126 – Averroes, physician and philosopher
1527 – Abraham Ortelius, cartographer and geographer
1629 – Christiaan Huygens, mathematician, astronomer, and physicist
1819 – Harriett Ellen Grannis Arey, educator, author, editor, and publisher
1866 – Anne Sullivan, educator, Helen Keller's teacher and companion
1882 – Moritz Schlick, physicist and philosopher, founded Logical Positivism and the Vienna Circle
1889 – Arnold J. Toynbee, historian and academic
1905 – Jean Pierre-Bloch, author and activist, member of French Resistance in WW II
1918 – Mary Healy, actress and singer
1924 – Shorty Rogers, trumpet player and composer
1926 – Gloria Jean, actress and singer
1927 – Dany Robin, actress and singer
1929 – Inez Andrews, singer and songwriter
1932 – Loretta Lynn, singer, songwriter, and musician
1936 – Arlene Martel, actress and singer
1936 – Frank Serpico, soldier, police officer and lecturer
1945 – Ritchie Blackmore, guitarist and songwriter
1946 – Knut Kristiansen, pianist and orchestra leader
1952 – Kenny Aaronson, bass player
1958 – Jim Smith, musician
1967 – Barrett Martin, drummer, songwriter, and producer
1976 – Christian Älvestam, singer, songwriter, and guitarist
1980 – Win Butler, singer, songwriter, and guitarist
-
-
**********
Some people who died on this day:
Change your life today. Don't gamble on the future, act now, without delay.
~~ Simone de Beauvoir
1609 – Gasparo da Salò, violin maker
1759 – George Frideric Handel, organist and composer
1843 – Joseph Lanner, violinist and composer
1914 – Hubert Bland, activist, co-founded the Fabian Society
1916 – Gina Krog, suffragist and women's rights activist
1917 – L. L. Zamenhof, physician and linguist, created Esperanto
1925 – John Singer Sargent, painter
1935 – Emmy Noether, mathematician and academic
1964 – Tatyana Afanasyeva, mathematician and theorist
1964 – Rachel Carson, biologist and author, canary in the coal mine
1986 – Simone de Beauvoir, novelist and philosopher
1990 – Thurston Harris, singer
1995 – Burl Ives, actor, folk singer, and writer
1999 – Anthony Newley, singer, songwriter, and actor
2000 – Phil Katz, computer programmer, co-created the zip file format, wrote PKZip
2007 – June Callwood, journalist, author, and activist
2007 – Don Ho, singer and ukulele player
2010 – Peter Steele, singer, songwriter, and bass player
2013 – George Jackson, singer, songwriter
2015 – Percy Sledge, singer
2021 – Bernie Madoff, businessman, entrepreneur, investment adviser, market maker
2022 – Orlando Julius, saxophonist, singer
-
**********
Some Holidays, Holy Days, Festivals, Feast Days, Days of Recognition, and such:
World Quantum Day
Pan American Day
Look Up At The Sky Day
National Dolphin Day
-
**********
-
Today's Tunes
-
The Titanic
-
x YouTube Video
-
Shorty Rogers
x YouTube Video
-
Loretta Lynn
x YouTube Video
-
Ritchie Blackmore
x YouTube Video
-
Knut Kristiansen
x YouTube Video
-
Kenny Aaronson
x YouTube Video
-
Barrett Martin
x YouTube Video
-
George Frideric Handel
x YouTube Video
-
Joseph Lanner
x YouTube Video
-
Rachael Carson
x YouTube Video
-
Thurston Harris
x YouTube Video
-
Burl Ives
x YouTube Video
-
Don Ho
x YouTube Video
-
George Jackson
x YouTube Video
-
Percy Sledge
x YouTube Video
-
Bernie Madoff
x YouTube Video
-
Orlando Julius
x YouTube Video
-
Bonus Orlando Julius
x YouTube Video
-
**********
-
**********
Ok, it's an open thread, so it's up to you folks now. What's on your mind?
-
Cross posted from
http://caucus99percent.com
open thread, Titanic, Lincoln, William Grover-Williams, Moritz Schlick, Toynbee, Shorty Rogeers, Loretta Lynn, Ritchie Blackmore, Handel, Percy Sledge, Orlando Julius
[END]
---
[1] Url:
https://www.dailykos.com/stories/2025/4/14/2314870/-04-14-Open-Thread-The-Titanic?pm_campaign=front_page&pm_source=more_community&pm_medium=web
Published and (C) by Daily Kos
Content appears here under this condition or license: Site content may be used for any purpose without permission unless otherwise specified.
via Magical.Fish Gopher News Feeds:
gopher://magical.fish/1/feeds/news/dailykos/
