On April 14, 1912, the Titanic hit an iceberg in the North Atlantic Ocean on its maiden voyage from Southampton, England to New York City. The British passenger liner, which was carrying more than 2,000 people, sank in the early hours of April 15, 1912. Only about 700 people survived after being pulled from lifeboats.
Here are 10 facts about the Titanic:
1. The Titanic was nearly three football fields long and one football field wide.
2. From its bottom—or hull—to the top of its smokestacks, the Titanic was 175-feet tall, which is about as tall as a 17-story building.
3. There were some 2,200 people onboard when the Titanic set sail. The ship could carry 3,547 people.
4. It cost $4,350 for one of the Titanic's suites on its maiden voyage.
5. The Titanic should have had 64 lifeboats, but only 20 were put on the ship so that first-class passengers had more room to walk around the deck.
6. More than 1,500 people died when the Titanic sank, mostly by freezing in the 28-degree water of the North Atlantic Ocean.
7. The Carpathia, a transatlantic passenger steamship, rescued 703 survivors from lifeboats after responding to the Titanic's distress signals.
8. American millionaire John Jacob Astor IV was the wealthiest person to die on the Titanic. Macy's department store owner Isidor Straus also perished on the ship.
9. Search and rescue teams recovered 328 Titanic victims and took their bodies to the Snow & Co. Funeral Parlour in Halifax, Nova Scotia, where they were kept temporarily.
10. Robert Ballard discovered the wreckage of the Titanic in 1985.
Do you know any interesting facts about the Titanic? Please share them in the comments section below.
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