On This Day in History - April 14
On April 14, 1912, the RMS Titanic hit
an iceberg at nearly full speed, despite being warned SIX times that
there was sea ice. Flaws in the ship's design meant it sank in less
than three hours. The chairman of the company that built Titanic had
fifty years experience, and had been chairman for 17 years. The chief
naval architect (who drowned on the Titanic) was a “genius” with
23 years experience, five years heading the drafting department. The
designer of the Titanic's safety systems, which proved wholly
inadequate, had forty years experience. The Titanic's captain had 45
years experience, 25 in command of ships, eight years as captain of
the world's largest passenger liners.
On April 14, 1865,
President Abraham Lincoln was shot while attending a play at Ford's
Theater in Washington D.C. While Lincoln was usually attended and
guarded by three men, none were present to bar entrance to the
President's box to assassin John Wilkes Booth; the policeman who was
supposed to be on duty was drinking in a tavern. A US Army surgeon
immediately rushed to Lincoln's side; neither he nor an
additional six medical doctors (including the US Surgeon General)
were able to save Lincoln.
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