TITANIC STORIES

Official Website of the Titanic & its home in Belfast, N.Ireland

On This Day

Use the calendar below to view what Titanic related event happened on a particular day.

May

1
May 1 1889
Sixteen year old Thomas Andrews leaves school and enters Harland and Wolff as a ‘premium’ apprentice’. He designed, and perished on, Titanic.
2
May 2 1912
Titanic survivor and White Star Line chief, J. Bruce Ismay, returns to England on the Belfast built White Star Liner Adriatic. Other Titanic crew survivors are on board.
May 2 1912
The British Board of Trade Inquiry into the tragedy begins where 25,622 questions are asked of 96 witnesses.
3
May 3 1912
The train carrying the body of John Jacob Astor, the Titanic’s richest and most famous victim, arrives at a small station near the New York family home
4
May 4 1912
John Jacob Astor, the Titanic’s richest and most famous victim, is buried in New York.
May 4 1941
In less than three and a half hours, 205 German bombers drop 95,992 tons of incendiaries and 237 tons of high explosive on Belfast and Harland and Wolf, and the docks area is very badly damaged. Three ships are sunk at their moorings, and five others are damaged. Many inhabitants are dead across the city, and further afield.
5
May 5 1831
Edward James Harland is born in Newborough, Scarborough, son of a doctor come engineer-inventor who’d patented a steam carriage in 1827.
6
May 6 1850
A railway station is opened in Comber, which will be used by commuter Thomas Andrews, designer of Titanic.
May 6 1941
A German reconnaissance plane is spotted over Belfast, probably confirming the damage that was dealt to the port and shipyard by the Luftwaffe a few days ago.
7
May 7 1915
Lusitania is sunk by a German U-boat off the south coast of Ireland. The Titanic and the Olympic class liners were built to compete with the Cunard Line's Lusitania and her sister ship, Mauretania, completed in 1907.
8
May 8 1909
Harland and Wolff official photographer Robert J Welch photographs the double bottom and lower plating of the Olympic on her Queens Island slipway, with Titanic’s keel on the adjacent slipway clearly visible in the photograph.
9
May 9 1925
Chairman of Harland and Wolff when Titanic was built, William James Pirrie’s will is published in the London Times. He has property in England valued at £707,785.00.
10
May 10 1934
The White Star Line is taken over and officially merged with Cunard.
11
May 11 1948
The 17,547 ton Magdalena is launched, and along with Titanic becomes one of four Belfast-built ships to sink on, or before, their maiden voyages.
12
May 12 1912
On the journey home aboard the White Star Liner SS Adriatic, baby Milvina Dean, who in her old age was to become the last remaining survivor of Titanic, experienced her first taste of celebrity. A number of photographs were taken of her and the story appeared in the Daily Mirror today.
May 12 1918
Titanic’s sister ship Olympic becomes the only merchant vessel to sink a U Boat by ramming U 103 en route to France after unsuccessfully shooting at the submarine
13
May 13 1912
The Canadian Government Ship (CGS) Montmagny, a lighthouse-supply and buoy-tender vessel sails from Quebec City towards Halifax but is asked to search for bodies and wreckage from the Titanic.
May 13 1912
Final day in the report by Nova Scotia Provincial Secretary's Office on the Disposition of Bodies.
14
May 14 1912
The silent movie “Saved From the Titanic” starring Dorothy Gibson who survived the disaster, is released.
15
May 15 1934
Titanic’s sister ship Olympic, inbound to New York in heavy fog, slices through the Nantucket Lightship which breaks in two and sinks. Four of the lightship's crew went down with the vessel and seven were rescued, of whom three died of their injuries.
16
May 16 1912
The White Star Line sends out SS Algerine from St. John's, Newfoundland to recover bodies. One body is recovered.
May 16 1912
The film “Saved from the Titanic", about a young woman who survived the sinking, is re-released in Britain. In it she tells her parents and fiancé, in flashback, about the sinking and her experiences as a passenger during the disaster. Her intended marriage now faces a new hazard because her fiancé is a sailor and her parents have just been reminded of the dangers of the sea.
17
May 17 2005
Titanic The Musical is premiered in Ireland by the Belfast Operatic Company in Belfast’s Grand Opera House Belfast.
18
May 18 1912
Over 30,000 people watched the half mile long processional funeral of Titanic band leader Wallace Hartley, held in Bethel Independent Methodist Church, Colne, Lancashire, where he’d once sung in the choir.
19
May 19 1911
The Board of Trade issues instructions for Titanic’s lifeboats to be inspected.
20
May 20 2007
Plans are announced to transform Titanic’s sister ship, Britannic, sunk by a U Boat and at the bottom of the Aegean Sea, into a sub aquatic paradise for divers and a haven for tourists.
21
May 21 2010
The Titanic International Society’s Boston Convention begins, a weekend of sightseeing, special guest presenters, learning, feasting and socialising, “as we all begin the countdown to 2012.”
22
May 22 1907
The Belfast built Adriatic, the White Star Line’s newest and biggest addition to its fleet, sets off from New York to Southampton, her first passage eastward, skippered by Captain Edward Smith, who commanded Titanic on her fateful voyage.
23
May 23 1912
SS Imperator, owned by Hamburg Amerikanische Packetfahrt Actien Gesellschaft is launched in Hamburg, at 51,680 gross tons outdoing the Titanic and Olympic, previously the biggest ships in the world.
24
May 24 2008
The Carnegie Science Centre opens a special summer exhibit displaying 260 artifacts of Titanic such as spoons, china, passengers' personal items, coins and jewelry. Each visitor, on entering the exhibit, receives a replica of a boarding pass of an actual passenger.
25
May 25 1912
Final day of the 18 day inquiry into the Titanic disaster undertaken by United States Senate Inquiry, headed by Senator William A. Smith. Eighty-two witnesses were called.
26
May 26 1911
An article in International Marine Engineering journal wonders in awe at scale of Titanic’s technical challenges.
May 26 1931
A memorial to the ‘Brave men who perished in the wreck of the Titanic’ erected by ‘The Women of America’, is unveiled next to the Washington Channel, Washington DC.
27
May 27 1911
The 1st and 2nd class passenger tender ship, 1,260 ton Nomadic, is handed over to her owners, as is Titanic’s 639 ton 3rd class passenger tender ship.
May 27 2004
A TV documentary is broadcast entitled "Return to the Titanic” starring Dr Robert Ballard.
28
May 28 1912
The United States Senate hearings end and Senator Smith visits the Titanic's sister ship, Olympic, at port in New York, to interview some of its crew.
29
May 29 1911
This morning the Olympic, fuelled by 3,000 tons of best Welsh coal and assisted by five tugs, heads off for two days’ of sea trials on Belfast Lough.
30
May 30 1911
The Board of Trade begins to inspect Titanic’s lifeboats.
31
May 31 1847
One of Titanic’s chief conceivers, William James Pirrie is born today in Quebec, Canada. The son of Irish parents he was to become Lord and Viscount Pirrie, partner and Chairman of H&W.
May 31 1911
At 12.13pm Titanic is launched, her 882 foot length taking 62 seconds to slide on 23 tons of lubricant into the Lagan, her 101¼ ton rudder first to touch the water.
May 31 2009
97-year-old Elizabeth Gladys Millvina Dean, the last surviving passenger on Titanic, dies in Hampshire on the 98th anniversary of the Titanic's launch.

Fill in the Blanks

Do you know lots about the Titanic?

Send us your 'On This Day' and we will publish your contributions.

Send us your 'On This Day'

Discover more about Ireland

Some of the world's best kept secrets are found here in Ireland

More Info

Titanic Trail Cobh

Explore Cork Harbour, the last port of call of the Titanic in 1912

More Information on the Titanic Trail Cobh

Find Accommodation

County

Town

Arrival Date

Open the calendar popup.

Departure Date

Open the calendar popup.

Accommodation Type

To search for accommodation in the Republic of Ireland click here

Featured Accommodation

Premier Inn Belfast City Centre, Alfred Street

Hotel - Belfast

Premier Inn Belfast City Centre is in an excellent City Centre location, within ...

View Accommodation

TITANICa Exhibition - The Ulster Folk & Transport Museum

Events

The Ulster Folk & Transport Museum is launching TITANICa: The Exhibition and TIT...

On This Day

May

May 1 1889

May 2 1912

May 2 1912

May 3 1912

May 4 1912

May 4 1941

May 5 1831

May 6 1850

May 6 1941

May 7 1915

May 8 1909

May 9 1925

May 10 1934

May 11 1948

May 12 1912

May 12 1918

May 13 1912

May 13 1912

May 14 1912

May 15 1934

May 16 1912

May 16 1912

May 17 2005

May 18 1912

May 19 1911

May 20 2007

May 21 2010

May 22 1907

May 23 1912

May 24 2008

May 25 1912

May 26 1911

May 26 1931

May 27 1911

May 27 2004

May 28 1912

May 29 1911

May 30 1911

May 31 1847

May 31 1911

May 31 2009