7:30am, Wednesday, April 10, 1912 – Captain Edward J. Smith boards the Titanic for its maiden voyage. He also announces his retirement and that this would be his final voyage.
Noon – Titanic departs from Southampton, England, but not before narrowly avoiding a collision with the New York, whose mooring lines snap in Titanic's wake. Tugboats push the New York aside.
April 10, 6:30 pm – Titanic arrives in Cherbourg, France and anchors 2 miles offshore. Small tenders bring aboard more mail and passengers. Some of the wealthiest and best known passengers boarded in Cherbourg.
Afternoon of April 11 – Titanic makes its final stop in Queenstown, Ireland before the Atlantic crossing. A large number of third class passengers emigrating to the United States board the ship.
Friday, April 12 – The Titanic is well out in the Atlantic running at 21 knots. By noon Saturday, April 13, Titanic covered approximately 805 miles. The first ice warning was received on April 12. By the 14th, Titanic would receive eight ice warnings.
April 14, 9:00pm – Captain Smith joins 2nd officer Charles Lightoller on the bridge. After a conversation, both agree that they will see anything large enough to damage the ship in time to take action. Smith leaves the bridge with the words "If in the least bit doubtful let me know."
10:00pm – 1st Officer Murdoch takes over on the bridge, and Lightoller goes to his cabin.
10:21pm – The nearby ship Californian comes upon the ice field, Captain Lord decides to stop and wait out the night. With 24 of 29 boilers fired, the Titanic is running at 22 knots, the highest speed it had ever achieved.
11:00pm – Californian sends ice warning to Titanic. Titanic's operators, who are backlogged with passenger messages, send back a reply of "Shut up, shut up I'm busy." Lookouts Fleet and Lee shiver in the cold night air in the lookout tower. The whereabouts of their binoculars is unknown after a change of crew in Southampton, so Fleet and Lee make do without.
11:40pm – Fleet sees a large iceberg dead ahead of the bow and signals the bridge. Sixth Officer Moody acknowledges the message and relays to First Officer Murdock, who instinctively orders hard to port and telegraphs the engine room to stop all engines. He also closes the watertight doors. Unfortunately, the iceberg scrapes the Titanic under the waterline for more than 300 feet. The scrape opens up five of the front compartments and floods the coal bunker servicing boiler number nine.
11:55pm – After inspection reports to Thomas Andrews, the ship designer, Captain Smith knows the worst... the Titanic is sinking with more than 2,200 people on board.
12:15am, April 15 – Titanic begins sending out distress signals. By 1:00am, numerous ships have heard the Titanic's distress signal and many are on their way to assist, including Carpathia, which is 44 miles to the Southeast.
12:25am – Captain Smith gives the order to begin loading the lifeboats with women and children. If every lifeboat is filled to capacity, there is only enough room for 1,178 people out of the estimated 2,227 on board.
12:45am – Starboard lifeboat #7 is lowered with only 28 of its 65-person capacity full. Crew begins launching distress rockets off the Boat deck.1:15am – Water has reached Titanic's name on the bow of the boat. Seven boats have now been lowered.
1:30am – Signs of panic begin to appear as boat #14 is lowered. Officer Lowe is forced to fire three warning shots to keep a group of unruly passengers from jumping into the already full boat.
1:40am – Most of the boats have been launched and remaining passengers begin to move to the stern area.
2:00am – Water is 10 feet below the Promenade Deck. Captain Smith releases the wireless operators from duty.
2:17am – Titanic's bow plunges under. A minute later a huge roar is heard as all movable objects inside Titanic crash toward the submerged bow. The lights blink once and then go out. The ship is now almost perpendicular, then snaps in two between the third and fourth funnel. The bow slips into the Atlantic. The stern crashes on the surface and for a moment rights itself. Within a few seconds, however, the stern turns upward pointing to the sky and finally sinks to the bottom of the cold Atlantic.
4:10am – The first lifeboat is picked up by Carpathia. By 8:50am all the lifeboats are aboard and Carpathia leaves the searching for other survivors to other vessels as it heads to New York with 705 survivors.
