What was the exact date of the Titanic's sinking?
Answer
April 15, 1912
Answer
April 15, 1912
What was the exact date of the Titanic's sinking? The answer is April 15, 1912. Titanic struck an iceberg at approximately 11:40 p.m. on April 14, but the ship remained afloat for roughly two hours and forty minutes before sinking at about 2:20 a.m. on April 15, ship's time.
The disaster occurred during Titanic's maiden voyage from Southampton to New York. After the collision, water flooded multiple forward compartments and gradually pulled the bow lower into the sea. Distress messages were transmitted by wireless operators Jack Phillips and Harold Bride, while the crew attempted to load passengers into the ship's 20 lifeboats.
Titanic sank in the North Atlantic, about 370 miles southeast of Newfoundland. The nearby liner Carpathia reached the area later that morning and rescued approximately 710 survivors. More than 1,500 passengers and crew died, many from drowning or exposure to the freezing water.
The date is often confused because the collision and sinking occurred on different calendar days. April 14 marks the iceberg impact; April 15 marks the ship's final plunge. Contemporary accounts and later historical research consistently identify April 15, 1912, as the date of the sinking.
Source: Wikipedia · fact-checked Aug. 2026