On May 7, 1915, less than a year after World War I (1914-18) erupted across
Europe, a German U-boat torpedoed and sank the RMS Lusitania, a British
ocean liner en-route from New York to Liverpool, England.

The earlier German attacks on merchant ships off the south coast of Ireland prompted the British Admiralty to warn the Lusitania to avoid the area or
take simple evasive action, such as zigzagging to confuse U-boats plotting
the vessel’s course. The captain of the Lusitania ignored these suggestions,
and at 2:12 p.m. on May 7, in the waters of the Celtic Sea, the 32,000-ton
ship was hit by an exploding torpedo on its starboard side. The torpedo
blast was followed by a larger explosion, probably of the ship’s boilers. It
sank within 20 minutes.

Sinking of the Lusitania by John Keay.   

SANDY KOZEL

Loretta Lynn, a country music singer-songwriter is 88 years
young today. She received multiple gold albums in a career
spanning 60 years.

    
   
Seventy-three years after it sunk to the floor in the North Atlantic ocean, a
joint U.S. French expedition, led by Dr. Robert Ballard and Dr. Jean-Louis 
Michel, located the wreck of the RMS Titanic. The sunken liner is located
963 miles northeast of New York and 453 miles southeast of the coast of
Newfoundland

From left: Dr. Robert Ballard and Jean Louise Michel.

York Times shows its April 16, 1912 front page coverage of the
Titanic disaster.

CARLATA BRADLEY

On this day in 1972, the last U.S. combat troops depart Vietnam.