14 April—It was on this day in 1865 that President Abraham Lincoln was shot and mortally wounded as he watched a performance at Ford’s Theatre. Not to put ideas into anyone’s head, but the Kennedy Center won’t be closing for Donald Trump’s disastrous, mostly unneeded, typically tasteless modifications; and he and his wife may be attending a performance of something or other before then. And it won’t matter if Trump stays awake.

Moving on to another disaster, deep in the night of 14 April 1912–early morning of 15 April in the United Kingdom—the RMS Titanic struck an iceberg in the North Atlantic and sank in just over two and a half hours. Because of imprecise—okay, sloppy—passenger and crew lists and general record-keeping, as was not uncommon back then, it’s not known exactly how many passengers and crew out of the approximately 2,200 on board went down with the unsinkable ship or died from drowning or freezing in the 28-degree Fahrenheit saltwater, but the best estimates put it between 1,490 and 1,635; and there were only 700 to 710 survivors recorded.

Naturally, the Titanic’s owner, the White Star Line, was sued in both the United Kingdom and the United States—for over $16 million for loss of life and property, as well as injuries. Personal injury law—ambulance chasing—was in its infancy back then. And naturally, most of the claims were settled out of court for a total of a piddling $664,000. Most of the litigation was shunted to the U.S. because, as is not commonly known, the British White Star Line was actually owned by an American trust, International Mercantile Marine Co., and under American law IMM’s liability was conveniently limited rather more than under British law.

IMM had been created just over a decade before the Titanic incident by Hartford’s own J.P Morgan, who bankrolled the deal, and conspired with American shipping tycoons Bernard Baker and Clement Griscom, and British shipping magnates Sir John Ellerman and Bruce Ismay. The idea, of course, was for IMM to monopolize the shipping trade through interlocking directorates and other dirty tricks beloved and perfected by robber barons.

White Star Line chairman Ismay, whose family had owned the line since 1868, was the only IMM principal who was on the Titanic’s maiden (and final) voyage. Because he survived, he was naturally branded a coward—which he may well have been—and resigned the chair in 1913, becoming a depressive recluse and dedicating his remaining 25 years to maritime safety. Survivor’s guilt? His widow, American-born Julia Ismay, lived to 96, crossing the bar in London in 1963.

Incidentally, the RMS Titanic was officially a Royal Mail Steamer rather than a Royal Mail Ship and ships’ names are by convention italicized mostly to be a pain in the neck. And all the sanctimonious politicians and others who have essentially forced Eric Swalwell’s downfall—deserved or otherwise—are nothing but goddamned hypocrites . . .