Timeline of United States discoveries four days into the ship's maiden voyage, "Titanic" struck an iceberg and sank two hours and forty minutes later, early on April 15, 1912. The sinking resulted in the deaths of 1,517 of the 2,223 people on board, making it one of the deadliest peacetime maritime disasters in history. After nearly 74 years of being lost at sea on the bottom of the ocean floor, a joint Franco-American expedition led by American oceanographer Dr. Robert D. Ballard, discovered the wreckage of the RMS "Titanic" two miles (3 km) beneath the waves of the North Atlantic on September 1, 1985. Ballard
Heart of the Ocean Heart of the Ocean The Heart of the Ocean is the name of a fictional blue diamond featured prominently in the 1997 film "Titanic". In the story, the 56 carat diamond was originally owned by Louis XVI and cut into a heart shape after the French Revolution. In the film the necklace was purchased by Pittsburgh steel tycoon Caledon Hockley, played by Billy Zane, a week before he sailed on the ill-fated ocean liner " RMS Titanic". The necklace was meant to be given as an engagement present to his fiancée Rose DeWitt Bukater, played by Kate Winslet and Gloria