Anniversaries

80 YEARS AGO: WOMEN AND CHILDREN FIRST? When the Titanic sank on April 14, 1912, more than 80% of those who drowned were men. Many had relinquished lifeboat seats to members of the gentler sex. Eight decades later, the dictates of Edwardian civility no longer hold much water. In a survey the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette learned that only 35% of the men on a Titanic II today would cede their lifeboat spots to children or women who weren’t their wives. A mere 54% would give up seats for their mothers and 67% for their spouses.

50 YEARS AGO: TURNING POINT. Having surrendered to the Japanese, 72,000 gaunt, exhausted U.S. and Filipino troops marched to prison camps on the Bataan peninsula in April 1942. Malnourished and subjected to repeated beatings, 10,000 men died en route. Days after the Bataan Death March began, the tide started to shift for Allied forces. On April 18, 1942, Lieut. Colonel James Doolittle staged a daring aerial raid on Tokyo. Last week surviving raiders gathered in Columbia, S.C., for an annual tribute to the six Americans who died as a result of the attack.