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Today in Titanic History - with Searching
Today in
Titanic History

Tuesday, December 16, 2025
1898 - 1st class survivor Master John Borie Ryerson was born to Arthur Larned Ryerson and Emily Maria Borie Ryerson in Illinois, USA.

1876 - 2nd class passenger Mr Richard James Slemen was born to Augusta L. Steed in Landrake, Cornwall, England, UK.

1951 - 2nd class survivor Master John Morgan jr Davies died of suicide by barbituate poisoning in Detroit, Michigan, USA at the age of 48.

1887 - 2nd class survivor Mrs Antonine Marie Mallet was born to the Magnin family in Paris, France.

1892 - 3rd class passenger Mrs Eileen Mcnamee was born to Richard O'Leary (Army Sergeant in the Royal Engineers) and Minnie Petheram O'Leary in Plymouth, England, UK.

1908 - The first keel plate was laid for the Hull 400, later called the Olympic, Titanic's sister ship.

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Cleaning Up


Simple things can be changed on your site and they can make such a difference. I've discussed before some things to make graphics look finished. The similar ideas can be applied to websites.

Tick marks.
When you start an A HREF, you must make an end tag. Also, do not leave a space (or have a line break) between an image or text and the A HREF end tag. It leaves a small line next to the image and it looks sloppy.

Borders.
Nearly everytime, I take out the border on images and tables (border=0). Sometimes tables are complex and they need borders to be understood, but I avoid the bevelled default borders on tables when I can. Removing the borders from images can make your site look cleaner, even to the very small degree of showing that you know how to remove it.

Horizontal Rules (HR).
These appear as bevelled lines across a page. These are used a lot on basic pages as a separator instead of using a graphic. Most Titanic sites are graphically, and visually, oriented. Using HRs look like a lazy default and that you can't make bars yourself.

Alert Pop-ups.
When I visit a site, I really don't want to get slapped in the face. That is what it feels like when Alert Pop-up Windows are used. In the hayday of Titanic sites these ran rampant through sites the moment someone figured out how to do them. Computer users have been accustomed to alerts being errors, so it's disconcerting to get an alert when surfing. It gets ever worse when more than one is used consecutively.

Status Bars.
The status bar is at the bottom of a browser window. It may seems like an improvement to your site to have special messages in the status bar when people visit, but it can inhibit their experience. Many times I have wanted to know where a link goes (it appears in the status bar when the cursor is over a link). Having scrolling, flashing, or static messages appear there will prevent that. The status bar is there to tell you how your download is going, what your browser is busying doing, and notifies you of errors. We're already at your site, you should make us happy to be there. Most people will be oblivious to the staus bar message, except for when it gets in their way.

Midis.
Fast-loading synthesized music has been very popular on Titanic sites. Midis are a great way of adding to the experience of being at your site. The only thing that would truly get in your visitors' way is to have midis that cannot be stopped. Give your visitors the option to start it (or at least stop it once it starts). Why is this? The sad truth is that there are Titanic fans in the world that are bored at work and surf Titanic sites. A blaring midi will give that away. The better reason is that your visitors might already be listening to music (even the Titanic soundtrack itself). Make the midi file a link to be clicked on or give visitors a "play" and "stop" button option.

These are the first things I would go through when cleaning up a site. There is much more to this clean website philosophy, but if nothing else, this will make your site above the rest. Keep visitors, make your site fun to wander through, that's what Titanic websites are all about.





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