Footage from the moments the Titanic wreck was discovered

An eyewitness account of the sinking of the Titanic

One of the most famous modern disasters, the Titanic sank in April, 1912, after colliding with an iceberg, killing an estimated 1,500 passengers and crew. One survivor, Washington Dodge, recorded his events just days after returning to land, offering one of the most immediate first-hand accounts of the ship's sinking.

A new scan of the Titanic reveals details about its final hours

Using over 700,000 images captured by underwater robots, researchers created a highly detailed 3D "digital twin" of the Titanic. The analysis gives us new insights into the life of the ship that lays 3,800m down in the icy waters of the Atlantic. Emerging details from close-up images, such as a smashed porthole likely caused by the iceberg, match the eye-witness accounts of what happened. Read for more insights into the devastating wreck.

See the last known image of the Titanic afloat (1912)

Three days before the tragedy unfolded, this photo was taken by an Irish Jesuit priest who sailed with the ship for the first part of its journey from England to Ireland.

An archive of some of America's most significant shipwrecks

From The Portland—known as New England's "Titanic"—to the Civil War's USS Monitor, this archive from the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration provides overviews of some of the most well-known shipwrecks in US history.

Researchers discover a massive Lake Superior shipwreck

A 292-foot Whaleback ship, Barge 129, was found in Lake Superior 120 years after a storm sank it, the Great Lakes Shipwreck Historical Society said.

Historians estimate only 1% of shipwrecks have been discovered

The oldest known shipwreck dates to around 2,700–2,300 BCE, but evidence suggests humans started open-ocean sailing at least 50,000 years ago. Many have completely deteriorated but artifacts aboard the vessels remain, while many lack historical records of the event or location.

The 1975 sinking of the Edmund Fitzgerald spurred a number of maritime changes

One of the worst Great Lakes shipwrecks in modern history, the freighter sank during an intense storm on Lake Superior that reportedly produced 50-foot waves. The exact cause remains unknown, and the disaster remains in public consciousness today.

The wife and mother of two of the Titan submersible victims shares her life since the tragic accident

The loss of the Titan submersible amid its June 2023 dive to explore the wreckage of the Titanic captured headlines worldwide. Christine Dawood had given up her seat on the trip of a lifetime to her 19-year-old son, Suleman, so he could experience the dive with his father. She has since written a book about her experience of the tragedy and about life in its aftermath.

Disappointment Island

A shipwreck. A freezing island. No trees. No help. Just 16 sailors, stranded for 8 months on Disappointment Island in 1907.

The 1915 sinking of the Lusitania precipitated World War I

In 1915, the British RMS Lusitania sank after being torpedoed by a German submarine. The Germans claimed the ocean liner was transporting munitions. Almost 1,200 civilians were killed in the disaster, which became a symbol of German aggression in the lead-up to World War I.

Advanced forensic science has helped identify killed sailors decades later

When the USS Oklahoma capsized amid the attacks, hundreds of sailors were buried within the ship's hull. Officials have used advances in forensic science to analyze DNA and dental evidence to help identify nearly 400 sailors decades after the fact.

In 2022, a piece of Challenger was discovered on the ocean floor

While searching for World War II wreckage near Cape Canaveral, Florida, for a documentary, divers discovered debris on the seafloor that NASA later confirmed to be a piece of Space Shuttle Challenger wreckage. The piece is at least 15-by-15 feet in size and partially buried under sand.

The discovery of the Mid-Atlantic Ridge was initially dismissed as ‘girl talk’

Marie Tharp identified the structure when mapping the ocean floor using sonar data, but her colleague, who did not favor continental drift, was unconvinced. Famed filmmaker Jacques Cousteau even tried to disprove her work with underwater footage, only to validate her maps.

In 1915, workers recovered a submarine-like vessel from the Chicago River, prompting fears of German espionage

The Foolkiller: The mysterious submarine at the bottom of the Chicago River

In November 1915, a submarine was found at the bottom of the Chicago River. It had been there for at least 10 years, was 40 feet long, and contained the remains of a man and his dog. To this day, no one knows who built it.

A photo gallery of underwater shipwrecks

Tobias Friedrich is a German scuba diver specializing in underwater photography. Check out this stunning gallery of shipwrecks as well as other galleries on conservation, sharks, and more.

The fatal allure of the Andrea Doria

The SS Andrea Doria was a luxury ocean liner that sank in 1956 after colliding with the Swedish passenger liner MS Stockholm. The sinking of the Andrea Doria was one of the most famous maritime disasters of the 20th century, and it resulted in the...

The world’s largest waterfall is hidden underwater

The Denmark Strait cataract is an underwater waterfall in the ocean channel between Iceland and Greenland. It’s also the world’s largest waterfall. Standing 11,500 feet tall, the incredible natural landmark is more than three times the height of Angel Falls, the largest waterfall on land. Discover more about the features of this cataract, which, despite its massive size, is totally undetectable above water.

The day the dinosaurs died

Roughly 66 million years ago, a giant meteor struck Earth off the coast of the Yucatán Peninsula. Some dinosaurs died in the immediate impact, which sent a 200-foot tsunami all the way up to what is now North Dakota. Many others perished in the resulting change in climate, with debris ejected into the global atmosphere. This 12-minute video provides an overview of what scientists have uncovered about the fateful day.

For centuries, Niagara Falls has been a magnet for daredevils seeking to conquer one of nature's most powerful wonders, with its 200-foot drop and water rushing at 32 feet per second with 280 tons of force.

The usual rules of fate do not apply': Race car driver-turned-ace WWI fighter pilot survives being lost at sea

Eddie Rickenbacker had an amazing career as a World War I hero, fighter pilot, and race care driver, among other accomplishments. This restored footage of an short 12-minute documentary about his early life, war stories, and survival at sea for 24 days provides amazing insight on a truly American character.

The USS Nevada was refloated within three months—and later fought at Normandy

Badly damaged at Pearl Harbor, the USS Nevada was raised by February 1942 after extensive salvage work. Repaired and modernized, it returned to action and bombarded German defenses during the D-Day landings.

Niagara Falls stopped flowing for a full day in 1848 due to ice

In March 1848, ice jams halted the Niagara River entirely for over 24 hours, allowing people to walk on the riverbed—a rare event that drew international headlines.

Who was Ötzi the Iceman?

When Ötzi the Iceman's well-preserved body was pulled from a glacier in 1991, researchers essentially gained anthropological evidence into a 5,300-year-old cold case. This five-minute animated video provides an overview of Ötzi's discovery and...

The claims that Jesus was buried in the Shroud of Turin, preserved since 1578

The 14-foot linen cloth bears a faint image of a crucified man and is the most scientifically studied relic in history. The core dispute hasn't moved much: 1988 radiocarbon dating placed it in the 13th-14th century, while defenders argue the sample was contaminated by medieval repairs. No one disputes that scientists can't explain how the image was formed, which acts like a photographic negative and has no trace of paint or dye.

This real-time tracking of the hantavirus cruise ship outbreak in May 2026 offers a unique glimpse into the global reach of the outbreak and whether the virus sickened passengers and their communities around the world.

Thomas Edison captured the only known footage of Mark Twain

The inventor was a pioneer in the early film industry and made his own motion pictures. In 1909, he shot a short film featuring Twain at Stormfield, his property in Connecticut. In it, Twain wears his iconic white suit and drinks tea with his daughters.

Watch a 1986 television special about the discovery of the ozone hole

The groundbreaking discovery of the Antarctic ozone hole in the mid-1980s marked a critical turning point, galvanizing international action to address the ozone-depleting properties of chlorofluorocarbons, which had been identified about a decade earlier. This environmental crisis was brought vividly to public attention through media pieces like this one.

See the most iconic photos from four decades of LIFE magazine

Explore the history, structure, and species of Australia's Great Barrier Reef with this interactive journey narrated by Sir David Attenborough.

In 1984, Operation Smash Hit intentionally crashed a 239-ton train into a nuclear waste canister at 100 miles per hour to prove the canister's safety, which remained completely intact and lost just 0.29 of its 100 pounds of pressure.

Waves off the coast of Nazaré, Portugal, can reach over 100 feet and are caused by the area's deep underwater canyon geography

An investigation suggests a Scottish island became awash in forever chemicals via seafoam and seaspray—raising questions about what that means for the safety of other coastal areas.

Explore the archaeological treasures of Pompeii, the city buried under volcanic ash when Mount Vesuvius erupted in 79 CE.

The animatronic shark from Steven Spielberg's 'Jaws,' the first modern blockbuster, was a complex underwater apparatus called 'Bruce.'

See a 3D reconstruction of Tenochtitlan, the Aztec capital that was home to an estimated population of 200,000 to 400,000.

View the ten deadliest tornadoes in US history.

The history of many kitchen appliances involves unexpected discoveries and applications, including wartime radar turned hamster defroster and replacing an 'ice king' with heat-stealing boxes.

The original copy of the Declaration of Independence is not a pristine document, and even features a smudged anonymous handprint in the bottom left corner.

In 1945, Surrealist artist Salvador Dalí and legendary animator Walt Disney began collaborating on a short film that was not completed until 2003, years after both men had died.

When caught in the mouths of cardinal fish, seed shrimp release glowing, bioluminescent chemicals, which alert predators of the cardinal fish, prompting the shrimp's ejection.

Explore the known asteroids, comets, and spacecraft involved in asteroid studies within our solar system with 'Eyes on Asteroids,' a 3D visualization from NASA.

When a Paris department store hesitated to sell Estée Lauder's perfume, she 'accidentally' broke a bottle, causing the smell to spread throughout the store and shoppers to start asking to buy the scent.

In preparation for this weekend's Eurovision finale, which is something like the World Cup of pop music, here's a young Céline Dion performing (for Switzerland?) at the 1988 competition.

Scientists can determine Earth's past climate conditions by analyzing air trapped in microscopic bubbles within ice cores—columns of compressed snow layers that build up over hundreds of thousands of years.

US consumers collectively owe more than $1T to credit card companies—almost as much as they owe in auto loans.

Neutron stars, the remains of some massive stars after they explode in a supernova, are the densest directly observable objects in the universe.

The United States has had a tumultuous relationship with Cuba since its 1959 revolution, highlighted by a nuclear crisis and a decades-long trade embargo.

See how Budweiser's famous Clydesdales spend their days at Warm Springs Ranch, where roughly 70 to 80 of the beer brand's giant horses can be found at any given time.

Long before Major League Baseball began allowing instant replay for balls and strikes, an umpire reluctantly used the technology to determine whether a hit was a home run, a move that inadvertently ushered in a new era for the sport.