Millvina Dean, last survivor of the Titanic, has passed away

Millvina Dean was a two month old baby when her family set out from England for America, where her father had dreams of opening a tobacco shop in Kansas. But because of a coal strike they weren't able to board the ship they had originally intended to take to the New World.

Instead, they found passage as third-class passengers aboard the R.M.S. Titanic. Little Millvina Dean would be the youngest passenger on the ship's maiden voyage.

Her father felt the impact when the great ship collided with her destiny on April 14th, 1912. Mr. Dean quickly sought to put his wife and two children on one of the lifeboats. They survived, while he remained onboard and drowned with more than fifteen hundred others.

Millvina Dean was the last living survivor of the Titanic.

Today she passed away at the age of 97.

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Ballard: Titanic search was cover-up for U.S. Government mission

Robert Ballard has come forward with something very interesting: his successful 1985 search for the Titanic was only a cover story for a mission from the United States Government.

The deal was: Ballard would assist the U.S. Navy in examining the wreckage of two American nuclear submarines - the Thresher and the Scorpion - that were lost at sea in the Atlantic during the 1960s. At the time, there was concern that the Soviet Union might somehow find and exploit the sunken subs. The expedition was funded by the government and upon completion, Ballard would be free to continue his quest for the Titanic. All fine and dandy... except few people expected him to find the thing! Some in the Navy were alarmed that Ballard's discovery might arouse suspicion, but because of all the publicity about the Titanic itself nobody dared question the purpose of Ballard's mission.

Head over to the National Geographic website for more on the story.

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