Events around the world mark Titanic centenary

[April 14, 2012]  LONDON (AP) -- From a Belfast cathedral to a ship in the cold North Atlantic, thousands were gathering Saturday to remember the Titanic, 100 years after the sinking of the luxury liner.

The ship, on its maiden voyage from England to New York, struck an iceberg at 11:40 p.m. on April 14, 1912, and sank at 2:20 a.m. on April 15. More than 1,500 of the 2,208 passengers and crew died.

In Belfast, Northern Ireland, where Titanic was built -- pride of Harland & Wolff shipyard -- thousands will attend a nationally televised concert at the city's Waterfront Hall or a requiem Mass at St. Anne's Cathedral on Saturday.

In its departure port of Southampton, England, an orchestra will play composer Gavin Bryars' work "The Sinking of the Titanic."

Aboard Balmoral, a cruise ship that is taking 1,309 history buffs and descendants of Titanic passengers on the route of the doomed voyage, passengers and crew will hold two memorial services at the site of the disaster, 400 miles (640 kilometers) off the coast of Newfoundland -- one marking the time when the ship hit the iceberg, the other the moment it sank below the waves.

A shipboard band, which has been entertaining guests in the evenings during the cruise, will play "Nearer My God To Thee," the tune the Titanic's band kept up as the vessel went down.

Another cruise ship, Journey, left New York on Tuesday and will join Balmoral at the site.

[Associated Press]

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