TITANIC THE EXHIBITION; THE EXHIBIT OPENS TODAY IN MEMPHIS, TENN., AND WILL RUN THROUGH SEPT. 30

Massive and opulent, the Titanic was thought to be unsinkable.

But on its maiden voyage across the Atlantic, the British ship collided with an iceberg at 11:40 p.m. on April 14, 1912, about 500 miles off the coast of Newfoundland.

Less than three hours later, the most luxurious ocean liner in the world plunged bow first, two and a half miles to the ocean floor.

The ship didn't have enough lifeboats to handle the 2,200 people on board.

In the end, 1,523 people died. The ocean liner Carpathia picked up 705 survivors.

Only about 300 bodies were recovered. "There were 1,200 that just disappeared into the oblivion, that were claimed by the sea," said Jon Thompson, who is staging the largest exhibition ever of Titanic artifacts.

"Titanic: The Exhibition" opens today in Memphis, Tenn. It will run through Sept. 30.

Memphis' Pyramid will be home to the Titanic exhibition, the largest show ever staged by WONDERS: The Memphis International Cultural Series.

Operated as a non-profit division of the city of Memphis, the cultural series has presented six other exhibitions since 1987. They include exhibits on Catherine the Great, Napoleon and the Imperial Tombs of China.

In the past, the shows have been held in the city's exhibition hall. But the city plans to tear down the building and replace it with a new exhibition center, a project that is expected to take two years.

As director of cultural affairs for Memphis, Thompson has devoted much of the last three years to putting together the Titanic exhibition.

The exhibit comes at a time of enormous interest in one of the world's greatest disasters.

April 15 will be the 85th anniversary of the disaster.

The Discovery Channel will broadcast a two-hour special on the Titanic on April 13.

Of the Titanic survivors, only six are still living. "The youngest is 86 and the oldest is 94," said Thompson.

Four of the six are expected to attend a memorial ceremony April 15 at the Memphis exhibition.

A Broadway musical on the Titanic is scheduled to premiere this month.

A movie on the Titanic disaster is slated for release in July. Produced at a cost of $170 million, it is the most expensive movie ever made.

The disaster has fascinated the public for years.

"It has been said that more inquiries come to the National Library of Congress on the subject of the Titanic than on anything else except the Civil War and the Bible," Thompson said.

He believes there's good reason for that.

"This was the first dramatic tragedy that the world faced in real time," he said.

Messages were sent from the time the Titanic struck the iceberg to the rescue of survivors hours later.

The Titanic was the first ocean liner to send an SOS from its radio room.

Human errors and oversights led to the disaster. Overlooked details in construction, outdated lifeboat regulations and unheeded warnings of icebergs contributed to the tragedy.

The disaster was equivalent to an airliner crashing today with all the rich and famous on board, Thompson said.

"It wasn't like the space shuttle disaster because that happened in a blink of an eye," he said. The Titanic disaster occurred over several hours.

There was the human drama of who would be saved, who would be allowed on the lifeboats. Most of the survivors were women and children.

Few disasters, Thompson said, can compare to the Titanic and its cast of characters.