1850	White Star Lines is founded. It is registered in Liverpool as The Oceanic Steam Navigation Company, Ltd., it's legal name.
1867	White Star Lines is purchased by Thomas Henry Ismay, father of J. Bruce Ismay, for 1000 British Pounds. Agreements are reached with Gutsav Schwabe to bankroll White Star, provided Harland and Wolff are contracted to build all new White Star liners.
1891	J. Bruce Ismay is admitted into the White Star Partnership.
1892	Thomas Ismay retires, leaving Bruce as Chairman.
1902	American financier J. Pierpoint Morgan's International Mercantile Marine Co. (IMM) buys White Star Lines for 10 million Pounds. J. Bruce Ismay remains Chairman and Managing Director.
1904	Bruce Ismay, at age 41, is named President of IMM.
Summer, 1907	J. Bruce Ismay and Lord James Pirrie, a partner in Harland and Wolff, meet at a dinner party at Pirrie's residence in London. They begin to formulate plans for 2 ocean liners that will surpass anything built to date. The names OLYMPIC and TITANIC are chosen as well. Sometime later, a third ship called Gigantic is added to the plans.
June, 1907	J. Bruce Ismay meets with the New York Harbor Board to construct a pier long enough to accommodate a ship the proposed size of Titanic and Olympic. About the same time, Lord Pirrie instructs the Harland and Wolff architects be begin preliminary designs on Olympic and Titanic, and begins plans to enlarge the Belfast shipyards to berth ships of such size.
July, 1907	Construction begins at Harland and Wolff's yards to combine 3 slips into 2 slips with a 220 foot high gantry, the largest ever built.
July 29, 1908	Ismay and Pirrie, among others, meet at Harland and Wolff to view the plans for Olympic and Titanic.
July 31, 1908	White Star Lines and Harland and Wolff sign the building contract for Olympic ,Titanic, and Gigantic (later renamed Britannic).
Dec. 16, 1908	The keel plate (number 400) for Olympic is laid at Harland and Wolff's Belfast yard.
Mar. 31, 1909	The keel plate for Titanic (number 401) is laid.
Oct. 20, 1910	Olympic's hull is launched and towed to the fitting out basin.
May 31, 1911 12:13pm	Titanic's 26,000 ton hull is launched at Harland and Wolff's shipyard, watched by over 100,000 people. She reached a speed of 12 knots before 6 anchor chains and 2 piles of cable drag chains weighing 80 ton's each brought her to a halt. As was White Star's practice, there was no christening.
3:00pm	White Star Lines representatives officially take possession of Olympic. Bruce Ismay, J.P. Morgan, and many other VIP's set sail for Liverpool aboard Olympic. Titanic is towed to the fitting out basin.
Sep. 11, 1911	Olympic departs Southampton on her fifth voyage, commanded by Captain Edward James Smith, who would later take command of Titanic. After noon, while in the Splithead Channel, she collides with the British Cruiser Hawke. Both ships were heavily damaged.
Feb. 3, 1912	Titanic is dry-docked in the Thompson Graving Dock, where she is fitted with her 3 massive propellers and the final coat of paint is applied to the hull, the final phase of her fitting out. Finishing touches are begun on the interior and the Marconi Radio is installed and tested, and assigned the call letters MGY.