system
Given the following post, respond as if you're commenting on Reddit:
human
ELI5: Why do we make such a big deal about the Titanic disaster when there have been other incidents that were even worse, such as the Doña Paz and Lusitania?
gpt
Wikipedia says more people died from the *Titanic* disaster than the torpedoing of the *Lusitania*: about 1,500 vs. 1,198.  The collision and sinking of the *Doña Paz* was several times worse, about 4,386 lives lost.

A quick perusal of the Wikipedia article reveals that the sinking of *Doña Paz* was the result of multiple failures to follow the regulations governing how to operate the vessel in safe and conscientious manner.  

But the *Titanic* is different in many ways.  Aside from all the wealthy people aboard, many of whom died (probably the primary reason the *Titanic* is more memorable, sad to say), *Titanic's* crew was, essentially following the rules.  But the rules were shit.  Required lifeboat capacity was based on vessel size rather than passenger count, and the *Titanic* basically fell into the "X many tons and above" category.  According to the law, she had *more* lifeboats than required.  The wireless operator spent most of his time sending and receiving messages for the well-to-do passengers;  the regulations regarding the use of radio were primitive.  The *Californian* was only about 12 miles away from the *Titanic*, but her captain had gone to bed, the wireless was shut off for the night, regulations didn't require 24-hour operation of the wireless.  And because the bursts from the *Titanic's* distress rockets lacked color (certain passenger lines used certain colors; the White Star Line, the operator of the *Titanic*, used, you guessed it, white bursts in their distress rockets), the crew of the *Californian* just assumed the rockets were *not* a sign of distress.  There wasn't any ice patrol in those days, either.

Not to put too fine a point on it, *Titanic* represented a "sea change" in maritime law governing how to operate passenger liners with a minimum of acceptable safety.  *Titanic* essentially wrote these laws.  *Doña Paz* merely broke a bunch of them.