26. The radio pioneer Marconi was just one of several historical figures who had planned to be on the Titanic but who didn’t get on the doomed ship.
Several notable figures were booked to travel on the Titanic but didn’t go. Among them was Guglielmo Marconi, the Italian inventor and telecommunications pioneer. He had been offered a free ticket on the ship’s maiden voyage, but in the end chose to travel to New York three days earlier. However, the wireless Marconi famously invented was installed in the Titanic’s control room and the technology was credited with helping save more than 700 lives. Marconi would have another near escape in 1915. He was on board the Lusitania when it was sunk by a German U-boat but managed to get away with his life.