John Jacob Astor IV

Colonel John Jacob Astor IV (July 13, 1864 - April 15, 1912) was a businessman, inventor, writer and a member of the prominent Astor family. Serving as a lieutenant colonel in the Spanish-American War, Astor mainly dealt in real estate which included the original Waldorf=Astoria Hotel. A divorce and marriage to the much younger Madeleine Talmadge Force caused a scandal and he and his new wife took an extended honeymoon abroad to wait out the controversy. Madeleine Astor's pregnancy cut short the trip and they booked passage on board the RMS Titanic which struck an iceberg and sank on April 15, 1912. John Jacob Astor IV was among the more than 1,500 victims of the sinking.

References

• {{Web reference_author | Author=Behe, George, Phillip Gowan, Hermann S?ldner | Title=Colonel John Jacob Astor | Work=Encyclopedia Titanica | URL=http://www.encyclopedia-titanica.org/biography/11/ | Date=July 14 | Year=2005}}
• {{Journal reference novolume | Author=Grogory, Sophifronia Scott, Anne?Marie O'Neill, and Patrick Rogers | Title=Madeleine and John Jacob Astor | Journal=People | Year=March 16, 1998 | Pages=46-47}}