On this day in 2010, a Florida pastor who had organized a public burning of copies of the Qur'an gave in to international and high-level government pressure and cancelled the event at the last minute. Had the event gone ahead, the potential backlash from Islamists could have made this the deadliest book-burning event ever.
In Arthur C. Clarke's Rendezvous with Rama, a meteorite impact with Earth destroys much of Italy and kills 600,000 people on this day in 2077. The novel was published decades before the events of Sep. 11, 2001.
