Minefold (YC W12) launched 3 hours before Steve Jobs died and got, uh, 23 upvotes[1] before disappearing into oblivion.

[1] http://cl.ly/image/371P0B3j3g3H

Should have just relaunched a week later, no one would have noticed you "launched" twice!

Haha, I remember this. Worst launch day ever.

No, Steve Jobs' death was only the second worst launch day ever.

The last tech startup I was involved in (I'm really dating myself here ... ) me and the CEO went to make our first pitch on September 12th, 2001.

I still have a box of business cards kicking around describing me as "CTO, zHosting Ltd". They'd make great roach papers if I could smoke (asthma: nature's way of reminding you to "just say no").

(We buried the company at a crossroads with a mouthful of garlic two weeks later. If we'd just been a month faster things could have been very different ...)

My favourite is the novelist Chris Cleave had his first book "Incendiary" (about a terrorist bomb attack on London) released on the same day as the 7/7 London bombings.

The publisher pulled all advertising and all copies were hidden at the back of book shops as a mark of respect / so as not to be seen to be trying to profit from such an event / out of general decency.

Pretty much killed it.

See also the film "Gone Baby Gone" [1], a really good film (and book) that had its release delayed due to the search for Madeleine McCann [2]

[1] http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0452623/ [2] http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Disappearance_of_Madeleine_McCa...

Donnie Darko opened the month after 9/11, and many theaters refused to show it due to its depiction of a plane crashing. Didn't go positive in the box office likely as a result.

Absolutely excellent cult film for anyone interested.

bad timing - but who could have known...