Interesting Coincidence

Does anyone here have a hardcopy of Arthur C. Clarke's Rendezvous with Rama? I read it a few years back and was just reading a copy I downloaded. The third paragraph on the first page reads like this:

At 09.46 GMT on the morning of 11 September, in the
exceptionally beautiful summer of the year 2077, most of
the inhabitants of Europe saw a dazzling fireball appear
in the eastern sky. Within seconds it was brighter than
the sun, and as it moved across the heavens - at first in
utter silence - it left behind it a churning column of dust
and smoke.

Can anyone verify thats how its written in the book? Wondering if anyones changed it to be clever buggers.

[Edited on 28-8-2002 by Kano]

hmm thats really cool and intresting if thats the original text that is.

Um, what it have to do with anything? Europeans see a ball of light, did they see one recently in Europe? Or the 9/11 part? Cause that sounded nothing like what happened.

I think it's the fact that the book says something big and bad was going to happen on 9/11

Yeah, in the book its talking about a asteroid hitting the earth. Giving cause to create an agency to log, monitor and intercept other asteroids that might threaten earth. Just an interesting coincidence really. But I was curious if its in the original hardcopy of the book.

cool. will read this book.