That grim distinction belongs to the genocide that imperial Germany unleashed a decade earlier against the Herero and Nama, two ethnic groups who lived in the former colony of South West Africa, modern Namibia.
He shared with James Dean the grim distinction of appearing posthumously in his most famous picture.
The Feb. 20 fire at the Station nightclub in West Warwick, R.I., has already achieved grim distinction as one of the nation's worst fire disasters.
That tally has solidified Karachi's grim distinction as Pakistan's most deadly place, outside its actual war zones, where the army is embroiled in pushing back a Taliban insurgency.
Such deaths make up only a small fraction of worker fatalities in the United States each year, but they have the grim distinction of regularly including one or more would-be rescuers.
Delhi's grim distinction is that it has even higher levels of PM10, as well as of the smaller particulates, PM2.5, that are more likely to kill because they go deeper into the lungs.
But the coalition has the grim distinction of having launched at least three of the deadliest single air attacks of the war on civilians, said Amnesty's researcher for the region, Neil Sammonds.
Honduras has the highest murder rate in the world, with 90.4 homicides per 100,000, and San Pedro Sula holds the grim distinction of the being the world's most violent city, the country's 1.2 million unregistered guns making it easy for criminals to run amok.
One of the Golden Gate Bridge's great claims to fame, or its grim distinction, is that it is the most favored suicide location in the world.
That was a grim, grim day.
