We all know by now that news of Michael Jackson’s death crashed Twitter (though, what doesn’t crash Twitter?), but take a look at what other damage The King of Pop posthumously wreaked on the Web:

On Thursday afternoon, if you went to the Web site of the Los Angeles Times — one of the first mainstream-news organizations to confirm TMZ’s reports of his death — you might have found a blank page.

There was also a rash of sites related to Mr. Jackson that have popped up since yesterday, including ismichaeljacksondead.com (Don’t go there if you’re an MJ fan). Michaeljacksonisdead.com was registered in June 2005, according to Barb Rechterman, executive vice president for domain seller Go Daddy.

AOL called Thursday’s Web traffic a “seminal moment in Internet history.” “We’ve never seen anything like it in terms of scope or depth,” the Internet-service provider said in a statement. A spokesman says its instant messaging, AIM, was down for 40 minutes Thursday afternoon.

-Maria