Friday is more than a regular day, especially for people who are superstitious about numbers. It's Nov. 11, 2011, or 11-11-11, and all over the world people are marking the special date with weddings other celebrations.
It's also Veterans Day, and the national ceremony will be held at 11 a.m. with a wreath-laying at the Tomb of the Unknowns in Arlington National Cemetery. Communities all over the country will mark the day with parades and other ceremonies.
The past decade has brought a series of interesting dates, some of them believed to be lucky, others ominous or even apocalyptic. But as you'll see in the timeline below, some of those days' events made interesting headlines, and others were just ho-hum.
01-01-01: A 9-foot-tall sculpted black monolith appeared suddenly in Seattle's Magnuson Park, placed there by anonymous artists. The sculpture was in reference to the movie, "2001: A Space Odyssey." Many people visited the sculpture in the park, but it was removed just a few days later.
02-02-02: A report from a special committee of the Enron Corporation reveals that executives intentionally inflated the company's profits by almost $1 billion before the company's collapse. Meanwhile, Prince Willem-Alexander of the Netherlands, heir to the Dutch throne, married Máxima Zorreguieta Cerruti in Amsterdam.
03-03-03: A 9,000-page document released by the New Hampshire attorney general's office detailed how the state's Roman Catholic diocese knew for years about sexual abuse of children by some priests and worked to cover it up. Meanwhile, the Turkish government reconsiders allowing U.S. troops to be staged at military bases there in order to launch an attack on Iraq.
04-04-04: The chairman of a commission investigating the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks says the event could have been prevented if the U.S. government had acted sooner to stop Al-Qaeda and responded more quickly to other terrorist threats.
05-05-05: British Prime Minister Tony Blair won his third consecutive victory in the United Kingdom general election, in which 646 members of the British House of Commons were also elected. Also, Cinco de Mayo celebrations are held in the United States and Mexico.
06-06-06: Seen by many as an ominous date because of the Satanic connotations of the number 666, this day came and went rather quietly. But Hollywood uses the opportunity to release the end-of-the-world film, "The Omen," which was a remake of another film by the same name from 1976.
07-07-07: On this triply lucky day (the number seven is perceived as lucky in many cultures), the New Seven Wonders of the World were announced. These are The Great Wall of China, Petra in Jordan, the Christ the Redeemer statue in Brazil, Machu Picchu in Peru, Mexico's Chichen Itza Mayan site, the Colosseum in Rome and the Taj Mahal in India.
08-08-08: The 2008 Summer Olympics opened in Beijing, China, with a massive opening ceremony that included thousands of performers. The United States went on to win 110 medals, 36 of them gold.
09-09-09: Remastered versions of The Beatles' entire musical catalogue are released, including online and in the form of a video game, The Beatles: Rock Band. Also that day, President Barack Obama's speech before Congress was interrupted by U.S. Rep. Joe Wilson, R-S.C., who shouted "You lie!" about health care coverage for illegal immigrants.
10-10-10: There was a rush of weddings on this date, as the numbers 10-10-10 are seen as "perfect" or lucky, particularly in Chinese culture. Meanwhile, in international news, the Netherlands Antilles were dissolved, with the islands being split up and given a new constitutional status.
