Never forget

It's not really surprising when a Date Which Will Live In Infamy gets an extra decade tacked on. The surprise is that it doesn't happen more often.

It's impossible to tell from the armchair here whether this is a reporter or editor error. Sometimes reporters do silly stuff because they think they'll be whacked on the wrist if they don't. Sometimes editors think they haven't done enough, so they look for extra things to improve. Either way, it's unnecessary. If you want to call them "the 9/11 attacks" or "the 2001 terrorist attacks," that's fine. Some part of the public might scratch its head in puzzlement, but some part of the public is always going to answer "never heard of him" when asked if they have a favorable or unfavorable opinion of the president. But "the Sept. 11, 2001, terrorist attacks" is overstyling.

I do think we can conclude one thing it isn't: a style-checking program gone feral. Style wouldn't add "2011" to "Sept. 11" here, because dates within a year of publication wouldn't ger the year anyway.