A clock showing a countdown to the start of the London 2012 Olympics is unveiled on March 14, 2011 in London, England. The clock is starting five hours from midnight when 6.6 million tickets for the Olympics will become available and 500 days before the Games start. There is a six-week window to apply for tickets on the London 2012 website.

(L-R), Pilot Gregory H. Johnson, European Space Agency astronaut Roberto Vittori, Mission Specialist Greg Chamitoff, Commander Mark Kelly, Pilot Gregory H. Johnson, Mission Specialist Michael Fincke, and Mission Specialist Andrew Feustel, participate in a Terminal Countdown Demonstration Test (TCDT), at the Kennedy Space Center, on April 1, 2011 in Cape Canaveral, Florida. The TCDT will culminate in a full dress rehearsal for the planned April 19th launch of Space Shuttle Endeavour’s final scheduled flight to the International Space Station before being retired. (Photo by Mark Wilson/Getty Images)

Hundreds of green bicycles are prepared as 960 of them await riders for the new year gala at the Temple of Heaven Park on December 29, 2011 in Beijing, China. Annual New Year countdown ceremony will be held at the park on December 31. (Photo by ChinaFotoPress/ChinaFotoPress via Getty Images)

People take part in the “The Burial of the Sardine” funeral procession, which marks the end of carnival festivities, in Madrid, Spain, February 10, 2016. “Mourners” carry a coffin with a mock sardine through the streets to celebrate the countdown to Lent. Spanish painter Francisco de Goya's painting “El entierro de la sardina” (The Burial of the Sardine) was inspired by this tradition, which started in Madrid in the 18th century, around the time of Spanish King Carlos III. (Photo by Juan Medina/Reuters)

A visitor poses for pictures at the Harbin International Ice and Snow Festival in Harbin, Heilongjiang province, China on January 5, 2025. (Photo by Xiaoyu Yin/Reuters)

People see in the new year at Copacabana beach in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil on January 1, 2024. (Photo by Reuters/Stringer)

A woman holds a champagne bottle during New Year's celebrations in Bucharest, Romania, Wednesday, January 1, 2014. Tens of thousands of Romanians took to the streets of the Romanian capital to join parties and watch fireworks. (Photo by Vadim Ghirda/AP Photo)

People cheer as the ball drops at midnight in Times Square on January 1, 2015 in New York City. An estimated one million people from around the world are expected to pack Times Square to ring in 2015. (Photo by Andrew Theodorakis/Getty Images)