Naming (Inter)national Tragedies

As I watched the news coverage of the London attacks, I heard several reporters refer to the event as 7-7.  They weren't naming the full date, July 7, 2005; they simply called it 7-7 in exactly the same way as people now commonly refer to 9-11.

I wonder how long it will be before I hear the phrase "in this post-September-11th, post-July-7th world?"

It occurs to me that few people refer to Pearl Harbor as simply December 7th.  The destruction from the current hurricane will not be referred to by the date that it came ashore.  If I say April 19, how many of you know immediately that I'm referring to Oklahoma City?

I first wondered about dates after 9-11.  You see, I had a theory that the attack date was chosen to coincide with the number of our emergency telephone service. Obviously it caused many people to dial that number on that day.  I'm still convinced that somewhere in this country are children who have just learned that they should call 911 in an emergency, and who have erroneously concluded that the telephone number was chosen to commemorate September 11th.

So how do we avoid phrases like "on 9-11, 7-7, and ..." which after having future dates tacked on the end will sound more like a string of lotto numbers than tragic events?

Using the name of a location fails for 9-11 because it happened in several different locations, plus 9-11 is now so ingrained in the collective consciousness that it's too late to change.

American media is beginning to use "Attacks on London," which is probably fine for now because it's fairly descriptive, but years from now would cause historians to say "which attacks?  The Blitz?"  It will most likely be up to the British what they choose to call 7-7, but I tend to think they won't name it.  I understand they have had similar experiences before and I don't think the previous terrorist attacks have names.

I don't have a solution other than to use the full date, including the year, and the location -- but that's a little verbose for news and political sound bytes.