Pink lights illuminate the north side of the White House in Washington, D.C., Oct. 3, 2011, to commemorate Breast Cancer Awareness Month.
Keep clicking to learn how the practice started and to see other world landmarks awash in pink.
People had already been wearing yellow ribbons to show support for American troops, and red ribbons for people with AIDS, when in 1992 two women -- cosmetics executive Evelyn Lauder and women's magazine editor Alexandra Penney -- launched a campaign to wear pink ribbons to show awareness of breast cancer. At left, big pink ribbon at "Race for the Cure" in D.C. 2000. At right, pinkly-lit Empire State Building in 2002.
In the beginning the focus was on pink ribbons. Est
The use of pink as a symbol for breast cancer became more...ambitious, beyond ribbons. Elizabeth Hurley, an actress and model best-known previously for being Hugh Grant's girlfriend, became "spokesmodel" both for Estee Lauder's cosmetics, and for breast cancer awareness month. In October, 2002, she switched on pink colored bulbs at Harrods along with the London department store's owner, Mohamed Al Fayed.
New York's Rockefeller Center and the Saks Fifth Avenue store are shown in pink light to kick off the "Key to the Cure" weekend on Oct. 17, 2007, in New York.
During breast cancer awareness month in October, 2004, a temporary Target department store was set up in New York's Times Square, the profit from the pink items for sale going to the Breast Cancer Research Foundation.
In 2005, racing cars such as this one became part of the "Pink Breast Cancer Awareness livery" during the IRL IndyCar Series Toyota 400 at the California Speedway.
Also, in October, 2005, Song Airlines painted one of its planes pink -- and carried aboard Elizabeth Hurley and Evelyn Lauder, daughter-in-law of the cosmetics founder Estee Lauder. Hurley has said her grandmother died of breast cancer because she waited too long: "She found her lump and didn't tell anyone for years."
But the focus of the pink campaign from 2005 on seems to be shining pink lights onto buildings and monuments in more than 40 countries around the world in an attempt to bring attention to the disease that kills tens of thousands of women annually worldwide. Here is a pavilion within the Israel Museum in Jerusalem.
In 2006, the Piazza La Scala in Milan, Italy was lit in pink. Italy's Leaning Tower of Pisa has also been illuminated in pink.
The Sydney Opera House is illuminated pink to launch Breast Cancer Month on September 26, 2007 in Sydney, Australia.
Elizabeth Hurley posed in front of the Vancouver Art Gallery after switching on the pink lights in Vancouver, October 1, 2007. The buildings are not the only pinkified objects -- top to bottom, balloons in Dubai, a hockey stick in Anaheim, a Cincinnati Red Jeff Conine with pink bat and armband. Next year, Hurley says, "I want to paint the Taj Mahal pink."
Selfridges in London is bathed in pink lights in aid of Breast Cancer Awareness on Sept. 29, 2011. Model and actress Elizabeth Hurley threw the switch.
Mexico City's Palace of Fine Arts is illuminated by pink lights as part of a worldwide campaign to mark "The World Day against Breast Cancer" on Sept. 29, 2011.