mktime() gives the number of seconds that have elapsed since 1st midnight, 1970. Currently, that's about 1050563899 seconds(10 digits).
So it became 10 digits on Sunday 09 Sep 2001, and it will become 11 digits on Sunday 07 Sep 2014, which gives you a little playing time.
(note above dates were achieved using date("l d M Y",999999999) and echo date("l d M Y",10000000000).)