American Date Format

[Fatboy 18]

So this got me thinking? :p Where did it all start?

Why do you guys use the format of Month / Day / Year? But sometimes you use 4th July, 6th June, etc....

Was there ever something written down in the early years of congress to conform to telling the date in this format?

Pretty much the rest of the world uses Day / Month / Year.

It can't be a computer thing, as you guys have been using this format before computers were invented.
Anyone know the answer? :newbie::fpopcorn::fpopcorn:

[AZTVR]

I would think that it is just one of those things where language evolves differently when there are largely separate or different groups of speakers. I have an interest in the evolution of language.

My guess would be that the Declaration of Independence may have been the driving factor. The top most title line is in block letters and is: " IN CONGRESS. JULY 4, 1776. " That is a pretty important document that was widely published back in that time. If I look at Newspaers of that time, I see many use that date format, althouth many have the day as a word and then the Month as a word, day as a number, and year as a number.2227322274

[Fatboy 18]

Interesting :)

[LifeIsGood]

You bored Mark?

[Fatboy 18]

You bored Mark?

Actually, Yes! Far too much talk in the Gen V section and not much going on with the Gen 1 / II section at the moment...... Im sure Summer will be here soon.

Hey, we may even have 1/2 inch of Snow in the coming days!

[bluesrt]

why is a pool table green

[Fatboy 18]

I was speaking with some People from Queensland Australia last week. They were telling me that if you own a Motorcycle and ride in more that a group of 3 you will be fined and possibly arrested. As the authorities have a law in place banning Bike gangs and they deem 3 motorcycle riders a Gang!

Did you also know that LHD cars are banned in Australia, you have to have them converted period!

[fuggles]

because the game started on a grass lawn.

[Fatboy 18]

why is a pool table green
There blue over here?

[LifeIsGood]

Did you also know that LHD cars are banned in Australia, you have to have them converted period!

I remember a viper owner in Australia having to do this.

[Fatboy 18]

Back to the Date thing,

So I did a Google search.
https://www.theguardian.com/news/datablog/2013/dec/16/why-do-americans-write-the-month-before-the-day

So here's why I genuinely would be interested to know, So I'm digging back in history and thinking of the very early years of the new land being found.....The French use Day / Month / Year, Europe uses Day / Month / Year. Most of the Europeans who founded America were migrants to this new world. The only other Country I can see playing a part in this is China where they used Year/ Month /Day and of course many people from China were used to Build the railways across America!

So Some one must have come up with the idea to swap things around?

[Fatboy 18]

Any Ideas?

I also have no idea if Native Indian tribes ever used to count days and dates? I would imagine like many tribes they used seasons and the stars to somehow mark time?


So come on Everyone, get your old School books out and let's see if we can find a definitive answer to the question?

[Fatboy 18]

Its officially Snowing here in Surrey South of London :)
http://thumbsnap.com/s/6bZjePx2.jpg
http://thumbsnap.com/s/2dOI28gy.jpg

About 1 inch so far! Time to get the Viper out on Toyos :smilielol:

[Vprbite]

Because after we kicked you out, we decided to do everything different and by extension, correctly. The metric system can suck it!

[LATAMUD]

Back to the Date thing,

So I did a Google search.
https://www.theguardian.com/news/datablog/2013/dec/16/why-do-americans-write-the-month-before-the-day

So here's why I genuinely would be interested to know, So I'm digging back in history and thinking of the very early years of the new land being found.....The French use Day / Month / Year, Europe uses Day / Month / Year. Most of the Europeans who founded America were migrants to this new world. The only other Country I can see playing a part in this is China where they used Year/ Month /Day and of course many people from China were used to Build the railways across America!

So Some one must have come up with the idea to swap things around?

Chinese order their words largest to smallest to simplify the transfer of information, like painting a picture in your mind. Starting by identifying the larger item and widdling that down to the object of the sentence. For example, Country, State, city. I live in USA, Florida, Tampa, street name, house number. For Chinese, hearing the house number first in their mind there could be multiple random locations with the same house number they know of. Street name first and you've limited the results to only houses on that street, then reduced to the actually house.

[Fatboy 18]

Thats Interesting, I did not know that :) Im still genuinely interested to find out more on this subject :)
What we have established is it was before 1729!

Now I did find this.22403
Plaque in St. John's, Newfoundland and Labrador, commemorating Gilbert's founding of the British overseas Empire.
As you can see they are using the British date format!

This letter was dated 13th January 1622 by a Jamestown settler
https://www.gilderlehrman.org/history-by-era/early-settlements/resources/jamestown-settler-describes-life-virginia-1622

[Vprbite]

Often times in formal setting like invitations to weddings, graduations, or charity balls, it is given in Day, month year format.

But, it won't be short handed like 21/1/2017. It will say "you are cordially invited to XYZ, on the 7th day of June, 2017."

I have developed an affinity for military time even though I never was in the military, and on my Tissot T-Touch watch I have the digital portion in 24hr time and the date in euro format. The date thing I got used to living in Paris so I can do both. I do see the advantage in it though.

[ViperTony]

because after we kicked you out, we decided to do everything different and by extension, correctly. The metric system can suck it!

lmao :d

[Fatboy 18]

"because after we kicked you out" lmao :d

HaHa, :h1504: "The metric system can suck it"! Could not agree more. I hate it, but Im old school now :(

Im sure there must be a definitive answer to this question. I don't really buy the answer that it just slowly happened over time, I don't know? But it did happen before the "Declaration of Independence" was drawn up :)

[Vprbite]

HaHa, :h1504: "The metric system can suck it"! Could not agree more. I hate it, but Im old school now :(

Im sure there must be a definitive answer to this question. I don't really buy the answer that it just slowly happened over time, I don't know? But it did happen before the "Declaration of Independence" was drawn up :)

Language does slowly evolve. It's a living thing. So I could see it happen due to our English being influenced by many other languages. Even back in 1776. There was heavy Dutch, French influence. There was Spanish but that was more down south/in the gulf.

The United States does not have an official language so I would imagine a law passed by congress demanding specific date format would be unconstitutional. Even back then that stuff was balked at more than it is today. Telling someone exactly how to write the date would have resulted in "the date rebellion of 1773" or something like that.

[Vprbite]

Here is a reddit written by a historian (supposedly, I can't confirm that of course) saying it came from newspapers where the year was less important since they were basically just for the day and not archived on the imternet sort of thing and you knew what year it was when you picked up a paper for the day

And also, it mentioned my theory about doing things differently than the British who had a history of dating things in reference to a kings reigning years. Given our thoughts on the King, this makes sense.

https://www.reddit.com/r/AskHistorians/comments/1t02dv/why_does_america_write_the_date_as_monthdayyear/

[ViperTony]

HaHa, :h1504: "The metric system can suck it"! Could not agree more. I hate it, but Im old school now :(

Im sure there must be a definitive answer to this question. I don't really buy the answer that it just slowly happened over time, I don't know? But it did happen before the "Declaration of Independence" was drawn up :)

Actually, I use the metric system quite a bit, at least in culinary measurements as it's much more precise when measuring ingredients. Thank you for that!

[Fatboy 18]

Don't thank me, the Metric system came from Europe mainland......I think?

[Fatboy 18]

Here is a reddit written by a historian (supposedly, I can't confirm that of course) saying it came from newspapers where the year was less important since they were basically just for the day and not archived on the imternet sort of thing and you knew what year it was when you picked up a paper for the day

And also, it mentioned my theory about doing things differently than the British who had a history of dating things in reference to a kings reigning years. Given our thoughts on the King, this makes sense.

https://www.reddit.com/r/AskHistorians/comments/1t02dv/why_does_america_write_the_date_as_monthdayyear/

Brilliant, thanks Jeff, that's just the sort of thing I had been trying to find but my google search was more on images of documents.

Very interesting about the Magna carter document too :dude3:

[Vprbite]

Brilliant, thanks Jeff, that's just the sort of thing I had been trying to find but my google search was more on images of documents.

Very interesting about the Magna carter document too :dude3:

That's all I could find though. So I think it just might be an issue of language and its rules evolving over time. I guess we need a historical linguist to weigh in.

[BrianACR]

Because after we kicked you out, we decided to do everything different and by extension, correctly. The metric system can suck it!
Lol at least the metric system makes sense. It's all based on the number ten and the speed of light. Not based on the length of some old dudes thumb or whatever an inch is :witless:
Besides, it also sounds waaaay better to say 'my car can go 300' rather than 'my car can go 186' lol
But then this is all just my own humble opinion. And I kinda grew up with the metric system, so I may be just a slight bit biased...

[Fatboy 18]

Lol at least the metric system makes sense. It's all based on the number ten and the speed of light. Not based on the length of some old dudes thumb or whatever an inch is :witless:
Besides, it also sounds waaaay better to say 'my car can go 300' rather than 'my car can go 186' lol
But then this is all just my own humble opinion. And I kinda grew up with the metric system, so I may be just a slight bit biased...
I do property maintenance for a living, I can tell you I have made a couple of mistakes when writing down the measurement putting that decimal point in the wrong place! I now always cross reference giving Both measurements, but if im in a lumber yard I always use feet and inches. To say give me a couple of sheets of ply 8ft x 4ft is much easier than working out what it is in Metric!
I guess its down to what you know best.

[Vprbite]

Lol at least the metric system makes sense. It's all based on the number ten and the speed of light. Not based on the length of some old dudes thumb or whatever an inch is :witless:
Besides, it also sounds waaaay better to say 'my car can go 300' rather than 'my car can go 186' lol
But then this is all just my own humble opinion. And I kinda grew up with the metric system, so I may be just a slight bit biased...

Chem minor here so I know it pretty well and can convert. Back in 2003 before everyone had internet on their phones, some of my employees thought that was a super power! Ha.

[AZTVR]

I was looking at Benjamin Franklin letters from the mid 1700s, and they were dated in the Month, day, year format. Then from the UK, letters by the Reverend Charles Wesley from a little earlier in the 1700s are also dated in the month, day, year format. So, which country is it that actually diverged from "the norm?" Interesting subject.

Franklin: http://tinyurl.com/hmnxnr7
Wesley: http://tinyurl.com/jtcc5oz

[ViperGTS]

22513

[Vprbite]

I was looking at Benjamin Franklin letters from the mid 1700s, and they were dated in the Month, day, year format. Then from the UK, letters by the Reverend Charles Wesley from a little earlier in the 1700s are also dated in the month, day, year format. So, which country is it that actually diverged from "the norm?" Interesting subject.

Franklin: http://tinyurl.com/hmnxnr7
Wesley: http://tinyurl.com/jtcc5oz

Hey hey, we had this all resolved. Don't go mucking it up with new information

- - - Updated - - -


22513

I find this really hard to believe.

[cplabaunza]

When I was in the Marines, we used Day/Month/Year (Gregorian format) for most correspondence. For the other times I didn't use "Day/Month/Year", I used the Julian Calendar for dating documentation/logging instead of the Day/Month/Year format.

[Fatboy 18]

Think Ive started something here :)
Now I have never heard of the Julian Calendar, I will have to look that up!