Subject: Re: Scientific Date Format

From: Truman Kohman <[email-masked]>
Date: Sun, 20 Jun 1993 15:54:27 -0400

In my posting on this subject ([email-masked], 93 Jun 4) I
wrote: "M-D-Y, as July 4, 1993 ... is the English literary form and the
current standard for general use in that language.".
     Several respondents replied that the British form for general usage is
day month year, as 4 July 1993, and that this is also the format of choice
in Canada.
     A perusal of John Donne's letters found dates 2nd February 1601, 13
June, 1607, July 17, 1613, and 25th November 1625, the first and last form
most frequently.  John Keats used June 29th 1818 and 6th August 1818.
Winston Churchill in his four-volume *A History ofthe English-Speaking
Peoples* wrote full dates consistently as month day, year; dates in an
implied year as month day; and months only as month year (no comma).  This
brief sampling indicates that there is no single "English literary form",
but month day, year probably comes closest.
     The *Sunday Times* (London) and the English-language *Economic Times*
(India) use the form day month year, whereas the *Sunday Times Magazine*
and the *Manchester Guardian Weekly* use month day, year.  This form is
also used by the English-language *Jerusalem Post*, the *Arab News*
(Saudi Arabia), *The Hindu* (India), and the *New Straits Post*
(Malasia).  Thus,
month day, year seems to be the preferred form not just in the United
States, and is even used somewhat in England.
     The initial issue of the British scientific journal *Nature* was dated
November 4, 1869, and this form was used through September 27, 1969.  The
next issue was dated October 4 1969 (no comma), and that form was used
through February 24 1977.  Beginning 3 March 1977 the currently used form
was adopted.  The American *Science* began publication on February 9, 1883,
and used that date form until June 25, 1954.  The subsequent issue was
dated 2 July 1954, and this form has been used till today.
     All this strengthens the case for ambiguity when dates are
represented by numbers, since both M-D-Y and D-M-Y are in common use within
the same language.  Confusion will increase when years are also
abbreviated with small numbers like 01 and 10, unless a universal standard
is adopted.  The rational scientific form year month day is probably the
most likely to be acceptable.

Truman P. Kohman                   | [email-masked]
Department of Physics              | [email-masked]
Carnegie-Mellon University         | [email-masked]
Pittsburgh, PA 15213 USA           | 412/268-8865   412/561-8343