Whats with the wierd American dating system?

Calm down, I don't mean girlfriend type dates, I mean calendar type ones.

I've always wondered why Americans write their dates the backwards way round, so I thought I'd ask, is their a partrticular reason for it?

I mean, in the UK we do it the sensible way, ie 'the day of the month of the year', each figure denoting an incrementally longer timespan. After a lifetime of this the US system looks wierd, illogical.

The British system would be of particular benefit to Boeing at the moment as they push to get the new 787 ready for its 7/8/07 first flight. If they switch to our calendar style they can buy themselves another month, relax a bit and fly it on the 7th August!

There are other areas where transatlantic confusion might occur. For instance here in the uk 9/11 is the 9th November, which makes perfect sense, as unbelievable as it seems there were actually people wondering what happened on the 9th November? However the terrorists were unusually considerate by choosing the 7th July to bomb London, as it allowed Brits and Yanks to talk to each other about 7/7 without any confusion.

Anyone want to take up the American side on this?

I also would like to know.

It's even worse in Hong Kong with different schools and organisiations using different styles.

One way or the other fair enough!

A mix of the 2: RETARDED.

Originally posted by waynos
I've always wondered why Americans write their dates the backwards way round,

Actually, we have it right (because we are Americans, dammit) and the rest of the world is backwards.

didn't you know that we are ALWAYS right .. about everything?

(I'm teasing with ya' )

The British used to use Month-Day-Year, but then changed to Day-Month-Year. The U.S. was following along with the British, but when the British went back to Month-Day-Year, the U.S. kept the Month-Day-Year format. Reduce confusion Maybe? Be different from the British?

EDIT: to add this from Wikipedia:

This order is used in the United States and countries with U.S. influence (but the U.S. federal government sometimes uses day, month, year). Britain originally used day, month, year, then for a short while used month, day, year, and finally reverted to the original form (day, month, year) which was revived around 1900; the USA chose to remain with month, day, year, but did originally use day, month, year as the British did.

[edit on 6/5/2007 by DCFusion]

I've always done it that way, and any other way confuses me.

I guess I'm used to it. It just seems logical to me to put the month before the day.

Here's the one that confuses me... 2007, June 5. To me, the date comes first and then the year.

at three minutes and four seconds past 2am this morning it was 02:03:04:05:06:07, in the UK of course, I think America had this last month?

Speaker of truth, I think you have given me the answer, You do say June 5 over there, don't you, whereas we say 5th June, but then you do also say 'fourth of July' too. Oh, I'm getting confused again

The "American" system just makes no sense to me. Month, then day? What?

Day, then month makes sense. A month is not shorter than a day. A day is shorter than a month. Therefore:

Day, followed by the longer month, followed by the longer year.

Originally posted by waynos
at three minutes and four seconds past 2am this morning it was 02:03:04:05:06:07, in the UK of course, I think America had this last month?

Speaker of truth, I think you have given me the answer, You do say June 5 over there, don't you, whereas we say 5th June, but then you do also say 'fourth of July' too. Oh, I'm getting confused again

Here in the United States, we write, June 5, 2007. Of course, when we speak, we say, "June 5th."