Why is the US date format different?

It’s because Americans never know what day it is so they just write down the month first and ask around for what day it is. Now the year is something that everyone remembers so it doesn’t need to be mentioned everywhere. It’s written at last so that it is easier to omit.

Why does the US do mm dd yyyy?

One of the hypotheses is that the United States borrowed the way it was written from the United Kingdom who used it before the 20th century and then later changed it to match Europe (dd-mm-yyyy). American colonists liked their original format and it’s been that way ever since.

How are dates written in England?

Whatever the format, in British English, dates are usually written in the order day – month – year, while in American English they are written month – day – year. For IELTS, you can use both date formats.

How are dates written in Switzerland?

The traditional all-numeric form of writing Gregorian dates in German is the little-endian day. Numbers may be written with or without leading zero in Austria or Switzerland, where they are commonly only discarded in days when literal months are being used (e.g., “09.11.”, but “9. November”).

Why do countries have dates with the years first?

Seriously. It comes from computer science where bytes are arranged according to their size. If the order has larger ones at the front, it’s known as big-endian and so too are dates formatted with the years first (see the likes of China and Mongolia in the map above).

How did general stores evolve in the late 19th and early 20th centuries?

The pioneering spirit of people moving west and both opening and shopping at local general stores evolved as the United States moved into the 20th century. In the late 19th and early 20th centuries, America’s business and economic sectors changed dramatically.

Is it weird to ask Americans about their dates?

If you ask an American about the way their dates are formatted, you may get a response as defensive as ‘my jumper is not on back to front, it’s supposed to have the v at the back!’. But let’s face it, it’s weird. Basic group behaviour shows it’s weird.

Is it weird that the US uses mm-dd-yyyy?

But let’s face it, it’s weird. Basic group behaviour shows it’s weird. Despite the variety of date formats used around world, the US is the only country to insist on using mm-dd-yyyy. This condition is diagnosed as middle-endianness. Seriously. It comes from computer science where bytes are arranged according to their size.