Why do the Americans write the date the wrong way round?

Question

All measurements are written in a specific order such as hours, minutes and seconds, or, hundreds tens and units so why in the American dating system do they insist on putting the date and the month in a totally illogical order?

Answer 1

I guess it must come down to how the month can be no larger than 12, whereas the day can be up to 31. So the smallest number goes first (month) and the largest last (year).
Perhaps the Americans thought 12/31 looks more aesthetically pleasing than 31/12 as it looks more orderly...

Answer 2

America broke away from English Customs. Hence the "totally illogical order" of our date! Month, Day, Year

September 9, 2006 vs. 9 September 2006

Answer 3

We do a lot of things stupid.
Yes I am an American, but I have to admit it, we (collective) do a lot of things stupid.

We are the ONLY country in the world that hasn't adopted the Metric System! How stupid and arrogant is that?
I don't know what system the rest of the world uses for dates but I use the COMPUTER SYSTEM. lol

As for todays date I use the format 2006-09-09 (Full Year, Month, Day. and note I use leading zeros. That way computer programs can sort by Year, Month, and Day and won't get them out of order.) If you don't use leading zeros the months would look like this. 1,10,11,12,2,3,4,5,6,7,8,9, and the days would be even more messed up.

Answer 4

Good question - I've often wondered too. It seems harder to imagine a gradual change like you can with the simplification of various spellings such a colour, tyre, etc. Even in the UK we often say "April the 12th" rather than "the 12th of April" so maybe that practice overrode the more logical ordering by rate of change. Even in the UK we are not consistent: we order our dates with the fastest changing (days) first but our times with the slowest changing (hours) first.

Answer 5

They just want to. 09-09-2006 versus 09-09-2006 Yeah... I mean September 9th.2006 vs 9th.Spetember 2006. Cop vs policeman, cab vs taxi, color vs colour, glasses vs spectacles, soccer vs football, etc.etc. I used to work in Chase Manhattan Bank N.A. a couple of decades ago... it took me some time to become 'American' because I was schooled in British system. Then, it took me another some time when I try to adapt back to British system when I left Chase. Well... it's just because thay want to and because they can... like what they always did and will always do. You know the story... blah blah blah!!!! It's their way or no way! He he!!! I love something American though, like Elvis and Walt Disney. Godbloodygood!!!

Answer 6

the first american put this system didn't care a lot about years they made it month then day which is logic enough, then when they developed a little and discovered the importance of year they added it in the last which is the nowaday formula
just suggestion!!!

Answer 7

Have you ever seen a fish on a flowing water. They want to swim opposite to the water flow direction. But cannot do because of the current.

Americans are a combination of all those people who in actual world did not get enough chance to prove themselves. So to keep their esteem or keep themselves safer they gathered together in that land. And then defined every thing differently. Different from that land where from they have to flee.

No offense. That's what history says.

So they are different. And no wonder there date system is also different than all others in the universe.

Answer 8

They used to it the "wrong" way even before computers, but still, for sorting files, say invoices, it's the better system, but only because most of the software we use was made for US Americans.
Does anyone know what the Canadians norm is?

Answer 9

Everyone in America knows what is meant when they see 9/11/01 or 12/3/50 or any other date. How is that better or worse than the way you write the date? It's simply what you are used to.

Answer 10

i don't know but why do the English and the American spell word different. i lived in the Caribbean and we spell stuff the American way on the island I'm from and when i came to live in England i always use to fail my spelling test and i wrote the date the American and my teacher use to get confused it's just confusing.