`  ==Date format==  :I don't know who told you that day/month/year is new to the British. Your source must have confused it with somewhere else. The British have used day/month/year for centuries. For example, here is an old document from England: 1707 and you can read for yourself the style of dating within it.  No ... ``the 22nd of July 1707`` is not an example of the sort of day/month/year form I was writing about (i.e., as you know, the one that someone added to the article about Queen Victoria.    :There is a date in the last paragraph of this item signed by William Shakespeare in 1616.  No, those dates are in Latin, not English.    :Another document from even earlier has its date in its section 63: 1215.  No again.  ``fifteenth day of June`` is not an example of the sort of day/month/year format in the Queen Victoria article that is what this discussion is about.   :You get the idea,  The idea I get is that none of the examples you've cited are valid!   :and can easily find more if you are interested, on the web or in your university library.  :One can find an occasional example in England of month/day/year,  Not just ``occasional``!!  It was the prevailing system in England until recently, as you can see by looking at old books.  `