The best way for the US to change its date format is to go straight to the ISO
format of YYYY/MM/DD. When Canada converted in the late '70s, this was the
official format at the time, and all Canadian Federal and Provincial government
documentation at the time had to follow this format.
Regretfully, and primarily thanks to Mr Gates, this seems to have been
abandoned, due in no small part to Windows defaulting to the US-only format,
regardless of which country it is sold in.
This is not merely of academic interest. I bank with HSBC, and have both UK
and Canadian bank accounts, including something called Global View, where I can
view on line (and switch money on line between) my accounts in both countries
simultaneously. The UK accounts are shown in DD/MM/YY format. The Canadian
ones are shown in MM/DD/YY format when looking at statement summaries or
selecting a date range to view a statement - but the individual entries in that
statement are shown in DD/MM/YY format! Needless to say this is infuriating
and confusing, and I wonder why HSBC do this, as they are UK-based. However,
my printed Canadian statements are postmarked in NY State with US postage, so
there must be a US connection in there somewhere.
If anyone does online currency trading, all the trading platforms are in
YYYY/MM/DD format, and various online videos I receive from US-based gurus and
experts are also usually shown in this format. This does save a lot of
confusion.
----- Original Message -----
From: David
To: U.S. Metric Association
Sent: Tuesday, March 10, 2009 9:07 AM
Subject: [USMA:43625] 24 hour time
What are the changes of the United States adopting 24 hour time instead
of the AM/PM thing? Would there be some kind of law (which would probably occur
after metrication) or would it just be one of those things people just adopt?
What about date standards? I would like to see America start using DD/MM/YY
instead of MM/DD/YY. What does it take for a country to adopt a date/time
standard?
