In Britain one usually puts the day first, followed by the month and then the year, whereas in America it's the other way , so that the nineteenth of June 2014 would be written 6-19-14. such variations can cause confusion in the computerised international world of industry, businessmen are now pressing for a uniform procedure for the numerical writing of dates.

The problem is: which country's method be adopted? Britain's, America's or something dreamed up by a committee? Understandably, neither country is all keen to give up its own tradition and adopt somebody else's. The French International Organisation for Standardisation has come up with a possible solution. It proposes that numerically written dates should appear in descending with the year first, then the month and then the day. The drawback here is that hardly any countries seem in favour of this idea and the majority are most to implement it.