american english - Date format in UK vs US


Why is the most common date format in the US like mm/dd/yyyy, whereas in Europe (including the UK) it's more common to have dd/mm/yyyy?


Looking around, I found that the US form is actually the more traditional Anglo-Saxon way, but the British adapted to using the European form in the early 20th Century.


But I couldn't find a definitive discussion of the history of the different formats. Is it just conventional, or is there an official 'British date standard' (like with metric and imperial, for example).




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