I don't know which came first, but it agrees with the way we say it out loud. "Today is September tenth." So, maybe that's why?
And I think in other countries, it's said the other way around, right? "Today is the tenth of September?" That would actually be okay sounding in the U.S., too, though a little uncommon. Can you say "Today is tenth September"? That sounds very weird to me.
Both read well, and when we use shorthand we use a "/" in place of the/of.
It makes more sense to order consistently by unit. So day < month < year
month > day < year seems a bit silly.
> September the Tenth
Even this sounds a little funny to my ears. In American English people say almost exclusively "September Tenth" in that order without any prepositions.
"On this date, the 10th of September, Year of Our Lord Two Thousand and Twelve..."
As an Australian living in North America for seven years, my ears still daily pickup when the American dialect leaves out words.
Examples that come to mind: "Two hundred three", "Write me", "September tenth"
I'd be curious to hear you elaborate on this one. In American school, I learned that 'two hundred three' is the only acceptable version, but in casual speech people invariably say 'two hundred and three', which sounds more natural.
Which one do you say?
There's a wealth of differences between British and American english: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Comparison_of_American_and_Bri... (Of particular relevance here is the numbers section.)
Possibly regional, but I hear people say 10th of September quite often on the US West Coast. I would guess it has to do with the way we talk about the date... days in the future seem to follow the mm dd format while talking about the current date seems to follow dd of mm.
YMD is clearly the thinking person's choice. It's the one that naturally sorts in lexicographic order, and also naturally extends to YMDHMS.
You mean in english? Because in portuguese we use cardinals to refer to days, and not ordinals. "Dez de setembro de 2012"—literally: "Ten of September of 2012." I'd guess it's the same in spanish.