Well, Jon, there's some logic in the American date system, but in my opinion it pales in comparison to the European system. Here in the U.S., it is much more common in everyday speech to say "June fifteenth" than to say "the fifteenth of June" (two less words to say, more efficient). Then, when dates are written with numbers, consistency is maintained by representing that by "6/15" (or 06/15). When the year is mentioned, it is added to the end in either case--"June fifteenth, nineteen ninety-nine", or "6/15/99". Personally, I prefer written dates to be in the more logical day/month/year order. To avoid misunderstanding, I write them as "10 Jun 99". I also always use 2 digits for the day , so September third would be "03 Sep 99". But most of my fellow Americans have always seen and used the 6/15/99 method, except in the military. It's the norm here in almost all situations, and I'm sure it will be for a long time. That's tradition for you.