Template:Start date and age/doc

Description
 displays the date that an event or entity started or was created. It also includes a duplicate, machine-readable date in the ISO 8601 format (which is hidden by CSS), for use inside other templates which emit microformats. The hidden date degrades gracefully when CSS is not available.

Usage

 * Common usage
 * to display formatted as:
 * March 25, 2010
 * to display formatted as:
 * March 25, 2010


 * Full syntax
 * to display formatted as:
 * March 25, 2010

"df" (day first) and "mf" (month first)
The default output of this template is to display the month before the day (MDY). This default may not be appropriate for articles about events or entities in parts of the world where dates are commonly given with the day preceding the month (DMY). To display the day first, assign the df parameter a value of yes, y, or 1 (e.g. df=yes).

If the default format is preferred, the parameter df may be used with value of no, n, or 0 (e.g. df=no). These values can assist bots or other automated processing to detect the intended date format; omitting the df parameter may lead an editor or bot to change the format to an unintended value.

The preference to display the month first may also be indicated via the parameter mf (e.g. mf=yes). While not actually used by the template, this is another method of indicating that the default format is intended. Do not specify both "df" and "mf" parameters in the same use of the template.

Supporting templates

 * Template:MONTHNAME – display name of month for a given number 1 (January) through 12 (December).
 * Template:Time ago – display number of days, months, or years ago (for dates given as ).
 * Template:Years or months ago – display number of months or years ago (for dates given as  or  ).
 * Template:Yesno – allows optional formatting parameters to accept values other than "yes" (such as "y" or "1").