Dates and days

Days and months should be written in full. You can choose the best way to refer to an historical era.

Days of the week

Always use initial capitals for days of the week.

Don’t abbreviate unless in a table, then keep to three letters each (Mon, Tue, Wed, Thu, Fri, Sat, Sun) and do not tag.

Dates

Don't put a comma when writing a date, or use suffixes like 'th' 'nd' or 'rd' unless referring to a century. This shouldn't use superscript.

Write years in full, and express date or year ranges in words, avoiding use of hyphens as these can cause accessibility problems.

If referring to particular annual periods, such as academic years, you should use lower case lettering. 

Examples

• Thursday 19 November 2020
• 1990s, the Nineties
• the 4th century BC; the 19th century
• From 2020 to 2024 not 2020-24 nor 2020/24 
• Between 8 and 9 July not 8-9 July
• The 2020 to 2021 academic year

AD, BC, CE, BCE

You can choose whether to use BC/AD or BCE/CE as appropriate to the context.

AD (Anno Domini)

Before the date, with no space. No need to tag.

BC (Before Christ)

After the date, with no space. No need to tag.

CE (Common Era) and BCE (Before Common Era)

After the year, with a single space. Tag.

Examples

• AD897
• 645BC
• 78 CE
• 908 BCE