Style Guide - Dates
Style
Depending on how much information is available:
Monday, April 18, 1994, or
April 18, 1994, or
April 1994, or
1994
Provide as much detail as possible.
AD and BC
AD comes before a date, e.g., AD35
BC comes after a date, e.g., 350BC.
When referring to a century both are used after, e.g., 3rd century BC/AD.
ages
Use capitals for Ice Age, Stone Age, the Dark
Ages, etc.
Note: Dark Ages take care; the period after the fall of the Roman Empire is
no longer considered wholly obscure and barbaric.
Ancient Briton/Britain, Ancient Greek/Greece, Ancient Egyptian/Egypt, Ancient Roman/Rome, etc.
Annual
events
Use capitals for annual events, e.g. Easter Sunday, Christmas Day,
Hallowe'en.
Be careful to state dates where appropriate for moveable celebrations such as Easter.
Key
dates
Battles, coronations, etc. should be capitalised, e.g. Battle of
Hastings, Coronation of Elizabeth I, etc.
Thereafter, the battle, the coronation.
Jubilee
Strictly a fiftieth anniversary, though Queen Victoria had a golden and a
diamond one; so the word can be used as a periodic celebration, especially
of royalty.
Wars
Capitalise the First World War, Second World War, Cold War, Korean War,
the Vietnam War, the Six Day War (no hyphen), the Gulf War, etc.
But prefer the Falklands conflict because war was never
formally declared; if the phrase has to be used, write Falklands war
(lower case).
centuries
The style is the 3rd century BC, the 9th
century, the 18th century, etc. and adjectivally with the hyphen, e.g.,
20th-century architecture.
Periods of years
When citing periods of years, say 1992-93 (not 1992-3) and from 1939 to 1941 (not from 1939-41).
The Forties, Eighties, Nineties (or 1940s, 1980s, 1990s).
But with people's ages, lower case, as in “she was in her forties,
eighties, nineties”, etc.
Time
noon
(not 12 noon) and midnight (not 12 midnight), never say 12am or 12pm.
Use
o'clock, e.g. 3 o'clock in the morning.