dates

Numbers, decades, time span, days

Numbers: Use figures in dates. May 6, 2008. Never use ordinals, such as May 6th. When used in running text, follow the year with a comma. May 6, 2008, will go down in California Community College history.

Decades: When a decade is spelled out, do not capitalize it. The sixties were groovy. The 1930s were difficult. Use an apostrophe when abbreviating years to show that numbers have been omitted. The class of ’72.

See decades entry.

Time span: When showing a range of years, use an en dash and do not repeat the century if it is the same. David’s college days, 1990–95, were difficult to remember for various reasons.

Days: Do not abbreviate days of the week when referring to a date in text.

See months entry.