This template is used onapproximately 521,000 pages. To avoid major disruption and server load, any changes should be tested in the template's/sandbox or/testcases subpages, or in your ownuser subpage. The tested changes can be added to this page in a single edit. Consider discussing changes on thetalk page before implementing them.
{{Start date}} returns the date (or date and time) that an event or entity started or was created, in a standard format. It also includes a hidden (by CSS) duplicate, machine-readable date (or date and time) in the ISO date format, for use inside templates or table rows that emitmicroformats.It should be used only once in each such template andnever used outside such templates. The hidden date degrades gracefully when CSS is not available.
When not to use this template
Do not use this template for:
Dates that are uncertain, e.g., "before 4 April 1933", "around 18 November 1939", "19??".
Date ranges, e.g. "c. 1690–1712"
Dates outside the range given under "Limitation", below.
Other, secondary dates
Outsidemicroformat-emitting templates or table rows; if in doubt, see the parent template's documentation
More than one date
Dates displayed using AM/PM format; this template only outputs 24-hour times
Dates that are not calendar dates, e.g. "12th century" or "present" or "TBA"
In the above situations, omit the template entirely, using untemplated text.
{{Start date|YYYY|MM|DD|HH|MM|SS|Time zone}} (date, time, and time zone)
Parameters
The unnamed parameters, in order, represent the year (four digits; required parameter), month (one or two digits), day (one or two digits), hour in 24-hour time (one or two digits), minutes (one or two digits), seconds (one or two digits), and the time zone (see below).
When specifying time of day,MM (minutes),SS (seconds), and the time zone are optional
Time zone may be a numerical value, orZ forUTC (see examples)
|df=yes, an optional parameter, when set to|df=yes or|df=y displays the day before the month (e.g. "7 November 2004" instead of the default "November 7, 2004"). The order of parameters does not change (it remains YMD). This is primarily used in articles using DMY format for dates.
This template has no provision to deal with a date in a non-Gregorian calendar. Also,ISO 8601 requires mutual agreement among those exchanging information before using years outside the range 1583–9999 CE. Therefore, use of this template for non-Gregorian dates or dates outside that range constitutes afalse claim of conformance to the ISO 8601 standard.
Any editor encountering such usage should change the date to plain text with no template; or if not confident in doing so, raise the matter on this template's talk page.
Examples with hidden output
{{Start date|2016|12|31}} → December 31, 2016 (2016-12-31)
December 31, 2016<span style="display: none;"> (<span class="bday dtstart published updated itvstart">2016-12-31</span>)</span>
{{Start date|2016|12|31|08|30|23|+01:00}} → 08:30:23, December 31, 2016 (+01:00) (2016-12-31T08:30:23+01:00)
08:30:23, December 31, 2016 (+01:00)<span style="display: none;"> (<span class="bday dtstart published updated itvstart">2016-12-31T08:30:23+01:00</span>)</span>
To display approximate birth year and current age given a particular date (e.g. when a dated reference mentions the age of a person), only works for living people.
To display approximate birth year and current age given several particular dates (e.g. when a dated reference mentions the age of a person), only works for living people.
