I always thought the common order was: 16th of December, 2013. You can also argue that it has been that way for a long time. For example, the English King Jame

I always thought the common order was: 16th of December, 2013. You can also argue that it has been that way for a long time. For example, the English King James' Version of the Bible uses dates in the same dd-mm maner (not always including the year), like here: > "Also on the tenth day of this seventh month there shall be a day of atonement" Both religious texts and common language influence each other, so I'd say it's safe to assume that some people imitated it in spoken word. I don't know how the other format (December the 13th) may have come about, but my first guess (and that's just a guess) would be that it may have been a good replacement in texts - it sounds good and formal without sounding too religious. Also, as the secularism pushed to move away from the dominance of religious institutions, it might have been an incentive to look for other forms of expressions? Okay, that was a lot of speculation there and I'm probably wrong, sorry! ;-)