I started my first postdoc position in the US in early January 2004, the date was on the scholarship letter that came from a German agency. Alas, the Americans thought 01/09 would be September 1st rather than January 9. They were very surprised to see me.
I only learned much later that postdoc positions in the US typically start in September so it was a rather unsurprising mistake. Though I'm still not sure why that is the case.
It wasn't a big issue though they had to move around some desks to squeeze me into an office.
In case you think this is confusing, consider though that when I moved to Sweden, I was informed that of course in Sweden dates are written using the international standard, which is YYYY-MM-DD. So, today is 2022-12-26 (and the time comes after that).
en.wikipedia.org
en.wikipedia.org
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