I think it was primarily a verbal ordering, that later became commonplace written down in the US. If it was written down in that order elsewhere, it would have been with the full text, ie. “July 4th, 1776”. Never something like “07/04/1776”, which I believe was an American invention.
That’s not a colon. Both are commonly in use in Europe. USA just switched the d/m
Is it really switching if that was the way it was traditionally done and they just kept doing it that way?
I think it was primarily a verbal ordering, that later became commonplace written down in the US. If it was written down in that order elsewhere, it would have been with the full text, ie. “July 4th, 1776”. Never something like “07/04/1776”, which I believe was an American invention.