Lots of countries write the date backwards to our common method.
8/1/1961 vs. 1/8/1961 MM/DD/YY vs. DD/MM/YY
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Calendar_date#mm.2Fdd.2Fyy_or_mm.2Fdd.2Fyyyy_.28month.2C_day.2C_year.29
Date formats and country of use.