In BrE, the date tends to be formatted day + month + year with no internal punctuation. In contrast, in AmE, it tends to be formatted month + day + year with a comma separating the final two elements.Thus:
BrE: 1 January 2012
AmE: January 1, 2012
In both varieties, ordinal numbers may also be used to indicate the day (e.g. 1st January 2012 or January 1st, 2012); however, the UOC prefers that cardinal numbers be used instead.
When a date is preceded by the day of the week, in BrE, it is not separated with a comma, whereas in AmE it is. Examples:
Thursday 24 October 1929 (BrE)
Thursday, October 24, 1929 (AmE)
For more information on the UOC's preferences regarding dates, see Dates in the Numbers section.