Usage of omit 'in'?

[Sweetpumpkin]

Hi,

The war broke out on the 25th of June in 1950.

In the sentence above, do you think 'in' before 1950 can be omitted?
Someone who I know says because 'the' before '25th' specifies the whole date(i.e., 6.25.1950), so you don't have to use 'in' before the year 1950 here.
What do you think?

Thanks,
sweetpumpkin

[Prezbucky]

If you omit "in", you'll need to use a comma in its place:

"The war broke out on the 25th of June, 1850."

... Because there are only 30 days in June; if you said June 1850 you would literally be forming a month/day phrase, and since there aren't 1850 days in June, it doesn't work.

Here's how you could say it:

1) June 25, 1850.
2) The 25th of June, 1850.
3) 25 June, 1850.

If you were notating a chronological timeline outside the rules of prose, you could make entries like these:

19 March 1850 (or March 19, 1850): Prezbucky was -126 years old.

25 June 1850: The war broke out.

30 January 1864: Russia was still ruled by a Tsar.

But in your example, you need either "in" or a comma to separate the month from the year. This has been debated by experts of our language, and perhaps there is not consensus... but I think that you should separate the month from the year so that the reader will know (barring major cognitive problems...) which number is the day and which number is the year.
_________________
Billie Jean is not my lover. Hee.

[Prezbucky]

Consider the following sentence:

"Grok Thorbald was born on August 25 26."

What? Well which day was it, the 25th or the 26th?

If you use the comma or "in", you'll avoid yielding an ambiguous date.
_________________
Billie Jean is not my lover. Hee.

[Sweetpumpkin]

Thank you for your attention, prezbucky! Oh, by the way, I always thought your avatar is a picture of a log. It is actually a cute dog, which is protectively colored! I've just seen what actually it is. :)

[Prezbucky]

Molly will be thrilled! hehe
_________________
Billie Jean is not my lover. Hee.