If the article is about DISPLAYING dates and not STORING dates, then it should have said so, which it didn't.  You have to be familiar with the issues involving date...

This whole date thingy ought to be a lot simpler than all what this rhetoric makes it sound.
Two of the main issues with dates for a computer is ordering date values...

YOU'RE ALL WRONG!!!!  My reasons are the only good ones!  Read-and-take-heed!  (I know, pretty conceited, but as good as any other reason in this thread.)  Pick and choose your logic.

I prefer to use a little logic instead of personal preference in my decision on what to do about the presence and use of nulls...

There is a difference in how we should represent data...