Resumen
This article proposes a solution to the Year 2000 date crisis that does not require any existing files or databases to be modified in any way. Dates are stored in a 6-digit YYMMDD format. The problem is compounded when files of data, containing millions of dates exist. Solutions to this problem should ideally not expand the size of such files significantly. An ASCII date has a binary "0" in high-order date field. In the proposed solution, the new format date will have a "1" bit in its high-order position, distinguishing new format dates from old. The remaining 47 bits encode the new date, in binary, as the number of days since some appropriately chosen date. The new date format allows new dates to take on any of 2**47 distinct values. Forty-seven bits allows the encoding of some 11*2**35 years, in days. This figure is approximately 352 billion years. Current physical theory suggests the universe will not survive that long. Thus, this date format avoids another date crisis during the foreseeable life of the universe.