=INDEX(A1:A500,MATCH(DATEVALUE("2/20/2005"),A1:A500,FALSE)-1)
OR
=INDEX(A1:A500,MATCH(B1,A1:A500,FALSE)-1)
WHERE B1 contains an actual date
or
=IF(ISNA(MATCH(B1,A1:A500,FALSE)),"No
Match",INDEX(A1:A500,MATCH(B1,A1:A500,FALSE)-1))
with some error checking

"Buffett" wrote:

I need to write a formula that will lookup a cell value in a table and return
the value one cell above the look-up value. I.E. I would like to look-up the
value in cell A220 (say it is 2/20/05) in table A5:A100, if 2/20/05 is in
cell A10, I want to bring back the value in A9.