I have an EXCEL 2003 worksheet that includes a column of the birthdates of
about 500 people, including some with birthdates in the 1800's and 1700's.
The data has been derived from a GEDCOM file, the standard for exporting
genealogy programs into other programs such as EXCEL.

I have formatted the cells as Date "3/14/2001", hoping to sort the
birthdates chronologically. However, the the nineteenth century dates, for
example January 1, 1890, refuse to sort properly. It appears as if EXCEL
does not know how to handle a nineteenth century date.

Is there a trick to formatting cells which contain dates before 1900? I
will appreciate advice.