If looking at the top or bottom of the page doesn't immediately reveal a date, look in columns, headings, captions--anywhere such a detail could hide. Authors don't always put the date in predictable places.
Sometimes the last date a page was modifed can be determined by right clicking the page and selecting 'View Page Info' (in Firefox) or 'Properties' (in IE). This doesn't necessarily mean the article was authored on this date--just that something on the page was modified then. If the information provided is very recent (seconds ago) it indicates code that automatically updates page information whether the author changed it or not.
If you can't spot "last updated" information on the page, replace the url with this code and hit enter: javascript:alert(document.lastModified) If page update information is available, this will return it. If not, the time stamp when you hit enter will likely be returned.
Search Google, etc. using the title of the article to see if other extant copies include a date.
If it is critical that a historical date be established, consider searching archive.org for saved copies of the page to determine when changes to a page were made. This requires reading and comparing documents.
MicroModule: Date
Next: Evaluate these dates
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