Stardates Explained - 20181016.1900

You don't understand the startdates?

Take, for example, 20181016.1900

Let me stick some spaces in some helpful places:

2018 10 16 . 19 00

That better?

20181016 means 16th October 2018, and 1900 is in 24-hour clock format, IE 7:00PM

Stardates in the Star Trek universe work in an entirely different way. Wikipedia has a good explanation on how Stardates work.

Events on this stardate