I am using word 2010 and have been trying to sort the table below with no success. Can you help?

02.08 1974 Oxfordshire County Council University grant result.
18.07.1977 University External Studies Teaching Course.
07.02.1977 University External Studies Teaching Course.
07.02.1977 6/2 stamp.
17.06.1976 Balliol Library lost books.
15.06.1976 Lukes, Montefiory and Newton-Smith defend their views on “The nature of explanation and the Concept of a Person.
11.06.1976 Balliol P.P.E. Tutors Schools dinner.
08.06.1976 Notes for a “Thanks to the Balliol Tutors at the end of our studies.
08.06.1976 Steven Lukes asks me to give “Thanks” few words at Schools Dinner.
20.05.1976 Party invitation.
13.05.1976 Discuss Graduate work?
04.05.1976 Balliol Battles account.
01.05.1976 Balliol library asking for their books back.
01.05.1976 Notes for Finals examination.
29.04.1976 Alan Fox note on revision.
25.4.1976 Revision time table.
23.12.1974 Oxfordshire County Council University grant receipts.
28.11.1974 Oxford Strumpet.
16.10.1974 Barclays Bank account.
1976 Examination answers paper.
1976 Finals papers questions.
1976 JCR Bill for Hilary term.
1976 Oxford Cyrenians asking for contributions of fifty pence.
1976 Oxford Union Society calendar.
1976 Oxford Union Treasurer note.
1976 University Labour Club internecine strife with dodgy accounts.


1974 Balliol JCR
23.061976 Revision note from Steven Lukes.

Aside from the fact your data as posted isn't a Word table, you cannot expect a Word table to sort something that appears to have such disparate data as '16.10.1974', '23.061976' and '1976' in date order. Neither '23.061976' nor '1976' is a date - they're just numbers. Similarly, a number sort will sort your dates as if they too are just numbers - in day, then month, then year, order.

__________________
Cheers,
Paul Edstein
[Fmr MS MVP - Word]

You stated, "Aside from the fact your data as posted isn't a Word table"
I used a Word 2010 page to build a table.
If that is not a Word Table could you please tell me what a word table is?

You stated that the following "is disparate data as '16.10.1974', '23.061976' and '1976' in date order. Neither '23.061976' nor '1976' is a date - they're just numbers."
They are dates in the format that is used in England so could you please tell how I could set them out so that dates or not they will be capable of sorting?

You state that, "Similarly, a number sort will sort your dates as if they too are just numbers - in day, then month, then year, order."
I'm not clear as to what is a number sort. Could you please elaborate?

I think that it is clear what I want to do from my first message could you please tell me how to do it?

Many thanks.

If you have a look at your post, there is no table as such - just multiple lines of text. Whether what you have in your document is in a table - and what its structure might be - cannot be seen from that.
Since when is a '23.061976' date in any country? Similarly, '1976' is not a date - it is merely a number. You might interpret it as a date, but it could just as easily be a part number. To a computer, it's nothing more than a number.
To understand how a number sort works, visualize your dates as not having the periods. In such a scenario, a number sort for:
02.08.1974
23.12.1974
01.05.1976
11.06.1976
18.07.1977
would return the same as:
01051976
02081974
11061976
18071977
23121974
(note the re-ordering)

__________________
Cheers,
Paul Edstein
[Fmr MS MVP - Word]

It just goes to show that to understand computing one really should start at the beginning but so few of us do. I've grasped the idea but still have a little way to go but many thanks.