diff --git a/.gitignore b/.gitignore
new file mode 100644
index 0000000..02e925c
--- /dev/null
+++ b/.gitignore
@@ -0,0 +1,4 @@
+*~
+*.sw*
+.DS_Store
+
diff --git a/2018-08-06-earliest.py b/2018-08-06-earliest.py
new file mode 100644
index 0000000..e8dafc7
--- /dev/null
+++ b/2018-08-06-earliest.py
@@ -0,0 +1,26 @@
+
+
+class Date:
+
+    def __init__(self, date_string):
+        self.month, self.day, self.year = split_date_string(date_string)
+
+    def __str__(self):
+        return f'{self.month:02}/{self.day:02}/{self.year}'
+
+    def __lt__(self, other):
+        for attr in ['year', 'month', 'day']:
+            if getattr(self, attr) < getattr(other, attr):
+                return True
+            elif getattr(self, attr) > getattr(other, attr):
+                return False
+
+
+def get_earliest(*date_strings):
+    dates = [Date(date_string) for date_string in date_strings]
+    return str(min(dates))
+
+
+def split_date_string(date_string):
+    month, day, year = date_string.split('/')
+    return int(month), int(day), int(year)
diff --git a/__pycache__/earliest.cpython-36.pyc b/__pycache__/earliest.cpython-36.pyc
new file mode 100644
index 0000000..4a49c6f
Binary files /dev/null and b/__pycache__/earliest.cpython-36.pyc differ