Conditional Formatting Issue with a FORMULA

I put this code into Conditional Formatting


Date(2019,6,19) < TODAY()
and if true change font colour....it is true and the contents of the cell should change colour



I put this same code into a cell and it came back TRUE


Why doesn't it work???

I tried rewriting the code as follows:
TODAY() > DATE(2019,6,19) and it worked and then it didn't and does not work now

PLEASE HELP!!! SO frustrating



Excel 2003


Thanks

crossposted: https://chandoo.org/forum/threads/please-help-conditional-formatting-issue.41963/

Please read: https://www.excelguru.ca/content.php?184