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I have been searching on the Internet about which tense is perfect with the word today. I have found this thread on this site which is very helpful. But my question is with a mentioned time frame which tense should I use. Suppose, today is May 12th and I want to say may 12th instead of today. Then, which tense is correct?

  • A deadly accident has happened on May 12th in our locality which causes death of three people.

  • A deadly accident happened on May 12th in our locality which caused death of three people.

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A deadly accident happened on May 12th in our locality which caused death of three people is right to me because though May 12th is not over yet and it's still today, this particular accident is in the past and it won't happen again (fortunately). We can refer to it as a past event which led to 3 people's death.

If a news presenter assumes that there may be more accidents until the end of the day, it's possible to use the present perfect in the first part of the sentence.

It's an interesting example showing how a single tense can show your attitude to what happened (or has happened)...

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  • Then why did in that thread on this forum, the answerer say both tenses are fine?
    – user254288
    Commented May 12, 2018 at 5:13
  • @user254288 It's a matter of interpretation. I have edited my answer.
    – Enguroo
    Commented May 12, 2018 at 5:29

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