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BREAKING: This is the video of vandal defacing @KingJames mural at stroke of midnight this am in #Venice. Video from @BabyBluesBBQ surveillance cam. @Lakers @NBCLA.

I doubt the usage of at stroke of midnight, which I think it should be at the stroke of midnight instead.

I also see on the stroke of midnight in dictionaries. So, I am wondering what's the difference between at the stroke of midnight and on the stroke of midnight? In my opinion, at the stroke of midnight seems to make more sense because at denotes a point of time. Any thoughts?

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    It's At the stroke of midnight. But Twitter only allows so many characters, so people remove unnecessary words.
    – Andrew
    Commented Jul 16, 2018 at 2:15
  • Outside of Twitter, the place you're most likely to encounter At stroke of midnight is in a poem, or perhaps in an incantation. In normal conversation the article is expected.
    – TimR
    Commented Jul 16, 2018 at 15:47

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"At (or on) the stroke of midnight". The quoted text is either a mistake, or because they are trying to save characters.

Both at or on are used. "On" perhaps emphasises the "momentary" nature. We say "On Monday" to mean when an event happens that is less than a day long, so "On the stroke" means that the event is even shorter than the "stroke of midnight". But both at and on are used.

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