$line = "On January 1 1970 the unix epoch commenced.";
my @months = qw(
                January
                Jan
                February
                Feb
                March
                Mar
                April
                Apr
                May
                June
                Jun
                July
                Jul
                August
                Aug
                September
                Sept
                Sep
                October
                Oct
                November
                Nov
                December
                Dec
                );
my $months = join "|", @months;
my ($month, $day, $year) = $line =~ m/($months)\s+(\d+)\s+(\d+)/i;
print "month\t$month\nday \t$day\nyear\t$year\n";