def parseDate(date):
	"""Parses a date tag from xml input
	returns a tuple containing the year, month, and day as strings
	"""
	yearNode = date.getElementsByTagName('year').item(0)
	monthNode = date.getElementsByTagName('month').item(0)
	dayNode = date.getElementsByTagName('day').item(0)

	year = yearNode.firstChild.data
	month = monthNode.firstChild.data
	day = dayNode.firstChild.data

	return year, month, day