"MySQL retrieves and displays DATETIME values in 'YYYY-MM-DD HH:MM:SS' format." This is from mysql site. You can store only this type, but you can use one of the many time format functions to change it, when you need to display it.

Mysql Time and Date functions

For example, one of those functions is the DATE_FORMAT, which can be used like so:

SELECT DATE_FORMAT(column_name, '%m/%d/%Y %H:%i') FROM tablename

Guessing you probably just want to format the output date? then this is what you are after

SELECT *, DATE_FORMAT(date,'%d/%m/%Y') AS niceDate 
FROM table 
ORDER BY date DESC 
LIMIT 0,14

Or do you actually want to sort by Day before Month before Year?

First you need to convert your string dates into a valid date time format (yyyy-mm-dd hh:mm:ss).

With the help of STR_TO_DATE() and DATE_FORMAT() functions you can convert those date strings into the above desired format.

Now you can safely change/modify the datatype to timestamp/datetime.

Here's a demonstration:

SQL FIDDLE DEMO

Convert string dates into valid date format:

Create table yourtable(
   id INT primary key AUTO_INCREMENT,
   start varchar(50)
);

INSERT INTO yourtable(start) VALUES('1901-02-03T05:30:00.000Z');

UPDATE yourtable
SET start = DATE_FORMAT(STR_TO_DATE(start,'%Y-%m-%dT%H:%i:%s.000Z'),'%Y-%m-%d %H:%i:%s');

Change the datatype:

ALTER TABLE yourtable MODIFY COLUMN start datetime;