Where do you insert the date function?

Wordpress.org tells us how to format the current date, such as “September 15, 2016,” at https://codex.wordpress.org/Formatting_Date_and_Time. However, where does one insert code like the following?

<?php the_date( $format, $before, $after, $echo ); ?>

or

<F j, Y>

In the “Inspect Element” section? In a hook provided by the theme? Neither of these locations seems to work for me, unless I am failing to include a header or additional code which is above my technical understanding. All I want is shortcode or something like the above to paste into articles that I create. Please enlighten me.