my ($aDate) = $a =~ /\bdate:\s*"(\d{4}-\d{2}-\d{2})"/;
   my ($bDate) = $b =~ /\bdate:\s*"(\d{4}-\d{2}-\d{2})"/;

##</code><code>##

use JSON::XS qw( decode_json );

my @sorted =
   map { substr($_, 10) }
      sort
         map { decode_json($_)->{date} . $_ }
            @events;

##</code><code>##

@events = grep /\S/, @events;