stop bootstrap date-picker selecting today date - ruby-on-rails

Question

I've got a bootstrap date picker on my ruby on rails application but it keeps selecting today date as default how do I stop this?
Javascript
<script type="text/javascript">
$(".datepicker").attr('readOnly', 'true').css("background-color","white");
$(document).ready(function(){
$('.datepicker').datepicker({
"setDate": new Date(-70),
yearRange : '-70:-19',
dateFormat: 'dd/mm/yy',
changeMonth: true,
changeYear: true,
autoclose: true});
});
</script>
As shown below today's date 30th march is selected. If the user doesn't change the year or month all dates for march in initial view will select for
"day March 2018"
Any help is much appreciated!

Answer 1

First of all, this is not a bootstrap datePicker this is jquery datePicker, see the below for bootstrap datePicker, for bootstrap datePicker you can use bootstrap datePicker gem, try to the following added to todayHighlight: false
$(document).ready(function() {
var dateInput = $('input[name="date"]'); // Our date input has the name "date"
var container = $('.bootstrap-iso form').length > 0 ? $('.bootstrap-iso form').parent() : 'body';
dateInput.datepicker({
"setDate": new Date(-70),
yearRange : '-70:-19',
dateFormat: 'dd/mm/yy',
todayHighlight: false,
changeMonth: true,
changeYear: true,
autoclose: true
});
$('#date').datepicker('setStartDate'); // <-- SO DOES THIS
});
<script src="https://ajax.googleapis.com/ajax/libs/jquery/2.1.1/jquery.min.js"></script>
<script src="https://cdnjs.cloudflare.com/ajax/libs/tether/1.4.0/js/tether.min.js"></script>
<script src="https://cdnjs.cloudflare.com/ajax/libs/twitter-bootstrap/4.0.0-alpha.5/js/bootstrap.min.js"></script>
<script src="https://cdnjs.cloudflare.com/ajax/libs/bootstrap-datepicker/1.6.4/js/bootstrap-datepicker.min.js"></script>
<link href="https://cdnjs.cloudflare.com/ajax/libs/tether/1.4.0/css/tether.min.css" rel="stylesheet"/>
<link href="https://cdnjs.cloudflare.com/ajax/libs/twitter-bootstrap/4.0.0-alpha.5/css/bootstrap.min.css" rel="stylesheet"/>
<link href="https://cdnjs.cloudflare.com/ajax/libs/bootstrap-datepicker/1.6.4/css/bootstrap-datepicker.min.css" rel="stylesheet"/>
<div class="bootstrap-iso">
<div class="container-fluid">
<div class="row">
<div class="col-md-6 col-sm-6 col-xs-12">
<form class="form-horizontal" method="post">
<div class="form-group ">
<div class="col-sm-10">
<input class="form-control" id="date" name="date" placeholder="MM/DD/YYYY" type="text" />
</div>
</div>
</form>
</div>
</div>
</div>
</div>