<?php
/* Preg_match_all */
$date = '16.03.1989 ';
preg_match_all('/[0-9]+[0-9]/', $date, $matches);
list($day, $month, $year) = $matches;
?>
<?php
/* Strtotime + date */
$date = '16.03.1989';
$date = strtotime($date);
$day = date('d', $date);
$month = date('m', $date);
$year = date('Y', $date);
?>
<?php
/* Explode */
$date = '16.03.1989';
list($day, $month, $year) = explode('.', $date);
?>