Near the beginning of your JSP page, use the fmt library.

<%@ taglib uri="http://java.sun.com/jsp/jstl/fmt" prefix="fmt" %>

Create a varialbe (now in this example) where the value is java.util.Date().

<c:set var="now" value="<%=new java.util.Date()%>" />

You can now format the date to your preference.

<fmt:formatDate pattern="yyyy-MM-dd" value="${now}" />

If you want to store the results in a variable, just add var.

<fmt:formatDate pattern="yyyy-MM-dd" value="${now}" var="todaysDate" />

Be aware that a date obtained from a SQL database will not be a java.util.Date() object and thus you must parse the date string.

<fmt:setLocale value="${requestLocale.locale}"/>
<fmt:parseDate pattern="yyyy-MM-dd" value="${title.date_updated}" var="parsedDate" />
<fmt:formatDate value="${parsedDate}" pattern="MMM dd, yyyy" />