aggregating into 2 dimensions?

I'd like to perform a query that aggregates/counts based on 2 of my columns.
For example, with a table with 3 columns "date","dept","item", I'd like to get
counts of "item" grouped by "date" and "dept" so that I get a tablular result
such as:

    date    | deptA | deptB | deptC | ...
------------+------------------------------
 2001-05-28 |    10 |   231 |   123 | ...

Basically, something like "select date,dept,count(item) from table group by
date,dept" except giving the results in 2 dimensions, with individual depts as
columns and perhaps a column for a total.

Is this something that can be done with basic SQL (without using functions)?
The number of depts is small and fixed, if that matters.

Thanks,
Harry