Is .NET DateTime buggy using ToString("U")? -
i have next simple code... console.writeline(default(datetime).date.tostring("u")); the, emitted text (i have spanish language installation): "lunes, 01 de enero de 0001 3:00:00" why starts @ 3 hours, instead of 0? bug? well unless you've got time machine or datetime really buggy, that's not output of code posted, uses datetime.now . i suspect code really using datetime.minvalue (or new datetime() ), , reason you're seeing 3am (as per documentation ): the pattern same "f" pattern. however, datetime value automatically converted utc before formatted. so suspect you're in time zone midnight on january 1st 0001 local time 3am utc. ( datetimezone.minvalue has "kind" of unspecified , treated local when asked convert utc. datetime bit of mess around area.)