On Thu, 23 Aug 2012 12:36:01 +0100, MRAB wrote: > From what I've tried, it looks like the date can't be a string: > > >>> m['Date'] = datetime.datetime.utcnow() > >>> m['Date'] > 'Thu, 23 Aug 2012 11:33:20 -0000' Many thanks - it's even easier! Waiting for Python 3.3 to become standard! Helmut.