Short answer: Use mx.DateTime from egenix: http://www.egenix.com/files/python/eGenix-mx-Extensions.html#mxBASE Here's sample code, once you've installed that: $ python >>> s1 = "Mon, 31 Dec 2001 15" >>> import mx.DateTime >>> d1 = mx.DateTime.DateFrom(s1) >>> print d1 2001-12-31 00:00:00.00 >>> s2 = "Sat, 19 Jan 2002 21" >>> d2 = mx.DateTime.DateFrom(s2) >>> print (d2 > d1) 1 // mark