Editing 1901 (section)

== Significance of 1901 for software ==
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The date of Friday December 13 20:45:52 1901 is significant for modern computers because it is the earliest date representable with a signed [[32-bit]] integer on systems that reference time in seconds since the [[Unix epoch]]. This corresponds to −2147483648 seconds from Thursday January 1 00:00:00 1970. Software that depends on this representation cannot represent an earlier date.

Similarly, many computer systems suffer from the [[year 2038 problem]], when the positive number of seconds since 1970 exceeds 2147483647 (01111111 11111111 11111111 11111111 in binary) and, if represented as a signed 32-bit integer, wraps to −2147483648, representing Friday December 13 20:45:52 1901. In a way, the [[year 2038 problem]] for using signed 32-bit integers with January 1, 1970, as the zero date is as the [[year 2000 problem]] was for software using two-digit decimal integers with January 1, 1900, as the zero date.