Is there way to set git commit --date to be older than 1970 ?

Hello all,

I am playing with git in slightly unusual manner - e.g., to use git to store history of europe:

$ touch Italy $ git add Italy $ git commit -m "add Italy" --date="01/01/1861T01:01:01" # Italy gained sovereignity at year 1861 fatal: invalid date format: 01/01/1861T01:01:01

It seems the commit date can be between 1970 and 2100 (on my 32bit linux), however man git (section DATE FORMATS) claims ISO 8601 standard is supported. ISO 8601 allows even B.C. dates (via minus sign).

I understand that this is rather an esoteric use case :)

Regards,

Peter