Modern Python Standard Library Cookbook

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As pointed out in the recipe introduction, there is a limit to how big a number can be for a computer. For that reason, it's important to note that while datetime.datetime can represent practically any date, a timestamp can't.

For example, trying to represent a datetime from 1300 will succeed but it will fail to convert it to a timestamp:

>>> datetime.datetime(1300, 1, 1)
datetime.datetime(1300, 1, 1, 0, 0)
>>> datetime.datetime(1300, 1, 1).timestamp()
Traceback (most recent call last):
  File "<stdin>", line 1, in <module>
OverflowError: timestamp out of range

A timestamp is only able to represent dates starting from January 1st, 1970.

The same is true also in the reverse direction for faraway dates, while 253402214400 represents ...