I set up a new Unix box the other day – Tomato OS on a Linksys WRT54G. I was surprised to see that the time was set before 1970! But Unix time starts in 1 Jan 1970, doesn't it?
# date Wed Dec 31 16:08:50 PST 1969
Mmm … it took a moment or two to sink in (actually, the evidence is that it took 31 seconds …)
# TZ=UTC date Thu Jan 1 00:09:21 UTC 1970
Yep, Unix time starts on 1 Jan 1970 all right … in the UTC timezone. This machine had defaulted to PST, which is 8 hours west of the prime meridian …
Time Lords may relax; heavy transuranic elements will not be required.