Title: Cannot Backdate Posts beyond 1970
Last modified: December 19, 2018

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# Cannot Backdate Posts beyond 1970

 *  [marieservais](https://wordpress.org/support/users/marieservais/)
 * (@marieservais)
 * [7 years, 6 months ago](https://wordpress.org/support/topic/cannot-backdate-posts-beyond-1970/)
 * Hi, I want to publish a history blog in the form of a medieval chronicle. For
   this, I need each post to be published with a 14th-century date (i.e. the date
   of the event chronicled in the post).
    I am using WordPress 5.01 and Gutenberg,
   and it seems that I cannot backdate the posts beyond 1970. Is it possible to 
   override this limit and really choose any (back)date imaginable for a post ? 
   Thanks.
    -  This topic was modified 7 years, 6 months ago by [marieservais](https://wordpress.org/support/users/marieservais/).

Viewing 4 replies - 1 through 4 (of 4 total)

 *  [Graham](https://wordpress.org/support/users/graham2621/)
 * (@graham2621)
 * [7 years, 6 months ago](https://wordpress.org/support/topic/cannot-backdate-posts-beyond-1970/#post-11007861)
 * I don’t believe so. There is an entry in wiki that goes over the [Unix system time](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/System_time)
   but you may be able to override it with code. Good question and best of luck.
 * My suggestion would be to create a custom post type and only use the H1 tag for
   a date – put it at the top of the post – and that way it will list and display
   in chronological order. That could be a work around.
 *  Thread Starter [marieservais](https://wordpress.org/support/users/marieservais/)
 * (@marieservais)
 * [7 years, 6 months ago](https://wordpress.org/support/topic/cannot-backdate-posts-beyond-1970/#post-11007973)
 * Thanks for your help and ideas! But I fear overriding Unix system time with code
   is beyond my skill…
    As for your suggested work around, it would be ok for listing
   the posts, but would not otherwise work with the system as a date variable. Thks
   all the same. I’ll keep searching…
    -  This reply was modified 7 years, 6 months ago by [marieservais](https://wordpress.org/support/users/marieservais/).
 *  Moderator [Samuel Wood (Otto)](https://wordpress.org/support/users/otto42/)
 * (@otto42)
 * WordPress.org Admin
 * [7 years, 6 months ago](https://wordpress.org/support/topic/cannot-backdate-posts-beyond-1970/#post-11008314)
 * There are many reasons for this to not work, but by and large, you’re not going
   to be easily able to make WordPress deal with dates before the 1900’s.
 * If you only want to make a site *look* like it’s from way back in the day, then
   that’s much easier. Instead of putting things like `the_date()` or `the_time()`
   into your theme, you use a custom field or meta data. You type the date you want
   into a custom field, like “realdate”, then output it with something like `echo
   get_post_meta($post->ID, 'realdate', true);`.
 *  Thread Starter [marieservais](https://wordpress.org/support/users/marieservais/)
 * (@marieservais)
 * [7 years, 6 months ago](https://wordpress.org/support/topic/cannot-backdate-posts-beyond-1970/#post-11008370)
 * I get it that unfortunately it won’t be straightforward and I’ll have to use 
   a customfield around that problem. I’ll try your suggestion.
    Thanks for your
   help!

Viewing 4 replies - 1 through 4 (of 4 total)

The topic ‘Cannot Backdate Posts beyond 1970’ is closed to new replies.

## Tags

 * [chron](https://wordpress.org/support/topic-tag/chron/)
 * [publish date](https://wordpress.org/support/topic-tag/publish-date/)

 * In: [Fixing WordPress](https://wordpress.org/support/forum/how-to-and-troubleshooting/)
 * 4 replies
 * 3 participants
 * Last reply from: [marieservais](https://wordpress.org/support/users/marieservais/)
 * Last activity: [7 years, 6 months ago](https://wordpress.org/support/topic/cannot-backdate-posts-beyond-1970/#post-11008370)
 * Status: not resolved

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