I wouldn't say "no problem whatsoever." Lots of things encode Unix time as a 32 bit signed integer, which can't date back further than 1901. Any fixed-with typ

I wouldn't say "no problem whatsoever." Lots of things encode Unix time as a 32 bit signed integer, which can't date back further than 1901. Any fixed-with type is going to have a lower- and upper-bound; whether it has a sign or not doesn't change that. If git was trying to choose a bound for a 32 bit timestamp, I think 1970 is a reasonable starting point; doubling your future space is more important than covering space in the past. If it's 64-bit, though, then it's kind of silly to not just envelop the entirety of human history with all the room you've got (as a 64 bit signed integer with 0=year 1970 does).