How do I parse an HTTP date-string in Python?

>>> import email.utils, datetime
>>> email.utils.parsedate('Wed, 23 Sep 2009 22:15:29 GMT')
(2009, 9, 23, 22, 15, 29, 0, 1, -1)

If you want a datetime.datetime object, you can do:

# Python <3.3
def my_parsedate(text):
    return datetime.datetime(*eut.parsedate(text)[:6])

# Python ≥3.3
def my_parsedate(text):
    return email.utils.parsedate_to_datetime(text)

email.utils.parsedate

Attempts to parse a date according to the rules in RFC 2822. however, some mailers don’t follow that format as specified, so parsedate() tries to guess correctly in such cases. date is a string containing an RFC 2822 date, such as “Mon, 20 Nov 1995 19:12:08 -0500”. If it succeeds in parsing the date, parsedate() returns a 9-tuple that can be passed directly to time.mktime(); otherwise None will be returned. Note that indexes 6, 7, and 8 of the result tuple are not usable.

email.utils.parsedate_to_datetime

The inverse of format_datetime(). Performs the same function as parsedate(), but on success returns a datetime; otherwise ValueError is raised if date contains an invalid value such as an hour greater than 23 or a timezone offset not between -24 and 24 hours. If the input date has a timezone of -0000, the datetime will be a naive datetime, and if the date is conforming to the RFCs it will represent a time in UTC but with no indication of the actual source timezone of the message the date comes from. If the input date has any other valid timezone offset, the datetime will be an aware datetime with the corresponding a timezone tzinfo.