[drupal-devel] date conversion

Hi, I was wondering if anyone knows of a decent method of converting dates from text to a time. I did look at strtotime() but it will not convert anything before Jan 1, 1970 which is a problem since it is going to be used for a date of birth field, and some people will be over 35. Is there is improved strtotime() that will convert to anything to a time. Any help will be most appreciated. Gordon.