[dedalus]

Since I removed the buffer battery from my PM 7500/100, the clock keeps reverting to the 29th of August 1956.

The date means nothing to me, what happened back then?

[imitchellg5]

It's the day that Pakistan became a nation. Also, the bill creating the US Interstate highway system was passed on that day.

[ThinkInsane]

Well, there you have it!

[macforray]

And, of course, my birth date.

I should go out and buy some lottery tickets.

[MacinTommy]

If you google the date this thread is the first hit.

[Doc HM]

Originally Posted by dedalus 

Since I removed the buffer battery from my PM 7500/100, the clock keeps reverting to the 29th of August 1956.

The date means nothing to me, what happened back then?

Strange. Macs usually revert to 1976 when the pram battery dies.

[dedalus]

Originally Posted by Doc HM 

Strange. Macs usually revert to 1976 when the pram battery dies.

They do? My OS X Macs revert to 1/1/1970. (The 7500 is running OS 9.1.)

I would have thought the date would be something personal, maybe the birthday of the guy who coded the Date and Time control panel, his wife’s birthday, the release date of his favourite song, something like that.

There’s bound to be somebody on this forum who has a collection of vintage Macs, all with the original OS installed. If you’re that guy, do me a favour: take all the PRAM batteries out, and post back with the date(s).

Call me crazy, but I find this kind of thing intensely interesting, like a historical version of easter eggs.

So far, macforray’s explanation makes the most sense to me. I mean, it’s not going to be about Pakistan (unless the person responsible is Pakistani, maybe?) or the US highway system, where’s the connection there?

[imitchellg5]

If it's something like the coder's birthday I doubt we'll never know

[Spheric Harlot]

Old Macs all default to 1904.

The 1970 date was introduced with OS X. AFAIK, most unixes just don't know any dates earlier than that.

1959 - no idea what's with that.