diff --git a/configure.ac b/configure.ac
index 7ef0440..d3a4b2b 100644
--- a/configure.ac
+++ b/configure.ac
@@ -43,7 +43,12 @@ if test "x$POD2MAN" = "xno"; then
 		AC_MSG_ERROR([pod2man is required to build the monit.1 man file.])
 	fi
 else
-	d=`date  '+%B %d. %Y'`
+	if test "x$SOURCE_DATE_EPOCH" = "x"; then
+	  SOURCE_DATE_EPOCH=`date +%s`
+	fi
+	fmt="%B %d. %Y"
+	d=`date -u -d "@$SOURCE_DATE_EPOCH" "+$fmt" 2>/dev/null || date -u -r "$SOURCE_DATE_EPOCH" "+$fmt" 2>/dev/null || date -u "+$fmt"`
+
 	POD2MANFLAGS="--center 'User Commands' --release '${d}' --date='www.mmonit.com' --lax"
 	AC_SUBST([POD2MANFLAGS])
 fi