>>> dateutil.parser.parse("Monday 25 September 10:36:28 2003") datetime.datetime(2003, 9, 25, 10, 36, 28, ['YYYY','MM','DD','HH','MM','SS']) # format parse() is outputting date in or >>> dateutil.parser.parse("Monday 25 September 10:36:28 2003") datetime.datetime(2003, 9, 25, 10, 36, 28, ['weekday','DD','MM','HH','MM','SS','YYYY']) # format parse() thinks date was given to it in