Index: docutils-0.8.1/docutils/parsers/rst/directives/misc.py
===================================================================
--- docutils-0.8.1.orig/docutils/parsers/rst/directives/misc.py
+++ docutils-0.8.1/docutils/parsers/rst/directives/misc.py
@@ -10,6 +10,7 @@ import sys
 import os.path
 import re
 import time
+import locale
 from docutils import io, nodes, statemachine, utils
 from docutils.error_reporting import SafeString, ErrorString
 from docutils.parsers.rst import Directive, convert_directive_function
@@ -426,6 +427,17 @@ class Date(Directive):
                 'a substitution definition.' % self.name)
         format = '\n'.join(self.content) or '%Y-%m-%d'
         text = time.strftime(format)
+        if sys.version_info< (3, 0):
+            try:
+                text = unicode(text, locale.getpreferredencoding())
+            except UnicodeError:
+                try:
+                    text = unicode(text, 'utf-8')
+                except UnicodeError:
+                    # Fallback to something that can decode all bytes to
+                    # something.  Alternative fallback would be to decode
+                    # with errors='replace'
+                    text = unicode(text, 'latin-1')
         return [nodes.Text(text)]