diff --git a/CHANGES b/CHANGES
index e81b742..1cecbe3 100644
--- a/CHANGES
+++ b/CHANGES
@@ -10,7 +10,7 @@ Corrections:
 
 	Socat since 1.7.4.0 did not compile on Solaris and its derivatives
 	because the getprotobynumber_r() function prototype differ from the
-	Linux versino.
+	Linux version.
 	configure now checks for the variant.
 	Thanks to Robert Zybeck for reporting this issue.
 
@@ -30,12 +30,17 @@ Porting:
 	EPROTOTYPE on most other OSes).
 	Streams: Must not push ldterm when it is already active (hangs).
 
+Building:
+	Socats build date and time may now be set externally with environment
+	variable SOURCE_DATE_EPOCH.
+	Thanks to Viktor Kleinik for sending a patch.
+
 Testing:
 	test.sh: many corrections for AIX's older shell utilities, e.g.sleep(1)
 	does not allow fractions of seconds, grep does not understand '\<';
 	OpenIndiana/SunOS netstat format;
 	many more functional and cosmetic code corrections.
-	
+
 ####################### V 1.7.4.2:
 
 Corrections:
diff --git a/configure.ac b/configure.ac
index a1c1564..d4acc9e 100644
--- a/configure.ac
+++ b/configure.ac
@@ -2123,7 +2123,11 @@ fi
 AC_MSG_RESULT($sc_cv_var_environ)
 
 # allow BUILD_DATE to be externally set for build reproducibility
-if test "$BUILD_DATE"; then
+if test "$SOURCE_DATE_EPOCH"; then
+  DATE_FMT="%d %b %Y %H:%M:%S"
+  BUILD_DATE=$(LC_ALL=C date -u -d "@$SOURCE_DATE_EPOCH" "+$DATE_FMT")
+  AC_DEFINE_UNQUOTED(BUILD_DATE, ["$BUILD_DATE"])
+elif test "$BUILD_DATE"; then
   AC_DEFINE_UNQUOTED(BUILD_DATE, ["$BUILD_DATE"])
 else
   AC_DEFINE(BUILD_DATE, [__DATE__" "__TIME__])