diff --git a/README.md b/README.md
index 9b82db8..c379c69 100644
--- a/README.md
+++ b/README.md
@@ -60,7 +60,7 @@ Usage: EMLtoPDFConverter [options] <EML-File>
   ```
 E.g. ``java -jar emailconverter-2.1.1-all.jar example.eml`` (you need [wkhtmltopdf](http://wkhtmltopdf.org/) binary in the PATH)
 
-### How to build
+### How to Build
 You need to git clone this repository. The build will fail if you remove the .git folder (e.g. download this as zip from github).
 
  * `gradlew shadowJar` <br>
@@ -75,5 +75,8 @@ Creates a windows setup in `build/innosetup`. This task needs the [Launch4j](htt
  * `gradlew check` <br>
 Executes the unit tests and generates various reports (jacoco, checkstyle, findbugs, jdepend, unit test report).
 
+### Date Formatting
+Dates are formatted with the default locale. You can change it, e.g. by passing the VM argument `-Duser.language=en-US`
+
 ### License
 The code is available under the terms of the Apache V2 License.
diff --git a/src/main/java/mimeparser/MimeMessageConverter.java b/src/main/java/mimeparser/MimeMessageConverter.java
index a91a45a..6a942e9 100644
--- a/src/main/java/mimeparser/MimeMessageConverter.java
+++ b/src/main/java/mimeparser/MimeMessageConverter.java
@@ -22,14 +22,14 @@
 import java.net.URL;
 import java.nio.charset.Charset;
 import java.nio.charset.StandardCharsets;
-import java.util.ArrayList;
-import java.util.Arrays;
-import java.util.HashMap;
-import java.util.List;
+import java.text.DateFormat;
+import java.text.SimpleDateFormat;
+import java.util.*;
 import java.util.regex.Matcher;
 import java.util.regex.Pattern;
 
 import javax.mail.Part;
+import javax.mail.internet.MailDateFormat;
 import javax.mail.internet.MimeMessage;
 import javax.mail.internet.MimeUtility;
 
@@ -90,6 +90,8 @@ public class MimeMessageConverter {
 	private static final int CONVERSION_DPI = 300;
 	private static final int IMAGE_QUALITY = 100;
 
+	private static final DateFormat DATE_FORMATTER = DateFormat.getDateTimeInstance(DateFormat.LONG, DateFormat.LONG);
+
 	/**
 	 * Execute a command and redirect its output to the standard output.
 	 * @param command list of the command and its parameters
@@ -148,7 +150,18 @@ public static void convertToPdf(String emlPath, String pdfOutputPath, boolean hi
 			}
 		}
 
-		String sentDateStr = message.getHeader("date", null);
+		String sentDateStr = null;
+		try {
+			Date sentDate = message.getSentDate();
+			sentDateStr = DATE_FORMATTER.format(sentDate);
+		} catch (Exception e) {
+			e.printStackTrace();
+		}
+
+		if (sentDateStr == null) {
+			Logger.error("Could not parse the date, fallback to raw value");
+			sentDateStr = message.getHeader("date", null);
+		}
 
 		/* ######### Parse the mime structure ######### */
 		Logger.info("Mime Structure of %s:\n%s", emlPath, MimeMessageParser.printStructure(message));