diff --git a/Makefile b/Makefile
index 9d7378742..ae0eae74e 100644
--- a/Makefile
+++ b/Makefile
@@ -10,7 +10,11 @@
 # The version number, for release:
 
 VER_VERSION:=0.9.23
-VER_DATE:=$(shell date +"%Y-%m-%d")
+ifdef SOURCE_DATE_EPOCH
+       VER_DATE=$(shell date -u -d "@$(SOURCE_DATE_EPOCH)" "+%Y-%m-%d" 2>/dev/null || date -u -r "$(SOURCE_DATE_EPOCH)" "+%Y-%m-%d" 2>/dev/null || date -u "+%Y-%m-%d")
+else
+       VER_DATE=$(shell date "+%Y-%m-%d")
+endif
 MAGIC_API_VERSION:=0x00000003
 
 # Need to know the OS
diff --git a/docs/CHANGES.txt b/docs/CHANGES.txt
index 0293ffd1a..c2beea72b 100644
--- a/docs/CHANGES.txt
+++ b/docs/CHANGES.txt
@@ -166,8 +166,8 @@ $Id$
       the wrong(lossy) way, the program will crash
       (SF.net Bug #210)
 
-  * Ports
-    -----
+  * Ports & Building
+    ----------------
     * Rewrote the macOS build system to be more Linux-like, with no XCode IDE.
       Build for older releases of macOS / Mac OS X (10.6 and later).
       Mark K. Kim <mkkim214@gmail.com>
@@ -176,6 +176,9 @@ $Id$
       Robert Buj Gelonch <rbuj@users.sf.net>
       Mark K. Kim <mkkim214@gmail.com>
 
+    * Allow to override build date (in order to make builds reproducible)
+      by Chris Lamb, pushed by Bernhard M. Wiedemann
+
   * Other Improvements:
     -------------------
     * Reformatted source code via GNU Indent tool; should