diff --git a/docs/ReleaseNotes.html b/docs/ReleaseNotes.html
index ddda89b..6c0511d 100644
--- a/docs/ReleaseNotes.html
+++ b/docs/ReleaseNotes.html
@@ -7,6 +7,7 @@
 	<b>Variants</b>
 	<ul>
 	<li>Static constnats are no longer released
+	<li>obj2variant on Dispatch now supports passing a java.util.Date
 	</ul>
 </li>
 </ul>
@@ -20,6 +21,10 @@
     <td width="13%">1474474</td>
     <td width="87%">Static constants in the Variant class can no longer have SafeRelease() called on them.</td>
   </tr>
+  <tr>
+    <td width="13%">1477793</td>
+    <td width="87%">obj2variant should accept java.util.Date the same way the Variant constructor does</td>
+  </tr>
   <tr>
     <td width="13%">&nbsp;</td>
     <td width="87%">&nbsp;</td>
diff --git a/src/com/jacob/com/Dispatch.java b/src/com/jacob/com/Dispatch.java
index bc1bba2..75634e5 100644
--- a/src/com/jacob/com/Dispatch.java
+++ b/src/com/jacob/com/Dispatch.java
@@ -20,6 +20,7 @@
 package com.jacob.com;
 
 import java.lang.reflect.Array;
+import java.util.Date;
 
 /**
  * Object represents MS level dispatch object. 
@@ -328,6 +329,7 @@ public class Dispatch extends JacobObject
 	        || objectToBeMadeIntoVariant instanceof Double
 	        || objectToBeMadeIntoVariant instanceof Float
 	        || objectToBeMadeIntoVariant instanceof SafeArray
+	        || objectToBeMadeIntoVariant instanceof Date
 	        || objectToBeMadeIntoVariant instanceof Dispatch)
             return new Variant(objectToBeMadeIntoVariant);
 
diff --git a/unittest/com/jacob/com/DispatchTest.java b/unittest/com/jacob/com/DispatchTest.java
new file mode 100644
index 0000000..434e6a1
--- /dev/null
+++ b/unittest/com/jacob/com/DispatchTest.java
@@ -0,0 +1,28 @@
+package com.jacob.com;
+
+import java.util.Date;
+
+/**
+ * Test some of the Dispatch utility methods 
+ * <code>-Djava.library.path=d:/jacob/release -Dcom.jacob.autogc=true -Dcom.jacob.debug=false</code>
+ * @author joe
+
+ * @author joe
+ *
+ */
+public class DispatchTest {
+
+    public static void main(String[] args) 
+    {
+    	Date testDate = new Date();
+    	Variant fromDate = Dispatch.obj2variant(testDate);
+    	Date returnedDate = fromDate.getJavaDate();
+    	System.out.println("test date is "+testDate);
+    	System.out.println("VariantDate is "+fromDate.getJavaDate());
+    	if (testDate.equals(returnedDate)){
+    		
+    	} else {
+    		System.out.println("Could not call obj2variant(Date) and get it to work");
+    	}
+    }
+}