diff --git a/src/calibre/ebooks/oeb/base.py b/src/calibre/ebooks/oeb/base.py
index 276f315873..1e8aaa8b60 100644
--- a/src/calibre/ebooks/oeb/base.py
+++ b/src/calibre/ebooks/oeb/base.py
@@ -455,7 +455,7 @@ class Metadata(object):
                          'description', 'format', 'identifier', 'language',
                          'publisher', 'relation', 'rights', 'source',
                          'subject', 'title', 'type'])
-    CALIBRE_TERMS = set(['series', 'series_index', 'rating'])
+    CALIBRE_TERMS = set(['series', 'series_index', 'rating', 'timestamp'])
     OPF_ATTRS     = {'role': OPF('role'), 'file-as': OPF('file-as'),
                      'scheme': OPF('scheme'), 'event': OPF('event'),
                      'type': XSI('type'), 'lang': XML('lang'), 'id': 'id'}
diff --git a/src/calibre/ebooks/oeb/transforms/metadata.py b/src/calibre/ebooks/oeb/transforms/metadata.py
index b2d254f76c..74bf78c691 100644
--- a/src/calibre/ebooks/oeb/transforms/metadata.py
+++ b/src/calibre/ebooks/oeb/transforms/metadata.py
@@ -7,6 +7,7 @@ __copyright__ = '2009, Kovid Goyal <kovid@kovidgoyal.net>'
 __docformat__ = 'restructuredtext en'
 
 import os
+from datetime import datetime
 
 def meta_info_to_oeb_metadata(mi, m, log):
     if mi.title:
@@ -56,6 +57,15 @@ def meta_info_to_oeb_metadata(mi, m, log):
         m.clear('subject')
         for t in mi.tags:
             m.add('subject', t)
+    if mi.pubdate is not None:
+        m.clear('date')
+        m.add('date', mi.pubdate.isoformat())
+    if mi.timestamp is not None:
+        m.clear('timestamp')
+        m.add('timestamp', mi.timestamp.isoformat())
+    if not m.timestamp:
+        m.add('timestamp', datetime.utcnow().isoformat())
+
 
 
 class MergeMetadata(object):