This is an interesting conversation. Can you tell me where this DateTime class or the civil method comes from? irb(main):001:0> DateTime.new(1899,12,30,8,30,33) ArgumentError: wrong number of arguments (6 for 0) from (irb):1:in `initialize' from (irb):1 irb(main):002:0> DateTime.civil(1899,12,30,8,30,33) NoMethodError: undefined method `civil' for DateTime:Class from (irb):2 ...