diff --git a/Alien/Package/Deb.pm b/Alien/Package/Deb.pm
index 1837a82..cf373c7 100644
--- a/Alien/Package/Deb.pm
+++ b/Alien/Package/Deb.pm
@@ -646,10 +646,10 @@ Returns the date, in rfc822 format.
 sub date {
 	my $this=shift;
 
-	my $date=$this->runpipe(1, "822-date");
+	my $date=$this->runpipe(1, "date -R");
 	chomp $date;
 	if (!$date) {
-		die "822-date did not return a valid result. You probably need to install the dpkg-dev debian package";
+		die "date -R did not return a valid result.";
 	}
 
 	return $date;
diff --git a/debian/changelog b/debian/changelog
index 21e2761..bb65d54 100644
--- a/debian/changelog
+++ b/debian/changelog
@@ -1,3 +1,9 @@
+alien (8.66) unstable; urgency=low
+
+  * Use date -R as 822-date will soon be deprecated.
+
+ -- Joey Hess <joeyh@debian.org>  Thu, 22 Mar 2007 17:45:24 -0400
+
 alien (8.65) unstable; urgency=low
 
   * Fix alien's own spec file, s/Copyright/License/.