#split date into seperate vars
my($day, $month, $mday, $time, $year) = split(" ", $datetime);
my($timeh, $timem, $times) = split(':', $time);

#this function calculates the number of seconds that have passed since
+ Midnight, January 1, 1970
my $time = timegm($times,$timem,$timeh,$mday,$month,$year);