question: public void testDateUtilISO8601 ( ) throws Exception { ObjectMapper mapper = new ObjectMapper ( ) ; String inputStr = "1972-12-28T00:00:00.000+0000" ; Date inputDate = mapper . readValue ( "\"" + inputStr + "\"" , java . util . Date . class ) ; Calendar c = Calendar . getInstance ( TimeZone . getTimeZone ( "GMT" ) ) ; c . setTime ( inputDate ) ; assertEquals ( 1972 , c . get ( Calendar . YEAR ) ) ; assertEquals ( Calendar . DECEMBER , c . get ( Calendar . MONTH ) ) ; assertEquals ( 28 , c . get ( Calendar . DAY_OF_MONTH ) ) ; inputStr = "1972-12-28T00:00:00.000Z" ; inputDate = mapper . readValue ( quote ( inputStr ) , java . util . Date . class ) ; c . setTime ( inputDate ) ; assertEquals ( 1972 , c . get ( Calendar . YEAR ) ) ; assertEquals ( Calendar . DECEMBER , c . get ( Calendar . MONTH ) ) ; assertEquals ( 28 , c . get ( Calendar . DAY_OF_MONTH ) ) ; inputStr = "1972-12-28T00:00:00.000+00:00" ; inputDate = mapper . readValue ( quote ( inputStr ) , java . util . Date . class ) ; c . setTime ( inputDate ) ; assertEquals ( 1972 , c . get ( Calendar . YEAR ) ) ; assertEquals ( Calendar . DECEMBER , c . get ( Calendar . MONTH ) ) ; assertEquals ( 28 , c . get ( Calendar . DAY_OF_MONTH ) ) ; inputStr = "1972-12-28T00:00:00.000+00" ; inputDate = mapper . readValue ( quote ( inputStr ) , java . util . Date . class ) ; c . setTime ( inputDate ) ; assertEquals ( 1972 , c . get ( Calendar . YEAR ) ) ; assertEquals ( Calendar . DECEMBER , c . get ( Calendar . MONTH ) ) ; assertEquals ( 28 , c . get ( Calendar . DAY_OF_MONTH ) ) ; inputStr = "1984-11-30T00:00:00.000Z" ; inputDate = mapper . readValue ( quote ( inputStr ) , java . util . Date . class ) ; c . setTime ( inputDate ) ; assertEquals ( 1984 , c . get ( Calendar . YEAR ) ) ; assertEquals ( Calendar . NOVEMBER , c . get ( Calendar . MONTH ) ) ; assertEquals ( 30 , c . get ( Calendar . DAY_OF_MONTH ) ) ; }
target:  ISO8601 is supported as well