def parse_date(value):
    """Parse an RFC 1123 or asctime-like format date string to produce
    a Python datetime object (without a timezone).
    """
    # Do the regex magic; also enforces 2 or 4 digit years
    match = Definitions.DATE_RE.match(value) if value else None
    if not match:
        return None
    # We're going to extract and prepare captured data in 'data'.
    data = {}
    captured = match.groupdict()
    fields = ['year', 'month', 'day', 'hour', 'minute', 'second']
    # If we matched on the RFC 1123 family format
    if captured['year']:
        for field in fields:
            data[field] = captured[field]
    # If we matched on the asctime format, use year2 etc.
    else:
        for field in fields:
            data[field] = captured[field + "2"]
    year = data['year']
    # Interpret lame 2-digit years - base the cutoff on UNIX epoch, in case
    # someone sets a '70' cookie meaning 'distant past'. This won't break for
    # 58 years and people who use 2-digit years are asking for it anyway.
    if len(year) == 2:
        if int(year) < 70:
            year = "20" + year
        else:
            year = "19" + year
    year = int(year)
    # Clamp to [1900, 9999]: strftime has min 1900, datetime has max 9999
    data['year'] = max(1900, min(year, 9999))
    # Other things which are numbers should convert to integer
    for field in ['day', 'hour', 'minute', 'second']:
        if data[field] is None:
            data[field] = 0
        data[field] = int(data[field])
    # Look up the number datetime needs for the named month
    data['month'] = Definitions.month_numbers[data['month'].lower()]
    return datetime.datetime(**data)