diff --git a/src/dateutil/tz/tz.py b/src/dateutil/tz/tz.py
index c67f56d46..617591446 100644
--- a/src/dateutil/tz/tz.py
+++ b/src/dateutil/tz/tz.py
@@ -34,7 +34,7 @@
 from warnings import warn
 
 ZERO = datetime.timedelta(0)
-EPOCH = datetime.datetime.utcfromtimestamp(0)
+EPOCH = datetime.datetime(1970, 1, 1, 0, 0)
 EPOCHORDINAL = EPOCH.toordinal()