diff --git a/tornado/test/locale_test.py b/tornado/test/locale_test.py
index 948228f18d..b28f37d1ba 100644
--- a/tornado/test/locale_test.py
+++ b/tornado/test/locale_test.py
@@ -57,3 +57,26 @@ def test_format_date(self):
         date = datetime.datetime(2013, 4, 28, 18, 35)
         self.assertEqual(locale.format_date(date, full_format=True),
                          'April 28, 2013 at 6:35 pm')
+
+        self.assertEqual(locale.format_date(datetime.datetime.utcnow() - datetime.timedelta(seconds=2), full_format=False), 
+                         '2 seconds ago')
+        self.assertEqual(locale.format_date(datetime.datetime.utcnow() - datetime.timedelta(minutes=2), full_format=False),
+                         '2 minutes ago')
+        self.assertEqual(locale.format_date(datetime.datetime.utcnow() - datetime.timedelta(hours=2), full_format=False),
+                         '2 hours ago')
+
+        now = datetime.datetime.utcnow()
+        self.assertEqual(locale.format_date(now - datetime.timedelta(days=1), full_format=False, shorter=True),
+                         'yesterday')
+
+        date = now - datetime.timedelta(days=2)
+        self.assertEqual(locale.format_date(date, full_format=False, shorter=True),
+                         locale._weekdays[date.weekday()])
+
+        date = now - datetime.timedelta(days=300)
+        self.assertEqual(locale.format_date(date, full_format=False, shorter=True),
+                         '%s %d' % (locale._months[date.month - 1], date.day))
+
+        date = now - datetime.timedelta(days=500)
+        self.assertEqual(locale.format_date(date, full_format=False, shorter=True),
+                         '%s %d, %d' % (locale._months[date.month - 1], date.day, date.year))