diff --git a/main/src/com/google/refine/util/ParsingUtilities.java b/main/src/com/google/refine/util/ParsingUtilities.java
index 4de898685..f3ec984e7 100644
--- a/main/src/com/google/refine/util/ParsingUtilities.java
+++ b/main/src/com/google/refine/util/ParsingUtilities.java
@@ -38,9 +38,10 @@ import java.io.InputStream;
 import java.io.InputStreamReader;
 import java.io.Reader;
 import java.io.UnsupportedEncodingException;
-import java.text.SimpleDateFormat;
+import java.time.Instant;
 import java.time.LocalDateTime;
 import java.time.OffsetDateTime;
+import java.time.ZoneId;
 import java.time.format.DateTimeFormatter;
 import java.util.Properties;
 
@@ -193,6 +194,10 @@ public class ParsingUtilities {
     }
     
     static public LocalDateTime stringToLocalDate(String s) {
-      return LocalDateTime.parse(s, DateTimeFormatter.ISO_LOCAL_DATE_TIME);
+        if (s.endsWith("Z")) {          // UTC time
+            Instant instant = Instant.parse(s);
+            return LocalDateTime.ofInstant(instant, ZoneId.systemDefault());
+        } else 
+            return LocalDateTime.parse(s, DateTimeFormatter.ISO_LOCAL_DATE_TIME);
     }
 }
diff --git a/main/tests/server/src/com/google/refine/tests/util/ParsingUtilitiesTests.java b/main/tests/server/src/com/google/refine/tests/util/ParsingUtilitiesTests.java
index 87a649d86..07ce07286 100644
--- a/main/tests/server/src/com/google/refine/tests/util/ParsingUtilitiesTests.java
+++ b/main/tests/server/src/com/google/refine/tests/util/ParsingUtilitiesTests.java
@@ -107,4 +107,25 @@ public class ParsingUtilitiesTests extends RefineTest {
         Assert.assertEquals(zdtString, historyEntryDate);
         
     }
+    
+    @Test
+    public void parseProjectModifiedBeforeJDK8() {
+        String modified = "2014-01-15T21:46:25Z";
+        Assert.assertNotEquals(ParsingUtilities.stringToLocalDate(modified).toString(), 
+                modified);
+    }
+    
+    @Test
+    public void strSubstitutorTest() {
+        Map<String, String> data = new HashMap<String, String>(6);
+        
+        data.put("value", "1234");
+        data.put("field_format", "String");
+        
+        StrSubstitutor sub = new StrSubstitutor(data);
+        String message = "The value ${value} in row ${row_number} and column ${column_number} is not type ${field_type} and format ${field_format}";
+        String result = sub.replace(message);
+        System.out.println("XXXXXXXX:" + result);
+        Assert.assertTrue(result.contains("1234"));
+    }
 }