diff --git a/cassandra/cqltypes.py b/cassandra/cqltypes.py
index 3cb88172..e00196d8 100644
--- a/cassandra/cqltypes.py
+++ b/cassandra/cqltypes.py
@@ -553,10 +553,13 @@ class DateType(_CassandraType):
             timestamp_seconds = calendar.timegm(v.utctimetuple())
             timestamp = timestamp_seconds * 1e3 + getattr(v, 'microsecond', 0) / 1e3
         except AttributeError:
-            # Ints and floats are valid timestamps too
-            if type(v) not in _number_types:
-                raise TypeError('DateType arguments must be a datetime or timestamp')
-            timestamp = v
+            try:
+                timestamp = calendar.timegm(v.timetuple()) * 1e3
+            except AttributeError:
+                # Ints and floats are valid timestamps too
+                if type(v) not in _number_types:
+                    raise TypeError('DateType arguments must be a datetime, date, or timestamp')
+                timestamp = v
 
         return int64_pack(long(timestamp))
 
diff --git a/tests/unit/test_marshalling.py b/tests/unit/test_marshalling.py
index 60ae33fd..3b98280c 100644
--- a/tests/unit/test_marshalling.py
+++ b/tests/unit/test_marshalling.py
@@ -23,7 +23,7 @@ from datetime import datetime, date
 from decimal import Decimal
 from uuid import UUID
 
-from cassandra.cqltypes import lookup_casstype, DecimalType, UTF8Type
+from cassandra.cqltypes import lookup_casstype, DecimalType, UTF8Type, DateType
 from cassandra.util import OrderedMap, OrderedMapSerializedKey, sortedset, Time, Date
 
 marshalled_value_pairs = (
@@ -39,6 +39,7 @@ marshalled_value_pairs = (
     (b'\x80\x00\x00\x00\x00\x00\x00\x00', 'CounterColumnType', -9223372036854775808),
     (b'', 'CounterColumnType', None),
     (b'\x00\x00\x013\x7fb\xeey', 'DateType', datetime(2011, 11, 7, 18, 55, 49, 881000)),
+    (b'\x00\x00\x01P\xc5~L\x00', 'DateType', datetime(2015, 11, 2)),
     (b'', 'DateType', None),
     (b'\x00\x00\x00\r\nJ\x04"^\x91\x04\x8a\xb1\x18\xfe', 'DecimalType', Decimal('1243878957943.1234124191998')),
     (b'\x00\x00\x00\x06\xe5\xde]\x98Y', 'DecimalType', Decimal('-112233.441191')),
@@ -134,3 +135,7 @@ class UnmarshalTest(unittest.TestCase):
         self.assertEqual(bitlength(9), 4)
         self.assertEqual(bitlength(-10), 0)
         self.assertEqual(bitlength(0), 0)
+
+    def test_date(self):
+        # separate test because it will deserialize as datetime
+        self.assertEqual(DateType.from_binary(DateType.to_binary(date(2015, 11, 2), 1), 1), datetime(2015, 11, 2))