Unix Timestamp
The number of seconds that have elapsed since January 1, 1970 (UTC).
A Unix timestamp (also known as Unix time, POSIX time, or Epoch time) is a system for representing a point in time as the number of seconds that have elapsed since January 1, 1970, at 00:00:00 UTC, excluding leap seconds.
This date (January 1, 1970) is referred to as the Unix Epoch, and it serves as the reference point from which time is measured in Unix and many other computer systems.
Unix timestamps are widely used in computing because they provide a compact, language-independent representation of a specific moment in time. They are particularly useful for storing dates and times in databases and for performing date/time calculations.
Examples: - 0: January 1, 1970, 00:00:00 UTC (the Epoch) - 1000000000: September 9, 2001, 01:46:40 UTC - 1585000000: March 24, 2020, 00:00:00 UTC
Most programming languages provide functions to convert between Unix timestamps and human-readable date formats. Unix timestamps typically don't account for leap seconds, which means they don't precisely track UTC during leap second adjustments.