diff --git a/Lib/zipfile.py b/Lib/zipfile.py
index f876f42..d9181f2 100644
--- a/Lib/zipfile.py
+++ b/Lib/zipfile.py
@@ -290,6 +290,10 @@
 
         self.filename = filename        # Normalized file name
         self.date_time = date_time      # year, month, day, hour, min, sec
+
+        if date_time[0] < 1980:
+            raise ValueError('ZIP does not support timestamps before 1980')
+
         # Standard values:
         self.compress_type = ZIP_STORED # Type of compression for the file
         self.comment = ""               # Comment for each file