diff --git a/apps/routerconsole/java/src/net/i2p/router/update/NewsFetcher.java b/apps/routerconsole/java/src/net/i2p/router/update/NewsFetcher.java
index b00043597e..aa2782e688 100644
--- a/apps/routerconsole/java/src/net/i2p/router/update/NewsFetcher.java
+++ b/apps/routerconsole/java/src/net/i2p/router/update/NewsFetcher.java
@@ -10,6 +10,7 @@ import java.io.OutputStreamWriter;
 import java.io.Writer;
 import java.net.URI;
 import java.net.URISyntaxException;
+import java.text.DateFormat;
 import java.util.ArrayList;
 import java.util.Collections;
 import java.util.Date;
@@ -18,6 +19,7 @@ import java.util.List;
 import java.util.Locale;
 import java.util.Map;
 import java.util.StringTokenizer;
+import java.util.TimeZone;
 
 import net.i2p.crypto.SU3File;
 import net.i2p.crypto.TrustedUpdate;
@@ -553,11 +555,19 @@ class NewsFetcher extends UpdateRunner {
             out.write("-->\n");
             if (entries == null)
                 return;
+            DateFormat fmt = DateFormat.getDateInstance(DateFormat.SHORT);
+            // the router sets the JVM time zone to UTC but saves the original here so we can get it
+            String systemTimeZone = _context.getProperty("i2p.systemTimeZone");
+            if (systemTimeZone != null)
+                fmt.setTimeZone(TimeZone.getTimeZone(systemTimeZone));
             for (NewsEntry e : entries) {
                 if (e.title == null || e.content == null)
                     continue;
-                out.write("<!-- Entry Date: " + (new Date(e.updated)) + " -->\n");
+                Date date = new Date(e.updated);
+                out.write("<!-- Entry Date: " + date + " -->\n");
                 out.write("<h3>");
+                out.write(fmt.format(date));
+                out.write(": ");
                 out.write(e.title);
                 out.write("</h3>\n");
                 out.write(e.content);
diff --git a/history.txt b/history.txt
index b58e40bbf0..7fac6524d1 100644
--- a/history.txt
+++ b/history.txt
@@ -1,3 +1,6 @@
+2015-07-16 zzz
+ * Console: Add dates to news headings
+
 2015-07-12 zzz
  * Findbugs all over
 
diff --git a/installer/resources/themes/console/light/console.css b/installer/resources/themes/console/light/console.css
index 62b7969f30..463b8e1dfc 100644
--- a/installer/resources/themes/console/light/console.css
+++ b/installer/resources/themes/console/light/console.css
@@ -251,6 +251,7 @@ div.newsheadings {
 div.newsheadings li {
      list-style: none outside url('images/newsbullet_mini.png');
      margin: 0 -4px 2px 8px;
+     line-height: 140%;
 }
 
 div.tunnels {
diff --git a/router/java/src/net/i2p/router/RouterVersion.java b/router/java/src/net/i2p/router/RouterVersion.java
index e1f87e077d..098e16d499 100644
--- a/router/java/src/net/i2p/router/RouterVersion.java
+++ b/router/java/src/net/i2p/router/RouterVersion.java
@@ -18,10 +18,10 @@ public class RouterVersion {
     /** deprecated */
     public final static String ID = "Monotone";
     public final static String VERSION = CoreVersion.VERSION;
-    public final static long BUILD = 16;
+    public final static long BUILD = 17;
 
     /** for example "-test" */
-    public final static String EXTRA = "";
+    public final static String EXTRA = "-rc";
     public final static String FULL_VERSION = VERSION + "-" + BUILD + EXTRA;
     public static void main(String args[]) {
         System.out.println("I2P Router version: " + FULL_VERSION);