diff --git a/src/filters.js b/src/filters.js
index 206da240adc8..c6248cb7c448 100644
--- a/src/filters.js
+++ b/src/filters.js
@@ -192,9 +192,10 @@ angularFilter.date = function(date, format) {
     date = parseInt(date, 10);
   }
 
-  if (isNumber(date)) {
+  if (date instanceof Date) {
+  } else if (date && (isNumber(date) || Date.parse(date.toString()))) {
     date = new Date(date);
-  } else if (!(date instanceof Date)) {
+  } else {
     return date;
   }
 
diff --git a/test/FiltersSpec.js b/test/FiltersSpec.js
index 0de7b5b71301..ea84c3558e4a 100644
--- a/test/FiltersSpec.js
+++ b/test/FiltersSpec.js
@@ -115,6 +115,10 @@ describe('filter', function(){
       expect(filter.date(noon.getTime() + "")).toEqual(noon.toLocaleDateString());
     });
 
+    it('should be able to parse ISO 8601 dates/times using', function() {
+      expect(filter.date(noon.toISOString())).toEqual(noon.toLocaleDateString());
+    });
+
     it('should accept format', function() {
       expect(filter.date(morning, "yy-MM-dd HH:mm:ss")).
                            toEqual('10-09-03 07:05:08');
diff --git a/test/angular-mocks.js b/test/angular-mocks.js
index f13ca763f032..925d8ab79692 100644
--- a/test/angular-mocks.js
+++ b/test/angular-mocks.js
@@ -243,6 +243,10 @@ function TzDate(offset, timestamp) {
     return offset * 60;
   };
 
+  this.toISOString = function() {
+    return this.date.toISOString();
+  };
+
   //hide all methods not implemented in this mock that the Date prototype exposes
   var unimplementedMethods = ['getDay', 'getMilliseconds', 'getTime', 'getUTCDate', 'getUTCDay',
       'getUTCFullYear', 'getUTCHours', 'getUTCMilliseconds', 'getUTCMinutes', 'getUTCMonth',