$ date +%Y-%m-%d\ %H:%M
2014-03-11 07:09

$ date --help
Usage: date [OPTION]... [+FORMAT]
or:  date [-u|--utc|--universal] [MMDDhhmm[[CC]YY][.ss]]
Display the current time in the given FORMAT, or set the system date.

-d, --date=STRING         display time described by STRING, not `now'
-f, --file=DATEFILE       like --date once for each line of DATEFILE
-r, --reference=FILE      display the last modification time of FILE
-R, --rfc-2822            output date and time in RFC 2822 format.
                          Example: Mon, 07 Aug 2006 12:34:56 -0600
    --rfc-3339=TIMESPEC   output date and time in RFC 3339 format.
                          TIMESPEC=`date', `seconds', or `ns' for
                          date and time to the indicated precision.
                          Date and time components are separated by
                          a single space: 2006-08-07 12:34:56-06:00
-s, --set=STRING          set time described by STRING
-u, --utc, --universal    print or set Coordinated Universal Time
    --help     display this help and exit
    --version  output version information and exit

FORMAT controls the output.  Interpreted sequences are:

%%   a literal %
%a   locale's abbreviated weekday name (e.g., Sun)
%A   locale's full weekday name (e.g., Sunday)
%b   locale's abbreviated month name (e.g., Jan)
%B   locale's full month name (e.g., January)
%c   locale's date and time (e.g., Thu Mar  3 23:05:25 2005)
%C   century; like %Y, except omit last two digits (e.g., 20)
%d   day of month (e.g., 01)
%D   date; same as %m/%d/%y
%e   day of month, space padded; same as %_d
%F   full date; same as %Y-%m-%d
%g   last two digits of year of ISO week number (see %G)
%G   year of ISO week number (see %V); normally useful only with %V
%h   same as %b
%H   hour (00..23)
%I   hour (01..12)
%j   day of year (001..366)
%k   hour, space padded ( 0..23); same as %_H
%l   hour, space padded ( 1..12); same as %_I
%m   month (01..12)
%M   minute (00..59)
%n   a newline
%N   nanoseconds (000000000..999999999)
%p   locale's equivalent of either AM or PM; blank if not known
%P   like %p, but lower case
%r   locale's 12-hour clock time (e.g., 11:11:04 PM)
%R   24-hour hour and minute; same as %H:%M
%s   seconds since 1970-01-01 00:00:00 UTC
%S   second (00..60)
%t   a tab
%T   time; same as %H:%M:%S
%u   day of week (1..7); 1 is Monday
%U   week number of year, with Sunday as first day of week (00..53)
%V   ISO week number, with Monday as first day of week (01..53)
%w   day of week (0..6); 0 is Sunday
%W   week number of year, with Monday as first day of week (00..53)
%x   locale's date representation (e.g., 12/31/99)
%X   locale's time representation (e.g., 23:13:48)
%y   last two digits of year (00..99)
%Y   year
%z   +hhmm numeric time zone (e.g., -0400)
%:z  +hh:mm numeric time zone (e.g., -04:00)
%::z  +hh:mm:ss numeric time zone (e.g., -04:00:00)
%:::z  numeric time zone with : to necessary precision (e.g., -04, +05:30)
%Z   alphabetic time zone abbreviation (e.g., EDT)

By default, date pads numeric fields with zeroes.
The following optional flags may follow `%':

-  (hyphen) do not pad the field
_  (underscore) pad with spaces
0  (zero) pad with zeros
^  use upper case if possible
#  use opposite case if possible

After any flags comes an optional field width, as a decimal number;
then an optional modifier, which is either
E to use the locale's alternate representations if available, or
O to use the locale's alternate numeric symbols if available.

Examples:
Convert seconds since the epoch (1970-01-01 UTC) to a date
$ date --date='@2147483647'

Show the time on the west coast of the US (use tzselect(1) to find TZ)
$ TZ='America/Los_Angeles' date

Show the local time for 9AM next Friday on the west coast of the US
$ date --date='TZ="America/Los_Angeles" 09:00 next Fri'