Xampp - VM Webserver time is set to 1970

[crblev]

Ran into a problem setting timestamps --
When I get server time via jquery, or time() for PHP - the date is 1970
but checking the VM's debian date, its the same as my machine's (correct).
So I'm guessing this is an apache issue -- how can I set the time to match the vm server and machine?
Thanks.