microsoft-azure-storage/src/com/microsoft/azure/storage/core/Utility.java
public static Date parseDateFromString(final String value, final String pattern, final TimeZone timeZone)
            throws ParseException {
        final DateFormat rfc1123Format = new SimpleDateFormat(pattern, Utility.LOCALE_US);
        rfc1123Format.setTimeZone(timeZone);
        return rfc1123Format.parse(value);
   }
public static Date parseDateFromString(final String value, final String pattern, final TimeZone timeZone)
            throws ParseException {
        final DateFormat rfc1123Format = new SimpleDateFormat(pattern, Utility.LOCALE_US);
        rfc1123Format.setTimeZone(timeZone);
        return rfc1123Format.parse(value);
   }
Returns a GMT date in the specified format

@param value
the string to parse
@return the GMT date, as a <code>Date</code>
@throws ParseException
If the specified string is invalid