If you are using INT for storing timestamps in your mysql database, very often you are dealing with weird numbers that don’t tell you much, e.g.

mysql> select time from example LIMIT 0,5;
+------------+
| time       |
+------------+
| 1480496034 |
| 1477817634 |
| 1472547234 |
| 1469868834 |
| 1467276834 |
+------------+
5 rows in set (0.00 sec)

To convert it into human readable format, use

mysql> select FROM_UNIXTIME(time) from example LIMIT 0,5;
+---------------------+
| FROM_UNIXTIME(time) |
+---------------------+
| 2016-11-30 09:53:54 |
| 2016-10-30 09:53:54 |
| 2016-08-30 10:53:54 |
| 2016-07-30 10:53:54 |
| 2016-06-30 10:53:54 |
+---------------------+
5 rows in set (0.00 sec)

You can even change the date format freely using DATE_FORMAT function ( www.w3schools.com/sql/func_date_format.asp )

mysql> select FROM_UNIXTIME(time), DATE_FORMAT(FROM_UNIXTIME(time), '%j. day of year on %a') from example LIMIT 0,5;
+---------------------+-----------------------------------------------------------+
| FROM_UNIXTIME(time) | DATE_FORMAT(FROM_UNIXTIME(time), '%j. day of year on %a') |
+---------------------+-----------------------------------------------------------+
| 2016-11-30 09:53:54 | 335. day of year on Wed                                   |
| 2016-10-30 09:53:54 | 304. day of year on Sun                                   |
| 2016-08-30 10:53:54 | 243. day of year on Tue                                   |
| 2016-07-30 10:53:54 | 212. day of year on Sat                                   |
| 2016-06-30 10:53:54 | 182. day of year on Thu                                   |
+---------------------+-----------------------------------------------------------+
5 rows in set (0.00 sec)