"before <date>" date entries aren't handled about python-whois HOT 8 CLOSED

>>> domain = whois.query('cam.ac.uk')
Traceback (most recent call last):
  File "<stdin>", line 1, in <module>
  File "/usr/local/lib/python3.6/dist-packages/whois/__init__.py", line 67, in query
    return Domain(pd) if pd['domain_name'][0] else None
  File "/usr/local/lib/python3.6/dist-packages/whois/_3_adjust.py", line 14, in __init__
    self.creation_date = str_to_date(data['creation_date'][0])
  File "/usr/local/lib/python3.6/dist-packages/whois/_3_adjust.py", line 94, in str_to_date
    raise UnknownDateFormat("Unknown date format: '%s'" % text)
whois.exceptions.UnknownDateFormat: Unknown date format: 'before aug-1996'

>>> import whois
>>> domain = whois.query('cam.ac.uk')
>>> domain.__dict__
{'name': 'ac.uk', 'registrar': 'No registrar listed.  This domain is directly registered with Nominet.', 'creation_date': datetime.datetime(1996, 8, 1, 0, 0), 'expiration_date': None, 'last_updated': None, 'name_servers': {'ns0.ja.net'}}

  elif domain.endswith('.ac.uk'):
       tld = 'ac_uk'

import whois
domain = whois.query('cam.ac.uk')
Traceback (most recent call last):
  File "<stdin>", line 1, in <module>
  File "pyenv3/lib/python3.7/site-packages/whois/__init__.py", line 63, in query
    return Domain(pd) if pd['domain_name'][0] else None
  File "pyenv3/lib/python3.7/site-packages/whois/_3_adjust.py", line 13, in __init__
    self.creation_date      = str_to_date(data['creation_date'][0])
  File pyenv3/lib/python3.7/site-packages/whois/_3_adjust.py", line 88, in str_to_date
    raise ValueError("Unknown date format: '%s'" % s)
ValueError: Unknown date format: 'before aug-1996'

>>> domain = whois.query('cam.ac.uk')
>>> print (domain.__dict__)
{'name': 'cam.ac.uk', 'registrar': 'Jisc Services Limited', 'registrant_country': '', 'creation_date': datetime.datetime(2003, 9, 17, 0, 0), 'expiration_date': datetime.datetime(2022, 8, 13, 0, 0), 'last_updated': datetime.datetime(2020, 5, 13, 0, 0), 'status': '', 'statuses': [''], 'dnssec': False, 'name_servers': set(), 'owner': 'University of Cambridge'}