diff --git a/doc_src/history.txt b/doc_src/history.txt
index fa0cef87f..d0553d6d7 100644
--- a/doc_src/history.txt
+++ b/doc_src/history.txt
@@ -34,7 +34,7 @@ The following options are available:
 
 - `-p` or `--prefix` searches or deletes items in the history that begin with the specified text string. This is not currently supported by the `--delete` flag.
 
-- `-t` or `--with-time` prefixes the output of each displayed history entry with the time it was recorded in the format "%Y-%m-%d %H:%M:%S" in your local timezone.
+- `-t` or `--with-time` outputs the date and time history items were recorded at before each history entry, formatted for the configured locale. See environ(7) for more information.
 
 \subsection history-examples Example
 
diff --git a/src/history.cpp b/src/history.cpp
index 13fde6715..d8d503cf2 100644
--- a/src/history.cpp
+++ b/src/history.cpp
@@ -1402,9 +1402,9 @@ static bool format_history_record(const history_item_t &item, const bool with_ti
         const time_t seconds = item.timestamp();
         struct tm timestamp;
         if (!localtime_r(&seconds, &timestamp)) return false;
-        char timestamp_string[22];
-        if (strftime(timestamp_string, 22, "%Y-%m-%d %H:%M:%S  ", &timestamp) != 21) return false;
-        streams.out.append(str2wcstring(timestamp_string));
+        wchar_t timestamp_string[64];
+        if (std::wcsftime(timestamp_string, 63, L"# %c:\n", &timestamp) == 0) return false;
+        streams.out.append(timestamp_string);
     }
     streams.out.append(item.str());
     streams.out.append(L"\n");