diff --git a/pandas/src/datetime.pyx b/pandas/src/datetime.pyx
index f7e325c4ae718..0804479a15f52 100644
--- a/pandas/src/datetime.pyx
+++ b/pandas/src/datetime.pyx
@@ -624,17 +624,18 @@ cdef inline int64_t _date_to_datetime64(object val,
     return pandas_datetimestruct_to_datetime(PANDAS_FR_ns, dts)
 
 
-cdef inline int _string_to_dts(object val, pandas_datetimestruct* dts) except -1:
+cdef inline _string_to_dts(object val, pandas_datetimestruct* dts):
     cdef:
         npy_bool islocal, special
         PANDAS_DATETIMEUNIT out_bestunit
+        int result
 
     if PyUnicode_Check(val):
         val = PyUnicode_AsASCIIString(val);
-    parse_iso_8601_datetime(val, len(val), PANDAS_FR_ns, NPY_UNSAFE_CASTING,
-                            dts, &islocal, &out_bestunit, &special)
-    return 0
-
+    result = parse_iso_8601_datetime(val, len(val), PANDAS_FR_ns, NPY_UNSAFE_CASTING,
+                                     dts, &islocal, &out_bestunit, &special)
+    if result == -1:
+        raise ValueError('Unable to parse %s' % str(val))
 
 def array_to_datetime(ndarray[object] values, raise_=False, dayfirst=False):
     cdef:
diff --git a/pandas/tseries/tests/test_daterange.py b/pandas/tseries/tests/test_daterange.py
index 6bcaeb215de67..625eadbc140c2 100644
--- a/pandas/tseries/tests/test_daterange.py
+++ b/pandas/tseries/tests/test_daterange.py
@@ -4,14 +4,16 @@
 
 import numpy as np
 
-import pandas.core.datetools as datetools
-from pandas.tseries.offsets import generate_range
 from pandas.core.index import Index
 from pandas.tseries.index import DatetimeIndex
 
+from pandas import Timestamp
+from pandas.tseries.offsets import generate_range
 from pandas.tseries.index import bdate_range, date_range
 import pandas.tseries.tools as tools
 
+import pandas.core.datetools as datetools
+
 def eq_gen_range(kwargs, expected):
     rng = generate_range(**kwargs)
     assert(np.array_equal(list(rng), expected))
@@ -258,6 +260,9 @@ def test_misc(self):
 
     def test_date_parse_failure(self):
         badly_formed_date = '2007/100/1'
+
+        self.assertRaises(ValueError, Timestamp, badly_formed_date)
+
         self.assertRaises(ValueError, bdate_range, start=badly_formed_date,
                           periods=10)
         self.assertRaises(ValueError, bdate_range, end=badly_formed_date,
diff --git a/test.sh b/test.sh
index 324ac68d66b73..cc2ec8be34dd5 100755
--- a/test.sh
+++ b/test.sh
@@ -3,7 +3,7 @@ coverage erase
 # nosetests pandas/tests/test_index.py --with-coverage --cover-package=pandas.core --pdb-failure --pdb
 #nosetests -w pandas --with-coverage --cover-package=pandas --pdb-failure --pdb #--cover-inclusive
 #nosetests -A "not slow" -w pandas/tseries --with-coverage --cover-package=pandas.tseries $* #--cover-inclusive
-nosetests -w pandas --with-coverage --cover-package=pandas $*
+nosetests -w pandas -v --with-coverage --cover-package=pandas $*
 # nosetests -w pandas/io --with-coverage --cover-package=pandas.io --pdb-failure --pdb
 # nosetests -w pandas/core --with-coverage --cover-package=pandas.core --pdb-failure --pdb
 # nosetests -w pandas/stats --with-coverage --cover-package=pandas.stats