C#

/// <summary>
/// Wrapper around System.DateTime to work with only the Date part.
/// </summary>
public struct Date
{
    public static readonly Date MaxValue = new Date(DateTime.MaxValue);
    public static readonly Date MinValue = new Date(DateTime.MinValue);

    private DateTime _DateTime;

    public Date(DateTime dateTime)
    {
        _DateTime = dateTime.Date;
    }

    public static implicit operator DateTime(Date date)
    {
        return date._DateTime;
    }
    public static explicit operator Date(DateTime dateTime)
    {
        return new Date(dateTime);
    }

    public static Date Now
    {
        get { return new Date(DateTime.Now); }
    }

    public override string ToString()
    {
        return _DateTime.ToString("d");
    }
    public string ToString(IFormatProvider provider)
    {
        return _DateTime.ToString(provider);
    }
    public string ToString(string format)
    {
        return _DateTime.ToString(format);
    }
    public string ToString(string format, IFormatProvider provider)
    {
        return _DateTime.ToString(format, provider);
    }
}

DateTime dt = DateTime.ParseExact(string, "MM/dd/yyyy", null);
string output = dt.ToShortDate(); // or one of the other variations.

string dateStr = "20.01.1980 13:59:59";
DateTime dateTime = DateTime.ParseExact(dateStr, "dd.MM.yyyy HH:mm:ss", new CultureInfo("de-DE"));
Console.WriteLine(dateTime);