diff --git a/pom.xml b/pom.xml
index 25340a1c27..9e3d54993c 100644
--- a/pom.xml
+++ b/pom.xml
@@ -7,7 +7,7 @@
   </parent>
 
   <artifactId>github-api</artifactId>
-  <version>1.78</version>
+  <version>1.79</version>
   <name>GitHub API for Java</name>
   <url>http://github-api.kohsuke.org/</url>
   <description>GitHub API for Java</description>
@@ -16,7 +16,7 @@
     <connection>scm:git:git@github.com/kohsuke/${project.artifactId}.git</connection>
     <developerConnection>scm:git:ssh://git@github.com/kohsuke/${project.artifactId}.git</developerConnection>
     <url>http://${project.artifactId}.kohsuke.org/</url>
-    <tag>github-api-1.78</tag>
+    <tag>github-api-1.79</tag>
   </scm>
 
   <distributionManagement>
diff --git a/src/main/java/org/kohsuke/github/GHCommit.java b/src/main/java/org/kohsuke/github/GHCommit.java
index 5872233567..3740778480 100644
--- a/src/main/java/org/kohsuke/github/GHCommit.java
+++ b/src/main/java/org/kohsuke/github/GHCommit.java
@@ -52,7 +52,7 @@ public GitUser getCommitter() {
         }
 
         public Date getCommitDate() {
-            return GitHub.parseDate(author.date);
+            return GitHub.parseDate(committer.date);
         }
 
         /**
diff --git a/src/main/java/org/kohsuke/github/GHRepository.java b/src/main/java/org/kohsuke/github/GHRepository.java
index 472adf41eb..2a16feb2f2 100644
--- a/src/main/java/org/kohsuke/github/GHRepository.java
+++ b/src/main/java/org/kohsuke/github/GHRepository.java
@@ -765,6 +765,10 @@ public GHRef[] getRefs(String refType) throws IOException {
      *             invalid ref type being requested
      */
     public GHRef getRef(String refName) throws IOException {
+        // hashes in branch names must be replaced with the url encoded equivalent or this call will fail
+        // FIXME: how about other URL unsafe characters, like space, @, : etc? do we need to be using URLEncoder.encode()?
+        // OTOH, '/' need no escaping
+        refName = refName.replaceAll("#", "%23");
         return root.retrieve().to(String.format("/repos/%s/%s/git/refs/%s", owner.login, name, refName), GHRef.class).wrap(root);
     }
     /**