Erroneous date (12-30-1899) appears when querying a Null variable date. (4229065)

Executing the following statement using F9 (Execute statement) results in an invalid date:

1. select nvl ( :date_param, sysdate ) from sys.dual
2. Execute statement <F9>
3. When prompted to input paramaters the data type is changed from 'String' to 'Date'
4. Value is left blank to test the NVL (null value) function.

Expected result is 'Today's Date'
Actual result is 12-30-1899

Also an issue when running query with bind varibles and entering null values for the variables set at date data type.

Expected result is null/blank
Actual result is 12-30-1899

If the bind is set to string the results come back as expected, null.