あなたはofficial documentationで答えを見つけることができます。現在の日付については
# Date.new([year=-4712[, month=1[, mday=1[, start=Date::ITALY]]]]) -> date
#
# Creates a date object denoting the given calendar date.
#
# In this class, BCE years are counted astronomically. Thus, the
# year before the year 1 is the year zero, and the year preceding the
# year zero is the year -1. The month and the day of month should be
# a negative or a positive number (as a relative month/day from the
# end of year/month when negative). They should not be zero.
#
# The last argument should be a Julian day number which denotes the
# day of calendar reform. Date::ITALY (2299161=1582-10-15),
# Date::ENGLAND (2361222=1752-09-14), Date::GREGORIAN (the proleptic
# Gregorian calendar) and Date::JULIAN (the proleptic Julian
# calendar) can be specified as a day of calendar reform.
#
# Date.new(2001) #=> #<Date: 2001-01-01 ...>
# Date.new(2001,2,3) #=> #<Date: 2001-02-03 ...>
# Date.new(2001,2,-1) #=> #<Date: 2001-02-28 ...>