>Can SQL Server 6.5 have an actual null value for a datetime column or will it always default to Jan. 1, 1900, 12:00:00?

According to the MS Transact-SQL Reference (pg 242) the answer is yes. The book says the datetime datatype is internally converted to datatype datetimn (whatever that means).

Since I had SQL Enterprise up and running, I ran a quick test. I created a table with a single field of type datetime and set it to allow nulls. I then did a null insert (INSERT test VALUES (NULL)) which resulted in a field value of (null) when I did a select on the table.

Hope that helps.