datetime C# equvalent

[rakk]

I have the following table column

[hire_date] [datetime] NOT NULL DEFAULT (getdate()),

Then using Linq I try the following

employee e1 = new employee
{
.....
hire_date = new DateTime()
};

And I get this error:

SqlDateTime overflow. Must be between 1/1/1753 12:00:00 AM and 12/31/9999 11:59:59 PM.

What is the C# equivalent for MSSQL datatime database type ?