arcgis desktop - Using Time Slider and Time Format in ArcMap?

I have an .xls file that contains Lat/Longs as well as a time stamp in this format:

hh:mm:ss AM/PM

When I create a feature class shapefile out of this .xls file, ArcMap reads it in and displays it fine, but the TIME field just shows 12:00:00 AM. What am I doing wrong here? I don't understand why ESRI makes it so difficult to do really simple things, like read in times correctly!

Can anyone here show me the enlightened path to setting up my .xls properly or some other tricks that will enable me to enable the Time Slider feature?

Answer

Formats Supported in ArcGIS 10.

hh:mm:ss AM/PM (A.M./P.M. not allowed!)

YYYY
YYYYMM
YYYY/MM
YYYY-MM
YYYYMMDD
YYYY/MM/DD

YYYY-MM-DD
YYYYMMDDhhmmss
YYYY/MM/DD hh:mm:ss
YYYY-MM-DD hh:mm:ss
YYYYMMDDhhmmss.s
YYYY/MM/DD hh:mm:ss.s
YYYY-MM-DD hh:mm:ss.s

YYYY
YYYYMM

YYYYMMDD
YYYYMMDDhhmmss

where

    YYYY = four-digit year
    MM = two-digit month (01=January)
    DD = two-digit day of month (01 through 31)
    hh = two digits of hour (00 through 23) (A.M./P.M. not allowed)
    mm = two digits of minute (00 through 59)

    ss = two digits of second (00 through 59)
    s = one digit of millisecond (0 through 9)

http://help.arcgis.com/en/arcgisdesktop/10.0/help/index.html#/Supported_field_formats/005z00000006000000/