It takes a few tries to understand the php.net information sometimes. So if anyone is looking to do the same thing and get stuck here you go.
Create a variable for the timestamp. I am pulling it from a database but will use one time stamp for demonstration
<?php
$timestamp = 1122814800;
print date("M/D/Y",$timestamp);
?>
M/D/Y can be any configuration of time display you want. See the link in above post for definitions.
You can also set a variable for the print out put.
<?php
$timestamp = 1122814800;
$date = date("M/D/Y",$timestamp);
print $date;
?>