import time


def toJulian(year, month, day, hour, minute, timezone='UTC'):
    """
    This function converts a given date to Modified Julian Date.

    :note: The function uses Python's inbuilt time module.

    :param year: year
    :param year: int or float
    :param month: month
    :param month: int or float
    :param day: days
    :param day: int or float
    :param hour: hours
    :type hour: int or float
    :param minute: minutes
    :type minute: int or float
    :param timezone: Timezone, default is UTC
    :type timezone: string

    :return: Modified Julian Date
    :rtype: float
    """
    dateString = str(year) + ' ' + str(month) + ' ' + str(day) +\
                 ' ' + str(hour) + ' ' + str(minute) + ' ' + timezone
    tup = time.strptime(dateString, '%Y %m %d %H %M %Z')
    sec = time.mktime(tup)
    days = (sec - time.timezone) / 86400.0
    jday = days + 40587 # Julian date of Jan 1 1900
    return jday