Today morning, I checked my Norton SystemWorks 2005 renewal date and it (still) said, "12/30/1899".

After a little bit of searching Symantec officially says this:
Symantec's Solution.

According to them, it may be because of the firewall or some ad blocking software. You could try to repair the subscription files. At best it's a bug and an uninstall and reinstall should work fine. It actually poses no real problem, the AutoUpdate still works perfect and my Virus Definitions download perfectly. But it's like this itch you know, 18 bloody 99.

Does NOT sit well with me.