WordPress get post date

I am using shortcode to display blogroll on my main static page.

It displays title and up to N characters of the excerpt.

However, I have no idea how can I get post date to show up next to the title.

Is get_the_date function the correct one to use? How to implement it?
http://codex.wordpress.org/Function_Reference/get_the_date

<?php

function getblogposts($atts, $content = null) {
   extract(shortcode_atts(array(
      'posts' => 1,
   ), $atts));

   $return_string = '<h3>'.$content.'</h3>';
   $return_string .= '<ul>';
   query_posts(array('orderby' => 'date', 'order' => 'DESC' , 'showposts' => $posts));
   if (have_posts()) :
      while (have_posts()) : the_post();
    $return_string .= '<li><a href="'.get_permalink().'">'.get_the_title().'</a>';
    $return_string .= '<div class="excerpt">' . get_the_excerpt() . '</div></li>';
endwhile;
   endif;
   $return_string .= '</ul>';

   wp_reset_query();
   return $return_string;
}
function new_excerpt_more( $more ) {
    return ' <a class="read-more" href="'. get_permalink( get_the_ID() ) . '">Continue reading</a>';
}   
add_filter( 'excerpt_more', 'new_excerpt_more' );  


function custom_excerpt_length( $length ) {
    return 20;
}
add_filter( 'excerpt_length', 'custom_excerpt_length', 100 );
?>