MySQL - Convert MM/DD/YY to Unix timestamp

Is there an easy (single query) way to do this?

I'm reading those values from a column in a table and I think that the column itself is defined as a string (can't be helped, i'm afraid).

Use UNIX_TIMESTAMP;

SELECT UNIX_TIMESTAMP('2007-11-30 10:30:19');

Update:

SELECT UNIX_TIMESTAMP(CAST(fieldName AS DATE));

SELECT UNIX_TIMESTAMP(STR_TO_DATE('08/05/10','%m/%d/%y'));

SELECT '12/31/10',
    STR_TO_DATE('12/31/10', '%m/%d/%y'),
    UNIX_TIMESTAMP(STR_TO_DATE('12/31/10', '%m/%d/%y'))

Both functions are covered here: http://dev.mysql.com/doc/refman/5.1/en/date-and-time-functions.html