How to pass Javascript date object (formatted datetime) from Laravel API

My Laravel 5 API pulls regular datetime columns from my MySQL db. My JSON datetime output looks like this:

2015-08-13 13:45:00

but the widget reading my JSON expects a JavaScript Date Object? What would be the syntax to pass my datetime as a JavaScript Date Object?

My current Laravel method looks like so:

public function transform($events)
{
    return [
        'startdt' => $events['event_start'],
        'enddt'   => $events['event_end'],
    ];
}

This is the code I have in my widget JS file:

'use strict';

angular
  .module('demo', ['mwl.calendar', 'ui.bootstrap', 'ngTouch', 'ngAnimate'])
  .controller('MainCtrl', function ($modal, moment, $http) {

var vm = this;
vm.calendarView = 'month';
vm.calendarDay = new Date();

$http.get('http://ift.tt/1Wnooc0').success(function(events) {    
    vm.events = events.events;
}); 

via Chebli Mohamed