We can be precise to the day about the release date...

...because Don's original code drop at SAIL was recovered and
announced on Twitter on 2021-01-01.

diff --git a/history.adoc b/history.adoc
index 0aa8f10442a8c9cb7a9fd1897d8f3b4f45c7c028..6e6ed22b34bb130ea16b714e9b5bc27cc043467e 100644 (file)
--- a/history.adoc
+++ b/history.adoc
@@ -15,9 +15,9 @@ Kentucky, including fewer of the D&D-like elements now associated with
 the game.
 
 Adventure as we now know it, the ancestor of all later versions, was
 the game.
 
 Adventure as we now know it, the ancestor of all later versions, was

-released on a PDP-10 at the Stanford AI Lab by Don Woods in 1977
-(some sources, apparently erroneously, say 1976). That version is
-sometimes known as 350-point Adventure.
+released on a PDP-10 at the Stanford AI Lab by Don Woods on June 6th,
+1977 (some sources erroneously say 1976). That version is sometimes
+known as 350-point Adventure.

 
 Between 1977 and 1995 Crowther and Woods themselves continued to work
 intermittently on the game. This main line of development culminated
 
 Between 1977 and 1995 Crowther and Woods themselves continued to work
 intermittently on the game. This main line of development culminated