This day in geek history: January 27

1974

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First release of Dungeons and Dragons: Dungeons and Dragons (D&D) is a role playing game (RPG) originally developed by Gary Gygax and Dale Arneson. It developed from the epic scale of table top war gaming, but the story was brought down to the level of individual heroes. Although it relied heavily on the mechanics for combat and task resolution, story telling and character/player interaction was central to the game. Its success led to an explosion in RPG games. D&D is still available, now published by Wizard of the Coast and is in it's 5th edition.

The assigned date of its release is a bit of a conjecture based on anecdotal references.

http://playingattheworld.blogspot.com/2013/12/when-dungeons-dragons-turns-40.html

http://dnd.wizards.com/dungeons-and-dragons/what-is-dd

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dungeons_%26_Dragons

This day in geek history: August 5

1930

Neil Armstrong's birthday! As the first human being to walk on another planetary body (our moon), I want to recognize the person who made so many science fiction fantasies a reality.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Neil_Armstrong

IMPORTANT ADDENDUM!

After I'd already posted today's This Day in Geek History, I decided to look up a few more things, and of course came across this very important event that has today as its anniversary:

1973

Magic: The Gathering released! Still widely popular, this was the first trading card game ever published. It was created by Richard Garfield and published by Wizards of the Coast.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Magic:_The_Gathering