The Curiousitron must be sated: 1873?

[MiniMatt]

Some Babbage-related historical note hitherto eluding my primitive biological memory banks?
The year RPS founders made a pact with the Dark Lord Cthulu - eternal life in exchange for witty writings?
The combined age of the hive subtracted from the current date at the inception of RPS?
The date Einstein was released from a time paradox resultant of an infinite universe coupled with an infinite+1 Horace?
The date Foxe Newf first prophesied the moral collapse of humanity arising from the Age of Silicon?

[TailSwallower]

Birth year of a founding writer +100 years for humour purposes?

[Jams O'Donnell]

They're none of them that old, the wee scamps.

[Grizzly]

On the first of march 1873, Remington started producing the first type writers.

Thats my geuss.

[Daiv]

In 1873 Lord Babbage's phenomenal machine was built in secret in Hampton Court and used to run the first instance of what we would nowadays think of as a "computational game" for the entertainment of Lord Custard Smingleigh's guests.

Based on a popular legend of the day, "Hunt of the Wumpus" was first encoded as a series of tables by a team of savant-men, then woodcarved as a series of carefully calibrated cams. An urchin would turn the crank, and a gang of orphan children would move around the estate's renowned maze according to the output from the machine. Lord Smingleigh, playing as the titular Wumpus (Smingleigh's wife's nickname for him), would roam the maze according to his own whims and soundly thrash any orphan who crossed his path.

It is interesting to note that the phrase "hack" was coined during one of the first games, when Lord Smingleigh took a woodsman's axe to the cams inside the machine and concussed the crank-urchin for producing calculations which caused him to lose the game. From that point on his win rate at this game climbed to 100%.

In later years, with the advent of electronic computational engines and the first electronical version of Hunt the Wumpus, the roles are reversed, and the player flees from the Wumpus, which is controlled by the computational device. This is acceptable in these debased days. However, in the days of yore it was unthinkable for an English Lord to play such a cowardly role.

[Kodeen]

1873 was the start of the Long Depression.

Also the start of the economic event of the same name.

[Berzee]

All of these are true.
They are too good to be false.