What date is recorded in Bitcoin’s genesis block, the first block of its blockchain?

Bitcoin’s genesis block records the date 3 January 2009, marking the first block of Bitcoin’s blockchain.

The block was created by Bitcoin’s pseudonymous developer, Satoshi Nakamoto. It is also called block 0, although some technical descriptions number the first spendable block as block 1. The genesis block contains a headline from The Times newspaper: “The Times 03/Jan/2009 Chancellor on brink of second bailout for banks.”

That embedded message is often interpreted as a timestamp and a comment on the financial environment surrounding Bitcoin’s launch. The genesis block is unusual because its 50-bitcoin reward cannot be spent through the normal transaction system. It therefore stands apart from later mined blocks while anchoring Bitcoin’s chain historically. The date is not the date of the white paper, which was published in 2008, nor the date of the first bitcoin transfer, which followed shortly afterward.