July 9th

On this day - July 9th 1981 - Donkey Kong is released 

The first Donkey Kong is an arcade game by Nintendo where you play as Mario. Mario Bros is actually a spin-off of this game. It also spawned a Donkey Kong series and both it and Mario is one of the most recognised characters from Nintendo. The arcade was a hit and after the initial 2000 units were sold in the US Nintendo started manufacturing in the US. In June 1982 Nintendo had sold 60,000 units and earned 180 million USD. It made Ron Judy and Al Stone millionaires as they worked on straight commission. The current world record is held by Wes Copland and was set on May 5th 2016 with the score 1,218,000.