diff --git a/usr.bin/tar/bsdtar.1 b/usr.bin/tar/bsdtar.1
index e6350dccc1c..3ae5502afb0 100644
--- a/usr.bin/tar/bsdtar.1
+++ b/usr.bin/tar/bsdtar.1
@@ -664,7 +664,7 @@ for the pax command.
 .Sh HISTORY
 A
 .Nm tar
-command appeared in Seventh Edition Unix.
+command appeared in Seventh Edition Unix, which was released in January, 1979.
 There have been numerous other implementations,
 many of which extended the file format.
 John Gilmore's