Date:        Thu, 13 Apr 2000 10:36:15 +1000
    From:        Robert Elz <kre@munnari.OZ.AU>
    Message-ID:  <353.955586175@munnari.OZ.AU>

  | I will see if Dennis will tell me...

He did, ...

  But early; definitely by the time of the "nsys" system, the
  first C version, which was 1973.

And ...

  The point of /usr/bin was really to find a place to put
  those binaries.  (The .5MB disk was pretty cramped even
  with with two of them, as we later had).

which (if we ever needed it) is confirmation or the original reason...

kre