Geek Pride Day (aka Star Wars Day) began on May 25, 1977

Geek Pride Day is an initiative to promote geek culture, celebrated annually on May 25. The date was chosen as to commemorate the release of the first Star Wars film, A New Hope on May 25, 1977 (see Star Wars Day), but shares the same date as two other similar fan “holidays”: Towel Day, for fans of The Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy trilogy by Douglas Adams, and the Glorious 25th of May for fans of Terry Pratchett’s Discworld. The initiative originated in Spain in 2006 as “Día del Orgullo Friki” and spread around the world via the internet. Tim McEachern organized unconnected events called Geek Pride Festival and/or Geek Pride Day 1998 to 2000 at a bar in Albany, New York, which are sometimes seen as a prelude to Geek Pride Day. In 2006, the Spanish blogger Germán Martínez known online as señor Buebo organized the first celebration, the day was celebrated for the first time in Spain and on the Internet, drawing attention from mainstream media. The biggest concentration took place in Madrid, where 300 Geeks demonstrated their pride together with a human pacman. A manifesto was created to celebrate the first Geek Pride Day, which included a list of the basic rights and responsibilities of geeks.