I remember drafting my first concepts of what I would change in RFC if I could (I couldn't back then) during the last German federal elections, which would make this September 2009. I think the first release was in March/April 2010 (it's when the main thread here was posted). Why? I think because I considered it a waste that several BtS civs are not in while they definitely should be. I started with several minor things, though, to learn the easier parts, inspired mainly by other modmods that were around at that time. v1.7 was released in October 2010, iirc, not sure about v1.73.