Bitcoin’s chain begins at height 0. The genesis block’s header records January 3, 2009, at 18:15:05 UTC. Its construction, hash, and initial 50 BTC output are preserved in Bitcoin Core’s network parameters, and the block itself is publicly inspectable.
A headline inside the data
The coinbase transaction includes a newspaper reference:
The Times 03/Jan/2009 Chancellor on brink of second bailout for banks
The exact text is embedded in the genesis construction code. It connects the block to the financial crisis and serves as evidence that this particular block was constructed after the headline was available.
Reading it as a criticism of bank bailouts is an interpretation. The text is verifiable; Satoshi’s full private intention is not. Nor does the headline prove that no earlier private experiments took place.
The unspendable 50 BTC
The original subsidy cannot be spent under Bitcoin’s existing rules. Bitcoin Core handles this block specially and does not add its coinbase output to the spendable transaction set. The validation code explicitly describes this exception.
Later transactions sent to the address associated with the genesis public key are different outputs. They do not inherit the original reward’s special exclusion. Whether anyone can spend those later outputs depends on satisfying their spending conditions; the genesis exception alone does not answer that question.
What a block explorer can—and cannot—tell you
An explorer exposes the block’s hash, transaction, and header timestamp. It is a convenient view of the ledger, rather than the ledger’s authority: an independently validating node can check the same data. A miner-supplied timestamp should not be mistaken for a trusted external clock. Inspect block 0.
The useful distinction is between the artifact and the story we tell about it. One is recorded in bytes. The other needs careful attribution.