The files clearly weren't Git commits at the time they originally written, as Git itself was only created in 2005.
Someone put them into Git much more recently, and edited the commit date to whatever they guessed would be historically accurate (hopefully it was a good guess based on supporting evidence).
IIRC In git, the earliest possible commit date/timestamp is the Unix epoch. Interestingly enough, for this application (the .gitignore file) I'd imagine the offset from the epoch is set to zero. This would result in the commit timestamp you're seeing.
You don't believe that story about Torvalds writing git in a fortnight in a fit of pique do you? Have you seen Torvalds in a fit of pique? It would have been called "fuckbastardwankgibbon" rather than "git" if he had. In fact it was coded by Richard Burton the Victorian adventurer for the Babbage engine, the name "git" is a corruption of the original "Gentleman's inventory".
It’s smaller, simpler, yet just as powerful. Less verbose. (In general, it is not unusual that extension and modification of the original design, however sensible, is done at the expense of elegance.)
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[ 3.3 ms ] story [ 40.3 ms ] threadSomeone put them into Git much more recently, and edited the commit date to whatever they guessed would be historically accurate (hopefully it was a good guess based on supporting evidence).