For some reason I'm bothered when folks dont know the history of Dungeons & Dragons, and I feel compelled to share the edition history of D&D.
Probably the first hobbyist wargame in english was:
Little Wars by H.G. Well in 1913
Which led to many others including:
Chainmail by Gygax & Perren in 1971
Dave Arneson used the Man to Man combat rules of Chainmail, created a role-playing game out of it and brought the idea to E. Gary Gygax who wrote:
Dungeons & Dragons by Arneson & Gygax in 1974
The Greyhawk supplement by Gygax & Kuntz in 1975
made it the playable game we recognize today, which led to the plain English translation of D&D (AKA "Basic") by Holmes in 1977, the sublime 48 pages of the "Basic" rules:
The '77 "Basic" rules only went to level 3, you were invited to use the older rules and supplements or the upcoming Advanced Dungeons & Dragons rules:
1977 Brought the first of the "1e" AD&D book The Monster Manual
1978 the "1e" Players Handbook
1979 the Dungeon Masters Guide
1981 brought a new "Basic" rules:
which along with the "Expert" etc. rules cemented the seperation of "D&D" from "AD&D".
1983 saw another revision of "Basic" D&D:
1989 saw saw the revision of AD&D into "2e AD&D without the input of Gygax, who had been exiled from TSR.
1991 saw the last seperate "Basic" rules, the easy to learn "black box":
(there was a 1994 version called "Classic" that was identical to the '91 version except for the cover and title page).
1991 also brought the "Rules Cyclopedia":
which went from levels 1 to 36.
BTW the '91 rules were once know as the "fifth edition" see here.
2000 brought the first WotC version of D&D, which they decided to call "Third Edition"?
which was soon followed in
2003 with 3.5
2008 brought 4e:
2014 brought the mightily fun "5e".
Which to play?
I'd suggest the one that has Archers, Dragons, Magic, and Swords.
Your welcome.