It's possible to go back through history and look at the front page (30 top articals) for any day in the (as of today) past 15 years, beginning 9 October 2006, when Startup News, now Hacker News, first launched as a service to the tech startup sector. A business-oriented site, focusing on the (mostly) high-tech venture scene.

5 years ago today: https://news.ycombinator.com/front?day=2016-10-09

10 years ago today: https://news.ycombinator.com/front?day=2011-10-09

15 years ago today: https://news.ycombinator.com/front?day=2006-10-09

A simple shell script will automate URL generation:

  for i in {5..15..5} do
      echo "https://news.ycombinator.com/front?day=$( date -d "$i years ago" +%Y-%m-%d )"
  done

Using Algolia Search it's possible to select top stories for a longer period of time. Here's results for each of the years 2006, 2011, 2016, and 2021 to date:

2006: https://hn.algolia.com/?dateEnd=1167523200&dateRange=custom&...

As 2006 is partial, here's 2007 as well:

2007: https://hn.algolia.com/?dateEnd=1199059200&dateRange=custom&...

2011: https://hn.algolia.com/?dateEnd=1325203200&dateRange=custom&...

2016: https://hn.algolia.com/?dateEnd=1483142400&dateRange=custom&...

2021: https://hn.algolia.com/?dateEnd=1640908800&dateRange=custom&...

As I read it, the top stories from 2007 were ... dominated by business / non-technical topics. Top 10 items:

    Please tell us what features you'd like in news.ycombinator(http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=363)
    262 points|pg|15 years ago|1566 comments

    Finally, voting without refresh(http://ycombinator.com/newsnews.html#12jun07)
    176 points|pg|14 years ago|42 comments

    How Not to Die(http://paulgraham.com/die.html)
    168 points|subhash|14 years ago|143 comments

    Why we made this site(http://ycombinator.com/announcingnews.html)
    165 points|pg|15 years ago|57 comments

    Hacker News(http://ycombinator.com/hackernews.html)
    150 points|pg|14 years ago|76 comments

    Holding a program in one's head(http://www.paulgraham.com/head.html)
    142 points|eposts|14 years ago|131 comments

    Code's Worst Enemy(http://steve-yegge.blogspot.com/2007/12/codes-worst-enemy.html)
    125 points|mqt|14 years ago|41 comments

    CMU professor gives his last lesson on life(http://www.post-gazette.com/pg/07262/818671-85.stm)
    121 points|amichail|14 years ago|33 comments

    Why to Apply to YCombinator
    113 points|palish|14 years ago|36 comments

    Absolutely, DO NOT, get a co-founder!
    112 points|BitGeek|14 years ago|86 comments