1931
Hell freezes over, MS Paint adds support for layers and PNG transparency
(arstechnica.com)
This is a most excellent place for technology news and articles.
I've been waiting for years for "non-destructive edition" (AKA smart objects). It's a fundamental feature that I use (almost?) always as a first step. IMHO a lof of professional work is not practical without it.
They had it on the roadmap (see 2020 archive) for years marked as "No[t started]". The current roadmap looks more promising with "link layers" marked as WIP and saying it could be available on GIMP 3.0.2.