The Smiley Turns 25

Happy Birthday Smiley :-)!! The smiley :-) turns 25 today. Here is an article telling the tale of the smiley's creation and first use by Carnegie Mellon University professor Scott E. Fahlman. An excerpt from the article explains the origins of :-) :

"Fahlman posted the emoticon in a message to an online electronic bulletin board at 11:44 a.m. on Sept. 19, 1982, during a discussion about the limits of online humor and how to denote comments meant to be taken lightly.

"I propose the following character sequence for joke markers: :-)," wrote Fahlman. "Read it sideways.""

Emoticons have given us a simple way to convey emotions in typed conversations, adding depth and context to many conversations over the past 25 years - Happy Birthday smiley :-), may you have many more...