Happy 25th Birthday Smiley Face Emoticon!

The computer smiley officially turns 25 tomorrow!

The smiley, written symbolically as :-), was created by Carnegie Mellon University professor Scott E. Fahlman in 1982:

"Language experts say the smiley face and other emotional icons, known as emoticons, have given people a concise way in e-mail and other electronic messages of expressing sentiments that otherwise would be difficult to detect".

"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»."

Carnegie Mellon University has created an official smiley anniversary page.