Smilie History

I've been interested in the history of emoticons for a while now.
This message written by Scott Fahlman is set to be the birth of
the emoticons as we know them today. Exciting, huh?

19-Sep-82 11:44    Scott E  Fahlman   :-)
From: Scott E  Fahlman 

I propose that the following
character sequence for joke
markers:
      
:-)
      
Read it sideways.  Actually, it is
probably more economical to mark
things that are NOT jokes 
- given current trends.For this,
use
      
:-(

You can read more about it at wikipedia. The story about

Despair inc. is pretty funny.