Have you ever wondered when the Smiley emoticon was born?  Wow, me too!  Scott E. Fahlman, Smiley's father, recently penned an article on the process that gave birth to the internet's most emotional set of characters along with the hunt to find the moment of conception. And in case you were wondering, his birthday was September 19th, 1982.

You can't go a single day without seeing a smiley face or a frowny face or my latest fave, the 'meh' :-/  Emoticons have come a long way since the basic Smiley :-) Along with the ones previously mentioned, geeks around the world have figured out how to make not just faces, but also animated emoticons that can dance, sing, you name it.  I recently received one that proceeded to vomit all over the place! And to think, all of this started when one man decided to put a colon, a dash and an end parenthesis together. 

To read the article by Scott E. Fahlman, click here.

Please use the comments section below if you have any interesting emoticons you'd like to share.