Can you believe that the cute little smiley emoticon which we've all grown to love turns 25 today? According to The New York Times, on Sept. 19, 1982, professor Scott E. Fahlman was the first to use the three infamous keystrokes—a colon followed by a hyphen and a parenthesis, to create a horizontal smiley face in a computer. He used it during a discussion about the limitations of online humor.

And from that, the smiley face was born as a way for computer users to convey a positive feeling and gesture through digital means. The : ) symbol has since been transformed into a yellow bubble smile like the one shown here for use in IM's and emails.

Thanks to TeamSugar cageyme for letting us know about this momentous day!

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