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A little bit of ‘digital archaeology’ meant the message retrieved from the fascinatingly named, ‘spice vax’ backup tape allows us to peer at the moment when Scott Fahlman described the use of a colon, dash and bracket to denote a joke on a Computer Science bulletin board. There we have it, the Birth of the Smiley on 19th of September 1982 and here’s the original conversation thread, (although be prepared to wade through Computer Scientists speculating on the life chances of pigeons in a malfunctioning lift to reach the relevant post).

Even more wonderful is that this linguistic invention unlocked a supposed holy grail of a writer’s rank and legacy as a New York Times interview with Vladimir Nabakov from 1969 reveals —

Q: How  do you rank yourself among writers (living) and of the immediate past?

Nabokov: I often think there should exist a special typographical sign  for  a  smile – some sort of concave mark, a supine round bracket, which I would now like to trace in reply to your question.