There are hundreds of emoticons based on the familiar yellow smiley face–that’s right, the one that is older than your parents. Here’s a look at the history of the silly smile.
1963: In 10 minutes, Harvey Ball of Worcester, Mass., creates the smiley face for an in-house campaign at the State Mutual Life Insurance Co. Ball receives $45 for his creation.
1970: Brothers Murray and Bernard Spain add the phrase, “Have a nice day,” to a series of buttons, coffee mugs, T-shirts and bumper stickers. By 1972, there are an estimated 50 million smiley face buttons in the United States.
1971: Franklin Loufrani designs a smiley face as part of a newspaper promotion without, he claims, ever seeing Harvey Ball’s creation. Loufrani registers it as a trademark in 80 countries. Ball calls Loufrani “a creep.”
1982: Research professor Scott Fahlman creates the emoticon when he types:-) in an online bulletin board message to colleagues at Carnegie Mellon University.
1993: James Marshall, a graduate astronomy student at the University of Maryland, begins compiling an online emoticon dictionary, which now has 2,200 entries.
1994: In “Forrest Gump,” Tom Hanks’ character wipes his face with a T-shirt, leaving a smiley face imprint.
1999: The U.S. Postal Service issues a smiley face stamp.
2003: Kentucky puts a smiley face on its license plate.