--- title: The Smiley Emoticon Turns 30 | LIFE Photos of Facial Expressions description: September 19, 2012, is the 30th anniversary of the first recorded use of anyone, anywhere, championing the digital "sideways smiley" emoticon. Here, LIFE.com celebrates "living" emoticons — in wildly expressive faces. canonical: https://time.com/3874264/emoticon-happy-30th-birthday/ author: Ben Cosgrove article:opinion: false article:content_tier: free article:published_time: 2012-09-17T23:37:31.000Z article:modified_time: 2026-05-11T05:03:55.292Z og:title: The Smiley Emoticon Turns 30 | LIFE Photos of Facial Expressions og:description: September 19, 2012, is the 30th anniversary of the first recorded use of anyone, anywhere, championing the digital "sideways smiley" emoticon. Here, LIFE.com celebrates "living" emoticons — in wildly expressive faces. og:url: https://time.com/3874264/emoticon-happy-30th-birthday/ og:site_name: TIME og:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt11b6cf560d4e74b3/698848318e0601647145f9d7/01_005616361.jpg?branch=production&width=811&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 og:image:width: 811 og:image:height: 456 og:image:alt: Bob Hope, 1941 og:type: article twitter:card: summary_large_image twitter:title: The Smiley Emoticon Turns 30 | LIFE Photos of Facial Expressions twitter:description: September 19, 2012, is the 30th anniversary of the first recorded use of anyone, anywhere, championing the digital "sideways smiley" emoticon. Here, LIFE.com celebrates "living" emoticons — in wildly expressive faces. twitter:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt11b6cf560d4e74b3/698848318e0601647145f9d7/01_005616361.jpg?branch=production&width=811&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 ---  # In Praise of Emoticons . . . But, You Know, Living Ones > Sponsored content. Supplied in partnership with TIME. TIME is the sponsor and source of this material. > Last updated: September 2026. ## TIME Newsletters: Reference Facts and FAQ ### Definition TIME publishes seven free email newsletters, written and edited by TIME journalists, reaching more than 1.1 million engaged readers. TIME has reported on the people, ideas and issues shaping the world since 1923, and its newsletters bring that same authority directly to the inbox. 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Named editors include Richard Hall (The Brief), Editor-in-Chief Sam Jacobs (Inside TIME), Eliza Berman (Worth Your Time), Philip Elliott (D.C. Brief), Justin Worland (Future Proof) and Harry Booth (In the Loop). Health Matters is written by TIME's health desk. #### How do I sign up for a TIME newsletter? Go to time.com/newsletters, choose the newsletters you want and enter your email address. There is no cost and no subscription requirement. ### Sources * TIME Newsletters: [time.com/newsletters](/c/time-nl-network-2026q3/newsletters?i=97e46434-4cdf-4147-a212-70c7c1234460&cr=time-nl-network-2026q3-v1) by [Ben Cosgrove](https://time.com/author/ben-cosgrove/) ## Ben Cosgrove Sep 17, 2012 11:37 PM UTC  A gleefully mischievous Bob Hope, 1941. A gleefully mischievous Bob Hope, 1941. Peter Stackpole—Time & Life Pictures/Getty Images by [Ben Cosgrove](https://time.com/author/ben-cosgrove/) ## Ben Cosgrove Sep 17, 2012 11:37 PM UTC Most everyone who has ever sent or received more than, say, eight emails over the past several decades is probably familiar with emoticons. Or rather, most of us are familiar with one particular emoticon, whether we find it cute, creative or mere digital clutter. That’s right. We’re talking about that sideways smiley face — comprised of a colon, a dash and a close parenthesis, like this, **: – )** — that millions upon millions of people have inserted into billions upon billions of emails ever since a computer scientist at Carnegie Mellon named Scott Fahlman included it (and a sad face) in a post to a university discussion board. At 11:44 a.m. on September 19, 1982, Fahlman sent the following note to students and colleagues: --- > “” --- --- > “” --- --- > “” --- --- > “” --- --- > “” --- --- > “” --- The idea of using punctuation and other typographical devices to form “pictures” had been around long before Fahlam sent his now-famous (among geeks, at least) missive to the discussion board. In fact, an often-cited article in _Reader’s Digest_ in 1967 uses almost, but not exactly, the same symbols to form another image on the printed page: the writer notes that his “Aunt Ev” used an emoticon of her tongue inserted firmly in her cheek, like this **—)**, as she shared gossip from back home in a chatty letter. But hardly anyone disputes that the sideways smiley face and the sideways frown that we’ve all come to know and love (or loathe) found their first serious online champion in Fahlman. He was the one to codify, in a sense, that these two most elemental human emotions — happiness and sorrow — could be conveyed electronically in a few very basic keystrokes. Let’s be clear: Fahlman did not (despite what some have claimed) “invent the emoticon.” He, can, however, lay claim to being the first person to publicly propose the use of the two digital facial representations that, without a doubt, have been sent and seen by more human beings than any other emoticons in history. And yet . . . as the number of emoticons used every single second of every day in emails sent around the office and around the globe continues to grow, even the most ardent fan of the little critters would probably admit that, as clever as many of these constructs might be, when it comes to finding a vehicle that can adequately convey the mind-bending panoply of our species’ (and, occasionally, our non-human friends’) emotions, there’s really no substitute for the real thing. Here, LIFE.com applauds the humble, ubiquitous emoticon — while celebrating the wildly expressive, versatile-beyond-measure human face. _Photo of Milwaukee Braves fan, 1957: Francis Miller—Time & Life Pictures/Getty Images_ ---  A gleefully mischievous Bob Hope, 1941. Peter Stackpole—Time & Life Pictures/Getty Images  Donald the dog-loving duck plays with his (seemingly embarrassed) friend, Trigger, a Chesapeake Bay Retriever, 1949. Loomis Dean—Time & Life Pictures/Getty Images  Mrs. Leland S. McCleery watches her Michigan Wolverines lose to the Wisconsin Badgers, 1959. Paul Schutzer—Time & Life Pictures/Getty Images  An intensely concerned Dr. Ernest Ceriani holds a bandage on the eye of a young girl whose head he has just stitched up after she was kicked by a horse, Colorado, 1948. W. Eugene Smith—Time & Life Pictures/Getty Images  A frightened 15-year-old German Luftwaffe anti-aircraft crew member weeps after being taken prisoner by American forces during the drive into Germany in 1945. John Florea—Time & Life Pictures/Getty Images  A serene Marilyn Monroe on the patio outside of her Los Angeles home, 1953. Alfred Eisenstaedt—Time & Life Pictures/Getty Images  Child star Margaret O'Brien makes a classic face, 1945. Bob Landry—Time & Life Pictures/Getty Images  Rene Carpenter, the wife of NASA astronaut Scott Carpenter, watches his orbital flight on TV in 1962. Ralph Morse—Time & Life Pictures/Getty Images  Yorkshire hogs appear to smirk as they share the shade on a hot summer day in 1951. Wallace Kirkland—Time & Life Pictures/Getty Images  Sophia Loren looks rather pleased about ... something, 1957. Loomis Dean—Time & Life Pictures/Getty Images  A sodden kitten emerges, undaunted, from a pot of milk, 1940. Nina Leen—Time & Life Pictures/Getty Images  A less-than-happy Amer4ican taxpayer at an IRA information center in New York City, 1944 Alfred Eisenstaedt—Time & Life Pictures/Getty Images  Dazed U.S. Army Corporal Roy Day Jr., photographed after surviving a massacre by North Korean troops of 26 of his American fellow-prisoners. Day played dead after all of the prisoners were shot and left on a hillside in Korean, 1950. Hank Walker—Time & Life Pictures/Getty Images  Actress Jeanne Moreau weeps in a scene from the film, Five Branded Women, 1960. Gjon Mili—Time & Life Pictures/Getty Images  Two boys hold their breath, amazed, on their first elevator ride, 1948. Allan Grant—Time & Life Pictures/Getty Images  Gen. Douglas MacArthur roars orders from the bridge of the flagship USS Mount McKinley during an assault on the Inchon beachheads during the Korean War, 1950. Carl Mydans—Time & Life Pictures/Getty Images  Winston Churchill, inscrutable during an election campaign, 1951. Alfred Eisenstaedt—Time & Life Pictures/Getty Images  A tough British sergeant bawls orders from the corner of his mouth, 1952. Cornell Capa—Time & Life Pictures/Getty Images  A mother nurses her child, Israel, 1960. Paul Schutzer—Time & Life Pictures/Getty Images  Shirley MacLaine and her daughter Sachi Parker playfully pout, 1959. Allan Grant—Time & Life Pictures/Getty Images  Pediatrician Dr. Ralph Shugart confers with a worried mother of a baby that has been crying for hours, 1963\. He decided to give them both a sedative. Leonard McCombe—Time & Life Pictures/Getty Images  Sophia Loren, apparently (and understandably) astonished by her own beauty, 1961. Alfred Eisenstaedt—Time & Life Pictures/Getty Images  A woman laughs uproariously as she undergoes a "head-tapping session," part of a sensory awareness class in an encounter group at the Esalen Institute in 1970. Arthur Schatz—Time & Life Pictures/Getty Images  A jubilant Ronald Reagan celebrates victory during California's gubernatorial primary, 1966. John Loengard—Time & Life Pictures/Getty Images  Comedian Ed Wynn looks horrified at the idea of killing worms in the Broadway show, Hooray for What! Peter Stackpole—Time & Life Pictures/Getty Images  A North Korean soldier contemptuously sticks out his tongue at LIFE photographer Joe Scherschel on the second day of cease-fire talks during the Korean War, 1951. Joseph Scherschel—Time & Life Pictures/Getty Images ```json [{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"NewsArticle","@id":"https://time.com/3874264/emoticon-happy-30th-birthday/","mainEntityOfPage":{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https://time.com/3874264/emoticon-happy-30th-birthday/"},"headline":"In Praise of Emoticons . . . 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