Think emojis are a brand new creation that came along with the dawn of the iPhone? Think again people. Those emojis once started out as colons and parentheses and they were the bedrock of MSN Messenger. But we digress.
Mashable's history of emoticons has plenty of general knowledge gems that you can bang out at the next pub quiz or general banter about the internet, including the date of the first use of an emoticon (1648!) and other nerdy nuggets that are good to have in your back pocket.