:-) (the first emoticon)
loreops cultureweb dev
The sideways smiley proposed on a CMU bulletin board in 1982 to mark jokes in plain text.
Scott Fahlman suggested :-) for humorous posts and :-( for serious ones after flame wars erupted over messages meant as jokes. The original post was later recovered from backup tapes, making it one of the few internet firsts with a precise, verified timestamp.
Also known as: smiley, emoticon origin, Scott Fahlman