Michael September 21, 2022 4:00am Happy 40th Anniversary #emoticon / #smiley #emoticon #smiley #Internet #cyberpsychology The 40-year evolution from :-) to 😂 At 11:44 a.m. on September 19, 1982, Scott Fahlman made internet history by stitching together a colon, a hyphen and a close parenthesis.