Free Republic

At 11:44 a.m. on September 19, 1982, a man named Scott Fahlman posted a message to an electronic computer-science department bulletin board at Carnegie Mellon University. And with that simple action he did something wonderful: He became the individual who would later be credited as the inventor of :-), an ASCII-based emoticon. Thanks to the efforts of Microsoft Director of Identity Partnerships Mike B. Jones — who worked at Carnegie Mellon University when the original post was made — and a small team of dedicated individuals, we know that the following is the message Fahlman sent:

Parents' fury after school's politically correct online newsletter covers up pupils' faces with 'cartoon smileys'Last updated at 15:49pm on 5th March 2008 Furious parents today attacked a "politically correct" primary school for covering pupils' faces on their website with "cartoon smileys" - to protect their identities.  Teachers took the bizarre decision after deciding mothers and fathers would not want their children being recognised on the internet. But parents described the decision as "PC gone mad" and demanded the "raver-style" faces be removed. Scroll down for more...Smiles all round: Cann Hall Primary deciced to cover pupils' faces online with 'smileys'  However,...