Emoticons from Kurjer Warszawski (5 March 1881) that depict joy, melancholy, indifference and astonishment just like these emoticons did a few weeks later.
via Wikipedia
Tag Archives: emoticons
Typographic faces in The Strand magazine, England, March 1909. from yesterdaysprint
The bottom ones are very similar to these emoticons from 1881.
Emoticons from 1893, published in the German Kreisblatt für den Kreis Malmedy. h/t Gleb Albert.
CIA:s list of kaomojis (aka dongers, emoticons, etc) or “Japanese style Faces” as they call it.
From Wikileaks via AtticusBones
Dicky ASCII emoticons via Laura Brown.
Scott E Fahlman suggests a use of :) and :( in September, 1982. This happened on a bulletin board at Carnegie Mellon University in Pittsburgh, USA. It caught on pretty fast, and in November there were already several variations.
There are many earlier examples of smilies, but this is likely what popularized emoticons as we know them today.
Possibly an example of a smiley from 1862: “(applause and laughter ;)”. From a transcript in the New York Times of an Abraham Lincoln speech.
What seems to be a smiley from 1648 (top image), written by the poet Robert Herrick, is most likely not. The same book contained more smilies (bottom image) that indicate that it’s not supposed to be read as an emoticon. See Slate’s article for more examples and information.