On this day (September 19) in 1982, Scott Fahlman posted the very first “emoticon” to a computer-science department bulletin board at Carnegie Mellon University.
According to Wired.com, the message went like this:
19-Sep-82 11:44 Scott E Fahlman
From: Scott E Fahlman
I propose that the following character sequence for joke markers:

Read it sideways. Actually, it is probably more economical to mark things that are NOT jokes, given current trends. For this, use:

And, according to Mark Stibich, Ph.D. at About.com, not only does smiling make us attractive, boost our immune systems, lower our blood pressure, and make us appear …read more