It's the first *online* smiley, and under all kinds of debate. ESR's Jargon File cites a "rival claim by Kevin McKenzie, who seems to have proposed the smiley on the MsgGroup mailing list, April 12 1979."
http://tuxedo.org/~esr/jargon/html/entry/emoticon.htmlAlso, as I have posted elsewhere, the earliest (not first: you can never precisely say which was first) recorded smiley in print discovered so far was found by etymologist and word researcher Barry Popik who posted this message to the email list of the American Dialect Society. He discusses both the yellow smiley face which everyone knows, but this particular smiley is the familiar punctuation-based emoticon. (On a side note, he has uncovered some evidence that Harvey Ball *did not* invent the familiar yellow-faced smiley.)
http://listserv.linguistlist.org/cgi-bin/wa?A2=ind 0110B&L=ads-l&P=R4596
[begin quote]
This continues discussion of the pictograph known as the "smiley." It's authorship was credited to the late Harvey Ball (who drew it in the 1960s). "Smiley" is in an ad in the NEW YORK HERALD TRIBUNE, 10 March 1953, pg. 20, cols. 4-6. See for yourself. The ad is for the film LILI, with the "delightful" Leslie Caron. The "World Premiere Today" is at the Trans-Lux 52nd on Lexington. The film opened nationwide, and this ad possibly ran in many newspapers.
Today
You'll laugh :)
You'll cry :(
You'll love (Heart-shaped face--ed.)
_Lili_
[end quote]
