A historical newspaper specialist (yup, they exist) thinks he may have found an early emoticon in a New York Times transcript of a speech given by Lincoln in 1862. Others think it's a typo, but there's definitely some dissent.
“Ultimately, it is not just one typo but multiple typos that makes it more than a coincidence (spacing before and after, transposition, parenthesis as opposed to bracket). Considering this was all done by hand, it seems to be more intentional as opposed to a slip up typing or Microsoft Word autocorrect making the error.”
Perhaps the typesetter should have embedded “==|;o)>” and left no room for doubt.
I really want to believe that it was intentional.
Read rest here.