Next week - 17 July - is #InternationalEmojiDay.

I'm currently researching a book about the life of Emerson “Collywobbles” Warner, the man who invented the emoji in 1959.

He died in penury, but I am campaigning for him to be recognised posthumously. #CollywobblesDay @Emojipedia https://twitter.com/StefSimanowitz/status/1263388534435610625
The modern emoji is thought to have been created in 1999 by Shigetaka Kurita....40 years after the ‘Collywobbles Typewriter’!

Of Kurita’s 176 original emojis, 84 are identical / very similar to the "Collywobbles Emojis". They are housed in @MuseumModernArt in New York. #EmojiDay
In 2007 the emoji exhibition at Museum of Modern Art was vandalised

176 emojis by the artist, Shigetaka Kurita - “the father of the emoji” - were destroyed

Grainy CCTV footage shows an old man committing the crime

Some believe that old man was Emerson.
You can follow @StefSimanowitz.
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