◆ On this day

September 19

4 sourced moments from September 19 in history: New Zealand gave women the vote first, in 1893; Scott Fahlman proposes the first emoticon :-) on a Carnegie Mellon bulletin board (1982); A distant quake flattened Mexico City (1985), plus 1 more.

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4 things happened on September 19

newest first ↓

1991 History · Archaeology

Ötzi the Iceman was found by hikers on 19 September 1991

Two hikers spotted a body in Alpine meltwater. It took five days, an axe and a mountaineer's hunch before anyone realised it was prehistoric.

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1985 Earth & Climate · Natural Disasters

A distant quake flattened Mexico City

On September 19, 1985, a magnitude 8.0 earthquake struck off Mexico's coast and tore through a capital 220 miles away.

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1982 Technology · The Internet

Scott Fahlman proposes the first emoticon :-) on a Carnegie Mellon bulletin board

On 19 September 1982 a computer scientist suggested marking jokes with a sideways smiley, accidentally inventing the emoticon that would shape online tone for decades.

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1893 History · Modern

New Zealand gave women the vote first, in 1893

New Zealand's women won the national vote on 19 September 1893, decades before most democracies — but they couldn't stand for Parliament until 1919.

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