Besides repurposing the hashtag (in Twitter) and the slash (in HTML web addresses), computer technology led to a whole slew of new symbols—first emoticons (“emotive icons”) and then emojis. Scott E. Fahlman invented the emoticon in 1982 at Carnegie Mellon University in an early online newsgroup. Concerned that humorous remarks […]

The Christmas song “Santa Claus Is Coming to Town” was written by James “Haven” Gillespie with music by John Coots and first performed on Eddie Cantor’s radio program in 1924. Cantor (the son of Russian Jews) commissioned the Christmas song as Gillespie was mourning his brother’s recent death. At first […]