If you’ve browsed through social media today, especially Twitter, chances are you’ve seen many of your friends and favorite brands celebrating #WorldEmojiDay by sharing their favorite symbols.
But if you're left wondering why it falls on July 17 of all days, the answer is quite simple: July 17, 2002 was the day Apple unveiled its iCal app at MacWorld 2002. The iOS calendar emoji is a daily flip calendar set to July 17, the app’s “birthday.”
This year’s World Emoji Day has received far more traction online than last year. #WorldEmojiDay was the top trending item on Twitter for much of Friday, and many companies, from McDonald’s, to Pepsi, to Google, to even Jif, got in on the act.
Thirty-eight new emojis will be available in June 2016, including a clown face, a face palm and a selfie, according to Unicode.
Also, lest there be any confusion, July 15 is not the true World Emoji Day. Twitter’s own version of the calendar emoji displays that date because Twitter launched on July 15, 2006. July 15 has thus been dubbed “Fake World Emoji Day.”
