Shutterstock This week’s milestones in the history of technology include the birth of emoticons, ICANN, the hearing aid, the punched card tabulating machine, computer-based consumer information services, and the first set of specifications for digital computers. September 18 , 1998 The Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers (ICANN) is formed as a California non-profit corporation to oversee a number of Internet-related tasks previously performed directly on behalf of the U.S. Government. September 19, 1982 Computer scientist Scott Fahlman proposes for the first time the use of :-) and :-( to help people on a message board at Carnegie Mellon University to distinguish serious posts from jokes. Fahlman message