Emojis were a trend before you were born. The first one dates back to 1635

If scientists are to be believed, the world's oldest emoji was a smiley face scrawled in a legal document which dates back to 1635.

According to the scientists, a lawyer reviewing municipal account documents in a village next to the Strazov Mountains of Slovakia, signed his go-ahead by drawing a small circle with two dots and a line - an image recognised today as a smiley-face emoji. The discovery makes it the world's oldest known emoji.

"I do not know if it's the oldest Slovakian smiley or the world's oldest. But it is certainly one of the oldest in the Trencin region," said Peter Brindza, head of the National Archives in Slovakia.

Previously, the oldest known smiley face was in a 1648 poem, "To Fortune" by Robert Herrick, from England in 1648. The new find beats that by 13 years.