There's a tweet by Twitter account @History_Pics going around that states that the first text message ever was sent 21 years ago today.
In a happy coincidence (and a preview for millions of future texts), it happened to say "Merry Christmas":
- ClassicPics (@History_Pics) December 3, 2013
Both Eric Limer at Gizmodo and Joanna Stern at ABC News have previously confirmed the story: on December 3rd, 1992, Canadian test engineer Neil Papworth sent a text from one of Vodafone's massive computers to Richard Jarvis, a Vodafone director.
Here's a picture of the Orbitel 901, the "portable" phone Jarvis used to receive the first-ever text message:
