Calendar Emoji

A calendar page showing a specific date. 📅 is the emoji of events, deadlines, scheduling, and "mark your calendar" moments.

Look closely at the date shown. On Apple, Samsung, Google, and most platforms, the calendar emoji displays July 17. That's not arbitrary. Apple's iCal app launched on July 17, 2002, alongside Mac OS X Jaguar at MacWorld Expo. When Apple later designed the calendar emoji for iOS, they used the same date. In 2014, Jeremy Burge, founder of Emojipedia, chose July 17 as World Emoji Day because it's literally printed on the emoji.

Not every platform agrees on the date. WhatsApp shows February 24 (the day it was founded in 2009). Facebook shows May 14. Microsoft leaves the date unspecified. Twitter's version has changed three times, from July 15 (launch date) to March 21 (Jack Dorsey's first tweet) to July 17 as of Twemoji 13.0.1 in 2020. It's the rare case where the same emoji displays completely different content across platforms.

The word "calendar" comes from the Latin *calendae*, the first day of each Roman month when debts were due. The Roman calendar, attributed to Romulus, originally had only 10 months (304 days). Julius Caesar reformed it in 45 BC into a 365-day solar calendar, and Pope Gregory XIII refined it in 1582 into the system we use today.

Approved in Unicode 6.0 (2010) as U+1F4C5 CALENDARU+1F4C5 CALENDAR.

📅 signals scheduling. "Save the date 📅" is a wedding classic. "Mark your calendar 📅" works for any event announcement. In group chats, it's the emoji that starts the planning: "When are we free? 📅"

On social media, 📅 anchors event promotions, countdowns, and launch dates. Content creators use it to announce upcoming posts, streams, and releases. Brands use it in marketing for sales, product drops, and seasonal campaigns. It's the most-searched of the three calendar emojis by a wide margin: in the 2020s, raw 📅 searches have grown roughly 12x, while 🗓️ and 📆 trail far behind.

July 17 has become its own micro-holiday thanks to this emoji. World Emoji Day generates posts from Apple, Google, Samsung, and Emojipedia every year, with new emoji announcements often timed to the date. Apple has used the day to tease upcoming iOS emoji since 2017.

The July 17 date on the calendar emoji has created a holiday. Here's the chain of events:

1. July 17, 2002: Apple launches iCal) alongside Mac OS X Jaguar at MacWorld Expo. The app's icon shows July 17 as its default date. 2. 2010: Unicode approves the calendar emoji (U+1F4C5) in Unicode 6.0. Apple's design shows July 17, carrying over the iCal date. 3. 2014: Jeremy Burge, founder of Emojipedia, creates World Emoji Day and picks July 17 because the date is literally printed on the most common calendar emoji. 4. 2017: Apple begins using World Emoji Day to preview upcoming iOS emoji, cementing the holiday. 5. 2020: Twitter/X updates Twemoji 13.0.1 to show July 17 (having previously shown July 15, then March 21). Most holdouts have now converged on July 17.

The calendar itself has a much older story. The word comes from the Latin *calendae*, referring to the first of each Roman month. Julius Caesar reformed the Roman calendar in 45 BC, and Pope Gregory XIII refined it in 1582. The Gregorian calendar is now used by virtually every country on Earth.

1. 2002Apple launches iCal at MacWorld Expo on July 17, alongside Mac OS X Jaguar. The icon shows July 17.↗
2. 2010Unicode 6.0 approves 📅 Calendar (U+1F4C5) as part of the Japanese-carrier emoji encoding round.↗
3. 2014Jeremy Burge launches World Emoji Day on July 17 because the calendar emoji already shows that date on Apple.↗
4. 2015Emoji 1.0 ships with 📅 colorized across major vendors. Apple, Samsung, Google keep July 17.
5. 2016WhatsApp ships its own calendar design showing February 24, the date the company was founded in 2009.
6. 2017Apple begins using World Emoji Day to preview new iOS emoji every year, tying the holiday to product launches.↗
7. 2020Twitter updates Twemoji 13.0.1 to show July 17 on its calendar emoji, having previously shown July 15 and March 21.↗
8. 2024iOS 17.4 refreshes the calendar's 3D shading as part of a broader redesign pass across small-object emoji.↗

• •The calendar emoji shows July 17 on Apple, Google, and Samsung because that's when Apple launched iCal in 2002. This single date spawned World Emoji Day in 2014.
• •WhatsApp's calendar emoji shows February 24, the company's founding date in 2009. Facebook shows May 14. It's one of the few emojis where the displayed content varies by platform.
• •Twitter's calendar emoji has shown three different dates over the years: July 15 (launch), March 21 (Jack Dorsey's first tweet), and finally July 17 in 2020.
• •The word "calendar" comes from the Latin *calendae*, the first day of each Roman month, when debts were due and accounts were settled.
• •Rome's original calendar, attributed to Romulus, had only 10 months and 304 days. January and February were added later by King Numa Pompilius.
• •Julius Caesar reformed the Roman calendar in 45 BC, creating the 365-day solar calendar. Pope Gregory XIII refined it in 1582 by adjusting leap years, and that Gregorian calendar is what most of the world uses today.
• •World Emoji Day (July 17) has become a real marketing event. Apple, Google, and Samsung use the date to preview upcoming emoji designs, and Emojipedia hosts the annual World Emoji Awards.