History
The interrobang, the relatively young punctuation mark created in 1962, is the brainchild of Martin K. Speckter. Speckter, head of a New York advertising agency, realized that a huge gap existed in English punctuation; it was impossible to express both a question and an exclamation at the same time. In order to express this exclamatory disbelief, he introduced the interrobang to the world with an article he published in his magazine Type Talks.
The interrobang became an instant hit. Many people began mailing the magazine their own personal graphic designs for it. The media also became enamored with it; an editorial by The Wall Street Journal declared that the new punctuation mark was perfect for, "'Who forgot to put gas in the car?' where the question mark alone just isn't adequate."
The interrobang craze also caught on in the typewriter making industry. In 1966, American Type Founders released a metal typeface called Americana which included the interrobang. Two years later, Remington Rand included an interrobang key as an option on its typewriters.
Unfortunately, the hype surrounding the new punctuation mark eventually died down. Sadly, it has fallen out of general use. The two consolations for interrobang lovers are its existence as a Unicode character set, U+203D, and as a character in Microsoft Word's Wingdings 2 font.
sources:
- http://www.interrobang-mks.com
- http://www.quinion.com
- http://www.unipad.org