2/14/2004 - MSN Angels

On December 7th, 2003, users of MSN Messenger noticed that some of their contacts displayed mysterious figures known as "Angels," which were thought to be a computer soul or digital entities that had infiltrated the messaging platform. Users' attempts to understand these sudden additions to their contact lists sparked rumors and conjecture that spread quickly. Both computer viruses and April 1st jokes were among the first people to think of this. The moment that the phonomenon got widespread attention, theories emerged to explain the presence of the Angels. Others speculated that the Angels were the manifestation of virtual spirits or the product of a complex hacking scheme, while still others even thought that these were people who had vanished from the internet who had decided to reclaim their lost accounts. Some users thought the Angels were artificial intelligence entities or programs that had attained sentience. The picture below is a screenshot showing a conversation between "Edd" and "echobonezzz" regarding the enigmatic figures that have been spotted all over MSN.