Looking up some details of UTF-8 in the always-fabulous Wikipedia, I found this choice tidbit:

UTF-8 was invented by Ken Thompson on September 2, 1992 on a placemat in a New Jersey diner with Rob Pike. The day after, Pike and Thompson implemented it and updated their Plan 9 operating system to use it throughout.

I had no idea that the Bell Labs superheroes were behind it! Wikipedia also kindly provided a link to Rob Pike's authoritative recounting of the history.