1 CQ
Emoji in a bottle
July1 2019 sos
Dot dot dot dash dash dash dot dot dot. That's Morse code for SOS. It was selected by the International Wireless Telegraph Convention as the universal sign of distress on this day in 1908. Counter to conventional wisdom, the letters aren't short for "save our ship" or "save our souls" or any other acronym—those are backronyms invented after the fact. The letters were chosen because they don't stand for anything and are unlikely to ever be included back-to-back in normal communication. SOS replaced a potpourri of other signals used across the globe, which caused much confusion since a ship needed to send a different distress signal based on whose waters they were in. The U.S. Navy used "NC" which was a maritime flag signal of distress. Britain favored "CQD" which was derived from land-based telegraph signals which used "CQ" as a prefix to any signal which needed attention. The 'D' stood for "distress." When the Titanic struck an iceberg in 1912, it initially sent a "CQD" message and only used "SOS" several hours later. After that disastrous ending, the maritime community adopted "SOS" as the only universally accepted signal of distress. While every boat captain still knows how to send an SOS message, most distress signals today are sent via mobile phone or text message. Is there a drowning emoji?

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More about this Curio:
Mental Floss: "What Does SOS Stand For?"
Reader's Digest: "We Now Know What SOS Really Stands For"
BBC News: "Save our SOS"