The SOS distress signal was chosen in 1906 not because it means 'Save Our Souls' — it was picked for being simple and unmistakable. From Samuel Morse's first 1844 telegraph message to modern aviation beacons, dots and dashes have remained one of the most enduring communication systems ever invented.
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You'll cover Samuel Morse and Alfred Vail's invention, the 1844 'What hath God wrought' message, American vs International Morse, the SOS adoption at the 1906 Berlin convention, the Titanic's 1912 distress signals, words-per-minute speed records, the FCC dropping Morse for ham radio in 2007, Jeremiah Denton's blinked-Morse Vietnam interview, and how aviation still uses Morse for VOR navigation.
Samuel F. B. Morse, working with Alfred Vail, developed the code from 1836 to 1844 to use with the electric telegraph.
Morse code assigned the shortest signals to the most common English letters; E is the most frequent, so it gets a single dot.
No. SOS was selected at the 1906 Berlin convention for being a simple, distinctive Morse pattern; 'Save Our Souls' is a backronym.
Last updated: April 2026