Today, the signal is casually tossed into texts during dating disasters or outfit emergencies, but its roots come from genuine life-or-death situations at sea.
SOS entered official use in 1905 under German maritime radio regulations, and despite the popular myth, it was never meant to stand for “Save Our Souls” or “Save Our Ship.”
The letters themselves are meaningless by design. SOS was chosen because its simple, unmistakable Morse code pattern could cut through static and language barriers, which mattered long before global communication standards existed.
