After the sinking of the "Titanic," the United States officially adopted the SOS as its distress signal. The use of SOS soon became universal, and the standard signal ruled the high seas until ...
And not just one fire, but ideally three. Three of anything is considered the universal signal of distress: three fires, three blows in a whistle, three gunshots. Think of the original SOS call ...
Best known for its appearances in desert-island cartoons, maritime movies and earworms by ABBA and Rihanna, the word SOS has been used as a code for emergency distress signals since 1905.