In 1980, a National Public Radio program picked up on it. However, when Trivial Pursuit posted it on a question card, it was immortalized. If that is how long you are waiting for your spouse to pick up after herself, it will happen seven times every 19 years. OVER AND OUT Send out an SOS for Morse code. It's going into retirement.
Few people know it by heart.
After the sinking of the Titanic in 1912, the great seafaring nations installed Morse code as the standard communication for ships at sea. The beginning of the end started in 1988 when the International Maritime Organization adopted the Global Maritime Distress and Safety System. Now, as of Feb. 1, all cargo and passenger vessels of 300 gross tons or more will no longer use Morse code for distress calls. But historian Tom Standage notes that radio telegraphy was the original global community. In the late 1800s, there were literally thousands of people communicating across the world, and they never saw one another.