Even though messaging people through email or on social media accounts with your caps lock on is usually considered rude, there is one day of the year when it’s acceptable. That day is Caps Lock Day (sometimes known as International Caps Lock Day).

On this day, people can feel free to recognize the importance of the caps lock key in the world of digital communication and can spend some time typing with their caps lock on. Sure, no one will understand why you’re shouting on the Internet, but you’ll be celebrating this holiday in style. Just be sure that when October 22nd has ended, you turn off your caps lock.

The History of Caps Lock Day

Caps Lock Day was invented on October 22, 2000, by Derek Arnold. The purpose of this holiday was to mock those people who seem to always have their caps lock on when posting something on the Internet.

Why Was the Caps Lock Invented?

In 1873, the QWERTY keyboard debuted on a typewriter that was designed only to produce capital letters. It wasn’t long after that the Shift key was invented. This key allows the typewriter to change its output between lowercase and uppercase letters.

Because the Shift key changed the internal dynamics of the typewriter, it took a good amount of force to push down, so a shift lock key was invented to make it simpler. Unfortunately, while the typewriter had the shift lock on, the keys with lowercase letters would produce uppercase letters when struck, and the number keys would produce symbols when struck.

As one could guess, this created somewhat of a problem because some people would end up typing symbols when they were trying to type numbers. To solve this problem, a telephone engineer working at Bell Labs during the 1960s named Doug Kerr decided to invent the Caps Lock key.

This key worked in the same way as the shift lock key, but it only affected letters and not the numbers. When the first computers headed into homes, the caps lock key went along with them. Although this key served its purpose for many years, some people think that it’s time for this archaic key to go the way of the dinosaurs and disappear.

The argument is that the caps lock key takes up valuable keyboard real estate and the function of the caps lock key can be moved to another key (like double-tapping the Shift key).

Observing Caps Lock Day

Caps Lock Day can be observed by simply keeping your caps lock on. However, we recommend that you do this in small doses so you don’t annoy your Internet friends. And be sure to use the hashtag #CapsLockDay to let people know that you’re simply observing this holiday and don’t intend on doing it all the time.