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### 20.9 Special Events

Certain special events are handled at a very low level—as soon as they are read. The `read-event` function processes these events itself, and never returns them. Instead, it keeps waiting for the first event that is not special and returns that one.

Special events do not echo, they are never grouped into key sequences, and they never appear in the value of `last-command-event` or `(this-command-keys)`. They do not discard a numeric argument, they cannot be unread with `unread-command-events`, they may not appear in a keyboard macro, and they are not recorded in a keyboard macro while you are defining one.

Special events do, however, appear in `last-input-event` immediately after they are read, and this is the way for the event’s definition to find the actual event.

The events types `iconify-frame`, `make-frame-visible`, `delete-frame`, `drag-n-drop`, `language-change`, and user signals like `sigusr1` are normally handled in this way. The keymap which defines how to handle special events—and which events are special—is in the variable `special-event-map` (see Active Keymaps).