10 Things You Might Not Know About the Peace Symbol
Our favorite peace symbol turns 50 today. Happy birthday to ☮!
Here are 10 things you might not know about the peace symbol:
☮ It was designed and completed on February 21, 1958 by British designer and artist Gerald Holtom as a logo for the Campaign for Nuclear Disarmament (CND). It first appeared in public at the first major anti-nuclear war march in London on April 4 the same year.
☮ Holtom said the three lines resemble a human in despair with arms outstretched downward. He later regretted the connotation.
☮ The circle represents the earth, and the three lines are semaphoric signals for the letters “N” and “D”, standing for Nuclear Disarmament.
☮ Bayard Rustin, a close associate of Martin Luther King, took the sign across the Atlantic and used it in civil rights marches. It became known as the peace symbol.
☮ Some conservatives in the US mock the peace symbol as a “footprint of the American chicken”.
☮ Fundamentalist Christian groups liken it to a Satanic symbol of an upside-down, “broken” cross.
☮ In 2006, a suburban couple in Denver used it as a Christmas Wreath and was threatened by the homeowner’s association with a daily fine if they didn’t remove it. A member of the association told the newspaper that it was an anti-Christ sign.
☮ The South African government tried to ban its use by opponents of apartheid in 1973.
☮ A shoe company once tried to trademark the peace symbol but failed.
☮ Craig’s list uses the peace symbol as its favicon.
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