DEL.ICIO.USPeace symbol turns 50
Icon created by textile designer celebrated in new book
Published on: 04/03/08
Like so many baby boomer icons, the peace symbol is now eligible for AARP.
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 Associated Press | ||
| The peace symbol, seen here on a recent Iraq war protester's flag, was created in 1958. | ||
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The icon, which has been used by activists in a variety of causes over the decades, was created for a British nuclear disarmament march on April 4, 1958, by Gerald Holtom, a textile designer. (It's a stylized version of the semaphore signals for "ND.") Now it has its own book, the photo-heavy "Peace: The Biography of a Symbol" by Ken Kolsbun with Michael Sweeney, which traces the universality of the emblem.
— Phil Kloer
Check out our timeline for the peace symbol, age 50.
April 4, 1958: Ban-the-bomb protesters march to Trafalgar Square in London carrying the new symbol on signs.
Nov. 1, 1961: Women Strike for Peace protests U.S. nuclear policy, superimposes peace symbol on American flag.
1965: Peace symbol becomes popular as anti-Vietnam War emblem.
1968: Many U.S. troops in Vietnam wear it; some make a pendant by twisting together a grenade pin and two cotter pins.
1970: Conservatives counterattack, calling symbol "footprint of the American chicken" and claiming it's an anti-Christian broken cross.
April 22, 1970: First Earth Day co-opts peace symbol into Ecology Now! posters.
1973: South Africa bans peace symbol, which has been used by anti-apartheid activists.
1999: U.S. Postal Service makes it an official stamp.
2003: Used widely among protesters of U.S. invasion of Iraq. California restaurant bakes "peace baguettes" in its shape.
May 14, 2006: In a Code Pink protest against the Iraq War, a pregnant woman marches outside the White House with a peace symbol painted on her bared belly.
2007: Activists in the West Bank use tear gas canisters to build a peace symbol art installation.
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