Arlo Guthrie
Hungary peace rally
Peace symbol in graffiti
Gerald Holtom working in his studio
Painted Volkswagen
Mortarboard with peace sign
U.S. soldier with peace symbol in Vietnam
Capitol Hill protest
U.S. flag with peace symbol
Mosaic for John Lennon
Filipino protesters form a peace symbol
Peace symbol in the sand
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Arlo GuthrieThe world-famous peace symbol, which turned 50 on April 4, 2008, was the brainchild of a British designer seeking a simple but powerful emblem for an anti-nuclear-weapons march in London in 1958. The symbol, which superimposes the semaphore signals for N (nuclear) and D (disarmament), caught on worldwide and quickly became a universal touchstone for the causes of peace and nonviolence. A new National Geographic book, Peace: The Biography of a Symbol by photographer Ken Kolsbun and journalist Michael S. Sweeney, takes a look at the famous pictogram. Here, a skywritten peace sign drifts above peace activist and folk singer Arlo Guthrie during a 1969 show at Tufts University in Medford, Massachusetts.
Photograph by Bettman/CORBIS

Peace Symbol

See photos of the history of the peace symbol, from National Geographic.

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