2827: Peace Symbol ☮ Sep 16, 2024

The peace symbol, ☮, known also as the CND symbol, was made for the Campaign for Nuclear Disarmament, but even its creator did not give a single, clear answer after it was first displayed in 1958 to protest outside of the Nuclear Weapons Research Center in London. While he said that the symbol was supposed to be reminiscent of someone kneeling with his arms outstretched, his original explanation is that it comes from flag semaphore, specifically from the overlap of signals of someone making an N and a D, for “nuclear disarmament”. Ultimately, even if it was abstracted, that would possibly make this one of the last major uses of flag semaphore for any vaguely communicative or at least symbolic purpose in modern life.