April 4: The peace symbol was put on public display for the first time in London as part of the Campaign for Nuclear Disarmament (CND) in 1958.

Although the Campaign for Nuclear Disarmament (CND) was formed in London, 1957, as an organization that opposes military action using nuclear, chemical or biological weapons, it was a year later that the peace sign designed as the logo for the British Campaign for Nuclear Disarmament became the anti-war symbol for the counterculture activists and hippie culture as the symbol for world peace.

The White Symbol

Historically, an olive branch and a dove were the peace symbols of early Christians during the Roman Empire times.

The World Peace Symbol

Later on, the Spanish painter Pablo Picasso popularized both the dove and the olive branch as peace symbols after World War II. Finally, the hippie movement of the 60´s and 70’s globalized several peace logos, symbols and signs.

The symbol originally designed for the British nuclear disarmament movement is now widely used as a peace symbol.