Who Invented the Two-Fingered Peace Sign and Where Did the Gesture Come From?

The gesture of two fingers spread and raised in peace was popularized in the 1960s.

The sign is a physical interpretation of the peace symbol, an inverted or upside-down Y within a circle, which was designed in 1958 by members of the anti-nuclear Direct Action Committee.

The inverted Y is a combination of the maritime semaphore signals for N and D, which stood for “nuclear disarmament.”