The BBC has an article on the peace sign, which recently turned 50 years old.

What was really interesting was its origins, apparently it was created as a symbol for the Campaign for Nuclear Disarmament in the the 1950s. The designer (Gerald Holtom) decided to combine the semaphore symbols for N (for Nuclear) and D (for Disarmament) to form one of the most widely recognised protest symbols.

Very nice, using “military” symbols to form a anti-war sign