There are few symbols in our history that have had the enduring power of the peace symbol.

Here's the story on how the peace symbol came to be 50 years ago this month:

In early 1958 Gerald Holtom, a textile designer and artist in Twickenham, England, merged the semaphore letters N and D (to represent the words "nuclear disarmament") into a single icon of protest against the growing nuclear arms stockpiles.  On April 4, 1958, Holtom encouraged protesters to carry banners and signs with his symbol during a march of support for the "Ban The Bomb" movement that went from London's Trafalgar Square to Aldermaston, a town that housed an atomic weapons research plant. 

Fueled by counter-culture protests across Europe, it was quickly after this event in England that Holtom's pictogram began to appear on walls, signs, and flags around the world.

As they say, the rest is history.

Next month, on Easter Monday, March 24, protesters will be carrying Holtom's iconic symbol when they return to Aldermaston to commemorate the 50th Anniversary of Great Britain's first mass nuclear disarmament march. And in April, National Geographic Books will be releasing PEACE: The Biography of a Symbol, tribute that traces the peace symbol from its 1950s anti-nuke origins to today.