Three minutes to midnight: In January 1984, the Doomsday Clock’s hand creeps close to midnight as the two superpowers stop talking.Īfter a decade of relative arms stability, the Cold War reached new heights between 19 as the Soviet Union invaded Afghanistan, the United States pulled out of the Moscow Olympics and communication between the two superpowers all but ceased. “There is little reason to feel sanguine about the future of our society on the world scale,” the Bulletin proclaimed at the time.ĥ. war in Vietnam escalating, India and Pakistan at odds and renewed hostilities in the Middle East, the BAS lamented the state of global security by moving the Doomsday Clock hand forward to ring in January 1968. With China and France obtaining nuclear capabilities, the U.S. Seven minutes to midnight: As more nations enter the arms race and war rages around the world, the clock hand inches closer to midnight in January 1968. In response, the Doomsday Clock’s hand moved comfortably away from midnight, conveying the Bulletin’s increased optimism.Ĥ. To de-escalate the arms race and reduce the effects of excessive nuclear fallout on the environment, leaders from the three major nuclear powers-the United States, Great Britain and the Soviet Union-signed the Partial Test Ban Treaty, which prohibited above-ground nuclear testing, in August 1963. Twelve minutes to midnight: In October 1963, as the nuclear arms race eases, the clock hand backs away from doomsday. “This demonstrated an acceleration of the arms race,” said Benedict, “and there was no communication between the two countries at all, even behind the scenes.” It remains the closest the hand has ever stood to midnight.ģ. The move happened after the United States and the Soviet Union each tested a thermonuclear device within a nine-month span. The Doomsday Clock’s minute hand nearly brushed midnight in September 1953. ![]() Two minutes to midnight: In September 1953, at the height of the Cold War, the world moves closer to its demise. “They decided to move the hand forward as a way to sort of say, ‘Here we go.’” The clock has been a powerful symbol ever since.Ģ. ![]() “The scientists who came up with the idea of moving the clock’s hand had forecast an arms race back in 1945,” said Kennette Benedict, executive director of the BAS. The BAS then hit upon the idea to use the clock as a real-time tool to inform the public about the state of global security. The hand’s position remained static until President Harry Truman confirmed in late 1949 that the Soviet Union had tested a nuclear device, thereby starting a global arms race. When the Doomsday Clock debuted in 1947 as a cover design for the new magazine version of the newsletter-style Bulletin of the Atomic Scientists, the clock hand stood at seven minutes to midnight, indicating an urgent public threat from nuclear technology. Three minutes to midnight: As the arms race gets underway, the clock hand inches forward in November 1949.
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