In 1947, the Soviet Union tested its first nuclear weapon. The arms race of the Cold War had begun, and so did the Doomsday Clock.
The Doomsday Clock represents our civilization’s threat of annihilation via nuclear war. The closer the Clock gets to midnight, the closer we are to nuclear war. Once the minute hand strikes midnight, nuclear war is upon us. The Clock was invented by the Board of Directors of the Bulletin of Atomic Scientists periodical and it is adjusted by the Board when needed.
At its inception in 1947, it was set at seven minutes to midnight because of the Soviet’s test of their first nuclear bomb. Since then, the clock has flucuated between 17 minutes from midnight (1991) to two minutes from midnight (1953). Since 1991, the minute hand has drawn closer to midnight because of little nuclear disarmament and countries like India and Pakistan battling in cold war like nuclear arms races. On January 17, 2007, the Clock was moved to its current position – five minutes to midnight – because of North Korea’s voltile nuclear ability and Iran’s nuclear ambitions on the aparent eve of an American – Iranian conflict.
Doomsday Clock timeline (click to enlarge):
Note: Because the Clock needs the consideration of the possibility of nuclear war by the Board of Directors of the Bulletin of Atomic Scientists, the Cuban Missle Crisis of 1962 did not get registered on the Clock because it was resolved in a few weeks, but if the Clock had been changed to reflect that incident, it most likely would have been set to 11:59 (or closer if possible) since the Cuban Missle Crisis is considered the closest humans have ever been to nuclear war.
2 Comments
February 6, 2007 at 11:43 AM
Those silly scientists have/had far too much time on their hands… I didn’t even know something like this even existed. It’s interesting, but kind of goofy how it’s set up. It’s almost like they set the chart up w/ the “at the stroke of midnight” type thing for a dramatic effect.
November 12, 2007 at 10:49 PM
[...] Truman made to end World War II, but there are those that see him as one of the initiators of the nuclear time-bomb of a world that we live in now. The fact is that how governments, the media, and historians view leaders and [...]