7 Minutes Till Midnight

In 1947, during the Cold War, the Board of Directors of the Bulletin of the Atomic Scientists at the University of Chicago developed a symbolic clockface to represent mankind and the prospect of human destruction due to nuclear warfare. They called this symbolic clock the DoomsDay Clock. The first reading on the clock was 7 minutes until midnight, with midnight symbolizing the destruction of mankind through nuclear warfare. Each time nuclear conflict comes closer, the time on the clock is moved closer to midnight. On the other hand, the minute hand moves back as world events begin to improve.

The clock has seen 17 changes since it was first introduced in 1947 and most of these changes were due to a change in nuclear policy and testing in the United States and the Soviet Union. Only recently has the clock been changed due to the deterioration in international relations, specifically in the Middle East. The most recent change was in 2002 due to the United States' rejection of a series of arms control treaties and its announcement of its intentions to withdraw from the Anti-Ballistic Missile Treaty. This change moved the minute hand on the clock back to its original position at 7 minutes till midnight. The closest the minute hand ever got to midnight was when the United States and the Soviet Union tested thermonuclear devices within nine months of one another and the minute hand was changed to two minutes to midnight. Conversely, the farthest the minute hand has been from midnight and the safest we have been from nuclear destruction was in 1991 after the United States and the Soviet Union signed the Strategic Arms Reduction Treaty, which changed the time to seventeen minutes to midnight.