Martyl Langsdorf, an artist who designed one of the most enduring visual images of the 20th century, the Doomsday Clock, with its hands ticking toward midnight as a symbol of impending nuclear destruction, died March 26 at a rehabilitation facility in Schaumburg, Illinois. She was 96.
She had complications from a lung infection, her daughter, Suzanne Langsdorf, said.
Langsdorf was already a successful artist by the time she was asked to design the cover of the June 1947 issue of the Bulletin of the Atomic Scientists. Against an orange background, she set a quarter of a clock face, with a black hour hand pointing to the "12" position as a white minute hand approached 11:53.
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