Timeline: 1947 → 2026
Since 1947 the Doomsday Clock has been set 26 times. It has ranged from 17 minutes to midnight (1991, end of the Cold War) to 85 seconds (2026). Each move reflects the Bulletin of the Atomic Scientists' judgement on the state of the world: for sixty years purely nuclear, then, from 2007, climate and technology too.
Three patterns stand out. Moves back almost always follow a signed treaty (1963, 1969, 1972, 1988, 1991, 2010). The sharpest moves forward follow a breakdown of dialogue between nuclear powers (1953, 1984, 2018–2026). And since 2015 the hand has never once moved back: the current period is the longest run of deterioration in the clock's history.
Settings are those published by the Bulletin; the explanations are our summaries. The mini-dials use the simulator's visual scale (non-linear, to stay readable between 17 minutes and 85 seconds).
— 7 minutes to midnight
First setting of the clock.
The clock is created by Manhattan Project scientists two years after Hiroshima. Artist Martyl Langsdorf picks 7 minutes because it "looked good" on the Bulletin's cover: the starting position is aesthetic, not calculated.
— 3 minutes to midnight
The hand moves forward by 4 minutes.
The Soviet Union tests its first atomic bomb. The US nuclear monopoly ends and the arms race begins.
— 2 minutes to midnight
The hand moves forward by 1 minute.
The United States, then the Soviet Union, test hydrogen bombs hundreds of times more powerful than Hiroshima. This remains the closest setting to midnight for 65 years.
— 7 minutes to midnight
The hand moves back by 5 minutes.
International scientific cooperation and growing awareness: the public and leaders realise a nuclear war would have no winner.
— 12 minutes to midnight
The hand moves back by 5 minutes.
Partial Test Ban Treaty, signed after the Cuban Missile Crisis (1962). The first arms control agreement slows the race.
— 7 minutes to midnight
The hand moves forward by 5 minutes.
Vietnam War, Indo-Pakistani war, Six-Day War; France and China test their own bombs. Proliferation accelerates.
— 10 minutes to midnight
The hand moves back by 3 minutes.
The Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty (NPT) is signed: almost every state pledges not to acquire nuclear weapons.
— 12 minutes to midnight
The hand moves back by 2 minutes.
SALT I and the ABM Treaty between Washington and Moscow: the first numerical limits on arsenals.
— 9 minutes to midnight
The hand moves forward by 3 minutes.
India tests a bomb; the US and USSR modernise their multiple-warhead (MIRV) missiles. SALT II stalls.
— 7 minutes to midnight
The hand moves forward by 2 minutes.
Soviet invasion of Afghanistan, SALT II never ratified: superpower dialogue freezes.
— 4 minutes to midnight
The hand moves forward by 3 minutes.
Reagan calls the USSR an "evil empire" and speaks of a "winnable" nuclear war. Negotiations break down.
— 3 minutes to midnight
The hand moves forward by 1 minute.
Pershing II and SS-20 missiles deployed in Europe, Los Angeles Olympics boycotted. The Bulletin describes dialogue as "virtually non-existent".
— 6 minutes to midnight
The hand moves back by 3 minutes.
INF Treaty: Reagan and Gorbachev eliminate an entire class of nuclear missiles — the first real destruction of weapons since 1945.
— 10 minutes to midnight
The hand moves back by 4 minutes.
Fall of the Berlin Wall, revolutions across Eastern Europe: the Cold War is ending.
— 17 minutes to midnight
The hand moves back by 7 minutes.
START I Treaty and dissolution of the USSR. At 17 minutes, this is the furthest from midnight the clock has ever been.
— 14 minutes to midnight
The hand moves forward by 3 minutes.
The "peace dividend" fails to materialise: arsenals stay at Cold War levels and loosely secured ex-Soviet nuclear material raises alarm.
— 9 minutes to midnight
The hand moves forward by 5 minutes.
India and Pakistan carry out nuclear tests three weeks apart. Two rival neighbours become nuclear powers.
— 7 minutes to midnight
The hand moves forward by 2 minutes.
After 9/11, the US withdraws from the ABM Treaty; fears of nuclear terrorism and waning interest in disarmament.
— 5 minutes to midnight
The hand moves forward by 2 minutes.
North Korea's nuclear test, Iran's programme, and for the first time climate change is factored into the clock.
— 6 minutes to midnight
The hand moves back by 1 minute.
New START Treaty between Obama and Medvedev, Copenhagen climate summit: cooperation resumes, if fragile.
— 5 minutes to midnight
The hand moves forward by 1 minute.
Climate inaction, arsenal modernisation, Fukushima: the Bulletin judges that the promises of 2010 have not been kept.
— 3 minutes to midnight
The hand moves forward by 2 minutes.
Massive nuclear modernisation and still-rising CO₂ emissions: back to the level of 1984.
— 2 min 30 s to midnight
The hand moves forward by 30 seconds.
First half-minute setting: nuclear rhetoric from the new US administration, climate backsliding, rise of "alternative facts".
— 2 minutes to midnight
The hand moves forward by 30 seconds.
North Korean tests, US-Russia tensions, collapse of arms control: level with the 1953 record.
— 1 min 40 s to midnight
The hand moves forward by 20 seconds.
Under two minutes for the first time. End of the INF Treaty, Australian bushfires, online disinformation — weeks before the Covid-19 pandemic.
— 1 min 30 s to midnight
The hand moves forward by 10 seconds.
Russia's invasion of Ukraine and explicit nuclear threats, New START inspections suspended, Covid fallout and biological threats.
— 1 min 30 s to midnight
Unchanged from the previous year.
Unchanged, but the Bulletin insists this is no sign of stability. War in Gaza, record heat in 2023, rapid rise of generative AI.
— 1 min 29 s to midnight
The hand moves forward by 1 seconds.
One second closer, a symbolic move: "every second of delay makes the world more dangerous". Ukraine, Middle East, climate, military AI, disinformation.
— 1 min 25 s to midnight
The hand moves forward by 4 seconds.
Set on 27 January 2026: 85 seconds, an all-time record. New START expiring in February 2026 with no successor, persistent conflicts, AI embedded in military systems.