A number of peace symbols have been used in various cultures and contexts, one of the most ancient being the olive branch. The symbol of the dove and olive branch was used by early Christians and was later adopted as a secular symbol. It was popularized by Pablo Picasso in 1949 and became widely used in the post-war peace movement. In the 20th century the peace sign as it is commonly known today was designed for and adopted by the Campaign for Nuclear Disarmament. The V hand signal and the peace flag became international peace symbols.

The use of the olive as a symbol of peace dates at least to the 5th century BCE. The olive tree represented plenty, but the ancient Greeks believed that it also drove away evil spirits. The olive branch was one of the attributes of Eirene, goddess of peace (whom the Romans called Pax), on Roman Imperial coins. For example, the reverse of a tetradrachm of Vespasian from Alexandria, 70–71 CE, shows Eirene standing holding a branch upward in her right hand.

The Roman poet Virgil (70–10 BCE) associated "the plump olive" with Pax and he used the olive branch as a symbol of peace in his Aeneid:

Charles Milles Manson (born November 12, 1934) is an American criminal who led what became known as the Manson Family, a quasi-commune that arose in California in the late 1960s. He was found guilty of conspiracy to commit the Tate/LaBianca murders carried out by members of the group at his instruction. He was convicted of the murders through the joint-responsibility rule, which makes each member of a conspiracy guilty of crimes his fellow conspirators commit in furtherance of the conspiracy's objective.

Manson believed in what he called "Helter Skelter," a term he took from the song of the same name by The Beatles. Manson believed Helter Skelter to be an impending apocalyptic race war, which he described in his own version of the lyrics to the Beatles' song. He believed his murders would help precipitate that war. From the beginning of his notoriety, a pop culture arose around him in which he ultimately became an emblem of insanity, violence and the macabre. The term was later used by Manson prosecutor Vincent Bugliosi as the title of a book he wrote about the Manson murders.

John Winston Ono Lennon, MBE (9 October 1940 – 8 December 1980) was an English musician and singer-songwriter who rose to worldwide fame as one of the founder members of The Beatles, one of the most commercially successful and critically acclaimed acts in the history of popular music. Together with Paul McCartney, he formed one of the most celebrated songwriting partnerships of the 20th century.

Born and raised in Liverpool, Lennon became involved as a teenager in the skiffle craze; his first band, The Quarrymen, evolved into The Beatles in 1960. As the group disintegrated towards the end of the decade, Lennon embarked on a solo career that produced the critically acclaimed albums John Lennon/Plastic Ono Band and Imagine, and iconic songs such as "Give Peace a Chance" and "Imagine". After his marriage to Yoko Ono in 1969, he changed his name to John Ono Lennon. Lennon disengaged himself from the music business in 1975 to devote time to raising his infant son Sean, but re-emerged with Ono in 1980 with the new album Double Fantasy. He was murdered three weeks after its release.

Allison Louise Crowe (born November 16, 1981) is a Canadian singer, songwriter, guitarist and pianist from Nanaimo, British Columbia who lives in Corner Brook, Newfoundland and Labrador, communities spanning the breadth of Canada.

Crowe records on her own record label, Rubenesque Records Ltd. (incorporated in 2001) and releases her original music under Creative Commons licensing.

Allison Crowe began performing professionally in 1996, at age 15, doing regular sets in the coffee-houses and bars of Vancouver Island. Crowe's recording debut came in 2001, with an EP subsequently reissued (in 2003) as Lisa’s Song + 6 Songs. Her first full-length albums, Secrets and Tidings, were released in 2004, when Crowe was 22. (Tidings was originally released in EP form in 2003.) Allison Crowe: Live at Wood Hall, a double concert album, was released in July 2005. A DVD featuring live-in-the-studio performances of Tidings songs was created for her fan club in November 2005.

Crowe, of Scottish, Irish, and Manx descent, grew up surrounded by jazz, classical and rock music, and discovered additional influences on her own such as Ani DiFranco, Pearl Jam, Tori Amos and Counting Crows. She plays music of all these genres, making her difficult to categorize: in Amazon.com’s downloads, she has simultaneously been in the top three on the Rock Singer-Songwriters, Hymns, Blues, Jazz, Broadway and British & Celtic Folk charts. "Drawing from classical, jazz, pop and gospel sources, the young singer has created singular, inspiring music both in the studio and in the concert hall.” (Joseph Blake, Victoria Times Colonist, March 24, 2005).

"The Living Legend" Larry Winters (born April 14) is a semi-retired American professional wrestler and trainer who competed in the Midwest, Mid-Atlantic and East Coast independent circuit during the 1980s and 90s. He has wrestled in the American Wrestling Association, the National Wrestling Alliance, National Wrestling Federation, Pro Wrestling USA and the World Wrestling Council.

Winters was also one of the top stars of Joel Goodhart's Tri-State Wrestling Alliance. He and his tag team partner Johnny Hotbody, as the Dog Pound, were the first TWA Tag Team Champions. However, it was his feud with D.C. Drake that brought him national attention in the wrestling world. One of the earliest displays of modern "hardcore wrestling", Bill Apter wrote "professional wrestling would be forever changed due to this escalated level of violence" after watching their first match in 1990.

He was one of many former TWA wrestlers later brought into Eastern Championship Wrestling by Tod Gordon. Teaming with one-time rival Tony Stetson, the two feuded with The Super Destroyers (Doug Stahl & A.J. Petrucci) and The Suicide Blondes (Chris Candido, Johnny Hotbody and Chris Michaels) over the ECW Tag Team Championship before turning on each other. Winters is also credited for training several future ECW stars including Donn E. Allen, Glen Osbourne and The Sandman.