Skull and Crossbones (☠)

The skull and crossbones (☠, Unicode U+2620) is a human skull above two crossed bones — a memento mori that has signaled death and danger for centuries. Unicode added it in version 1.1 in 1993, filing it in the Miscellaneous Symbols block (U+2600–U+26FF) alongside its hazard neighbors ☢ radioactive (U+2622) and ☣ biohazard (U+2623). It carries two very different jobs. As a hazard mark it is still current and official: the skull and crossbones is one of the nine GHS pictograms for acute toxicity, adopted into U.S. law through OSHA's Hazard Communication Standard — not retired, though the friendlier "Mr. Yuk" sticker (created in 1971 by the Pittsburgh Poison Center, after children linked the skull to pirates rather than to danger) supplements it on household products. As pirate lore it is the Jolly Roger, the black flag documented in the 1710s–1720s for captains such as Samuel "Black Sam" Bellamy, Edward England, and John Taylor — though many crews flew other designs, so it was never the one universal pirate flag. One caution: ☠ is not the plain skull emoji 💀 (U+1F480), the character people paste for "I'm dead" laughing reactions — different code point, different register, endlessly confused.