On 13 October 1884, representatives from 25 nations convened in Washington, DC, for the International Meridian Conference, a historic gathering aimed at resolving the complexities of global navigation and timekeeping.
After much deliberation, the conference designated the Royal Observatory in Greenwich, London, as the universal prime meridian of longitude—marking 0° longitude.
This decision was pivotal in creating a uniform system for time zones and cartography, as Greenwich Mean Time (GMT) became the standard reference for coordinating time across the globe.
The adoption of Greenwich as the prime meridian not only underscored Britain’s maritime influence but also set the stage for the modern global time system we use today.
