When, where and why did the public clocks of a city stop, at what was already a famous time of day in that city's history, causing the time itself to become a catchphrase?

Tori_2s

January 21. 1910 Paris: The power station that serviced all public clocks was flooded by the Seine River and all the clocks stopped.(10:50am). http://www.sarahsmith.com/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=43&Itemid=87 January 21, 1793 Paris: Louis XVI of France executed (10:15am). http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Louis_XVI_of_France catchphrase: The stopping of clocks, however, and the irritating obsession of ONZE HEURES MOINS DIX which confronted the Parisian from every street and cafe clock was something new and alarming; with its suggestion that time had stopped dead at the most ill-chosen of moments, this petty but perpetually repeated annoyance was the symbol of all the manifold inconveniences wrought by the flood, the failure of electric light, the disorganization of trams and 'buses, the bursting of drains and the swamping of houses, and perhaps none of them was more demoralizing. http://edwardianpromenade.com/paris/the-paris-flood-of-1910/ Jun 21 11, 7:42 PM

gmackematix

Après moi, la deluge... is, of course, correct. At least they managed to move the valuable Louvre exhibits, such as the Mona Lisa, upstairs in time. Jul 03 11, 4:46 PM