Greenwich Mean Time was imposed by Queen Victoria to differentiate between the time Zones in the UK and the time zones in her husbands home country. True or false?

Kainantu

False: GMT was originally set-up to aid naval navigation when the globe started to open up with the discovery of the 'New World' (America) in the fifteenth Century. It was not forced on to 'land-lubbers' until the introduction of the railways (railroads) in the mid nineteenth century. In the 1840 %3Chttp://greenwichpast.com/history/time-line/c19th.htm%3E's with the introduction of the railways (railroads) there was a need, in Britain, for a national time system to replace the local time adopted by major towns and cities. Greenwich was the national centre for time and had been since 1675 %3Chttp://greenwichpast.com/history/time-line/c17th.htm%3E. It was not adopted officially by Parliament until 2 August 1880 %3Chttp://greenwichpast.com/history/time-line/c19th.htm%3E. Greenwich Mean Time (GMT) was adopted by the United States (USA) at noon on 18 November 1883 %3Chttp://greenwichpast.com/history/time-line/c19th.htm%3E when the telegraph lines transmitted time signals to all major cities. Prior to that there were over 300 local times in the USA. http://greenwichmeantime.com/info/gmt.htm Sep 17 02, 12:34 AM

bloomsby

1. UK. The Act of Parliament establishing GMT (now UT) was passed in 1876, long after the railway and telegraph companies had in effect imposed GMT on the country. 2. Germany. Following unification there was a need to establish a uniform timezone, and in 1877(?) Mitteleurop%E4ische Zeit (MEZ) - Central European Time (= GMT + 1hr) was adopted. Austria-Hungary followed and added East European Time ( = GMT + 2hrs) for the more easterly parts of the Empire. By the time the French tried to press for Paris Time as the basis for the global standard they were on a hiding to nothing. Was Queen Victoria amused? It's just possible ... Sep 20 02, 3:21 AM