The story behind how time zones were born

Have you ever wondered how the world agreed on time?

⏳ Before time zones, each town used local solar time—meaning noon was when the sun was directly overhead. It worked fine... until technology sped things up.

🚂 By the mid-1800s, the rise of railroads created chaos in train schedules. Every city had a slightly different time, making coordination nearly impossible. A standard time became a necessity.

🌍 Then in 1884, representatives from 23 countries met at the International Meridian Conference. They chose Greenwich, England as the starting point—also known as the Prime Meridian. Why Greenwich? Because most ships already used it, and it had accurate, trusted time data.

🕰️ This led to the creation of a global system of time zones—dividing the world into 24 zones, each one hour apart.

🧭 Greenwich Mean Time, or GMT, became the world's standard for navigation and timekeeping.

🕓 In the 20th century, countries began adopting and refining the system. Daylight Saving Time was introduced, and now nearly every country uses time zones to stay in sync.

In short, time zones were born from a mix of science, global cooperation, and the need to catch a train on time!