Our planet revolves around a bright star called the Sun, so one half of the Earth is in shadow while the other one is brightly lit. Due to the rotation of the planet around its axis, daytime is replaced by nighttime and a day lasts 24 hours.

The time of day in different parts of the globe at the same moment is different: it’s noon in one place, midnight in another, and early morning in yet another place. Previously, each town used its own local solar time, which was determined by its geographic position or the position of the nearest big city.

But as rail transport developed, a need arose to standardize the time system in order to create accurate train schedules and to avoid confusion and accidents. As a result, the new time system was supposed to be based on the meridians, and it was first adopted in Great Britain. They took the count from the prime meridian, which passes through Greenwich. This is how Greenwich Mean Time (GMT) appeared and 24 time zones were formed which are geographic areas that observe a uniform standard time. The first time zones matched the geographic time zones (as can be seen on old maps), and the reference point was the Greenwich meridian.

Thanks to the development of railway transport, the new time system was gradually adopted by other countries. Since 1972, the more accurate Coordinated Universal Time (UTC) has been used instead of Greenwich Mean Time. This is the standard by which we regulate our clocks and times.

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