Railroads Standardize Time: Five Zones Unite North America
American and Canadian railroads abolished the chaos of hundreds of local sun-based times by instituting five standardized continental time zones on a single day. The reform ended the nightmare of scheduling trains across cities where clocks disagreed by hours, and it forced every telegraph office and town clock in North America to synchronize simultaneously.
November 18, 1883
143 years ago
Key Figures & Places
What Else Happened on November 18
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