November 18, 1883: Standard Time Is Established

November 18, 1883: Standard Time takes effect throughout the United States of America, with 4 time zones: Eastern, Central, Mountain and Pacific.

In 1675, the Royal Observatory was founded in Greenwich, just to the east of central London, now part of the city (but not "The City of London"), in postcode SE10. It was set as the "Prime Meridian": Zero degrees latitude, everything to its east being east latitude, and everything to its west being west latitude, until meeting over the Pacific Ocean at what became the International Date Line (which was later adjusted in some places, for various reasons).

That worked for a while. But with the rise of railroads in the mid-19th Century, "solar time" was becoming less reliable. Cities had set time by making 12:00 Noon the time when the Sun was at its highest position over the city.

But the spherical shape of Earth means there's a variation, which corresponds to 4 minutes of time for every degree of longitude. For example: Bristol, in the West County of England, is about 2.5 degrees to the west of the national capital of London. Therefore, when it was 12:00 Noon in London, it was 11:50 AM in Bristol.

And in America, railroad stations would often use the time of their railroad's headquarters. Which didn't work, depending on both latitude and longitude. On the New York Central Railroad, when it was 12:00 Noon in Manhattan, it was 11:36 AM in Buffalo. On the Pennsylvania Railroad, when it was 12:00 Noon in Philadelphia, it was 11:37 AM in Pittsburgh... and 12:03 PM in Jersey City, where the PRR terminated before the construction of the tunnels connecting it to Manhattan; and 12:06 at another PRR terminus, in Washington, D.C.

Clearly, "Railway Time" was not going to work. Finally, Congress passed, and President Chester Arthur signed, a law creating official time zones for the country, to take effect on Sunday, November 18, 1833 -- "The Day of Two Noons." The boundaries required some adjustments, and the current ones were set by the Standard Time Act on March 19, 1918.

The system still isn't perfect. For example, on November 18, 2022, sunrise will be at 6:39 AM in Boston, and at 7:33 in Indianapolis -- and yet, both of these cities are in the Eastern Time Zone. But it's the best system we've had yet, and no one really wants to break America's time zones up any further.j

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November 18, 1883 was a Sunday. Baseball was out of season. Basketball wasn't invented yet. Hockey was all-amateur. And no college football games were played. So there were no scores on this historic day.

This was, however, the birthdate of Carl Vinson, a Democratic Congressman from Georgia, and a longtime advocate for the U.S. Navy, which named an aircraft carrier for him.