Delegates in Washington make Greenwich zero degrees longitude for the whole world

For a month, delegates from twenty-six nations had argued in Washington over where the world's maps should start counting. On October 22, 1884, the International Meridian Conference formally adopted its resolutions fixing the prime meridian at the Royal Observatory in Greenwich, England, with longitude measured 180 degrees east and west from that line. The vote on the key resolution had carried 22 to 1 nine days earlier, San Domingo dissenting, France and Brazil abstaining. The conference also recommended a universal day running from midnight to midnight, numbered 0 to 24…