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3000 BCE
Early Egyptians told time by the shadow cast by the sun on an unmoving object.
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Period: 3000 BCE to
3000 BCE-1972
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325 BCE
Early Greeks and Egyptians used a water dial.
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300 BCE
Babylonians started using a sundial. It was essentially a flat circle with a 12-hour clock face.
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Jan 1, 1001
Europe used an hourglass to tell time.
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Jan 1, 1300
The first mechanical clock appeared in Europe.
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Jan 1, 1301
Hourglasses were used in law courts.
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Jan 1, 1400
Watches appeared in Italy.
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A pendulum was added to the clock to make it more accurate.
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Railway companies in the U.S, Canada and Great Britain had divided the land into time zones. Each zone operated under its own time.
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International Date Line was established. This is an imaginary line drawn through the Pacific Ocean on or near the 180th meridian.
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Time was measured by Greenwich Mean Time. The time in each time zone was approximately 1 hour later than the time zone to the west and 1 hour earlier than the time zone to the east.
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Time zones were standardized.
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Standard time was invented.
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In an attempt to make the most of daylight hours, Daylight Savings was introduced.
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Universal Time Coordinate was adopted around the world as the official measure of time for the planet.