At the International Meridian Conference in 1884 , American lawyer and astronomer Lewis M. Rutherfurd proposed : That this universal day is to be a mean solar day ; is to begin for all the world at the moment of midnight of the initial meridian coinciding with the beginning of the civil day and date of that meridian , and is to be counted from zero up to twenty-four hours . This resolution was adopted by the conference
International Meridian Conference
International Meridian Conference
24-hour clock