Scottish-born Canadian Sir Sandford Fleming proposed a worldwide system of time zones in 1879 . He advocated his system at several international conferences , and is credited with " the initial effort that led to the adoption of the present time meridians " . In 1876 , his first proposal was for a global 24-hour clock , conceptually located at the centre of the Earth and not linked to any surface meridian . In 1879 he specified that his universal day would begin at the anti-meridian of Greenwich ( 180th meridian ) , while conceding that hourly time zones might have some limited local use . He also proposed his system at the International Meridian Conference in October 1884 , but it did not adopt his time zones because they were not within its purview . The conference did adopt a universal day of 24 hours beginning at Greenwich midnight , but specified that it " shall not interfere with the use of local or standard time where desirable "
International Meridian Conference
International Meridian Conference
Time zone