Coordinated Universal Time abbreviated to UTC, is the primary time standard by which the world regulates clocks and time. It is within about 1 second of mean solar time at 0° longitude; it does not observe daylight saving time. For most purposes, UTC is considered interchangeable with Greenwich Mean Time (GMT), but GMT is no longer precisely defined by the scientific community. 

The first Coordinated Universal Time was informally adopted on 1 January 1960, but the official abbreviation of UTC and the official English name of Coordinated Universal Time (along with the French equivalent), was not adopted until 1967. 

The system was adjusted several times, including a brief period where time coordination radio signals broadcast both UTC and "Stepped Atomic Time (SAT)" until a new UTC was adopted in 1970 and implemented in 1972. This change also adopted leap seconds to simplify future adjustments. This CCIR Recommendation 460 "stated that (a) carrier frequencies and time intervals should be maintained constant and should correspond to the definition of the SI second; (b) step adjustments, when necessary, should be exactly 1 s to maintain approximate agreement with Universal Time (UT); and (c) standard signals should contain information on the difference between UTC and UT."
What did it also adopt?
 leap seconds