France once had clocks on which noon came at five.

1793 · 1795 · apart: 2 years

The Revolution split the day into 10 hours of 100 minutes, but decimal time never caught on and was dropped in 1795, while the metre and the kilogram stayed.

◍ Show on the globe

The event

• Revolutionary decimal time1793–1795 · Paris. Along with the metre, revolutionary France brought in decimal time: ten hours a day, 100 minutes an hour, 100 seconds a minute. Clockmakers built ten-hour dials, but habit won, and the requirement was dropped within two years.

18th century

More amazing facts

• 1790 · 1808 The Bounty mutineers' hideout was found only 18 years later.
• 1791 · 1830 Salieri did not poison Mozart.
• 1792 · 1798 The metre is a slice of the Earth: one ten-millionth of the distance from the pole to the equator.
• 1794 The father of modern chemistry was executed as a tax collector.
• 1795 In 1795 cavalry captured a navy.
• 1795 In 1795 Britain taxed hair powder at a guinea a year.

All amazing facts (1058) →