The metre is a slice of the Earth: one ten-millionth of the distance from the pole to the equator.

1792 · 1798 · apart: 6 years

Two astronomers spent six years surveying the meridian from Dunkirk to Barcelona, through revolution and war, to fix it.

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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

• 1789 The navy's most famous mutiny broke out on a ship carrying plants.
• 1789 Captain Bligh, set adrift by mutineers, sailed 6,700 km in an open boat.
• 1790 · 1808 The Bounty mutineers' hideout was found only 18 years later.
• 1791 · 1830 Salieri did not poison Mozart.
• 1793 · 1795 France once had clocks on which noon came at five.
• 1794 The father of modern chemistry was executed as a tax collector.

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