Cleveland Abbe
In order to compile his information, Abbe required a time-keeping system that was consistent among the stations. To accomplish this he divided the United States into four standard time zones. He published, in 1879, a paper titled "Report on Standard Time". In 1883, he convinced North American railroad companies to adopt his time-zone system. In 1884, Britain, which had already adopted its own standard time system for England, Scotland, and Wales, helped gather international consent for global time. In time, the American government, influenced in part by his 1879 paper, adopted the time-zone system.
International Date Line
The Russian Empire settled northwest North America from Siberia, from the west with its own Julian calendar (it did not adopt the Gregorian calendar until 1918). The United States purchased Russian America while based in the contiguous United States, from the east with its own Gregorian calendar (adopted in 1752 while several British colonies). The transfer ceremony occurred on the day that the commissioners appointed by the governments of Russia and the United States for that purpose arrived via the at New Archangel (Sitka), the capital of Russian America. The United States recorded this date as Friday, (Gregorian), now known as Alaska Day, whereas the Russian governor, who had remained in New Archangel, would have recorded it as Saturday, (Julian). Senator Charles Sumner stated during his three-hour ratification speech (an encyclopedic discussion of Russian America) on Tuesday, , that this day of the week and calendar discord should be changed. Because the transfer of ownership officially occurred at Sitka mean solar time (time zones were not yet in use), that was the date and time that Alaska changed from an Asian and Julian date to an American and Gregorian date. If the transfer had occurred at the preceding midnight then Friday, (Julian) would have been followed by Friday, (Gregorian), a duplicate day with a 12-day difference appropriate both for changing from an Asian date to an American date (equivalent to moving the IDL from the east to the west of Alaska) and for changing from the Julian calendar to the Gregorian calendar during the 19th century.