D.C.) International Meridian Conference (1884 : Washington

Published as the official record of an international meeting rather than the work of a single writer, this title comes from the International Meridian Conference, held in Washington, D.C., in October 1884. Delegates from 25 nations met to agree on a common prime meridian and a universal day, making the proceedings an important document in the history of navigation, geography, and global standard time.

The conference is best remembered for recommending the Greenwich meridian as the international standard for zero degrees longitude. That decision influenced maps, sea travel, astronomy, and eventually the way the world coordinates time across borders.

Because this is a corporate or conference author rather than an individual person, there is no single personal biography or portrait to include. What gives the book its value is the event itself: a rare, firsthand record of a moment when nations tried to standardize how the world measures place and time.