Mar 24, 200602:03 PMThe Life

Europe springs forward

Daylight Saving Time won't arrive here until a week from Sunday. But throughout most of the continental European Union, DST begins this Sunday morning, at 1:00am UTC.

In the 19th century, the "Prime Meridian" (longitude = 0 degrees) was established at the Royal Observatory in Greenwich, England, and Greenwich Mean Time (GMT) became the time standard for British maritime navigation. In 1970, the Coordinated Universal Time (UTC) system was devised by the International Telecommunication Union (ITU). Based on GMT, but designed to be a worldwide standard, the ITU felt it was best to designate a single abbreviation for use in all languages. As a compromise, UTC was chosen. Actually, GMT is measured from noon, whereas UTC is measured from midnight. However, few use the noon measurement and refer to GMT (or "Zulu") as if it were actually UTC.

Part 2 (America springs forward) will appear next Friday. Stay tuned.