History of prime meridians

Okay kiddo, do you know what a meridian is? It's like an imaginary line that goes around the Earth from the north pole to the south pole.

Now let's talk about the prime meridian. It's a special meridian that we use as a starting point to measure longitudes, which are like lines that go from east to west around the Earth.

The very first prime meridian was set in 1634 by a man named Frenchman Dom. His prime meridian went through the Canary Islands.

But then different countries started using their own prime meridians, which caused lots of confusion when people tried to calculate longitudes.

So in 1884, lots of countries got together and decided to pick one prime meridian to use around the world. They chose the one that went through the Royal Observatory in Greenwich, England. This is the prime meridian that we still use today!