In 1675 – Britain’s King Charles II established the observatory at Greenwich with the main purpose of determining precise longitudes to aid in navigation. This purpose led to Greenwich being marked as the prime meridian and later Greenwich Mean Time.
In 1799 – The first definitive prototype metre bars (mètre des Archives) and kilograms were constructed in platinum.
In 1999 – The first demonstration of live rats directly controlling a robot arm with their thoughts was published by Nature Neuroscience.
Like Tech History? Get the illustrated Year in Tech History at Merritt’s Books site.