On this day, King Charles II commissioned the Royal Observatory in Greenwich, London. The foundation stone was laid on 10th August and the main building, often known as Flamsteed House after the first Astronomer Royal, John Flamsteed, was completed the following year. Designed by Sir Cristopher Wren and constructed on the old hilltop site of Greenwich Castle, the Royal Observatory was the first purpose-built, scientific research facility in Britain. It played a major role in the history of astronomy and navigation, and since the Prime Meridian passed through it, it gave its name to Greenwich Mean Time, the precursor of today’s Coordinated Universal Time (UTC). In the first half of the 20th century, the scientific work of the observatory was relocated elsewhere and the Greenwich site is now maintained almost exclusively as a museum, although a new Annie Maunder Astrographic Telescope (AMAT) became operational for astronomical research in 2018.
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