Time Zones

In November 1883, time zones in the United States and Canada were officially recognized. Five continental time zones were put in place in order to end the confusion of the thousands of local time zones that were around.

The idea for time zones in North America came about through the railroad system. Each railroad had its own time based on the local time of its headquarters. A station in Pittsburgh had at least six different times!

The first time zones were proposed by Charles F. Dowd who came up with the idea of four different time zones, the first being 75 degrees west of Greenwich, England. This was modified a little until William F. Allen came up with five different continental time zones.

The zones were named Intercolonial, Eastern, Central, Mountain, and Pacific. Within a single year, almost 200 cities had put this in place. The exception was the city of Detroit, which had an even distance between Eastern Time, and Central Time. It wasn’t until 1915 that Detroit finally adopted Eastern Time as their time zone. The United States Congress formally adopted Standard time in 1918.

Where would society be today without time zones? Would there be some other system in place or would people be just as confused as they were a few hundred years ago?

The Arrival of the Spanish Conquistadors to Mexico

In November 1519, the Spanish conquistador Hernán Cortés arrived on the outskirts of Tenochtitlan, the capital of the Aztecs. This was one of the biggest cities in the entire world at the time, with almost 300,000 people.

When Cortés arrived here, he was welcomed with open arms by the leader, Moctezuma II. It was said Moctezuma personally dressed him in flowers which was considered to be of great honor to the Aztecs. There were over 3000 Spanish who arrived in the city and Moctezuma housed them in the palace of his father.

It seemed Moctezuma wanted nothing more than to be great friends with the Spanish. Cortés continued to request many gifts of gold for him and his fellow Spanish. He also demanded that large idols be removed from the main pyramid and replaced with shrines symbolizing Christianity.

Even though each of these demands were met, Cortés kidnapped Moctezuma in his own palace and held him for ransom. Gold was delivered, but Cortés would not let Moctezuma go. As a result, the Aztec empire eventually fell into disarray and Cortés was victorious. If Cortés and his men hadn’t discovered Mexico, and put an end to the religious practices of the Aztecs, do you think there would be practices such as human sacrifice or blood rituals in place today?

Jefferson Davis

On November 6, 1861, American history was changed forever. Jefferson Davis, a statesman from Kentucky was elected President of the Confederate States of America. Davis was responsible for the appointment of Robert E. Lee. This was a highly successful move because Lee was a man of high military skill and had great experience in war. He helped Davis win several key battles at Fredericksburg, Chancellorsville, and Deep Bottom. However, he also lost the most important battle of the war, at Gettysburg.

However, Davis was also a very flawed President. He refused to elect a general-in-chief and instead did those duties himself. Davis also made several mistakes late in the war, the most costly being when he allowed the Union to take control of the Mississippi River, effectively splitting the entire Confederate army. Additionally, Davis ignored the common person and focused more on the war rather than the survival of the South.

When the war ended in 1865, Davis fled to Virginia. Southern leaders planned to have Davis flee to Cuba and arrange further meetings to continue the war. These never happened. Davis was tried for treason and sent to prison. He lived out the rest of his life in solitude, and died in 1889 in his home at the age of 81.

How much do you think history would have been changed if the sixteenth president was Jefferson Davis instead of Abraham Lincoln? Would we still have slaves and be called the Confederate states of America?