{"id":652678,"date":"2026-06-22T19:05:14","date_gmt":"2026-06-22T19:05:14","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/652678\/"},"modified":"2026-06-22T19:05:14","modified_gmt":"2026-06-22T19:05:14","slug":"june-22-1675-the-royal-observatory-greenwich-is-founded","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/652678\/","title":{"rendered":"June 22, 1675: The Royal Observatory Greenwich is founded."},"content":{"rendered":"<p>\t\t\tBack to Article List\t\t<\/p>\n<p>\n\t\t\t\tToday in the history of astronomy, a landmark institution in navigation, timekeeping, and astronomy is created.\t\t\t<\/p>\n<p><\/p>\n<p>\t\t\t\t<img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"2560\" height=\"1707\" src=\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/06\/Royal_Observatory_Greenwich-scaled.jpg\" class=\"attachment-large size-large wp-post-image\" alt=\"A large, multi-story brick building features ornate stone trimming, pitched grey roofs, and a massive dark dome crowning its center. In the foreground, a tan brick wall partially hides the structure, surrounded by green trees, bushes, and a small garden enclosed by a black metal fence. The scene is shot from a slightly low angle on a paved path under an overcast, pale sky.\"\/><\/p>\n<p>\n\t\t\t\t\t\tFor 350 years, the Royal Observatory Greenwich has been an institution in timekeeping, navigation, and astronomy. Credit: Mike Peel\/Wikimedia\t\t\t\t\t<\/p>\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">The Royal Observatory Greenwich celebrates its <a href=\"https:\/\/www.rmg.co.uk\/whats-on\/royal-observatory\/350-anniversary#:~:text=The%20Royal%20Observatory%2C%20Greenwich%20is,the%20centre%20of%20world%20time\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">351st anniversary<\/a> today. Founded by King Charles II on June 22, 1675, the observatory was tasked with solving \u201cthe longitude problem,\u201d the lack of accurate east-west positioning at sea because of the difficulty of precise timekeeping during long voyages. <a href=\"https:\/\/www.astronomy.com\/today-in-the-history-of-astronomy\/aug-19-1646-the-birth-of-john-flamsteed\/\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">John Flamsteed<\/a>, <a href=\"https:\/\/www.astronomy.com\/science\/350-years-of-astronomers-royal-astronomical-advisors-to-the-british-monarchs\/\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">the first astronomer royal<\/a>, led meticulous observations of the Moon and stars to rectify celestial tables and perfect navigation.<\/p>\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">In 1833, Astronomer Royal John Pond installed the Greenwich Time Ball on the observatory roof, a visual signal of the time that nearby sailors could use to sync their chronometers. The Royal Observatory came to be considered the home of time and navigation, establishing the Prime Meridian in 1884 as the world\u2019s zero longitude and Greenwich Mean Time as a global standard. Since Flamsteed, 14 other astronomers royal have advised monarchs on diverse scientific matters, though the modern role is largely honorary.<\/p>\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Elisa Neckar is senior production editor of Astronomy magazine, and the editor of the Today in the History of Astronomy feature on <a href=\"http:\/\/astronomy.com\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">Astronomy.com<\/a>.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Back to Article List Today in the history of astronomy, a landmark institution in navigation, timekeeping, and astronomy&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":652679,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[23],"tags":[162038,90,416,56,54,55],"class_list":["post-652678","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-space","tag-observatories","tag-science","tag-space","tag-uk","tag-united-kingdom","tag-unitedkingdom"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/652678","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=652678"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/652678\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/652679"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=652678"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=652678"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=652678"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}