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A Brief History of the Metric System

Year Event
1670 Records of a first Metric System by Gabriel Mouton, a French vicar
1795 Republic of France adopts the first basic Metric System proposed by the French Academy of Sciences
1820 Belgium, Luxembourg and the Netherlands are the first of a growing number of other countries to switch to the Metric System
1866 Congress legalizes the use of the Metric System in the US
1893 The US adopts metric units as fundamental standards for length and mass
1902 Congressional legislation requiring the federal government to use SI exclusively was defeated by a single vote
1959 English units are defined in terms of metric units
1970 Practically all the world has adopted the Metric System - the US, Liberia and Burma remain the only countries still using the English Imperial units
1975 Metric Conversion Act (Public Law 94-168) passed by Congress
2005 The US still have no definitve plan in sight for an adoption of the Metric System

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