Fans of standard time have one man to either thank or blame.

It was 143 years ago today, during a speech in Toronto, Canadian-Scottish engineer Sir Sandford Fleming first advocated for the adoption of Universal Standard Time.

Apparently it was an idea whose time had come.

Standard Time, which divided the world into 24 equal time zones, took effect January first 1885.

The debate now rages over maintaining a system that involved Daylight Saving Time or switching year round to one or the other.