Founding of the Royal Greenwich Observatory in Britain

Timeline

1. 1675Greenwich Hill · LondonCharles II, acting on the advice of John Evelyn and Christopher Wren, laid the foundation of the Royal Observatory on Greenwich Hill, with the building designed by Wren, intended to serve longitude determination for navigation and the compilation of star catalogs.
2. 1676–1680Royal Greenwich Observatory · LondonIn 1676 John Flamsteed took office as the first Astronomer Royal, conducting systematic observations of celestial positions at Greenwich; his star catalog data later provided an important basis for the astronomical verifications in Newton's Principia Mathematica.