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KF5JRV > TODAY    31.05.25 11:30l 18 Lines 1863 Bytes #999 (0) @ WW
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Subj: Today in History - May 31
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Sent: 250531/0913Z 8881@KF5JRV.#NWAR.AR.USA.NA BPQ6.0.24


The famous tower clock known as Big Ben, located at the top of the 320-foot-high Elizabeth Tower, begins ticking over the Houses of Parliament in Westminster, London, for the first time on May 31, 1859. The great bell's strikes are first heard a few weeks later, on July 11.

After a fire destroyed much of the Palace of Westminsterâ€öthe headquarters of the British Parliamentâ€öin October 1834, a standout feature of the design for the new palace was a large clock atop a tower. The royal astronomer, Sir George Airy, wanted the clock to have pinpoint accuracy, including twice-a-day checks with the Royal Greenwich Observatory. While many clockmakers dismissed this goal as impossible, Airy counted on the help of Edmund Beckett Denison, a formidable barrister known for his expertise in horology, or the science of measuring time.

The name “Big Ben� originally just applied to the bell but later came to refer to the clock itself. Two main stories exist about how Big Ben got its name. Many claim it was named after the famously long-winded Sir Benjamin Hall, the London commissioner of works at the time it was built. Another famous story argues that the bell was named for the popular heavyweight boxer Benjamin Caunt, because it was the largest of its kind.

Even after an incendiary bomb destroyed the chamber of the House of Commons during the Second World War, Elizabeth Tower survived, and Big Ben continued to function. Its famously accurate timekeeping is regulated by a stack of coins placed on the clockâ€Ös huge pendulum, ensuring a steady movement of the clock hands at all times. At night, all four of the clockâ€Ös faces, each one 23 feet across, are illuminated. A light above Big Ben is also lit to let the public know when Parliament is in session.



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