Outside of the Liberty Bell in Philadelphia, London’s Big Ben probably has the most famous bell around; and when it comes to clock towers, Big Ben is the most famous. The British Parliament decided that the rebuilt Palace of Westminster, to replace the one gutted by a fire the year before, should have a new bell tower with a clock. They wanted the clock precise, too, their proposal for a contract reading “the first stroke of the hour bell should register the time, correct to within one second per day, and furthermore that it should telegraph its performance twice a day to Greenwich Observatory, where a record would be kept.” An unheard of precision at that time. Ultimately only one man succeeded in delivering it.

On this day, May 31, in 1869 the Big Ben in London marked its first turn of the hour, to become one the iconic buildings in the city.

According to legend the name of “Big Ben” came during a Parliament debate on the naming of the tower. At one point the Chief Lord of the Woods and Forests, Sir Benjamin Hall, spoke up. A man of unusual tallness, earning the nickname “Big Ben”, Hall started off on a particularly long-winded oratory on the subject of the clock’s name. When he was finally done, a wag from the back of the crowd spoke up, “Why not just call it ‘Big Ben’ and be done with it?” The suggestion was met with uproarious laughter and stuck with the tower ever since.