I came across this today looking up something else. In 1884, representatives of 25 nations got together to decide something important: a common understanding of nautical measurements. The U.S. President convened the meeting. One country stood against the tide. Well, you might guess the outcome.

From Wikipedia:

Unlike the parallels of latitude, which are defined by the rotational axis of the Earth (the poles being 90° and the Equator, 0°), the prime meridian is arbitrary, and multiple meridians have been used through history as the prime meridians of various mapmaking systems. The Greenwich Meridian was agreed upon as the international standard in October 1884. At the behest of U.S. President Chester A. Arthur, 41 delegates from 25 nations met in Washington, D.C., USA, for the International Meridian Conference. France abstained when the vote was taken, and French maps continued to use the Paris Meridian for several decades.