[fitswcs] History question about "UTC"

[Steve Allen]

On Wed 2007-03-28T15:17:00 -0400, Don Wells hath writ:
> http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Coordinated_Universal_Time
>
> contains the statement:
>
>       The International Telecommunication Union wanted
>       Coordinated Universal Time to have a single abbreviation
>       for all languages. English speakers and French speakers
>       each wanted the initials of their respective languages'
>       terms to be used internationally: "CUT" for "coordinated
>       universal time" and "TUC" for "temps universel
>       coordonné". This resulted in the final compromise of
>       using UTC.
>
> That sounds vaguely urban-legendish.  How based in fact is it?

I think it derives from the sci.astro FAQ,
Subject: C.02 What are all those different kinds of time?
Authors:
Paul Schlyter
Markus Kuhn
Paul Eggert

That entry is both rather dated, full of unreferenced info,
and in places just wrong.

I shudder to realize that I may have one of the most complete
collections of the original references.

--
Steve Allen                 <sla at ucolick.org>                WGS-84 (GPS)
UCO/Lick Observatory        Natural Sciences II, Room 165    Lat  +36.99845
University of California    Voice: +1 831 459 3046           Lng -122.06025
Santa Cruz, CA 95064        http://www.ucolick.org/~sla/     Hgt +250 m