Xref: utzoo comp.text:2351 comp.std.internat:405
Path: utzoo!utgpu!water!watmath!clyde!att!pacbell!ames!haven!ncifcrf!nlm-mcs!adm!celms
From: celms@adm.ARPA (Dr. Aivars Celmins )
Newsgroups: comp.text,comp.std.internat
Subject: Re: All numeric representation of dates
Message-ID: <16995@adm.ARPA>
Date: 30 Aug 88 14:21:09 GMT
References: <1988Aug28.010835.17290@utzoo.uucp> <2882@hubcap.UUCP> <774@philmds.UUCP>
Reply-To: celms@brl.arpa (Dr. Aivars Celmins (VLD/GSB) <celms>)
Organization: Ballistic Research Lab (BRL), APG, MD.
Lines: 22

In article <774@philmds.UUCP> hulsebos@philmds.UUCP (Rob Hulsebos) writes:
>  ....
>Congress also decided that English would the the language of the country, 
>instead of German. Those in favor of English won with the smallest possible
>margin of only _1_ vote. I wonder what the course of history would have been
>had German become the US language.
>Wouldn't life be much easier if the USA would speak German :-)
>and thus also use the metric system ? Even the word 'dollar' is derived from
>German!
>
Rob, you need some refreshing of your histoy lessons:

(1) USA was one of the 17 countries which signed the original Metric
    Convention in 1875. (The metric system was legalized in USA in 1866.)

(2) Metric standards are by law the basis of USA standards since 1893.

(3) There is no "official language" in the USA.  The one-vote
    majority alluded to in your message pertains to the State of
    Pennsylvania where English is indeed the official language.

Aivars Celmins