Today, July 28, is the 145th anniversary of signing into law the Metric Act of 1866, legalizing the use of the metric system in the United States.
We haven't made much progress since then. Perhaps only: *1893 Mendenhall order (metric standards for Customary units) *1959 Unification of foot and pound (in metric terms) with other English-speaking nations *1991 EO 12770 imposing some metric requirements on federal agencies *1994 FPLA requiring dual labeling on many commodities. And some of that progress has been reversed by Congress insisting metrication is voluntary and reversing some metric requirements in Federal building and and highway construction. The "progress" certainly qualifies as gradual, perhaps glacial.
