GMT vs UTC: What's the Difference?
Although UTC (based on atomic clocks) is more accurate than GMT (based on the Earth's rotation), UTC is occasionally adjusted with a leap second to keep the atomic time and the Earth's rotation in sync. Therefore, the difference between the two is always less than one second.
GMT originated in the 17th century when a common time standard was needed to calibrate marine chronometers, so the time at the Royal Observatory in Greenwich, England was set as the standard.
UTC emerged in the mid-20th century after the invention of atomic clocks revealed that the Earth's rotation was not stable. To obtain a more precise and uniform time standard, UTC, based on atomic clocks, was established as the new world time reference.