According to this article it comes from the first sundials used by the ancient Egyptians which divided the day up into 12 equal parts and then the night being divided up into 12 equal parts from the movement of 12 particular stars.
The the Babylonians were the ones who divided those 24 hours up into 60s thanks to their numbering system being base 60.
And then it just sort of stuck? The only large scale attempt to shift to a different numbering system for time and dates was in revolutionary France but it never really expanded beyond that and once the railways and telegraph required a standardised system of time internationally and things became fixed where we are now.
According to this article it comes from the first sundials used by the ancient Egyptians which divided the day up into 12 equal parts and then the night being divided up into 12 equal parts from the movement of 12 particular stars.
The the Babylonians were the ones who divided those 24 hours up into 60s thanks to their numbering system being base 60.
And then it just sort of stuck? The only large scale attempt to shift to a different numbering system for time and dates was in revolutionary France but it never really expanded beyond that and once the railways and telegraph required a standardised system of time internationally and things became fixed where we are now.