My mom had a rotary dial phone (well, it had big pushbuttons, but it was set to pulse dial mode) until less than 8 years ago when she required some medical equipment with a life alert attachment that only did touch tone. She never wanted to pay the extra $1 per month they charged for touch tone! It was extremely frustrating back when I was in school and still at home, since I always had to set my modem to pulse dial instead of tone, so it took me 10x longer to dial in to a BBS than everyone else.
It's not just time - IP addresses (IPv4 anyway) sort poorly when sorted alphabetically. Things like 192.168.100.100 sort before 192.168.100.2
There are some civilian things in the US where the time needs to be clear with no ambiguities so 24hr time is used - such as in travel. Somehow though I think if you ask the average American what time of day it is if the time is 1930 they will just look at you with a blank face or say "it can't be over 12"