Daylight Saving Time (DST)
The idea of DST was thought of many years ago. Many of us remember explanations like, “It’s for the farmers so they have more daylight to plant and harvest.” Haven’t heard that for a while.
But I’ve been able to dig up these factoids for inquiring minds.
In 1784, Benjamin Franklin first conceived the idea of daylight saving time during his stay in Paris. He published an essay titled “An Economical Project for Diminishing the Cost of Light” that proposed to economize the use of candles by rising earlier to make use of the morning sunlight.
In 1942, President Franklin D. Roosevelt established year-round DST in the United States—called “War Time” during World War II from February 9, 1942 to September 30, 1945—the law was enforced 40 days after the bombing of Pearl Harbor and during this time, time zones were called “Eastern War Time”, “Central War Time”, and “Pacific War Time”. After the surrender of Japan in mid-August 1945, the time zones were relabeled “Peace Time”.
DST Now
Daylight saving time is now implemented in over seventy countries worldwide and affects over a billion people each year.
The current DST schedule began in 2007 and follows the Energy Policy Act of 2005, which extended the period by about one month where DST starts on the second Sunday in March and ends on the first Sunday in November. Currently, most of the US observes DST except for Hawaii and most of Arizona, and the US insular areas of Puerto Rico, the US Virgin Islands, American Samoa, and Guam.—WhyGirl.com
Related links
The World Clock – Current time all over the world