Time To Fall Back!

 

www.centralwatch.com

 Don't forget! This weekend we 'fall back' for Daylight Saving Time!

At 2am on Sunday, November 3rd, Daylight Saving Time will end and we have to turn back our clocks an hour to 1am. Granted, our cell phones, tvs, and computers do this for us - remember to turn back any other clocks around the house.

Here are some tidbits of Daylight Saving Time's long and storied history, courtesy of TimeandDate.com:

• The idea of daylight saving time was first conceived by Benjamin Franklin in 1784 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. (timeanddate)
• Other prominent people in the DST movemnt included George Vernon Hudson(1895), William Willett (1905) and Robert Pearce (1908). Pearce introduced the bill to the House of Commons in Feburary of 1908 but was opposed by many, espeically farmers, and thus the bill was never made into law. (timeanddate)
• DST was finally adopted during World Word I to replace artifical lighting so they could save fuel for the wor effort. Many countries reverted back to standard time post-World War I, and it wasn’t until the next World War that DST would make its return to many countries in order to save vital energy resources for the war.
• DST caused widespread confusion from 1945 to 1966 for trains, buses and the broadcasting industry in the US because many states and localities were free to choose when and if they would observe DST. Congress decided to end the confusion and establish the Uniform Time Act of 1966 that stated DST would begin on the last Sunday of April and end on the last Sunday of October. However, states still had the ability to be exempt from DST by passing a local ordinance.
• Daylight saving time is now implemented in over seventy countries worldwide and affects over a billion people each year. Although many countries observe DST, the beginning and end dates are often different than the US.
• Now DST follows the Energy Policy Act of 2005 - which extends 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.