A Little History of Daylight Saving and Standard Time

We go from Daylight Saving Time to Standard Time this Sunday which means we set the clocks back an hour. The idea of daylight saving goes back to Ben Franklin in 1784 but the Daylight Saving Time we have now began during WWll when President Franklin Roosevelt instituted a year-round Daylight Saving Time known as ‘War Time’. It ran from 1942 to 1945 but after ’45 to 1966 there was not a federal law regarding Daylight Saving Time. Each state was free to choose if the wanted to have it or not.

It was January 4, 1974, when President Nixon signed into law the Emergency Daylight Saving Time Energy Conservation Act. Daylight Saving Time started on February 23 of each year and Standard Time resumed October 27^th each year.

In 1986, the law was amended to begin Daylight Saving Time on the first Sunday in April and end at 2 a.m. the last Sunday in October. Since then, the law was amended again. We observe Daylight Saving Time at 2 a.m. on the second Sunday in March and go back to Standard Time on the first Sunday in November. It’s not the same all over the world; each country has their own ideas about the time change.

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