Daylight Saving Time and 8 Things You May Not Know About It.

It will soon be that time of year  when most people in the United States will have to set their clocks ahead one hour .  I checked the internet.  This year its  scheduled to happen on  March 13, 2016.

Although the idea has been around for many years, it was not actually implemented in the United States until 1918.   Woodrow Wilson signed it into law to help the war effort.  Robert Garland from Pittsburgh brought the idea over from Britain and proposed it.  The idea was by changing the clocks its supposed to save energy.

The law was repealed seven months later but several large cities such as New York, continued using it until 1942 when it was implemented nation wide.  It was used year round due to World War II.  It started in February of 1942 and lasted till 1945 when Japan surrendered.

Between 1945 and 1966, there was a lot of confusion because places were able to choose if they would use daylight saving time.  In 1966, the federal government passed the universal daylight saving time act so it was was used  from the last Sunday in April and the last Sunday in October.  In 1973 with the oil shortage, daylight savings time was used for longer periods till things returned to normal in 1976.

After some playing with the schedule, the government finally settled on the second Sunday of March to the first Sunday in November.  Even to this day, Hawaii, Arizona and a couple other places do not participate in this.

8 things you may not know about it.
1. It is actually Daylight Saving Time.  It is not plural.

2. Benjamin Franklin did not propose daylight saving time, he only proposed people change their sleeping hours.

3. William Willett, a British citizen, organized the first campaign to implement daylight saving time. He figured people could enjoy more sunlight this way.

4.  Germany was the first country to actually implement daylight saving time in 1916.

5. Daylight saving time was not put into effect to benefit the farmers. I know some farmers who tell me that cows cannot tell time and still need to be milked at the same time regardless of the clock time.

6.  For decades, there were no rules to determine the patchwork of places using daylight saving time.  For example in Iowa alone, there were 23 different start and stop times.  That is just one state.  Imagine trying to travel cross country and keep track of all the different times along the route.

7. Hawaii and Arizona along with Guam and other American Territories do not participate in it.

8.  There is no conclusive evidence that going onto Daylight Saving time actually saves energy.

I live in Alaska and it is a pain to change back and forth because of the wide swings on length of daylight, it isn't worth doing but we do.   Enjoy reading this and don't forget to mark your calendars.