I guess if we’re going to be on daylight time for 8 months of the year, and standard time for only 4, that’s the path of least resistance. For some reason, it really bothers me, as I just don’t understand the point of it.
Since the beginning of keeping time, we’ve adjusted to “high noon”. With time zones came a little compromise, with high noon only happening at 12:00 at the center of each time zone. But ignoring political adjustments, everyone was still mostly within 30 minutes of that.
So, we shift the clock an hour… but we still have the same number of hours of daylight and dark. Seems to me that if you wanted more hours of daylight before bedtime, than when you wake, one could just shift their own schedule relative to the sun, rather than the whole world playing a game of “what time is it”? It’s just a number, after all.
Daylight saving time in the U.S.
In the United States, daylight saving time was first used in 1918, when a bill introduced the idea of a seasonal time shift. It lasted seven months before the bill was repealed.
During World War II, President Franklin Roosevelt re-established the idea of daylight saving time. It was called "War Time."
War Time began in Feb. 1942 and lasted until the end of Sept. 1945.
In 1966, the Uniform Time Act of 1966 established the idea of regulating a yearly time change. Daylight saving time would begin the last Sunday in April and end the last Sunday in October.
During the 1973 oil embargo, the United States Congress ordered a year-round period of daylight saving time to save energy. The period ran from Jan. 1974 to April 1975. The plan did little to save energy and lost popularity. In Oct. 1974, the U.S. switched back to standard time.
From 1987 through 2006, daylight saving time started the first weekend in April, running through the last weekend in October.
In 2007, the start and end of daylight saving time shifted again. That year, it began on the second Sunday in March and it ended on the first Sunday in November, which has been the case ever since.
SO really a very recent implementation. I was born pre DST.
The future of daylight saving time
In recent years,
some have pushed to make daylight saving time last year-round. Several states have passed legislation to make this law.
I guess "time" will tell if we see year-round daylight saving time in the future.