My boys and I are learning about Daylight Saving Time since it is that time again. I have found some interisting information and thought I would share it with you all. Happy Learning! Dee
The History of Daylight Saving Time 1784 - Benjamin Franklin is thought to have come up with the idea for daylight-saving time during his sojourn as an American delegate in Paris in 1784, in an essay, "An Economical Project." He said that Parisians could save thousands of francs a years by waking up earlier during the summer because it would prevent them from having to buy so many candles to light the evening hours. 1883 - The U.S. railroad industry established official time zones with a set standard time within each zone. (Congress eventually came on board, signing the railroad time zone system into law in 1918.) 1918 - The U.S. first adopts daylight-saving time, in the same act that created standard time zones, in an effort to save energy during World War I. It wasn't popular, and, as a result, was repealed the following year. 1942 - President Franklin D. Roosevelt instituted "war-time," a year-round daylight-saving time to save energy during World War II. After the year-round shift ended in 1945, many states adopted their own summer time changes. 1966 - Congress passed the Uniform Time Act, which standardized the start and end dates for daylight saving time but allowed individual states to remain on standard time if their legislatures allowed it. The act came in response from the transportation industry, which demanded consistency across time zones. The U.S. Department of Transportation now oversees time changes in the United States. 1986 - The Federal law is amended to start daylight-saving time on the first Sunday in April, beginning in 1987. The ending date of daylight-saving time was never changed, and remained the last Sunday in October through 2006. 2005 - On August 8, President Bush signs the Energy Policy Act of 2005 into law. Part of the act will extend daylight-saving time starting in 2007, from the second Sunday in March to the first Sunday in November. 2007 - Daylight-saving time begins on Sunday, March 11 and ends on Sunday, November 4.
Sources: CNN.com and CNN Library
Interesting tid-bits: Amtrak - To keep to their published timetables, trains cannot leave a station before the scheduled time. So, when the clocks fall back one hour in October, all Amtrak trains in the U.S. that are running on time stop at 2:00 a.m. and wait one hour before resuming. Overnight passengers are often surprised to find their train at a dead stop and their travel time an hour longer than expected. At the spring Daylight Saving Time change, trains instantaneously become an hour behind schedule at 2:00 a.m., but they just keep going and do their best to make up the time. Following the 1973 oil embargo, the U.S. Congress extended Daylight Saving Time to 8 months, rather than the normal six months. During that time, the U.S. Department of Transportation found that observing Daylight Saving Time in March and April saved the equivalent in energy of 10,000 barrels of oil each day - a total of 600,000 barrels in each of those two years. Minneapolis-St. Paul - The Minnesota cities of Minneapolis and St. Paul once didn’t have twin perspectives with regard to the clock. These two large cities are adjacent at some points and separated only by the Mississippi River at others, and are considered a single metropolitan area. In 1965, St. Paul decided to begin its Daylight Saving Time period early to conform to most of the nation, while Minneapolis felt it should follow Minnesota's state law, which stipulated a later start date. After intense inter-city negotiations and quarreling, the cities could not agree, and so the one-hour time difference went into effect, bringing a period of great time turmoil to the cities and surrounding areas. Indiana - Indiana has long been a hotbed of Daylight Saving Time controversy. Historically, the state’s two western corners, which fall in the Central Time Zone, observed DST, while the remainder of the state, in the Eastern Time zone, followed year-round Standard Time. An additional complication was that five southeastern counties near Cincinnati and Louisville unofficially observed DST to keep in sync with those cities. In April 2005, Indiana legislators passed a law that implemented Daylight Saving Time statewide beginning on April 2, 2006.
What is daylight-saving time? Daylight-saving time is a system established to reduce electricity usage by extending daylight hours (clocks are set ahead one hour). This year, daylight-saving time begins at 2am on Sunday, March 11, 2007. Daylight-saving time ends at 2am on Sunday, November 4, 2007.
In the past, daylight-saving time began in April and ended in October. However, an energy bill signed by President George W. Bush on August 8, 2005 extended daylight-saving time as part of a long-term solution to the nation's energy problems. The new law extended daylight-saving time by four weeks - beginning three weeks earlier and ending one week later.
Also under the new laws, the entire state of Indiana now observes daylight-saving time. Prior to the new laws, only certain areas of the state observed the time changes. Exceptions in the United States In the United States, Hawaii and most of Arizona do not follow daylight-saving time. And, the U.S. territories of Guam, Puerto Rico, Virgin Islands and American Samoa also do not observe daylight-saving time.
We are a homeschooling family raising 4 boys in Virginia. This blog is mostly about anything relevant to raising boys or homeschooling in general - but every once in a while I can't help but add some nonsense from our daily life.
Mar. 9, 2008 - Thank You