Daylight Saving Time (DST) is when we turn the clocks forward or back by an hour. Spring forward usually happens in March and fall backward in November.
“Real” time is called standard time (winter time)
In DST it feels like the sun sets later because the clock says it is later.
Today, about 40% of countries worldwide use it to make better use of daylight and to conserve energy.
Canada did it first
While Germany and Austria were the first countries to use DST in 1916, it is a little-known fact that a few hundred Canadians beat the Germans by eight years. On July 1, 1908, the residents of Port Arthur, Ontario, Canada turned their clocks forward by one hour to start the world’s first DST period.
Other places in Canada soon followed started doing the same. It was so popular that it is now a law in Canada.
Germany made it popular
The idea did not become popular around the world until the Germand did it in 1916 – two years into World War I. This was to use as little electric lighting as possible to save fuel for the war effort.
Within a few weeks of the Germans starting DST, the United Kingdom, France, and many other countries began doing so. Once the war was over most stopped usinf DST but when WWII came around, they all started using it again.
Way before…
A New Zealand scientist, George Vernon Hudson, and a British builder William Willett thought of DST long before either Canada or Germany.
In 1895, Hudson suggested a two-hour change twice a year but it never happened.
Then in 1905, Mr. Willett suggested setting the clocks ahead 20 minutes on each of the four Sundays in April, and switching them back by the same amount on each of the four Sundays in September, a total of eight time switches per year. Again, it didn’t happen.
However, Willett’s Daylight Saving plan interested Robert Pearce, a British lawmaker (member of Parliament) who introduced a bill to the House of Commons in 1908 and the first Daylight Saving Bill was drafted in 1909. But the idea was opposed by many, especially farmers, so it was never made into a law.
Finally, in 1916, Britain made DST a law.
An Ancient Idea
Many say Benjamin Franklin was the first to suggest DST. But his idea did not even involve turning the clocks! In a letter Franklin simply suggested that Parisians could economize candle usage by getting people out of bed earlier in the morning. He meant it as a joke.
Although modern DST has only been used for about 100 years, ancient civilizations are known to have used similar ideas thousands of years ago. For example, the Roman water clocks used different scales for different months of the year to adjust the daily schedules to the solar time.
Today
Daylight Saving Time is now used in over 70 countries worldwide and affects over one billion people every year. The beginning and end dates vary from one country to another.
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