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It’s almost Daylight Saving Time, meaning we can say hello to longer days as we prepare for the weather to warm up with spring right around the corner and the summer rapidly approaching. On Sunday, March 8, Daylight Saving Time 2020 officially kicks off.
What does that mean?
At 2:00 a.m. ET on Sunday, March 8, clocks will “spring forward” one hour. That, unfortunately, means we will all lose an hour of sleep, but the sacrifice is worth it since the longer days will be here and it won’t be getting dark as soon as your workday is over.
While you’re resetting clocks, don’t forget to replace the batteries in your smoke/carbon dioxide detectors too!
Additional information on the history of Daylight Saving Time can be seen below.
Daylight Saving Time Facts
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kw462Xbbzng
Did you know that Benjamin Franklin came up with the idea for daylights saving? Franklin’s essay, “An Economical Project for Diminishing the Cost of Light” points out that “people could save candles by getting up earlier and making better use of available light.” What may have actually been a joke got people to thinking about saving light.
In 1907, William Willett became obsessed with setting the clocks back, particularly in the summer, so that people could wake up earlier and presumably enjoy the English weather. On May 17, 1916, Willett’s suggestion for a daylights savings time was signed into law and passed in spite of opposition. The following Sunday, this daylight saving policy took effect in England.
One of the reasons why the daylight saving policy was adopted in England was to save fuel for WWI. America would adopt this same policy in 1918 for the same reason.
In Antarctica, there will be a 24-hour night all throughout the winter, where no sun will shine again until the 24-hour daylight of the summer. So, daylight saving doesn’t exactly apply over there.
On August 8, 2005, President George W. Bush signed the Energy Policy Act, and since then the official end of DST will take place on the first Sunday of November. This man literallyy changed time and history, as in the years 1986-2006, DST always started on the first Sunday of April and came to a close on the last Sunday of October.
According to Live Science, 2:00 A.M. is considered the least disruptive time of day, which is why it was picked as the time to end daylight savings.
Hawaii and Arizona do not partake in the DST fun. In 1967, Arizona legislators agreed to opt out of daylight saving time.
Germany is the first country to use DST, as they turned their clocks ahead one hour on April 30, 1916.
In 1916, France also jumped on the Daylight Savings bandwagon. On Wednesday, June 14, 1916, 11:0o P.M., the french set their clocks forward 1 hour to Thursday, June 15, 1916, 12:00 midnight. And on Monday on the dot of midnight, October 2, 1916, France went back in time as they turned their clocks back an hour to Sunday, October 1, 1916 at 11:00 P.M.
Many countries in Europe would revert back to their old time and wouldn’t come back to the DST formula until WWII (to probably save fuel like in World War I).
In 1999, DST threw a wrench in some terrorists’ plans going down in Israel. While the West Bank was stuck in DST, Israel had just switched to standard time. The terrorists didn’t plan for this, and as they planted the bombs, they exploded an hour early and three terrorists were killed.
Trains cannot leave the station before the scheduled time change. At 2:00 A.M. all Amtrak trains in the U.S. will literally stop for an hour and do nothing until that hour is up. Trains need breaks too, I guess.
