Daylight Saving Time 2013

Ends Sunday, November 3 (2:00a) | Please remember to set your clocks back tonight!

Daylight Savings Time (DST) is also used to save energy and reduce artificial light needed during the evening hours — clocks are set one hour ahead during the spring, and one hour back to standard time in the autumn. 

Benjamin Franklin first suggested Daylight Saving Time in 1784, but modern DST was not proposed until 1895 when an entomologist from New Zealand, George Vernon Hudson, presented a proposal for a two-hour daylight saving shift to the Wellington Philosophical Society.

The conception of DST was mainly credited to an English builder, William Willett in 1905, when he presented the idea to advance the clock during the summer months. His proposal was published two years later and introduced to the House of Commons in February 1908. The first Daylight Saving Bill was examined by a select committee but was never made into a law. It was not until World War I, in 1916, that DST was adopted and implemented by several countries in Europe who initially rejected the idea. 

Currently, most of the US observes DST except for Hawaii and most of Arizona, and the US insular areas of Puerto Rico, the US Virgin Islands, American Samoa, and Guam.

Click for more on The History of Daylight Saving Time

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