Daylight Savings — 4S Education Foundation

BRrRrrrRRRinG! BRrRrrrRRRinG! BRrRrrrRRRinG!

That’s right! Spring forward, Fall back. It’s the end of Daylight Savings! But do we know why we can’t just stick to the time we have right now?

Here’s a bit of a history lesson. Dating back to 1895, George Vernon Hudson, a New Zealand scientist proposed a 2-hour shift of time ahead in the Fall to a 2-hour shift back in the Spring. Later in 1905, William Willet, a British builder, suggested a similar idea where they would periodically switch the time 20 minutes ahead and switch it back.

This idea then reached Parliament three years later and after many reviews of the drafted bill, there was no success. However, daylight savings time was then used around other places of the world. During WWI, areas in Germany started shifting their clocks ahead so they can conserve energy and fuel for the war. More countries followed after that.

Now, let’s talk about Daylight Savings Time in the USA. It was first used in 1918 when a bill of seasonal time shifts was brought up, but that didn’t last long. Years later, they followed the original purpose of trying to save energy and power for the resources being used during the war: “War Time,” presented by President Roosevelt. After this period from February 1942 until September 1945, there came the Uniform Time Act of 1966 of having an annual time change beginning from the last Sunday of April to the last Sunday of October: Daylight Saving Time. Though there were periods when we paused and resumed doing Daylight Savings, we do it today.

Don’t forget to switch your manual clocks back to 1 hour! Happy Daylight Savings and we hope you enjoy your extra hour of sleep!