Unlocking The History Of Daylight Saving Time – Some Things You Might Not Know

We've been doing it, in one form or another, in the United States for more than 100 years.

And this weekend, we're doing it again when we 'spring forward' to Daylight Saving Time (DST), early Sunday (March 10) morning, as 2:00 AM instantly becomes 3:00 AM

So how much do you know about this spring ritual?

YOU MIGHT BE SAYING DAYLIGHT SAVING TIME WRONG

The official designation is Daylight Saving Time.

Saving.

Not savings.

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BENJAMIN FRANKLIN WAS TALKING ABOUT DAYLIGHT SAVING TIME IN 1784

He might have been kidding, but the well-known American Statesman was extolling the virtues of adjusting the clocks in his essay 'An Economical Project for Diminishing the Cost of Light', which claimed that the citizens of Paris could save quite a bit of money on candles if there was an extra hour of morning sunshine.

READ MORE: Return to Daylight Savings Time Means Check Your Smoke Detectors

DAYLIGHT SAVING TIME BEGAN IN WARTIME

Germany first adjusted clocks in 1916 in an attempt to save fuel during World War I. It arrived in America in 1918 but was quickly scrapped later that year at the end of the war.

It returned during World War II when President Franklin Roosevelt instituted full-time DST in 1942, calling it 'War Time'. It didn't become federal law for another 24 years, with the passing of the Uniform Time Act of 1966.

ONE ENTIRE STATE DOESN'T OBSERVE DAYLIGHT SAVING TIME 

Only residents of Hawaii are exempt from changing their clocks each spring and fall.

Most of Arizona also stays put, although a large portion of the northeast part of the state on the Navajo Reservation does participate in Daylight Saving Time since the tribe's land extends into neighboring Utah and New Mexico.

THE DATES HAVE BEEN ALTERED THANKS TO THE CANDY INDUSTRY

For years, Daylight Saving Time ended on the last weekend of October. But some years that meant that Halloween trick-or-treaters were impacted by the change.

That prompted the candy industry to lobby to get DST extended into November, which happened in  2007.

DAYLIGHT SAVING TIME CONTRIBUTES TO MORE CAR ACCIDENTS 

A study published in the New England Journal of Medicine shows an 8% increase in motor vehicle accidents the Monday after we set our clocks ahead.

MOST OF US HATE DAYLIGHT SAVING TIME 

A recent poll showed just a third of Americans like the idea of an extra hour of sunshine from March to November.

SOME IN SOUTH DAKOTA WANT FULL-TIME DST

As recently as 2020, a bill in the State Legislature was introduced to make Daylight Saving Time a year-round thing in South Dakota.

The bill lost in the House of Representatives by one vote.