Daylight Saving Time

'Today is the beginning of Daylight Saving Time, time for moving the clocks one hour ahead. With a few exceptions (Arizona, Hawaii, part of Indiana, Puerto Rico, the Virgin Islands, and American Samoa), we've been doing this clock changing every April since 1967. Credit for Daylight Saving Time belongs to Benjamin Franklin, who first suggested the idea in 1784. The idea was revived in 1907, when William Willett, an Englishman, proposed a similar system in the pamphlet The Waste of Daylight. The Germans were the first to officially adopt the light-extending system in 1915 as a fuel-saving measure during World War I. The British switched one year later, and the United States followed in 1918, when Congress passed the Standard Time Act, which established our time zones. This experiment lasted only until 1920, when the law was repealed due to opposition from dairy farmers (cows don't pay attention to clocks). During World War II, Daylight Saving Time was imposed once again (this time year-round) to save fuel. With various modifications to the dates (the most recent being in 1987, when the starting date was changed to the first Sunday in April), we've been observing Daylight Saving Time ever since.' -- Old Farmer's Almanac