IT'S LATER THAN YOU THINK; DAYLIGHT SAVING TIME RETURNED THIS MORNING

It's Later Than You Think; Daylight Saving Time Returned This Morning
Christine Bellini



You get an extra hour of daylight starting today so use your time wisely as Spring and its wiles are just around the corner.

Southampton - If you are just waking up this Sunday morning and thinking you have nabbed yourself a little extra time before the bustle begins, chances are my friend you are already an hour behind schedule. Daylight Saving Time arrived at 2 a.m. and snatched a hour of your precious time while you were sleeping.

The good news is, days will seem longer and daylight will advance the late afternoon and evening hours, allowing for more post-work activities.

First proposed by Englishman William Willett in 1907, he continued to unsuccessfully lobby for the time alteration until his death in 1915. Germany was the first to implement the system on April 30, 1916 as it served as a means to conserve fuel during the campaigns of WWI. Britian, the Allies and most of neutral European countries soon followed suit. Russia got on board in 1917 and the United States made it official on March 19, 1918.

Daylight Saving Time (DST) was subsequently repealed in 1919 and it wasn't until Feb. 9, 1942 that President Franklin D. Roosevelt reinstituted the time change for the duration of WWII, running to Sept. 30, 1945.

And for nearly 30 years Americans didn't alter their time clocks until President Richard M. Nixon signed the Emergency Daylight Saving Time Energy Conservation Act in 1973 during the height of the fuel crisis, officially making DST law. The act has been amended several times in the years that followed.

Father Time was readdressed yet once more by an act of congress in 2005 when the Energy Policy Act, which standardized the DST period from 2 a.m. on the second Sunday of March to 2 a.m. on the first Sunday in November, went into effect.

Courtesy: Christine Bellini