2011 Day Light Savings Time End Date Approaching – How and why did it begin?

On March 13th of this year, most of the country and many parts of the world’s northern hemisphere set their clocks forward by one hour (‘spring ahead’) to take advantage of the extended sunlight of the summer. What is commonly referred to as Daylight Savings Time (DST) or daylight saving time, is scheduled to come to an end as we ‘fall back’ our clocks one hour on at 2AM on the morning of November 6th 2011.

The official end date of daylight savings time, however, is not an issue for a few areas in the United States. Because there is no federal mandate for observing daylight savings time, Hawaii and Arizona do not observe the time change.

Where did Daylight savings time come from – how did it begin?

Some have traced the concept back to Ben Franklin who once wrote of how much would be gained by taking advantage of the longer days offered by the summer sun. Getting more done during daylight hours, literally saved one from ‘burning the midnight oil.’

According to reports, it was Germany who first adopted the daylight saving time change in an effort to save resources like coal being used for lighting. In 1918, the U.S. passed a federal law creating the daylight saving time standard for states wishing to participate.

To save resources during World War II, the time change became mandatory, and infact, from 1942 to 1945 the time change was in effect year round. The mandate was repealed at the end of the war.