{"id":17,"date":"2014-03-07T10:38:43","date_gmt":"2014-03-07T10:38:43","guid":{"rendered":""},"modified":"2017-12-06T15:07:12","modified_gmt":"2017-12-06T21:07:12","slug":"17","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/blogs.library.unt.edu\/untdocsblog\/2014\/03\/07\/17\/","title":{"rendered":"Spring Forward During Spring Break This Sunday"},"content":{"rendered":"

This Sunday, March 9, most of the population of the United States will perform the annual chore of setting their time-keeping devices forward by one hour, as we enter the seemingly ever-lengthening portion of the year referred to as Daylight Saving Time\u2014surely an ironic term for the many students who will lose one precious hour of their Spring Break this year! (Usage note<\/strong>: don\u2019t ever call it Daylight Savings<\/em> Time<\/a>, even if you\u2019re a congressman<\/a>.)<\/p>\r\n

Historical Background<\/h4>\r\n

Benjamin Franklin is credited with first conceiving the idea for a daylight-saving law, which he proposed (perhaps as a joke) in an anonymous and humorously-worded letter to the editor published in the Journal de Paris<\/em><\/a> in 1784.<\/p>\r\n

The first serious proposals for such a law came from the entomologist\/astronomer George V. Hudson<\/a> in New Zealand in 1895<\/a> and 1898<\/a>, and from the builder William Willett<\/a> in England in 1907. (Willett, incidentally, was the great-great-grandfather of Chris Martin<\/a> of Coldplay, the band responsible for the songs \u201cClocks<\/a>\u201d and \u201cDaylight<\/a>.\u201d)<\/p>\r\n

\"WorldFranklin\u2019s whimsical idea was not taken seriously in the United States until Congress passed the Standard Time Act of 1918<\/a> to economize on fuel during the First World War. By then, several European countries had already adopted some version of a daylight-saving law.<\/p>\r\n

The law turned out to be quite unpopular in the U.S., especially among farmers, who found it unnatural and disruptive, and it was abolished immediately after the war. It was reinstated during the Second World War, then abolished again after that war, then reinstated inconsistently by various state and localities. It has been a continual source of controversy up to the present day. A 2007 Congressional Research Service Report for Congress<\/a> summarizes the contentious history of this law over the decades.<\/p>\r\n

Observance<\/h4>\r\n

The latest version of the law was implemented in 2007 as Section 110 of the Energy Policy Act of 2005<\/a>. Under current law, Daylight Saving Time (DST) is observed in the United States from 2:00 a.m. on the second Sunday in March until 2:00 a.m. on the \ufb01rst Sunday in November, theoretically saving energy during the longer days and keeping children safe (and candy companies in business!) during the prime trick-or-treating hours of Halloween.<\/p>\r\n

A few U.S. states and territories do not observe DST:<\/p>\r\n