Daylight Saving Time has been used in the United States since World War I. It began as an effort to conserve fuel which was needed to produce electric energy. The United States officially adopted and enacted “An Act to preserve daylight and provide standard time for the United States” on March 19, 1918. The ”act” both established standard time zones and set summer DST to begin on March 31, 1918.
However, after the war ended the law proved so unpopular (primarily because people went to bed earlier and rose earlier) that it was repealed in 1919 with a congressional override of President Wilson’s veto. Daylight Savings time then became a local option and continued in a few states, (Massachusetts and Rhode Island) as well as some cities such as New York, Philadelphia and Chicago.
During World War II, President Franklin Roosevelt instituted a year round Daylight Saving Time bearing the name ”War Time” which lasted from February 9, 1942 until September 30, 1945. From 1945 until 1966 where was no federal laws regarding Daylight Saving Time, so once again states and localities were free to choose whether or not they chose to observe it. There was great confusion in the broadcasting industries as well as travel. New schedules had to be published every time a state or town began or ended Daylight Saving Time.
Efforts at standardization were encouraged by a transportation industry organization, the Committee for Time Uniformity. They surveyed the entire nation, through questioning telephone operators as to local time observances, and found the situation was still confusing. The Committee determined a goal and with a strong supportive story on the front page of the New York Times they rallied the general public’s support. Their goal was finally accomplished when it was discovered and disclosed that on a 35 mile stretch of highway (Route 2) between Moundsville, WV and Steubenville Ohio, every bus driver and passenger had to endure seven time changes!
In 1966, 100 million Americans were observing Daylight Savings Time based on their local laws and customs. Congress determined to stop the chaos and establish one patter across the country and the ”Uniform Time Act of 1966” was signed into public law on April 12, 1966 by President Lyndon Johnson. Daylight Saving Time would begin on the Last Sunday in April and end no the last Sunday of October. States could still be exempt by passing their own state law on the matter.
The law was amended in 1972 to provide that, if a state was in two or more time zones, the state could exempt from the part of the sate that was in one time while providing that the part of the state in a different time zone would observe Daylight savings time.
On January 4, 1974, President Richard Nixon signed into law the ”Emergency Daylight Saving Time Energy Conservation Act of 1973 which began implemenation on January 6, 1974 and clocks were set ahead. On October 5, 1974, Congress amended the Act and standard time returned October 27, 1974. That law was amended once again in 1986 to begin daylight saving time at 2:00 a.m. on the first Sunday of April and end it at 2:00 a.m. on the last Sunday of October.
The Energy Policy Act of 2005 extended Daylight Saving Time in the U.S. beginning in 2007, though Congress retained the right to revert to the 1986 law should the change prove unpopular or if energy savings were not significant. From 2007 forward, Daylight Saving Time in the United States begins at 2:00 a.m. on the second Sunday in March and ends at 2:00 a.m. on the first Sunday of November.
