The idea of daylight saving was first conceived by Benjamin Franklin (portrait at right) during his sojourn as an American delegate in Paris in 1784, in an essay, "An Economical Project." Read more about Franklin's essay. Posted on 10/26/2002 9:19:37 AM PDT by SamAdams76
The main purpose of Daylight Saving Time (called "Summer Time" many places in the world) is to make better use of daylight. A poll done by the U.S. Department of Transportation indicated that Americans liked Daylight Saving Time because "there is more light in the evenings / can do more in the evenings." A 1976 survey of 2.7 million citizens in New South Wales found 68% liked daylight saving.
Daylight Saving Time also saves energy. Studies done by the U.S. Department of Transportation show that Daylight Saving Time trims the entire country's electricity usage by a significant, but small amount, of less than one percent each day with Daylight Saving Time. We save energy in both the evening and the morning because we use less electricity for lighting and appliances. Similarly, In New Zealand, power companies have found that power usage decreases 3.5% when daylight saving starts. In the first week, peak evening consumption commonly drops around 5%.
Energy use and the demand for electricity for lighting our homes is directly connected to when we go to bed and when we get up. Bedtime for most of us is late evening through the year. When we go to bed, we turn off the lights and TV. In the average home, 25 percent of all the electricity we use is for lighting and small appliances, such as TVs, VCRs and stereos. A good percentage of energy consumed by lighting and appliances occurs in the evening when families are home. By moving the clock ahead one hour, we can cut the amount of electricity we consume each day.
Daylight Saving Time also saves a small amount of energy in the morning when we rise. Studies show that 70 percent of all Americans rise prior to 7 a.m. during the workweek. During the summer months, sunrise is very early in the morning, so most people will wake after the sun rises. Because the sun is up, we will turn on fewer lights in our homes. Thus, we actually use less energy in the morning.
In the winter, the afternoon Daylight Saving Time advantage is offset by the morning's need for more lighting. In spring and fall, the advantage is less than one hour. So, Daylight Saving Time saves energy for lighting in all seasons of the year except for the four darkest months of winter (November, December, January and February) when the afternoon advantage is offset by the need for lighting because of late sunrise.
Daylight Saving Time "makes" the sun "set" one hour later and therefore reduces the period between sunset and bedtime by one hour. This means that less electricity would be used for lighting and appliances late in the day.
We also use less electricity because we are home fewer hours during the "longer" days of spring and summer. Most people plan outdoor activities in the extra daylight hours. When we are not at home, we don't turn on the appliances and lights.
There is a small public health benefit to Daylight Saving time. Several studies in the U.S. and Britain have found that daylight, almost certainly because of improved visibility, substantially decreases (by four times) the likelihood of pedestrians being killed on the roads. Even if it is beneficial overall, Daylight Saving Time shifts this danger from the evening to the morning.
Occasionally people complain about daylight saving time. A frequent complaint is the inconvenience of changing many clocks, and adjusting to a new sleep schedule. For most people, this is a mere nuisance, but some people with sleep disorders find this transition very difficult.
Another complaint is sometimes put forth by people who wake at dawn, or whose schedule's are otherwise tied to sunrise, such as farmers. Farmers often dislike the clocks changing mid year. Canadian poultry producer Marty Notenbomer notes, "The chickens do not adapt to the changed clock until several weeks have gone by so the first week of April and the last week of October are very frustrating for us."
In Israel, ultra-Orthodox Sephardic Jews have campaigned against daylight saving time because they recite Slikhot penitential prayers in the early morning hours during the Jewish month of Elul.
A writer in 1947 wrote, "I don't really care how time is reckoned so long as there is some agreement about it, but I object to being told that I am saving daylight when my reason tells me that I am doing nothing of the kind. I even object to the implication that I am wasting something valuable if I stay in bed after the sun has risen. As an admirer of moonlight I resent the bossy insistence of those who want to reduce my time for enjoying it. At the back of the Daylight Saving scheme I detect the bony, blue-fingered hand of Puritanism, eager to push people into bed earlier, and get them up earlier, to make them healthy, wealthy and wise in spite of themselves." (Robertson Davies, The Diary of Samuel Marchbanks, 1947, XIX, Sunday.)
Sometimes people recommend a "compromise" wherein we would set out clocks 1/2 hour forward year round. While this may sound appealing at first , it is not a good solution. In the winter months, when daylight saving is not occurring, our clock is divided such that noon should be the middle of the day (although since time zones are so wide, this does not always happen). In the summer, when the daylight is so long, we want to shift a full hour to the evening.
Some countries set their clocks to fractional time zones, for example, Kathmandu, Nepal is 5:45 hours ahead of Universal Time; and Calcutta (Kolkatta), India is 5:30 ahead. This is because their country straddles international time zones; it is not an attempt to compromise and have half Daylight Saving Time year-round.
The idea of daylight saving was first conceived by Benjamin Franklin (portrait at right) during his sojourn as an American delegate in Paris in 1784, in an essay, "An Economical Project." Read more about Franklin's essay.
Some of Franklin's friends, inventors of the oil lamp, were so taken by the scheme that they continued corresponding with Franklin even after he returned to America.
The idea was first advocated seriously by a London builder, William Willett (1857-1915), in the pamphlet "Waste of Daylight" (1907) that proposed advancing clocks 20 minutes on each of four Sundays in April, and retarding them by the same amount on four Sundays in September. As he was taking an early morning a ride through Petts Wood, near Croydon, Willett was struck by the fact that the blinds of nearby houses were closed, even though the sun was fully risen. When questioned as to why he didn't simply get up an hour earlier, Willett replied with typical British humor, "What?" In his pamphlet "The Waste of Daylight" he wrote:
"Everyone appreciates the long, light evenings. Everyone laments their shortage as Autumn approaches; and everyone has given utterance to regret that the clear, bright light of an early morning during Spring and Summer months is so seldom seen or used".
Early British laws and lax observance
About twelve months after Willett began to advocate daylight saving (he spent a fortune lobbying), he attracted the attention of the authorities and Mr. Pearce later Sir Robert Pearce introduced a Bill in the House of Commons to make it compulsory to adjust the clocks. The bill was drafted in 1909 and introduced in Parliament several times, but it met with ridicule and opposition, especially from farming interests. Generally lampooned at the time, Willett died on March 4, 1915.
Willett had suggested a complex scheme of adding eighty minutes, in four separate movements. On May 17, 1916, an Act was passed and scheme was put in operation on the following Sunday, May 21, 1916, following the lead of Germany. There was a storm of opposition, confusion and prejudice. The Royal Meteorological Society insisted that Greenwich time would still be used to measure tides. The parks belonging to the Office of Works and the London County Council decided to close at dusk, which meant that they would be open an extra hour in the evening. Kew Gardens, on the other hand, ignored the daylight saving scheme and decided to close by the clock.
In Edinburgh, the confusion was even more marked, for the gun at the Castle was fired at 1 p.m. summer time, while the ball on the top of the Nelson monument on Calton Hill fell at 1 o'clock Greenwich time. That arrangement was carried on for the benefit of seamen who could see it from the Firth of Forth. The time fixed for changing clocks was 2 a.m. on a Sunday.
There was a fair bit of opposition from the general public and from agricultural interests who wanted daylight in the morning, but Lord Balfour came forward with a unique concern:
[on the night the clocks are set back] Supposing some unfortunate lady was confined with twins and one child was born 10 minutes before 1 o'clock. ... the time of birth of the two children would be reversed. ... Such an alteration might conceivably affect the property and titles in that House.
After the War, several Acts of Parliament were passed relating to summer time. Eventually, in 1925, it was enacted that summer time should begin on the day following the third Saturday in April (or one week earlier if that day was Easter Day). The date for closing of summer time was fixed for the day after the first Saturday in October.
The energy saving benefits of this were recognized during World War II, when clocks were put two hours ahead of GMT during the Summer. This became known as Double Summer Time. During the war, clocks remained one hour ahead of GMT throughout the winter.
First there was standard time For millennia, people have measured time based on the position of the sun - it was noon when the sun was highest in the sky. Sundials were used well into the Middle Ages, when mechanical clocks began to appear. Cities would set their town clock by measuring the position of the sun, but every city would be on a slightly different time.
The time indicated by the apparent sun on a sun dial is called Apparent Solar Time, or true local time. The time shown by the fictitious sun is called Mean Solar Time, or local mean time when measured in terms of any longitudinal meridian. [For more information about clocks, see A Walk through Time.]
Standard time begins in Britain
Britain was the first country to set the time throughout a region to one standard time. The railways cared most about the inconsistencies of local mean time, and they forced a uniform time on the country. The original idea was credited to Dr. William Hyde Wollaston (1766-1828) and was popularized by Abraham Follett Osler (1808-1903). The first railway to adopt London time was the Great Western Railway in November 1840; other railways followed suit, and by 1847 most (though not all) railways used London time. On September 22, 1847 the Railway Clearing House, an industry standards body, recommended that GMT be adopted at all stations as soon as the General Post Office permitted it. The transition occurred on 12-01 for the L&NW, the Caledonian, and presumably other railways; the January 1848 Bradshaw's lists many railways as using GMT. By 1855 the vast majority of public clocks in Britain were set to GMT (though some, like the great clock on Tom Tower at Christ Church, Oxford, were fitted with two minute hands, one for local time and one for GMT). The last major holdout was the legal system, which stubbornly stuck to local time for many years, leading to oddities like polls opening at 08:13 and closing at 16:13. The legal system finally switched to GMT when the Statutes (Definition of Time) Act took effect; it received the Royal Assent on August, 2, 1880.
Standard time in time zones was instituted in the U.S. and Canada by the railroads on 18 November 1883. Before then, time of day was a local matter, and most cities and towns used some form of local solar time, maintained by some well-known clock (for example, on a church steeple or in a jeweler's window). The new standard time system was not immediately embraced by all, however. (The train at right is a Union locomotive used during the American Civil War, photo ca. 1861-1865.)
The first man in the United States to sense the growing need for time standardization was an amateur astronomer, William Lambert, who as early as 1809 presented to Congress a recommendation for the establishment of time meridians in this country. This was not passed. Nor was the initial suggestion of Charles Dowd of Saratoga Springs, N. Y., in 1870. Dowd revised his proposal in 1872 and the revised proposal was adopted virtually unchanged by the railways of the USA and Canada eleven years later.
Detroit kept local time until 1900 when the City Council decreed that clocks should be put back twenty-eight minutes to Central Standard Time. Half the city obeyed, half refused. After considerable debate, the decision was rescinded and the city reverted to Sun time. A derisive offer to erect a sundial in front of the city hall was referred to the Committee on Sewers. Then, in 1905, Central time was adopted by city vote.
It remained for a Canadian civil and railway engineer, Sandford Fleming, to instigate the initial efforts which led to the adoption of the present time meridians in both Canada and the United States. Time zones were first used by the railroads in 1883 to standardize their schedules. Canada's Sir Sandford Fleming (posing at left, at the driving the last spike of the Canadian Pacific Railway. Sandford Fleming has the stovepipe hat to the left of the man with the hammer) also played a key role in the development of a worldwide system of keeping time. Trains had made obsolete the old system where major cities and regions set clocks according to local astronomical conditions. Fleming advocated the adoption of a standard or mean time and hourly variations from that according to established time zones. He was instrumental in convening an International Prime Meridian Conference in Washington in 1884 at which the system of international standard time -- still in use today -- was adopted.
Although the large railway systems in United States and Canada adopted standard time at noon on 18 November, 1883, it was sometimes many years before such time was actually used by the people themselves.
However, use of standard time gradually increased because of its obvious practical advantages for communication and travel. Standard time in time zones was established in U.S. law with the Standard Time Act of 1918 enacted on March 19. Congress adopted standard time zones based on those set up by the railroads, and gave the responsibility to make any changes in the time zones to the Interstate Commerce Commission, the only federal transportation regulatory agency at the time. When Congress created the Department of Transportation in 1966, it transferred the responsibility for the time laws to the new department.
Time zone boundaries have changed greatly since their original introduction and changes still occasionally occur. The Department of Transportation conducts rulemakings to consider requests for changes. Generally, time zone boundaries have tended to shift westward. Places on the eastern edge of a time zone can effectively move sunset an hour later (by the clock) by shifting to the time zone immediately to their east. If they do so, the boundary of that zone is locally shifted to the west; the accumulation of such changes results in the long-term westward trend. The process is not inexorable, however, since the late sunrises experienced by such places during the winter may be regarded as too undesirable. Furthermore, under the law, the principal standard for deciding on a time zone change is the "convenience of commerce." Proposed time zone changes have been both approved and rejected based on this criterion, although most such proposals have been accepted.
Daylight Saving Time has been used in the United States and in many European countries since World War I.
During World War I, in an effort to conserve fuel needed to produce electric power, Germany and Austria took time by the forelock, and began saving daylight at 11 p.m. on the 30th of April, 1916, by advancing the hands of the clock one hour until the following October. This 1916 action was immediately followed by other countries in Europe, Belgium, Denmark, France, Italy, Luxembourg, Netherlands, Norway, Portugal, Sweden, and Turkey, as were Tasmania, Nova Scotia, and Manitoba. Britian began 3 weeks later, on 21 May 1916. In 1917, Australia, Newfoundland and Nova Scotia initiated it.
The plan was not formally adopted in the United States until 1918. 'An Act to preserve daylight and provide standard time for the United States' was enacted on March 19, 1918. [See law] It both established standard time zones and set summer DST to begin on 31 March 31 1918. It placed the country on Daylight Saving Time for the remainder of WW I, and was observed for seven months in 1918 and 1919. The law, however, proved so unpopular (mostly because people rose earlier and went to bed earlier than we do today) that the law was later repealed in 1919 over President Wilson's veto. It became a local option, and was continued in a few states (Massachusetts, Rhode Island) and some cities (New York, Philadelphia, Chicago, and others).
During World War II, President Roosevelt instituted year-round Daylight Saving Time, called 'War Time.' (from 2 February 1942 to 30 September 1945). [See law] From 1945 to 1966, there was no federal law about Daylight Saving Time. So states and localities were free to choose whether to observe Daylight Saving Time and could choose when it began and ended. This, however, caused confusion -- especially for the broadcasting industry, and for railways, airlines, and bus companies. Because of the different local customs and laws, radio and TV stations and the transportation companies had to publish new schedules every time a state or town began or ended Daylight Saving Time.
On 4 January 1974, Nixon signed into law the Daylight Saving Time Energy Act of 1973. Then, beginning on 6 January 1974, implementing the Daylight Saving Time Energy Act, clocks were set ahead for a fifteen-month period through 27 April 1975.
In the early 1960's, observance of Daylight Saving Time was quite inconsistent, with a hodgepodge of time observances, and no agreement when to change clocks. The Interstate Commerce Commission, the nation's timekeeper, was immobilized, and the matter remained deadlocked - until 1961. Many business interests were supportive of standardization, although it became a bitter fight between the indoor and outdoor theater industries. The farmers, however, were opposed to such uniformity. State and local governments were a mixed bag, depending on local conditions.
Efforts at standardization were encouraged by a transportation industry organization, the Committee for Time Uniformity. They surveyed the entire nation, through telephone operators, as to local time observances, and found the situation was quite confusing. Next, the Committee's goal was a strong supportive story on the first page of the New York Times. With the general public's support rallied, the Time Uniformity Committee's goal was accomplished but only after discovering and disclosing that on the 35-mile stretch of highway (Route 2) between Moundsville, West Virginia, and Steubenville, Ohio, every bus driver and his passengers had to endure seven time changes!
By 1966, some 100 million Americans were observing Daylight Saving Time based on their own local laws and customs. Congress decided to step in to end the confusion and establish one pattern across the country. The Uniform Time Act of 1966 (15 U.S. Code Section 260a) [see law] which was signed into Public Law 89-387 on 12 April 1966, by President Lyndon Johnson, created Daylight Saving Time to begin on the last Sunday of April and to end on the last Sunday of October. Any State that wanted to be exempt from Daylight Saving Time could do so by passing a State law.
The Uniform Time Act of 1966 established a system of uniform (within each time zone) Daylight Saving Time throughout the U.S. and its possessions, exempting only those states in which the legislatures voted to keep the entire state on standard time.
In 1972, Congress revised the law to provide that, if a State was in two or more time zones, the State could exempt the part of the State that was in one time zone while providing that the part of the State in a different time zone would observe Daylight Saving Time. The Federal law was amended in 1986 to begin Daylight Saving Time on the first Sunday in April.
Under legislation enacted in 1986, Daylight Saving Time in the USA
In most of the countries of western Europe, including the countries that are members of the EEC, Daylight Saving Time:
During the Arab-Israeli War in October 1973, Middle East members of OPEC issued an embargo against the sale of crude oil to Israel's Western allies. In the United States, gasoline became scarce and prices jumped 40 percent, crimping the American economy. Following the 1973 Arab Oil Embargo, Congress put most of the nation on extended Daylight Saving Time for two years in hopes of saving additional energy. This experiment worked, but Congress did not continue the experiment in 1975 because of opposition -- mostly from the farming states.
In 1974, Daylight Saving Time lasted ten months and lasted for eight months in 1975, rather than the normal six months (then, May to October). The U.S. Department of Transportation -- which has jurisdiction over Daylight Saving Time in the U.S. -- studied the results of the experiment. It concluded:
Daylight Saving Time saves energy. Based on consumption figures for 1974 and 1975, The Department of Transportation says observing Daylight Saving Time in March and April saved the equivalent in energy of 10,000 barrels of oil each day -- a total of 600,000 barrels in each of those two years.
Daylight Saving Time saves lives and prevents traffic injuries. The earlier Daylight Saving Time allowed more people to travel home from work and school in daylight, which is much safer than darkness. And except for the months of November through February, Daylight Saving Time does not increase the morning hazard for those going to school and work.
Daylight Saving Time prevents crime. Because people get home from work and school and complete more errands and chores in daylight, Daylight Saving Time also seems to reduce people's exposure to various crimes, which are more common in darkness than in light.
The Department of Transportation estimated that 50 lives were saved and about 2,000 injuries were prevented in March and April of the study years. The department also estimated that $28 million was saved in traffic accident costs.
Congress and President Reagan change Daylight Saving Time
Daylight Saving Time was changed slightly in 1986 when President Reagan signed Public Law 99-359. It changed Daylight Saving Time from the last Sunday in April to the first Sunday in April. No change was made to the ending date of the last Sunday in October.
This was done ostensibly to conserve energy during the month of April. Adding the entire month of April is estimated to save nationwide about 300,000 barrels of oil each year.
What time is it when the Indiana capital is noon?Indiana is one of three U.S. states which do not Spring ahead from "standard" to "daylight saving" time or Fall back from daylight to standard six months later. Arizona and Hawaii are the others. By State Law, most of Indiana is on Eastern Standard Time (EST) all year long.
The statute creates three different time arrangements in the Hoosier State:
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| Locations | During U.S. standard time | During U.S. daylight saving time | |
| Central Indiana (1) | Indianapolis, and most of Indiana, including Bloomington | Noon Eastern Standard EST |
Noon Eastern Standard EST |
| Western portions of Indiana (2) | Chicago, IL and Jasper, Lake, LaPorte, Newton, and Porter counties | 11:00 AM Central Standard CST |
Noon Central Daylight CDT |
| Evansville, IN and Gibson, Posey, Spencer, Vanderburgh, and Warrick counties | |||
| Eastern portions of Indiana (3) | Cincinnati, OH and Dearborn and Ohio counties | Noon Eastern Standard EST |
1:00 PM Eastern Daylight EDT |
| Louisville, KY and Clark, Floyd and Harrison counties | |||
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Many believe that Indiana changes time zones in the Summer. Part of the confusion stems from the fact that in the Winter, most of Indiana is the same time as New York (which is also Eastern), and in the Summer, Indiana is the same time as Chicago (which is Central).
Actually, by going to Daylight time in April, the Central Zone Springs ahead from Standard to CDT, which is the same as Eastern Standard (Indiana time). By switching from Eastern Daylight (EDT) to Standard in October, the rest of the Eastern Zone Falls back to EST (Indiana time). Indiana, Arizona, and Hawaii are constants -- always Standard time.
Today approximately
While European nations have been taking advantage of the time change for decades, in 1996 the European Union (EU) standardized an EU-wide "summertime period." The EU version of Daylight Saving Time runs from the last Sunday in March through the last Sunday in October. During the summer, Russia's clocks are two hours ahead of standard time. For example, Moscow standard time (UTC+3) is about a half-hour ahead of local mean time (UTC+2:30); this is about the same situation as Detroit, whose standard time (UTC-5) is also about a half-hour ahead of local mean time (UTC-5:32). During the winter, all 11 of the Russian time zones remain an hour ahead of standard time. With their high latitude, the two hours of Daylight Saving Time really helps to save daylight. In the Southern Hemisphere where summer comes in December, Daylight Saving Time is observed from October to March. (The clock at above right is viewed from within the Musée d'Orsay in Paris.)
Not the tropics
Equatorial and tropical countries (lower latitudes) do not observe Daylight Saving Time since the daylight hours are similar during every season, so there is no advantage to moving clocks forward during the summer. China has had a single time zone since May 1, 1980 observing summer DST from 1986 through 1991; they do not now.
List of countries
Most countries that observe daylight saving time are listed in the table below. They all save one hour in the summer and change their clocks some time between midnight and 3 am.
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| Continent | Country | Beginning and ending days |
| Africa | Egypt | Start: Last Friday in April End: Last Thursday in September |
| Namibia | Start: First Sunday in September End: First Sunday in April |
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| Asia | Most states of the former USSR. | Start: Last Sunday in March End: Last Sunday in October |
| Iraq | Start: April 1 End: October 1 |
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| Israel | (Estimate, Israel decides the dates every year) Start: First Friday in April End: First Friday in September |
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| Lebanon, Kirgizstan | Start: Last Sunday in March End: Last Sunday in October |
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| Mongolia | Stopped in 2002 | |
| Palestine | (Estimate) Start: First Friday on or after 15 April End: First Friday on or after 15 October |
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| Syria | Start: April 1 End: October 1 |
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| Iran | Start: the first day of Farvardin End: the first day of Mehr |
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| Australasia | Australia - South Australia, Victoria, Australian Capital Territory, New South Wales, Lord Howe Island |
Start: Last Sunday in October End: Last Sunday in March |
| Australia - Tasmania | Start: First Sunday in October End: Last Sunday in March |
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| Fiji | Stopped in 2000 | |
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New Zealand, Chatham - (read law)
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Start: First Sunday in October End: Third Sunday in March |
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| Tonga | Start: First Sunday in November End: Last Sunday in January |
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| Europe | European Union - (read law) UK - (read law) |
Start: Last Sunday in March at 1 am UTC End: Last Sunday in October at 1 am UTC |
| Russia | Start: Last Sunday in March at 2 am local time End: Last Sunday in October at 2 am local time |
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| North America | United States, Canada, Mexico St. Johns, Bahamas, Turks and Caicos |
Start: First Sunday in April End: Last Sunday in October |
| Cuba | Start: April 1 End: Last Sunday in October |
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| Greenland | Same as EU |
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| South America | Brazil (rules vary quite a bit from year to year). Also, equatorial Brazil does not observe DST. |
Start: First Sunday in November End: Third Sunday in February |
| Chile - (read law) |
Start: Second Saturday of October - at midnight End: Second Saturday of March - at midnight |
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| Falklands | Start: First Sunday on or after 8 September End: First Sunday on or after 6 April |
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| Paraguay | Start: First Sunday in September End: First Sunday in April |
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| Antarctica | Antarctica | (varies, see below) |
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Note that there are many oddities. For example, some parts of the US and Canada do not observe Daylight Saving Time, such as the state of Arizona (US) and the province Saskatchewan (Canada).
Observance can also be erratic. For example, Chile delayed its changeover date for the Pope's visit in 1987, and a presidential inauguration in 1990.
In Japan, Daylight saving was introduced after World War II by the US occupation but was dispensed with in 1952, following opposition from farmers. Despite efforts by the Ministry of International Trade and Industry to have daylight saving introduced to cut Japan's energy consumption, opposition from farmers and the Ministry of Education (who were concerned that lighter evenings would entice school children from their homework) has continued to win the day.
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| Clark Dam at Butlers Gorge in Tasmania. The bulk of the electricity in Tasmania is generated by hydroelectric stations, causing an energy shortage in the drought of 1967. | |
In Australia, Daylight Saving was first introduced during World War I under Commonwealth legislation which, due to wartime emergency, was binding on all the States. During the world wars, DST was implemented for the late summers beginning January 1917 and 1942, and the full summers beginning September 1942 and 1943. (Western Australia did not use DST summer 1943).In 1967, Tasmania experienced a drought, which depleted their reserves of water. The State Government introduced one hour of daylight saving that summer as a means of saving power and hence water. Tasmanians reacted favorably to daylight saving and the Tasmanian Government has declared daylight saving each summer since 1968. After persuasion by the Tasmanian Government, all States (except Western Australia and the Northern Territory) passed legislation in 1971, for a trial season of daylight saving. The following year, New South Wales, South Australia and Victoria joined Tasmania for regular daylight saving, but Queensland did not until 1989.
Tasmania, Queensland and Western Australia have had erratic schedules, often changing their dates due to politics, and to accommodate festivals. For example, in 1992, Tasmania extended daylight saving by an additional month while South Australia began extending daylight saving by two weeks to encompass the Adelaide Festival. In some years Victoria extended daylight saving to the end of March for the Moomba Festival and South Australia and New South Wales followed suit for consistency. Special daylight saving arrangements were observed during the Sydney 2000 Olympic Games.
In response to the problems caused by nonuniformity, a Private Members Bill, the National Measurement (Standard Time) Amendment Bill 1991, was introduced into Federal Parliament in May 1991 by Ron Edwards, Member for Stirling in WA to define a national system of time zones and DST for Australia and its external territories. But in March 1992 the Federal Government decided not proceed with the Bill, and the setting of time zones and daylight saving will remain the responsibility of the State and Territory governments. The lack of uniformity of daylight saving in Australia continues to cause significant problems for transport and communication organizations. It also reduces the number of hours in the working day that are common to all centers in the country. In particular, time differences along the east coast causes major difficulties, especially for the broadcasters of national radio and television that can only be partly overcome by substantial capital investments.
Middle East
Israel
Israel always has Daylight Saving time, but it is decided every year. According to the Office of the Secretary General of the Ministry of Interior, there is NO set rule for Daylight-Saving/Standard time changes. One thing is entrenched in law, however: that there must be at least 150 days of daylight saving time annually. From 1993-1998, the change to daylight saving time was on a Friday morning from midnight IST to 1 a.m IDT; up until 1998, the change back to standard time was on a Saturday night from midnight daylight saving time to 11 p.m. standard time. 1996 is an exception to this rule where the change back to standard time took place on Sunday night instead of Saturday night to avoid conflicts with the Jewish New Year. Starting in 1999, the change to daylight saving time will still be on a Friday morning but from 2 a.m. IST to 3 a.m. IDT; furthermore, the change back to standard time will now also be on a Friday morning from 2 a.m. IDT to 1 a.m. IST.
Palestine
The area of Palestine has had varying Daylight Saving Time rules as the dramatic politics of the region have swayed the occupying power. Being closer to the equator than Europe, there is less need for DST, but it has generally been observed anyway. At present, as a sign of independence from Israeli rule, the Palestinian Authority uses a different schedule than Israel.
Early in the twentieth century, the British were quick to standardize time, and from 1917 until 15 May 1948, all of Palestine, including the parts now known as the Gaza Strip and the West Bank, was under British rule, and followed British time changes.
Later, the Gaza Strip was mostly under Egyptian rule from 15 May 1948 until 5 June 1967, and followed Egyptian policy. The rest of Palestine was under Jordanian rule at that time, formally annexed in 1950 as the West Bank (and the word "Trans" was dropped from the country's previous name of "the Hashemite Kingdom of the Trans-Jordan"). So the rules for Jordan for that time apply. Major towns in that area are Nablus (Shchem), El-Halil (Hebron), Ramallah, and East Jerusalem. Both areas followed Israeli time when they were occupied by Israel in June 1967, but not annexed (except for East Jerusalem). The Palestinian Authority was established in 1993, and controlled most towns in the West Bank and Gaza by 1995. The Palestinians began using their own time change dates, separate from Israel's.
Jordan
In 1999, Jordan decided to implement summer time all year round.
Antarctica
The Antarctic Peninsula (Palmer Station) uses Chile's time zone, the rest of the continent does not. Rothera, a British base, does not implement daylight savings, but instead remains GMT -3. U.S. bases, including both McMurdo and Amundsen-Scott South Pole Station use New Zealand's time zone and daylight saving dates.
More information
> For information about world calendars, see our Calendars through the Ages,
> For more changeover dates, map, and time zones, see WorldTimeZone (external site).
Many see this time of year for an extra hour of sleep but I see it as an extra hour of Freeping.
It is a raw exercise of arbitrary power to remind us who is boss (and it isn't the people.)
Spring Back or Fall Forward!
Nam Vet
Microsoft doesn't do that any more. They hired me to contact everyone and ask them...so don't be a pain in the butt...it'll cut into my scotch rocks time.
Good old "W.D.", as Coach Malavasi used to garble his name.....he never, ever could get that one right.....I miss him as well as Jim Healy.
Although it hasn't been proven by science, flourescent lighting is bad for the soul.
My biological clock doesn't change no matter what the time piece says.
5.56mm
WTF?
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