Daylight saving time ends early Sunday, giving most Americans an extra hour of sleep this weekend.
Clocks are turned back one hour at 2 a.m. to return to standard time, which will continue until the second Sunday in March.
Congress determines when clocks are adjusted, and the current schedule for daylight saving time and standard time was adopted in 2007, according to an article published on the website of the Astronomical Applications Department of the U.S. Naval Observatory.
Most areas of the U.S. observe daylight saving time; however, Hawaii and parts of Arizona do not. Also, some of the more conservative Amish communities in the country do not observe the time change.
The purpose of the daylight saving time is to push one hour of sunlight from early in the day to later, which gives people more natural daylight after a typical workday during the warmer months of the year.
A popular way to remember how the time is adjusted twice a year is to say clocks “fall back” for standard time and “spring forward” for daylight saving time.
The history of daylight saving time in the U.S. is also tied to the establishment of time zones.
“Although standard time in time zones was instituted in the U.S. and Canada by the railroads in 1883, it was not established in U.S. law until passage of the Standard Time Act on March 19, 1918,” the Astronomical Applications Department article notes. “The Standard Time Act also established daylight saving time, which was a contentious idea at the time.”
Congress repealed daylight saving time in 1919. It was re-established during World War II and continued through September 1945.
In 1966, the Uniform Time Act standardized the beginning and ending dates for daylight saving time from the last Sunday in April until the last Sunday in October. But between 1974 and 2005, several changes were made to the starting and ending dates for daylight saving time. The dates now used were enacted in 2007.
Jennifer P. Brown is co-founder, publisher and editor of Hoptown Chronicle. You can reach her at editor@hoptownchronicle.org. Brown was a reporter and editor at the Kentucky New Era, where she worked for 30 years. She is a co-chair of the national advisory board to the Institute for Rural Journalism and Community Issues, governing board past president for the Kentucky Historical Society, and co-founder of the Kentucky Open Government Coalition. She serves on the Hopkinsville History Foundation's board.
