HISTORY149 - Daylight Savings Time
President Trump’s recent attempts to eliminate daylight savings time have resulted in Congressional action to implement his goal, although final resolution of this issue is far from determined. After taking a quick look at the proposal, I discovered that there is a long, turbulent history on this topic - little known to me, and others I suspect. So, this blog will cover the history of daylight savings time. After a short introduction, I will discuss how ancient civilizations addressed the subject; early efforts to provide daylight savings time (DST); formal actions to adopt DST in the two world wars and the 1973 energy crisis; the turmoil between these historical periods; the special cases of Arizona, Hawaii, and U.S. territories; and finally, current efforts to change DST. As usual, I will list my principal sources at the end. Introduction Daylight saving time (DST) is the practice of advancing clocks to make better use of the longer daylight availa...