Daylight Saving Time
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By Carissa Sitki
It’s that time of year again; time to transition from Daylight Saving Time (DST) to standard time on Sunday, Nov. 7. This change will, fortunately, bring an extra hour of sleep for Monday morning. I’m sure we’ll all be extra refreshed and ready to take on next week. Get ready for early sunrises and dark evenings, folks!
United States Daylight Saving Origin
First mentioned by Benjamin Franklin in 1784, we did not first use DST in this country until 1918. At that time, it was short-lived and repealed seven months later. DST made a return during World War II, when President Roosevelt established a year-round “War Time” (DST), which lasted from Feb. 1942 to Sept. 1945.
It was not until 1966 that DST returned with the enactment of the Uniform Time Act which said that every state that observed DST had to follow a uniform time change throughout the state, which began on the first Sunday of April and ended on the last Sunday of October.
Finally, in 2007, DST was extended by two months. Since then, DST runs from the second Sunday in March through the first Sunday in November.
Currently, the only U.S. states that do not observe DST are Arizona and Hawaii. Hawaii discontinued the practice in 1967 and Arizona followed in 1968.
The Future of Daylight Saving
This year’s DST began on Sunday, March 14 and will end this weekend after 238 days, but DST may someday never end. In recent years, there have been discussions of ending the practice of changing the clocks. There have been bills drafted, in many states, in an effort to remain in DST permanently. Supporters of this sort of legislation wish to spring forward and never return to standard time. In March of this year, “Sunshine Protection Act of 2021” a bipartisan bill was submitted for U.S. Senate consideration. The bill has received co-sponsorship from some Democrats and Republicans alike, so it could be something we’ll hear more about in the future.
