Daylight Savings Time

On Sunday, November 6, 2011 at 2 a.m., Daylight Saving Time ends and we all turn our clocks back one hour. This adjustment of the clocks was disputed for many years, not only in the U.S. but also in England and countries in Europe.

In the past farmers adjusted for the change in daylight with each season, but when Time Zones were enacted in 1884 basing time on the changing seasons was no longer an option. The concept of Daylight Saving Time was first brought up in the United Sates by Benjamin Franklin, but the idea was not considered until World War I. The basic outline for what we use as Daylight Saving Time was proposed by William Willett, an English golfer and builder.

Read more about the history of Daylight Saving Time in the Dictionary of American History.

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