Daylight Savings Time enacted as wartime measure

Prior to the First World War everybody in the United States – and every other country – marked the same time all year round. The idea to “save daylight” originated in Germany as an effort to conserve fuel. Britain introduced “British Summer Time” that same year, with the rest of Europe quickly following. In the United States, where the idea of daylight savings was around as early as 1784 with Benjamin Franklin’s essay An Economical Project, it was introduced in 1918 with the Standard Time Act. It was repealed, over a presidential veto, soon after the end of the first world war.

On this day, February 9, in 1942, Daylight Savings Time was brought back year-round as “War Time” by Franklin Roosevelt. War Time not only helped conserve precious resources for WW II, but also put the entire country on the same schedule, allowing better coordination.

By September of 1945, with the war ended and War Time repealed, people went back to whatever schedules they chose. But with planes and rail bringing the country closer together, the chaotic time zone picture had to be organized, and by 1966, Congress passed the Uniform Time Act. The act provided a standard time for all zones, and instituted Daylight Savings time changes. That is the calendar schedule we follow today.