Nature Corner: Daylight Savings Time
by Wendy Oellers-Fulmer
For more than 50 years, Americans have had to either move their clocks ahead or set them back for the bi-annual Daylight Savings Time. But when did this tradition begin and why?
Originally implemented during World War I, the practice was implemented to help our country conserve both fuel and power. At the end of the war, this practice was abolished in most states.
At one point of our country’s history, there were over 144 different “local time zones”. Trying to build consistency with train schedules, the Federal organization, Interstate Commerce Commission, created a more consistent plan for time management with the Standard Time Act in 1918. Currently, there are 9 time zones: Atlantic, Eastern, Central, Mountain, Pacific, Alaska, Hawaii–Aleutian, Samoa, and Chamorro.
In 1966, the newly formed Department of Transportation addressed modern day concerns and needs and passed our modern version of this clock change practice with the Uniform Savings Time Act.
Two states, Arizona (except for Navajo Nation) and Hawaii, do not observe Daylight Savings Time.
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