A History of Daylight Savings Time (in the US)

Summary of Daylight Savings Changes

Beginnings

Daylight Savings Time (DST) was not conceived as a way for farmers to have more light at the end of the day during crop-growing months¹. It was first adopted in Germany and Austria-Hungary in 1916 during World War I; as a fuel conservation measure². With this, more coal and fuel could be diverted to the war (less being needed in the summer evenings now that daylight lasted an hour longer). The US first adopted DST in 1918 under the Standard Time Act, also as a fuel-saving measure, after the US entered the war in April of 1917³.

This version of DST started the last Sunday in March and ended the last Sunday in October. However, there was intense backlash from farmers, proving that DST was not conceived for their benefit⁴. Farmers are used to working by the sun, no matter what hour the clock shows. But with sunrise happening later under DST, the dew would not burn off their crops in time to harvest before local markets opened, and cows could not be milked in time to get shipments onto trains that followed rigid schedules.

World War I ended with the Armistice in November of 1918, but the Standard Time Act was permanent and was meant to continue even after the war. Therefore, DST took effect again the very next year, in March of 1919. After intense lobbying from farmers, dairymen, and agricultural unions throughout the summer of 1919, the Repeal Bill was finally passed that August⁵. It stipulated that DST for 1919 would end on the previously agreed date (October 26, 1919), but would then not be enforced by the Federal government again. The law allowed local municipalities and states to determine if they would continue to observe DST.

Clock Chaos, Part I

Urban centers, like New York City, Chicago, and Philadelphia, enjoyed the extra hour of daylight during summer evenings and continued to observe DST, setting their own start and end dates⁶. Rural areas, which detested DST, kept to Standard Time all year round. The result was that a traveler might have to change their watch half a dozen times during the same journey, just to keep up with the local timezones they were passing through⁷.

There were several issues caused by allowing municipally managed DST:

• Railroad and Bus Schedules⁸: since trains and busses typically traveled through multiple local jurisdictions, the varying local timezones made schedules a chaotic mess. This was trouble for the transportation companies, as well as travelers trying to understand when the next train or bus would arrive.
• Financial Markets⁹: the New York Stock Exchange observed DST to add an extra hour of business in the afternoons, but banks and commodity markets (especially in the Midwest or South) often did not. This resulted in communications being delayed, which could be disastrous for time-sensitive financial transactions.
• Radio Broadcasts⁸: While TV was invented in the 1920s¹⁰, it was not widely available in homes until the 1960s¹¹. However, homes all over the country regularly tuned into radio broadcasts. The local observation of DST threw off broadcast schedules so that a certain radio program might be heard an hour earlier than intended, or an hour later. This violated advertisement contracts and caused programming conflicts.

War Time

Pearl Harbor was struck on December 7, 1941, drawing the US into World War II. The War Time Act was passed in January of 1942¹² and went into effect quickly (in February of that year) enforcing DST year-round throughout the US. The intention was again the conservation of fuel to aid the war effort. However, this time the change was tied to the status of the war, and when the war ended in 1945 the War Time Act and year-round enforcement of DST also came to an end. This meant that local municipalities could return to observing DST, or not, at their own preference¹².

Clock Chaos, Part II

With the end of WWII and the War Time Act, the Federal government returned to not enforcing DST or Standard Time. Local municipalities returned to observing DST how they wished, and the patchwork of local timezones returned¹². However, this time the issues were much worse.

Issues of the 1950s Clock Chaos:

• Interstate Commerce⁸: War had increased factory efficiency and national commerce was now more heavily supported by rail and interstate trucking. Managing transportation schedules across multiple local timezones was eventually untenable.
• Air Travel¹³: the 1950s and 60s saw the “Jet Age” boom, where 153 million more American adopted air travel¹⁴. But with timezones of locally controlled airports still playing havoc with daily flight schedule management, airlines struggled to keep flights on time and travel friction was a common experience
• TV Broadcasts⁸: TV entered the common home in the 1950s, and TV broadcasters experienced the same programming and advertising headaches that radio had two decades earlier

Ending the Chaos

In order to address the (mostly economic) crisis of local DST regulation, the Uniform Time Act of 1966 was passed⁸. This law certainly addressed the headaches of individual human experience when dealing with municipal timezones, but the primary argument was to stop the loss of money that complex timezone schedules imposed on the national economy. Testimony was presented in Congress from the Interstate Commerce Commission showing the operational toll municipal timezones had on the transportation and communication sectors. This was easily translated into an argument of millions of dollars wasted every year.

However, the opposition from farmers was still remembered. As a compromise, Congress permitted DST observation to be ignored at the state level, while also rolling back the start of DST from the end of March to now start at the end of April⁸. The intention of the law was to address the chaos of the municipal timezone patchwork across the nation; now DST could only be opted-out of at the state level.

Even though the 1966 law was scheduled to go into effect the very next year, Hawaii passed preemptive legislation even before the first Uniform Time Act DST was to start (in April of 1967); Hawaii’s legislation passed the month before, in March 1967¹⁵. Arizona also eventually opted-out, although they observed DST for the first year of the law - to disastrous effect¹⁶. Because of the high heat in Arizona during summertime, DST caused the hot sun to be out until 9PM on some days. This resulted in higher rates of heat stroke in farm workers, and higher energy usage as air conditioners were run later into the evening. Arizona passed legislation in March of 1968 to end observation of DST throughout the state.

The Year-Round Daylight Savings Time Experiment of 1974

In October of 1973, OPEC (the Organization of Arab Petroleum Exporting Countries) placed an embargo on exports of oil to the US. This was in response to US support for Israel during the Arab-Israeli War²⁰. The result was a fuel shortage crisis that saw crude oil prices quadruple. Americans experienced long lines at gas stations and fuel rationing, which also caused massive inflation.

To address the economic crisis, President Richard Nixon and Congress instituted year-round DST as a requirement throughout the nation, starting January 6, 1974²¹. From previous DST implementations it was understood that shifting the hours of sunlight to the evening would reduce overall electricity consumption. Producing electricity during this era relied heavily on crude oil (while in the 21st century natural gas, nuclear energy, and renewable energy are primarily used)²²²³. The idea was to reduce oil used for electricity production, thereby freeing up more of the limited oil supply for use as vehicle fuel.

There was swift public outcry following the January implementation of DST. The public began experiencing the worst effects of observing DST in winter immediately:

• Late Morning Darkness²¹: during the depths of winter sunrise would not occur until 8:30AM for most locations, and not until nearly 9:00AM for areas at the Western end of their timezone
• Schoolchildren Safety²¹: With school starting at 8 or 8:30 AM, children were suddenly forced to walk to school in the pitch black. Several incidents of children being struck and killed on their way to school received wide publication, fueling public outcry

While the overall rate of vehicle accidents must have increased, the focus of the outcry centered around the tragic deaths of so many schoolchildren due to low morning visibility for drivers. Some parents began walking with their children along roadsides carrying candles, and some took to driving their children to school each morning (completely negating any fuel savings the law might have achieved)²⁴. Public approval for the law, which had been 74% before January, fell to 42% by March. The law was repealed by President Gerald Ford in October 1974. The US would once again annually change to DST only in March and end it each year in October.

Shop! …for Fire Safety?

In 1985, Senator Slade Gorton (R-Wash) introduced a bill to add four weeks to the existing DST schedule, starting DST the first Sunday in April and not ending it until the first Sunday in November²⁵. This extension would be a boon to the economy, especially during the sluggish spring season. The idea received endorsement from the Reagan administration, as a zero-cost, non-tax stimulus to the economy. However, it encountered the perennial resistance of rural communities and agricultural lobbies, and did not proceed.

Not letting this defeat stop him, Senator Gorton eventually added an amendment to the Federal Fire Prevention and Control Act of 1986²⁵, a clear example of a rider provision. The Fire Prevention bill was considered “must pass” as it had wide support among all parties. Arguments against the time changes were still at hand, but there was a push from powerful lobbies representing convenience stores (like 7-Eleven), fast-food and casual dining, the barbecue and leisure industries, and also the candy lobby (see The Candy Pumpkin Incident below).

Parent organizations still argued against starting DST earlier in April, citing the dark morning hours before school in April. However, supporting lawmakers were able to quell these arguments by presenting meteorological data that indicated early April sunrises occur much earlier than those in winter months like December and January²⁶. However, the October-November extension was dropped, and this finally dashed the hopes of the candy lobby for extending DST past Halloween, but laid to rest the ghosts of the disastrous 1974 DST experiment.

By attaching his DST changes to the fire law, Senator Gorton ensured that the changes would pass, as the Congress did not want to be seen holding up such a strongly supported law just for “little clock changes”.

Let Them Eat Candy and Barbecue, and Play Golf

In 2005, Congress passed a new energy policy that added four weeks of DST to the year. Three weeks would be added in the spring, and one in the fall, starting in 2007. The reasoning given was to conserve energy. Beginning in 2003 oil prices roughly doubled, in part due to the rapid industrialization of China, but also due to the ongoing War On Terror in Iraq²⁸. At the time there was also a theme of national energy security in political rhetoric, pushing for policies that reduced dependence on foreign oil. Furthermore the electrical grid was under strain, with the 2003 electrical blackout in the Northeast (caused by a structural failure) putting energy usage at the forefront of the conversation.

However, while reliable electricity and lower gas prices were the loudest arguments, the 2005 law received significant support from business interest groups²⁹. It was clear to businesses that increasing the amount of evening daylight hours had a direct impact on their sales performance. Already it was understood that the additional hour of daylight after work during DST most often resulted in Americans doing extra shopping. Extending DST by an additional four weeks during the year could only benefit commercial businesses.

In particular, three lobbies were the most persistent in persuading Congress:

• The Candy Lobby²⁹: under the 1966 law DST ended on the last Sunday in October. In some years this meant Halloween would fall after that Sunday, resulting in an earlier sunset for Halloween in those years. The Candy Lobby understood that parents would be more likely to let their children stay out trick-or-treating longer if the sun was still up, resulting in neighborhoods purchasing more candy in preparation for the extended rush. They lobbied that DST should not end until the first Sunday of November, thus ensuring Halloween would always have an extra hour of sunlight in the evening.
• The Golf and Barbecue Lobbies⁹: these groups would be happy with additional weeks of DST, no matter what side of the existing standard they were applied to. They argued that additional weeks of DST would extend their seasons, adding $200 million in retail sales and greens fees at golf courses, and $100 million in lighter fluid, charcoal, and meat sales related to barbecuing.

A 2008 Department of Energy report³⁰ shed light on the facts. The law had had little to no effect on energy consumption, with a negligible 0.02% energy savings overall. Thus the true legacy of the 2005 energy law remains the economic impact foretold by the commercial lobbyists.

Argument Themes in the Daylight Savings Time Debate

Though DST has been changed in several ways throughout the years, several themes reoccur whenever the arguments for and against crop up again:

• Energy Conservation: the conservation argument seems to have been most realized during times of war, when coal and oil needed to be diverted to the front and production. The effect of DST on energy conservation at other times seems to be negligible, indicating that energy conservation through DST is only realistic if paired with other rationing and restrictions (typical of war time regulations)
• Economic Stimulation: often the undercurrent of the public “energy conservation” argument, experience living under DST has shown DST has more effects on the economy than anything else. An extra hour of sunlight in the evenings is most often spent by driving (gasoline sales), shopping (retail sales), and leisure activities (recreational sales). Certainly the pressure from business interest groups has expanded DST the most in the modern era, compared to the winning motivations when DST was being introduced.
• Agricultural Producers: surprising to many people who were taught that DST was introduced to help farmers harvest, since the beginning farmers and rural communities have been against DST, and still oppose it and its expansions today. Farmers are unconcerned by the hour the clock shows for when they will start their day, however DST does affect when they are able to meet market and shipment deadlines. Later sunrises mean harvests start later in the day, once the sun has burned the dew off of crops, causing a chain reaction that might mean produce isn’t delivered to markets or transportation hubs on time.
• Protecting the Children: another argument against DST, protecting pedestrian schoolchildren as they walk to school. Later sunrises during the edge months of DST means dark mornings around the time school starts. Drivers are less able to see children in these conditions, exemplified by the tragic increase in fatal child pedestrian vehicular accidents during the 1974 yearlong DST experiment.
• Vehicle Accidents: this argument includes the trouble of serious car accidents against pedestrian children, it also considers other poor driving conditions during winter months if the sunrise is delayed by an hour (year-round DST). Winter driving conditions can already be hazardous, with low visibility due to snow and slippery road conditions due to ice. Having drivers start their day earlier than normal before sunrise exacerbates these issues since it will be darker and colder during these hours.
• Annual Stress of “Spring Forward”: it has often been argued that losing an hour each spring causes enough additional stress that we see a significant increase in heart attacks and strokes, however in recent years the statistics have not backed this up. But it is still successfully argued that drivers are less alert due to sleep deprivation for through the first week after DST begins, resulting in a statistically significant increase of auto accidents that week.

Current (2007 and beyond) DST Rules³¹³²

• 8 months of Daylight Savings Time: beginning the second Sunday in March, and ending the first Sunday in November
• Clock Change: clocks are advanced by 1 hour at 2:00 AM on the morning when DST starts, and rolled back by 1 hour at 2:00 AM on the morning when DST ends
• Standard Time: only observed for about 4 months during the winter
• State Opt-Out: states can still opt-out of DST and observe standard time year-round. Currently only Arizona and Hawaii have passed this legislation
• Permanent DST: is still banned, even at the state level, although 19 states (circa November 2026) have passed trigger laws to adopt DST if the Uniform Time Act is amended

References