Daylight Saving Time: Facts and Nuggets

Ever wonder why we have Daylight Saving Time? How did it start? Where and when did it begin?

Here are some facts and nuggets you should know about Daylight Saving Time:

1. It is used to save energy and make better use of daylight.
2. Thunder Bay, Canada is the first city to use it in 1908.
3. It is a practice of setting the clocks one hour ahead of standard time to make use of more sunlight in the spring, summer, and fall evenings.
4. Germany Popularized DST in 1916.
5. George Vernon Hudson and British builder William Willett are New Zealand scientists who came up with the idea in 1895.
6. Robert Pearce, the British Member of Parliament introduced the first DST Bill in February 1908, died 7 years before United Kingdom finally started using DST in May 1916.
7. Benjamin Franklin only meant it as a joke when he suggested that Parisians could economize candle usage by getting people out of bed earlier in the morning, which made a lot of people think that he is the Father of DST.
8. The idea of DST is an ancient one. Roman water clocks used different scales for different months of the year to adjust the daily schedules to the solar time.
9. Daylight Saving Time is now used in over 70 countries worldwide and affects over one billion people every year.
10. The beginning and end dates vary from one country to another.

Source: Time and Date