Who Decided to Turn Clocks Forward in the Spring and Back in the Fall?

Benjamin Franklin first suggested turning the clocks in 1784. In 1907, Englishman William Willett campaigned for setting the clock ahead by eighty minutes. This was to be done in four moves of twenty minutes each, during the Spring and Summer months. In 1908, the British House of Commons rejected a bill to move the clock ahead by one hour in the Spring and return to Greenwich Mean (standard) Time in the Fall.

In 1918, the world was at war. In order to preserve fuel that was used for artificial lighting, certain states in the United States observed daylight-saving time. During World War II, the same thing happened.

In 1966, Congress established daylight-saving time (DST) as the norm during the period between the last Sunday in April and the last Sunday in October.

Congress passed a law in 1986 that changed the beginning of daylight-saving time to 2:00 a.m. on the first Sunday of April and ending at 2:00 a.m. on the last Sunday in October.

Beginning in 2007, daylight-saving time will be extended by a month -- three weeks earlier in spring (March 11) and one week later in autumn (Nov. 5).

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