Daylight savings time, practiced in about 70 countries, is used as a way to preserve energy and make use of daylight. It was something first used in Canada when a few hundred Canadian citizens set their clocks forward by an hour in 1908. Other countries soon followed suit, but the idea of daylight savings didn’t catch global attention until it was popularized by Germany in 1916. They turned their clocks ahead by an hour in the German Empire and its ally Austria two years into World War I in an effort to minimize the use of artificial lighting and to save fuel as a war effort. Within a few weeks, the UK, France, and other countries followed their example.
The idea of daylight savings, however, actually existed a bit earlier and was created by New Zealand scientist George Vernon and British builder William Willet. According to Time and Date, “In 1895, Hudson presented a paper to the Wellington Philosophical Society, proposing a 2-hour shift forward in October and a 2-hour shift back in March. There was interest in the idea, but it was never followed through.”
A decade later, Willet had a similar idea, instead suggesting “setting the clocks ahead 20 minutes on each of the four Sundays in April, and switching them back by the same amount on each of the four Sundays in September, a total of eight-time switches per year.”
Daylight savings has always had an extensive history that is now coming to an end with the senate unanimously approving a bill on March 15, 2022 to make daylight savings time permanent year-round. That would mean no more changing your clocks twice a year or having to worry about being thrown off of your time schedule with the time change. The bipartisan bill called the Sunshine Protection act will ensure that in 2023 Fall back and Spring forward would be a thing of the past.