Daylight Saving Time

An early poster promotes the use of Daylight Saving Time in the United States.

On this date in 1942, year-round Daylight Saving Time was reinstated in the United States during World War II.

Here are some things you may not have known about Daylight saving time.

It was not originally proposed by Benjamin Franklin. Despite his enthusiasm for working in the early morning, most of the world did not keep precise schedules in his day.

The rise of railroads and the telegraph required standardizing the time, so trains could stay on schedule, and most importantly, not collide with each other. Before the standardization of time, each city and its vicinity had its own timezone, usually based local solar noon, the time when the sun was at its highest in the sky.

Daylight saving time was first proposed in 1895 by New Zealander George Hudson, who was an amateur entomologist who wanted more sunlight later in the day to catch insects. Independently, in 1905 William Willett proposed a similar plan to help him be able to finish his round of golf before dark. The first Daylight Saving bill was introduced in Parliament in 1908, but nothing came of it.

In 1916, Germany and Austria began using daylight time to help conserve coal during World War I. Most countries of the world soon followed suit. Following World War I, Daylight Saving Time was repealed despite the veto of President Woodrow Wilson. Until World War II, there was no national law in the U.S. regarding Daylight Savings.

Beginning on February 9, 1942, and lasting until September 30, 1945, the United States reinstated Daylight Time year round, calling it War Time. At the time the thinking was that residential lighting was a primary use of electricity. So, if the sun was still shining at a nominally later hour, less energy would be used by lights. It is now estimated that there is little to negative energy savings caused by Daylight Time.

Among those who benefit from Daylight Time are retailers and golf courses. In 1984, it was estimated that 7-Eleven stores would make an additional $30 million a year with a seven-week extension of Daylight Time. In 1999, a study estimated that Daylight Time increased leisure spending in the European Union by about 3 percent.

Among those who are generally against Daylight time are farmers, parents and those whose hours are set by the sun. Television networks, drive-in and indoor movie theaters are also negatively affected by the plethora of options that a later sunset provides.

Daylight Time shifts are associated with increased risk of heart attacks and strokes, and the effects on sleep schedules can last for several weeks.

In 1967, the United States reinstated Daylight Time, although individual states were allowed to exempt themselves. Arizona and Michigan were the first to do so. In 1974, the U.S. instituted year-round Daylight Time as a response to the oil embargo, however the experiment was cut short after complaints arose about children leaving for school in the dark.

In 2005, the current second Sunday in March to first Sunday in November schedule was adopted. The states and territories that don’t observe Daylight Time are Arizona, Hawaii, American Samoa, Puerto Rico and the U.S. Virgin Islands.

Our question: What is the only state with territory in the Mountain Time Zone that also has a Pacific Ocean coastline?

Today is unofficially Chocolate Day, National Bagel Day, and National Toothache Day.

It’s the birthday of musician Carole King, who is 75; author Alice Walker, who is 73; and actor Tom Hiddleston, who is 36.

Because our topic happened before 1960, we’ll spin the wheel to pick a year at random.

This week in 1975, the top song in the U.S. was “You’re No Good” by Linda Ronstadt.

The No. 1 movie was “The Towering Inferno,” while the novel “Something Happened” by Joseph Heller topped the New York Times Bestsellers list.

Weekly question: What country did the world’s longest-reigning monarch rule over?

Submit your answer at triviapeople.com/test and we’ll add the name of the person with the first correct answer to our winner’s wall … at triviapeople.com. We’ll have the correct answer on tomorrowDay’s episode.