ST. PETERSBURG, Fla. — Daylight Saving Time is ending this Sunday. We "fall back" one hour at 2 a.m. on Nov. 7.
While it's a myth the time change will save money on your electricity bill, an extra hour of sleep over the weekend is still something to celebrate!
Where did Daylight Saving Time come from?
The earliest proposal to "save" daylight is traditionally attributed to Benjamin Franklin's 1784 "An Economical Project." Franklin suggested citizens rise at dawn to save on candlelight expenses.
However, the Bureau of Transportation Statistics says the country's current observance of daylight saving time has its roots in train transportation. Back in 1883, railroad companies introduced time zones to avoid crashes caused by local times.
It wasn't until World War I when the federal government was given the power to oversee time zones to help with the war effort. During that period daylight saving time was first utilized.
It was abolished after the war but was allowed to continue on a state-by-state basis. Because of this, confusion over local times once again became a transportation issue.
In 1966, the Department of Transportation was founded and given regulatory power over time zones. Daylight saving time was then uniformly set across the nation.
But wait, didn't Florida vote to stop changing the clocks?
You might remember that Florida’s legislature voted to keep the state on DST year-round back in March 2018. Eighteen other states have done the same in the past four years. That would mean that we wouldn’t move the clock back an hour in the fall, keeping later evening sunsets permanently.
However, Congress oversees time and must approve this bill for Florida to make the change. It just hasn’t been a priority in Washington, D.C., so the bill has been sitting on a desk clock-change after clock-change, year-after-year.
RELATED: No, countries that observe daylight saving time don’t all change their clocks at the same time
Do people around the world recognize Daylight Saving Time?
Not even the entire U.S. changes their clocks! Puerto Rico along with Arizona and Hawaii don't observe Daylight Saving Time. Same goes for most of the rest of the world outside of North America and Europe. But we're all on different schedules. Europe turned back the clocks at the end of October and New Zealand went through the time change back in September.
