Why do Americans lose a precious hour in March?

On Sunday (March 9), most Americans lose 1 hour of precious weekend by adjusting the clock according to the daylight saving time (Daylight Saving Time - DST). With the exception of people living in Arizona and Hawaii, adjusting the clock by 1 hour in March (spring) as well as taking an hour back in November (autumn) is a mandatory rite in the United States. Why is that?

Benjamin Franklin (1706 - 1790), one of the founders of the United States, was the first to come up with the idea of adjusting the clock in the summer to conserve energy and take advantage of longer daylight. night. However, it was not until more than a century later that this ritual began to take place.

In May 1916, when the fighting became fierce during World War I, Germany set up DST in an attempt to conserve fuel for the war. The rest of Europe also learned this way, and the DST was finally made by the US in 1918.

The 28th President of the United States Woodrow Wilson (1856 - 1924) wanted to maintain the DST hours even after the war ended, but the idea was controversial, especially among American farmers. They say that adjusting the time to deviate their activity schedule, which is influenced by the natural cycle of the sun. Therefore, now DST was abolished after the war.

However, during World War II, DST was re-applied to cut electricity consumption and save energy for war. On February 9, 1942, nearly two months after the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor, the 32nd President of the United States Franklin Roosevelt (1882-1945) set up the DST all year and is often called "the time war ".

After the war, American states were given the option to choose whether to continue to do DST hours. However, this optional system eventually led to widespread confusion and confusion, with many neighboring cities operating in different time zones.

In 1966, the US Congress enacted the Uniform Time Act to establish order. Federal law states that, if states have chosen to conduct DST hours, they will have to follow a unified rite: DST hours will start on the first Sunday of April and end on Sunday last of October.

In 2007, the US Energy Policy Act of 2005 came into effect, the regulation extending DST hours in the country.DST now starts on the second Sunday in March and ends on the first Sunday in November .