10 Interesting Daylight Savings Facts (2020) | By the Numbers

If you are like me, daylight saving time is something you’ve grown up with and you may have even assumed it had some great scientific and historical significance. With clocks changing this weekend in the U.S. and recently elsewhere in the world, I thought it was a good time to take a look at this time-saving phenomenon and what it is all about.

Photo by dgoomany

Here are a few daylight savings facts that you may not have known. I was surprised to see how recent it was actually started and the real reason behind it…

Daylight Savings Facts

Who first proposed modern Daylight Saving Time?

George Hudson of New Zealand in 1895

Where was the first implementation of Daylight Saving Time?

Germany and Austria-Hungary in April 1916

When did Daylight Savings originate in the UK?

May 21, 1916

When did Daylight Savings originate in the U.S.?

March 19, 1918

Why was Daylight Saving Time implemented in the U.S.?

To reduce the need for artificial lightling

When does Daylight Saving begin each year in the U.S.?

The second Sunday in March 
(as of 2007)

When does Daylight Saving end each year in the U.S.?

The first Sunday in November
(as of 2007)

Where, in the U.S., is Daylight Saving Time not observed?

Hawaii and most of Arizona

Daylight Saving Time was actually repealed in the U.S. in 1919 and only existed sporadically until it was standardized in 1966.

In the Northern Hemisphere, the time between November and March is called “standard time” and the period between March and November is called “saving time.”

BONUS FACTOID: Coldplay’s Chirs Martin is the great-great-grandson of the ‘father’ of British Daylight Savings, William Willettt. One of Coldplay’s most popular songs was titled ‘Clocks.’ hmmmmm…..