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5 Facts About Daylight Saving Time

Daylight Saving Time is ending at 2 a.m. tomorrow, so don't forget to set your clocks back an hour.

 

It's time to fall back.

No, not into your favorite armchair after a hard day's work. Daylight Saving Time ends at 2 a.m. Sunday, and residents are reminded to set all their clocks back one hour.

But did you know that for a task that's such an accepted part of all Americans' lives, there's actually a lot more to it? Check out these five facts about Daylight Saving Time:

  1. Most of the world does not take part in this practice. Much of South America, Asia and Australia do not participate in Daylight Saving Time anymore, while a large part of Africa never recognized it.
  2. Benjamin Franklin is the unofficial "father" of Daylight Saving Time. In the late 1700s, he proposed that Parisians wake up earlier in the summer to save on candle use and instead utilize daylight. Unbeknownst to Franklin, this would someday be morphed into DST.
  3. Some experts suggest that Daylight Saving Time is harmful to children's sleep routines. A Washington Post parenting blog suggests tips for making the switch easier on kids.
  4. In some parts of Europe, DST is commonly referred to as "Summer Time." In Britain, it's known as "British Summer Time," while in Germany, it's "sommerzeit."
  5. Daylight Saving Time starts up again on March 11, 2012.
Related Topics: Daylight Saving Time

Chuck Anesi

12:24 pm on Saturday, November 5, 2011

It has always been a mystery to me how Franklin's 1784 letter to the Journal of Paris (a satirical piece poking fun at the French night owls) gets distorted into an endorsement of DST. Franklin was a highly intelligent and rationale man, and he must be rolling in his grave over this misrepresentation.

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