Why do we participate in Daylight Saving Time

Daylight Saving Time started yesterday, but why was this time change ever created? Contrary to some thought processes, it's actually not solely because of the weather! I wanted to dive into why Daylight Saving Time was created and the steps that were taken to get it implemented across the nation.

The history of Daylight Saving Time can be traced as far back as World War One with some sources claiming that it was created long before then. During the war, Daylight Saving saw its first widespread use in an effort to conserve fuel in Europe. The United States later used this tactic in 1918. In the Second World War, Roosevelt also applied this time change, but dubbed it “War Time” and it lasted all year long. 

After the wars, Daylight Saving Time was amended by Congress in 1974 and supposedly fully implemented. Widespread support of this act wasn't terribly popular at the start though. Congress later added in a clause that states that span more than one time zone don't have fully adhere to daylight saving time. In fact, just one time zone in that particular state has to adhere to the change. Even just within the last week, there's been a push to make Daylight Saving Time permanent.

So while Daylight Saving Time of course correlates with longer hours of sunshine, it actually largely came as a consequence of the World Wars.