Talk:History of time in the United States

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—Yamara ✉  16:25, 23 June 2008 (UTC)

Move and expansion
Recently, I was involved in splitting Daylight saving time around the world from the Daylight saving time article. While doing so, I noticed an extensive secion on the history of DST in the US. THis swection was too long for the new article, but really didn't fit in the old article either, as there were no other histiories of other nations there, thus opening the article to the ubiquitious charge of being too US-centric.

So, I tried to find a new palce for this extensive section. I noticed that Canada had and article called Time in Canada, so I checked for a similar one for the US. Time in the United States is fairly short, but there was a link to the History of standard time in the United States article. This appeared to be a good place to put my orphaned section, but for the title. I assumed from its content and article history that the page was created at a time when the DST article focused on its history in the US, and thus "standar time" seemed a good title at the time. I also found that there were not many articles linking to this page.

Rather than create another article on time in the US, I decided to just rename this one, and place the DST history here. I haven't made any attempt at this time to integrate the article, but hope to work on that in the future. Any help would be appreciated. - BillCJ 18:47, 1 December 2006 (UTC)

I'm not sure how to fit it in with the current article formatting but I'd like to add a section for DST observances by state from 1920 to 1966 and time zone changes. To list every single last change down to the last detail would be impractical and almost impossible to source. Thomas Shanks Atlas on North American time zone changes is clearly to large for a wiki article and even it notes they can't confirm every change listed. However some general notes like in this format might work:

Time zone changes

Alaska - Bering time zone (UTC-11), Nome and Aleutian islands. Alaska-Hawaii time zone (UTC-10), Anchorage, Fairbanks and most of interior. Yukon time zone (UTC-9), Yakutat. Pacific time zone (UTC-8) Juneau and panhandle. Effective October 30, 1983 entire state moved to newly defined Alaska time zone (UTC-9) except for Aleutian islands west of 169º30'W now in Aleutian-Hawaii time zone (UTC-10).

Arizona - Mohave county Pacific time until March 7, 1944 (PWT to MST), Yuma county (included what is now La Paz county) Pacific time until January 1, 1929.

Indiana - See Time in Indiana.

DST observances other then War Time or Uniform Time Act

Arizona - Exempted from War Time act January 1, 1944, Mohave county remains on Pacific War Time till moved to MST, statewide April 1st-September 30, 1944, statewide 1967, repealed 1968.

Colorado - Aspen 1964 (1st Sun May to last Sun Sep), statewide 1965 (last Sun Apr to last Sun Oct).

Indiana - See Time in Indiana.

Michigan - Standard time until Sunday April 29, 1973, exempted from Emergency daylight time act in 1975 and allowed to use the previous dates (last Sun Apr to last Sun Oct).

Missouri - St. Louis 1946 (last Sun Apr to last Sun Sep), extended 1956 (last Sun Apr to last Sun Oct), statewide 1967.

Skywayman 11:43, 22 March 2007 (UTC)

Effect of DST on energy consumption
In 1987 the US switched the start of DST to the first Sunday in April (before that, it started on the last Sunday in April). Surely there were some academic studies on what effect this change had on energy consumption?

It is hard to believe there would be any energy savings from switching earlier to DST. Don't most people just turn on the lights in their house when they get home, regardless of whether it is still light outside? If anything, an earlier switch to DST will increase the use of oil, because if it is still light outside when people get home from work they are more likely to take the family out for a drive. --Mathew5000 04:45, 9 March 2007 (UTC)

Double Summer Time
I find, on the web, confirmation that clocks were advanced two hours during summer in Britain during WWII. I don't find any such confirmation for the same practice in the US. Since the clock advancement section of the 1918 act was repealed, the legislation as presented doesn't appear to authorize a two-hour advancement in summer. Can anyone provide confirmation of the practice in the USA? Cstaffa 20:22, 9 March 2007 (UTC)

I've never read anything about two hour adjustments being made in the US except in cases where time zones were changed. Juneau in October 1983 moving back two hours from PDT to YST or the new AKST. Also Pulaski county Indiana last week from CST to EDT. There has been discussion of it in California and the northeast for adding another hour from Memorial day to Labor day but so far nothing has come from it. Skywayman 10:11, 22 March 2007 (UTC)

War Time?
Is it just me or is this article lacking an actual explanation of what the War Time Act actually set forth? I have my guesses but the article somehow manages to avoid explictly detailing what War Time actually means. —Preceding unsigned comment added by 203.0.223.244 (talk) 08:14, 15 January 2009 (UTC)

15 USC 260
i think the reference to "1918 Standard Time Act, also known as the Calder Act (15 USC 260)" ought to be footnoted but 1. i don't really know how to make a ref, and B. i found a webpage with the full text of said Standard Time Act but i don't know if it is authoritative enough: http://www.webexhibits.org/daylightsaving/usc.html. is this an okay link to use as a reference, or should an official US Code page be found? DyNama (talk) 05:37, 10 January 2013 (UTC)

1986 rules change not mentioned?
The changes made in 1986 and implemented in 1987, should have their own section.

rhyre (talk) 12:56, 3 November 2013 (UTC)

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1966
section 6 states that any state that uses DST in 1966 needs to start last Sunday in April and end last Sunday in October. — Preceding unsigned comment added by 97.127.26.68 (talk) 17:36, 29 March 2018 (UTC)

Addition of material with inappropriate citations
In this edit User:Rosspz added material about the history of railroad time in the US. The citations had dates such as "Retrieved March 4". But it's now August. These retrieval dates indicate the user has not read the sources. As it says in Citing sources, '"Say where you read it" follows the practice in academic writing of citing sources directly only if you have read the source yourself." Therefore I have reverted the edits. Jc3s5h (talk) 13:01, 4 August 2019 (UTC)

Daylight Saving Time begin date in 2000
If the current laws had been in use in 2000 the date of Daylight Saving Time begin would've been 12-Mar, which a date that didn't fall on a Sunday until 2017 under the current laws.

Daylight Saving Time begins the first Sunday after 7-Mar which that is the second Sunday in March, since 7-Mar-2000 fell on a Tuesday the begin date of Daylight Saving Time would've been March 12 in 2000, and the end date would've been November 5, but the start date in 2000 was the first Sunday in April and the end date was the last Sunday in October.

It wasn't until 2017, when Daylight Saving Time officially begin on March 12 and officially ended on November 5, as in 2006 the old schedule was still in use, the current schedule didn't go into effect until 2007, and 2012 was a leap year so in 2011 it began on March 13 and in 2012 it began on March 11, so the first time Daylight Saving Time began on March 12 was in 2017.

--98.31.29.4 (talk) 16:49, 24 January 2020 (UTC)

Daylight Saving Time start date 2044?
According to this Daylight Saving Time is scheduled to start on  at

Will Daylight Saving Time start on, if the current schedule is still used second Sunday in March then the start date would be  , whereas in 1976 the start of Daylight Saving Time was   which was on Orthodox Easter that year. So is  the daylight saving time start date for 2044? 98.31.29.4 (talk) 18:16, 12 November 2022 (UTC)


 * I think if Daylight Saving Time is observed in 2044 at all, it would probably be the current dates, 1976 was the first year to return to the start of daylight saving time under the Uniform Time Act of 1966 for the first time in two years, in 1976 it started on  which was on Orthodox Easter that year, in 1973 it was on   which was also on Orthodox Easter.
 * Although I do see clock changes are possible for the short term, on however the senate passed a bill to make daylight saving time permanent, however the house on the other hand is still behind, if the bill were to become law it would go into effect on  at 2:00 am local time, even if it doesn't take effect in 2023, there would still be chances down the road, however since April 24, 2044 is still ##,##0 NaN from now, the law might change before then.  Given the previous daylight saving time schedules only lasted for about 20 years, where the daylight saving time end date as the last Sunday in October under Uniform Time Act lasted for 40 years. 98.31.29.4 (talk) 18:00, 14 November 2022 (UTC)

Five time zones?...
From the article: "On 11 October 1883, a convention of railroad executives met in Chicago at the General Time Convention (latter renamed the American Railway Association) and agreed to the implementation of five time zones in North America, using as a basis Greenwich Mean Time." (emphasis mine)

It'd be nice to get more clarity on what exactly is being referred to here...

Is this counting Alaska Time?....Or Atlantic Time in the far eastern regions of Canada?....Or was there actually a proposal to have five different time zones within the contiguous 48 states, where there are now only four time zones...

And if it's the latter, it'd be nice (if possible) to include a map of this proposal, and some discussion of what it was ultimately rejected in favor of the current four zone scheme. -2003:CA:870A:89BD:A967:4B39:71C0:AADB (talk) 12:24, 8 December 2022 (UTC)
 * I read The New York Time article cited in the Wikipedia article. The first zone was the time of the 75th meridian west of Greenwich, to be called Eastern time. Next is Central time. The Times says it's the nineteenth meridian, but I think that's a mistake, and the 90th meridian west of Greenwich is intended. The 90th meridian is mentioned later in the story. The next two zones are the 105th and 120th meridians west of Greenwich. No name is specified for the last two zones in the story. Greenwich is not explicitly mentioned in the story. Jc3s5h (talk) 15:12, 8 December 2022 (UTC)
 * I found the Newberry Library's website. The other source cited for railroad time seems to be the book Everywhere West which is described in their online catalog. I have not found an online version of the book. Jc3s5h (talk) 15:21, 8 December 2022 (UTC)