On This Day – Daylight Saving Is Used For the First Time

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Although it is commonly acknowledged that Benjamin Franklin first conceived of daylight saving during his time in Paris in 1784, it wasn’t until the First World War when it was first adopted in Germany to replace artificial lighting so that they could save fuel for the war effort, at 11pm on April 30 1916. It was quickly followed by Britain and other countries from both sides, including the United States. After the war, many countries reverted back to standard time.

Years later in the Second World War, Franklin D. Roosevelt instituted year-round daylight saving, known as “war time”, which formally began on February 9 1942. Daylight saving was first recognised as an energy saving aspect during World War Two when Double Summer Time was applied in Britain which moved the clocks two hours ahead of GMT during the summer and one hour ahead of GMT during the winter.