When was daylight savings established in the United States?

DST was first established in the US in 1918, then repealed. It was again started during WWII and repealed in 1945. It was then started again in 1966. The timing of it and requirements concerning participation of all states has changed a couple of times since then.

"The plan was not formally adopted in the U.S. until 1918. 'An Act to preserve daylight and provide standard time for the United States' was enacted on March 19, 1918. It both established standard time zones and set summer DST to begin on March 31, 1918. Daylight Saving Time was observed for seven months in 1918 and 1919.

After the War ended, the law proved so unpopular that it was repealed in 1919 with a Congressional override of President Wilson's veto. Daylight Saving Time became a local option, and was continued in a few states, such as Massachusetts and Rhode Island, and in some cities, such as New York, Philadelphia, and Chicago.

During World War II, President Franklin Roosevelt instituted year-round Daylight Saving Time, called "War Time," from February 9, 1942 to September 30, 1945. From 1945 to 1966, there was no federal law regarding Daylight Saving Time, so states and localities were free to choose whether or not to observe Daylight Saving Time and could choose when it began and ended.

The Uniform Time Act of 1966 established a system of uniform (within each time zone) Daylight Saving Time throughout the U.S. and its possessions, exempting only those states in which the legislatures voted to keep the entire state on standard time.

On January 4, 1974, President Nixon signed into law the Emergency Daylight Saving Time Energy Conservation Act of 1973. Then, beginning on January 6, 1974, implementing the Daylight Saving Time Energy Act, clocks were set ahead. On October 5, 1974, Congress amended the Act, and Standard Time returned on October 27, 1974. Daylight Saving Time resumed on February 23, 1975 and ended on October 26, 1975.

In 1972, Congress revised the law to provide that, if a state was in two or more time zones, the state could exempt the part of the state that was in one time zone while providing that the part of the state in a different time zone would observe Daylight Saving Time. The Federal law was amended in 1986 to begin Daylight Saving Time on the first Sunday in April.

Under legislation enacted in 1986, Daylight Saving Time in the U.S. began at 2:00 a.m. on the first Sunday of April and ended at 2:00 a.m. on the last Sunday of October.

The Energy Policy Act of 2005 extended Daylight Saving Time in the U.S. beginning in 2007, though Congress retained the right to revert to the 1986 law should the change prove unpopular or if energy savings are not significant. Going from 2007 forward, Daylight Saving Time in the U.S.

begins at 2:00 a.m. on the second Sunday of March and

ends at 2:00 a.m. on the first Sunday of November"

Daylight savings time was used in the US during WWII when the clocks were set two hours ahead. This was psychological warfare at it's finest. It was suppose to confuse the Japanese and Axis.

The Uniform Time Act of 1966 is the latest application daylight savings time in the United States, but things have changed in the last three years. AZ does not observe daylight savings time. Indiana also did not used to observe daylight savings time, but the counties in the northwest and southwest Indiana now are on central daylight time, to be in sync with Chicago, which is economic hub of the economic support network, while the rest of Indiana observes eastern daylight savings time.

In 1918. The idea had been kicking around for more than a century, but it was first implemented by Germany and some of her allies as a means of saving coal during the war in 1915. The idea spread through most of the warring countries in the next few years.