Why do we have daylight saving time? Here's the history behind changing our clocks

It's almost second nature now.

Every year, in the wee hours of the second Sunday in March, most Americans — with the exception of those in Arizona and Hawaii — lose an hour when daylight saving time begins.

Seven months later, they regain that hour when daylight saving time ends the first Sunday of November, which is coming up — by the way — on Nov. 5.

So, why do we do it?

In a way, you can thank Germany.

The history of daylight saving time

We have 50 states, so how about 50 time zones?

Believe it or not, that's not a joke. Or, at least, it didn't used to be.

In 1883, the U.S. saw a major advancement in time-telling when railroad managers, who were operating under roughly 50 regional times, hired transportation publisher William Allen to come up with a simpler plan. Allen proposed five time zones that spanned the U.S. and, by late 1883, every railroad clock was reset to reflect them, according to the Library of Congress.

While the railroads followed these time zones, they weren't inked into law until the 1918 passage of the Standard Time Act, which also introduced the country to daylight saving time.

Two years earlier, Germany had started setting its clocks forward one hour in the spring in an effort to conserve fuel during the early years of World War I. Other European countries followed and in 1918, the U.S. set its own daylight saving time with the Standard Time Act.

Then called "war time," the change lasted, well, as long as the war did. It was repealed after the end of World War I, according to the Department of Defense.

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Another war, more 'war time'

After daylight saving time's stunted start, it appeared to resurge as part of a patchwork of efforts in various American towns and cities.

On May 1, 1920, the Fort Collins Courier reported daylight saving time was set to go into effect in Denver the following weekend, with all state, city, county and federal offices — as well as most business establishments in the city — setting their clocks forward an hour. At the time, Denver was the only city in Colorado to readopt daylight saving time following its national repeal, according to the Courier.

Like the federal Standard Time Act, Denver's daylight saving time was short-lived, with voters nixing the new law in May 1921. The idea came up again in the 1930s, with nearly 500 U.S. cities putting daylight saving time into effect in April 1931 and Denver trying, and failing, to enact a daylight saving time plan throughout the decade, according to newspaper accounts.

In February 1942 — a couple months after the U.S. entered World War II — Congress brought back "war time" when it passed a law reinstating a national daylight saving time to help conserve fuel. When the war ended in 1945, the law was repealed, once again leaving daylight saving time up to the states and creating confusion for the transportation and broadcast industries, according to the Department of Defense.

Over the next two decades, a mess of U.S. cities and states initiated daylight saving plans, with California, Nevada, parts of Ohio, Indiana, Pennsylvania and Delaware recognizing daylight saving time until late September by the mid-1950s and other parts of the country, mostly in northeastern states, recognizing it until late October, according to newspaper accounts.

In 1966, the third and final federal mandate came when Congress passed the Uniform Time Act. The law set a national daylight saving time from the last Sunday in April to the last Sunday in October.

While daylight saving time was the topic of conversation at several public meetings in Fort Collins ahead of the 1966 switch, the idea often brought mixed reactions and it appears the city never recognized daylight saving time outside of federal mandates.

When the Uniform Time Act came around in 1966, the Coloradoan's reporting highlighted how contentious the topic still was.

"You can accept it with enthusiasm or resignation, curse it or simply ignore it, it doesn't make any difference — the sun will 'rise' an hour earlier Sunday morning," read an April 22 article.

That article also dispelled a long-held myth that daylight saving time was created to give farmers an extra hour of daylight to harvest their crops.

"This tampering with the clock to carve out an extra hour of daylight in the evening is a joy to most city dwellers and a bane to practically all farmers and ranchers," the article continued. "... Farmers and ranchers maintain the appearance of the sun an hour earlier than usual upsets the regularity of rural life — the chickens don't know when to lay eggs and cows become confused over when they're to be milked."

Daylight saving time was ultimately changed to its existing timeline in 2005.

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What's the future of daylight saving time?

While most Americans have been living with biannual daylight saving time switches for nearly 60 years, some changes might be coming down the pike.

Last year, the U.S. Senate unanimously approved the Sunshine Protection Act, which would permanently extend daylight saving time year-round. The Sunshine Protection Act has yet to be passed by the U.S. House of Representatives, however, stalling a permanent switch to daylight saving time.

Also last year, Colorado Gov. Jared Polis signed the Daylight Saving Time Year Round measure into law, though four other states in the Mountain Time Zone are required to also choose year-round daylight saving time for Colorado's law to go into effect. So far, Montana, Wyoming and Utah have passed permanent daylight saving time measures, according to previous Coloradoan reporting.

So — at least for now — keep resetting your clocks, Colorado.

Coloradoan reporter Pat Ferrier contributed to this report.

Editor's note: An earlier version of this story incorrectly stated how Germany and Denver instituted daylight saving time in 1916 and 1920, respectively. They both set their clocks forward one hour in the spring.

This article originally appeared on Fort Collins Coloradoan: Why do we have daylight saving time? It's not what you might think