1
00:00:00,240 --> 00:00:02,000
Speaker 1: The Day in History Class is a production of I

2
00:00:02,080 --> 00:00:08,799
Speaker 1: Heart Radio. Hello and Welcome to This Day in History Class,

3
00:00:09,160 --> 00:00:12,040
Speaker 1: a show that turns back the clock every day of

4
00:00:12,080 --> 00:00:16,080
Speaker 1: the week. I'm Gay Blusier, and in this episode, we're

5
00:00:16,120 --> 00:00:19,480
Speaker 1: talking about a failed federal mandate that tried to make

6
00:00:19,560 --> 00:00:29,440
Speaker 1: daylight saving Time last all year long. The day was

7
00:00:29,560 --> 00:00:35,760
Speaker 1: January six four. In response to an ongoing energy crisis,

8
00:00:36,080 --> 00:00:39,559
Speaker 1: Daylight Saving Time went into effect three months early in

9
00:00:39,600 --> 00:00:43,360
Speaker 1: the United States. The early start was the result of

10
00:00:43,400 --> 00:00:47,159
Speaker 1: the Emergency Daylight Saving Time Act, which was signed into

11
00:00:47,240 --> 00:00:51,840
Speaker 1: law by President Richard Nixon. Americans were instructed to set

12
00:00:51,840 --> 00:00:54,760
Speaker 1: their clocks forward one hour and to leave them that

13
00:00:54,800 --> 00:00:57,120
Speaker 1: way for the better part of the next two years,

14
00:00:57,720 --> 00:01:01,320
Speaker 1: instead of falling back an hour in late autumn. Daylight

15
00:01:01,400 --> 00:01:04,520
Speaker 1: Saving Time would last year round and wouldn't come to

16
00:01:04,560 --> 00:01:09,040
Speaker 1: an end until October of nineteen seventy five. The action

17
00:01:09,160 --> 00:01:13,039
Speaker 1: was intended to decrease fuel consumption, since Americans would be

18
00:01:13,040 --> 00:01:15,520
Speaker 1: able to use the extra sunlight in the evening to

19
00:01:15,600 --> 00:01:20,080
Speaker 1: help heat and light their homes. However, public backlash and

20
00:01:20,200 --> 00:01:23,880
Speaker 1: a growing number of safety concerns led Congress to abandon

21
00:01:23,959 --> 00:01:29,160
Speaker 1: the plan just ten months in Daylight Saving time or DST,

22
00:01:29,840 --> 00:01:32,920
Speaker 1: is the system by which clocks are routinely adjusted in

23
00:01:33,000 --> 00:01:35,679
Speaker 1: order to increase the number of daylight hours in the

24
00:01:35,720 --> 00:01:39,959
Speaker 1: summer months. For countries in the Northern Hemisphere, clocks are

25
00:01:40,000 --> 00:01:42,959
Speaker 1: moved forward one hour in the spring and are moved

26
00:01:42,959 --> 00:01:46,000
Speaker 1: back one hour in the fall when so called standard

27
00:01:46,000 --> 00:01:51,000
Speaker 1: time resumes. The system was jokingly suggested by Benjamin Franklin

28
00:01:51,040 --> 00:01:54,560
Speaker 1: in seventeen eighty four, and was then proposed in Earnest

29
00:01:54,720 --> 00:01:59,960
Speaker 1: by George Vernon Hudson in Hudson was in New Zealand

30
00:02:00,120 --> 00:02:03,160
Speaker 1: entomologist and pushed for a two hour shift in the

31
00:02:03,200 --> 00:02:06,120
Speaker 1: summer so that he'd have more hours of sunlight to

32
00:02:06,200 --> 00:02:10,000
Speaker 1: go bug hunting after work. Other advocates took up the

33
00:02:10,040 --> 00:02:13,800
Speaker 1: cause as well, including British builder William Willett, but the

34
00:02:13,880 --> 00:02:18,520
Speaker 1: idea of uniformly changing clocks wasn't adopted nationally until the

35
00:02:18,560 --> 00:02:23,760
Speaker 1: First World War made it a necessity. Several countries involved

36
00:02:23,800 --> 00:02:28,399
Speaker 1: in the conflict, including Australia, Great Britain and Germany, implemented

37
00:02:28,480 --> 00:02:31,760
Speaker 1: summer daylight saving time as a way to conserve fuel

38
00:02:32,000 --> 00:02:35,440
Speaker 1: by reducing the need for artificial light and heat. The

39
00:02:35,480 --> 00:02:39,880
Speaker 1: practice was first used in the US in as part

40
00:02:39,880 --> 00:02:43,160
Speaker 1: of the Standard Time Act, the same measure that created

41
00:02:43,200 --> 00:02:46,760
Speaker 1: the five US time zones that are still in use today.

42
00:02:47,240 --> 00:02:51,320
Speaker 1: The federal mandate on daylight saving time was repealed after

43
00:02:51,320 --> 00:02:53,840
Speaker 1: the war ended, and the country went back to using

44
00:02:53,880 --> 00:02:58,320
Speaker 1: standard time year round. The practice was re implemented in

45
00:02:58,400 --> 00:03:01,640
Speaker 1: early ninety two, just a couple of months after the

46
00:03:01,720 --> 00:03:05,840
Speaker 1: US entered World War two. That time clocks were moved

47
00:03:05,840 --> 00:03:09,960
Speaker 1: forward one hour year round, with daylight saving time lasting

48
00:03:10,040 --> 00:03:14,480
Speaker 1: continuously from February ninth, nineteen forty two, all the way

49
00:03:14,520 --> 00:03:19,480
Speaker 1: to September thirtieth, nineteen forty five. The government justified this

50
00:03:19,600 --> 00:03:22,960
Speaker 1: so called war time as a way to conserve energy

51
00:03:23,120 --> 00:03:27,400
Speaker 1: and to promote national security and defense, but once again,

52
00:03:27,680 --> 00:03:30,959
Speaker 1: when the war ended, the measure was repealed and standard

53
00:03:31,000 --> 00:03:35,400
Speaker 1: time was reinstated. Daylight saving time was left by the

54
00:03:35,400 --> 00:03:38,720
Speaker 1: wayside for the next two decades after that, but in

55
00:03:38,800 --> 00:03:43,280
Speaker 1: nineteen sixty six, Congress passed the Uniform Time Act, which

56
00:03:43,320 --> 00:03:47,760
Speaker 1: finally made springing forward and falling back in annual practice.

57
00:03:48,200 --> 00:03:52,080
Speaker 1: The country's next experiment with year round daylight saving time

58
00:03:52,440 --> 00:03:56,240
Speaker 1: arrived in the early nineteen seventies, shortly after the organization

59
00:03:56,320 --> 00:04:00,360
Speaker 1: of Arab Petroleum Exporting countries or OPEC to played in

60
00:04:00,480 --> 00:04:04,800
Speaker 1: oil embargo. By v four, the US was in the

61
00:04:04,800 --> 00:04:08,560
Speaker 1: midst of a full blown energy crisis, and federal officials

62
00:04:08,560 --> 00:04:12,280
Speaker 1: were trying everything they could to reduce fuel consumption. They

63
00:04:12,360 --> 00:04:16,600
Speaker 1: rationed gas, imposed a national speed limit, and even required

64
00:04:16,720 --> 00:04:21,760
Speaker 1: NASCAR races to be shortened. Desperate for solutions, lawmakers looked

65
00:04:21,760 --> 00:04:25,120
Speaker 1: to the past and decided to reinstate the old wartime

66
00:04:25,160 --> 00:04:29,839
Speaker 1: practice of year round daylight saving time. When President Nixon

67
00:04:29,920 --> 00:04:33,080
Speaker 1: signed the Emergency Act, he claimed it would save as

68
00:04:33,080 --> 00:04:36,120
Speaker 1: many as a hundred and fifty thousand barrels of oil

69
00:04:36,240 --> 00:04:39,440
Speaker 1: each day during the winter months, and that the impact

70
00:04:39,480 --> 00:04:44,040
Speaker 1: on the public would be quote only a minimum of inconvenience.

71
00:04:45,000 --> 00:04:48,240
Speaker 1: Before the change went into effect, the vast majority of

72
00:04:48,279 --> 00:04:51,000
Speaker 1: Americans were in favor of it, happy to have a

73
00:04:51,000 --> 00:04:53,920
Speaker 1: break from the frustration of changing all their clocks twice

74
00:04:53,920 --> 00:04:56,840
Speaker 1: a year. But it didn't take long for the public

75
00:04:56,880 --> 00:05:00,839
Speaker 1: to realize the major downside of permanent daylight it's saving time.

76
00:05:01,240 --> 00:05:03,919
Speaker 1: They would be waking up and going to work or

77
00:05:04,040 --> 00:05:07,839
Speaker 1: sending their kids to school in jet black darkness all

78
00:05:07,880 --> 00:05:12,560
Speaker 1: winter long. The troubles began on day one, when, according

79
00:05:12,560 --> 00:05:15,560
Speaker 1: to The New York times, Hundreds of tourists missed their

80
00:05:15,600 --> 00:05:19,320
Speaker 1: flights from Puerto Rico to the continental US because the

81
00:05:19,320 --> 00:05:23,200
Speaker 1: island territory had remained on standard time. In the weeks

82
00:05:23,240 --> 00:05:27,280
Speaker 1: that followed, newspapers were filled with reports of exhausted commuters

83
00:05:27,320 --> 00:05:30,599
Speaker 1: and concerned parents who were already feeling the weight of

84
00:05:30,640 --> 00:05:34,479
Speaker 1: the early morning darkness. The national mood worsened in the

85
00:05:34,480 --> 00:05:37,440
Speaker 1: weeks to come, as reports began to surface of kids

86
00:05:37,440 --> 00:05:40,640
Speaker 1: being struck and killed by cars during their early morning

87
00:05:40,680 --> 00:05:44,760
Speaker 1: walks to school. In Florida alone, eight such deaths were

88
00:05:44,800 --> 00:05:48,479
Speaker 1: reported that January, prompting a desperate plea from the governor

89
00:05:48,560 --> 00:05:53,240
Speaker 1: for state lawmakers to abandon daylight saving time. The motion failed,

90
00:05:53,400 --> 00:05:56,320
Speaker 1: but schools across the country did push back their start

91
00:05:56,360 --> 00:05:59,400
Speaker 1: times so that students wouldn't have to walk in darkness,

92
00:05:59,440 --> 00:06:04,000
Speaker 1: and some it's invested in reflective signs for crosswalks. Those

93
00:06:04,040 --> 00:06:07,080
Speaker 1: measures likely saved lives during what proved to be a

94
00:06:07,120 --> 00:06:11,240
Speaker 1: difficult period of adjustment, but the inconvenience of dark mornings

95
00:06:11,279 --> 00:06:15,599
Speaker 1: continued all the same. Members of Congress began having second

96
00:06:15,640 --> 00:06:18,240
Speaker 1: thoughts as early as February, with one of the co

97
00:06:18,360 --> 00:06:23,040
Speaker 1: authors of the bill, California Representative William Ketchum, saying, quote,

98
00:06:23,400 --> 00:06:26,560
Speaker 1: the time to admit a mistake is when you've made one.

99
00:06:27,120 --> 00:06:30,360
Speaker 1: The congressman went on to say that daylight saving time

100
00:06:30,560 --> 00:06:33,680
Speaker 1: hadn't saved nearly as much energy as the government had hoped,

101
00:06:33,880 --> 00:06:36,799
Speaker 1: and because many nervous parents had begun driving their kids

102
00:06:36,839 --> 00:06:41,880
Speaker 1: to school, fuel consumption had actually gone up. Over the summer,

103
00:06:42,040 --> 00:06:46,200
Speaker 1: public support for permanent daylight saving time sank from seventy

104
00:06:46,279 --> 00:06:50,480
Speaker 1: nine percent to just forty two percent. It probably didn't

105
00:06:50,480 --> 00:06:53,480
Speaker 1: help that the man who signed the bill, President Nixon,

106
00:06:53,880 --> 00:06:57,599
Speaker 1: was deeply embroiled in the Watergate scandal, making just about

107
00:06:57,640 --> 00:07:02,159
Speaker 1: all of his policies unpopular by his association. Nixon wound

108
00:07:02,200 --> 00:07:05,480
Speaker 1: up resigning over Watergate in August of that year, and

109
00:07:05,520 --> 00:07:08,680
Speaker 1: in the same month, the Senate voted to repeal the

110
00:07:08,720 --> 00:07:13,840
Speaker 1: Emergency Daylight Saving Time Act. The House followed suit soon after,

111
00:07:14,280 --> 00:07:18,200
Speaker 1: and then Nixon's replacement, President Gerald Ford, made the repeal

112
00:07:18,280 --> 00:07:24,240
Speaker 1: official a month later. And so on October seventy four,

113
00:07:24,600 --> 00:07:28,040
Speaker 1: Americans rolled back their clocks, marking the end of the

114
00:07:28,040 --> 00:07:32,160
Speaker 1: country's short lived experiment with year round daylight saving time.

115
00:07:32,960 --> 00:07:36,600
Speaker 1: The Department of Transportation had conducted a year long study

116
00:07:36,880 --> 00:07:39,960
Speaker 1: to see if the promised energy savings had actually ever

117
00:07:40,000 --> 00:07:43,800
Speaker 1: been achieved. According to its final report, which was presented

118
00:07:43,840 --> 00:07:47,080
Speaker 1: to Congress in nineteen seventy five, there had been no

119
00:07:47,320 --> 00:07:51,040
Speaker 1: significant energy saving to speak of, the country had used

120
00:07:51,080 --> 00:07:54,400
Speaker 1: only about two percent less energy during daylight saving time,

121
00:07:54,760 --> 00:07:58,760
Speaker 1: a far cry from the projections used to justify the policy.

122
00:07:59,280 --> 00:08:03,120
Speaker 1: For nearly fifty years now, US citizens have been springing

123
00:08:03,160 --> 00:08:07,080
Speaker 1: forward and falling back on a semiannual basis, but there

124
00:08:07,120 --> 00:08:10,080
Speaker 1: are still those who prefer a return to year round

125
00:08:10,160 --> 00:08:14,520
Speaker 1: daylight saving time. In two for instance, the US Senate

126
00:08:14,680 --> 00:08:18,720
Speaker 1: once again approved a bill to make DST permanent. The

127
00:08:18,760 --> 00:08:22,160
Speaker 1: measure is currently stalled in Congress at the time of recording,

128
00:08:22,520 --> 00:08:25,440
Speaker 1: but as the nation continues to debate the pros and

129
00:08:25,560 --> 00:08:29,440
Speaker 1: cons of flock changing, it's worth remembering how things went

130
00:08:29,720 --> 00:08:35,480
Speaker 1: the last time around. I'm Gay Bluesier and hopefully you

131
00:08:35,559 --> 00:08:38,560
Speaker 1: now know a little more about history today than you

132
00:08:38,600 --> 00:08:42,240
Speaker 1: did yesterday. If you have a second and you're so inclined,

133
00:08:42,440 --> 00:08:45,560
Speaker 1: come check us out on Twitter, Facebook, and Instagram. You

134
00:08:45,600 --> 00:08:49,560
Speaker 1: can find us set T D I HC Show, and

135
00:08:49,600 --> 00:08:52,160
Speaker 1: if you have any comments or suggestions, feel free to

136
00:08:52,200 --> 00:08:55,200
Speaker 1: send them my way by writing to this day at

137
00:08:55,200 --> 00:08:59,360
Speaker 1: iHeart media dot com. Thanks to Chandler Mays for producing

138
00:08:59,360 --> 00:09:02,160
Speaker 1: the show, Thank you for listening. I'll see you back

139
00:09:02,160 --> 00:09:19,240
Speaker 1: here again soon for another day in history class. M