Fall Back: Daylight Saving Time Is Here

Spring ahead, fall back.

Daylight saving time is upon us once again, and residents should turn their clocks back one hour before they go to bed Saturday night. The official change from daylight saving to standard time takes place at 2 a.m. on Sunday.

First championed by founding father Benjamin Franklin, the United States has observed daylight saving time since 1918.

Since 1986 daylight saving time in the United States ran from the first Sunday in April until the last Sunday in October. In 2005, President George W. Bush signed an energy bill which extended daylight saving by four weeks, beginning three weeks earlier and ending one week later. The bill states that daylight savings should begin on the second Sunday in March and end on the first Sunday in November.

Readers wishing to set the precise time can visit the official U.S. Time Clock, which is maintained by the National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST), and its military counterpart, the U. S. Naval Observatory (USNO).