Most of the United States will turn clocks back one hour on Sunday, November 1, restoring the usual winter time difference with Greece after a week in which the gap was one hour smaller.
The US National Institute of Standards and Technology says daylight saving time ends at 2 a.m. local time on November 1 in American jurisdictions that observe it. Clocks return to 1 a.m.
Greece returned to standard time on October 25, reversing its spring clock change. Once New York makes the November adjustment, Athens will again be seven hours ahead.
Why clocks change
Daylight saving time shifts the hours of daylight in relation to the working day. Advancing clocks in spring means the sun sets an hour later by the clock, leaving more light in the evening. Returning to standard time in autumn makes sunrise and sunset an hour earlier by the clock.
The original energy-saving argument was that people could spend more of their waking hours in natural light and use less artificial lighting.
The wartime origins of daylight saving time
Germany introduced daylight saving time nationwide in 1916, during World War I. The US National Archives preserves American diplomatic reports describing the German order and Austria-Hungary’s adoption of the measure soon afterward.
The United States followed in 1918. President Woodrow Wilson signed the Standard Time Act on March 19, and the first American daylight saving period began on March 31, according to the Library of Congress. Conserving energy was part of the wartime case for adopting it.
Farmers were among the opponents. A history published by the US House of Representatives describes how earlier clock-based work schedules could leave farmhands waiting for morning dew to dry before harvesting. Banks and shops also closed earlier relative to the farming day. Congress repealed the national daylight saving requirement in 1919, though states and communities could continue using it.
The United States brought back year-round daylight saving time in 1942 during World War II to conserve energy. When wartime observance ended in 1945, states and local authorities again followed differing rules.
How the modern US clock-change calendar took shape
Those local differences complicated transportation timetables and broadcasting schedules. Congress responded with the Uniform Time Act of 1966, establishing common seasonal changeover dates while allowing states to opt out and remain on standard time.
The present March-to-November calendar came later. The Energy Policy Act of 2005 extended daylight saving time by about a month, with the new schedule taking effect in 2007. Since then, participating US jurisdictions have moved clocks forward on the second Sunday in March and back on the first Sunday in November.
Under the rules described by the US Department of Transportation, states can choose year-round standard time but cannot independently adopt permanent daylight saving time. Hawaii and most of Arizona do not observe the seasonal changes; the Navajo Nation does.
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