Wait, what? Why do we SPRING AHEAD?

In 1908, Port Arthur, Canada was the first to introduce Daylight Savings time (DST). Saskatchewan and Manitoba followed respectively in 1914 and 1916. Then, Germany did the same in 1916 in order to save lighting fuel for World War I. Shortly after, the UK and France followed suite.

The idea for DST was actually conceived by ancient civilizations that adjusted daily schedules to follow the sun. But in 1895, a New Zealand scientist proposed a two hour shift forward in October and backward in March. And, in 1905, a British builder suggested setting the clocks ahead 20 minutes on each of the four Sundays in April and switching them back in 20 minute segments on each of the four Sundays in September.  A member of the British Parliament concurred and  introduced a DST bill in 1908, but it was rejected. It finally passed in 1916 and was modified d uring World War II, to set the clocks ahead two hours during the summer and one hour during the winter.   
Around that time in 1918, President Wilson signed a similar DST law into effect but it was repealed after seven months. In 1942, during World War II, it was signed back into law by Roosevelt. From 1945-1966 there were no uniform rules regarding DST's start and end dates, and as a result there was widespread confusion with transportation and broadcast scheduling until 1966, when Congress set uniform dates of DST to be the last Sunday of April and the last Sunday of October.

In 1974, after the 1973 oil embargo, DST was extended but when the energy crisis was over in 1976, the DST policy was revised again several times. Currently, in accordance with the Energy Policy Act of 2005, DST was lengthened to start on the second Sunday in March and end on the first Sunday of November. Today, although beginning and ending dates vary worldwide, DST is used in over 70 countries and affects over 1 billion people yearly.