guy did just about everything but not this this this....
It is sometimes asserted that DST was first proposed by
Benjamin Franklin in a letter to the editors of the
Journal of Paris (See the full text.). However, the article was humorous; Franklin was not proposing DST, but rather that people should get up and go to bed earlier.
It was first seriously proposed by
William Willett in the
"Waste of Daylight", published in
1907, but he was unable to get the
British government to adopt it, despite considerable
lobbying.
The idea of daylight saving time was first put into practice by the
German government during the
First World War between
April 30 and
October 1,
1916. Shortly afterward, the
United Kingdom followed suit, first adopting DST between
May 21 and
October 1,
1916. Then on
March 19,
1918, the
U.S. Congress established several
time zones (which were already in use by
railroads and most cities since
1883) and made daylight saving time official (which went into effect on
March 31) for the remainder of World War I. It was observed for seven months in
1918 and
1919. The law, however, proved so unpopular (mostly because people rose and went to bed earlier than in modern times) that the law was later
repealed.