Every year Daylight Savings Time begins on the second Sunday of March and ends on the first Sunday of November. This year’s DST began in the early hours of this morning, but it wasn’t always this way.

Up until 1895 when George Hudson first proposed DST, the world hadn’t really ever considered or looked at a different time frame besides the different time zones. It wasn’t really implemented until April 30, 1916 by the German Empire and Austria-Hungary, according to the Wikipedia on Daylight Savings. From there it grew to a worldwide use, with many countries implementing the idea at different times.

According to a Time article, the first law for DST was passed on March 19, 1918, and it didn’t go well. Major cities were the main supporters of the change while rural areas revolted against this. What this created was every area in every time zone having a different time, making it nearly impossible to know the time. This led to it being disbanded until 1966 when President Lyndon Johnson signed the Uniform Time Act.

What this did was create a system where a state could chose to adopt DST or opt out, but if a state chose to adopt it, the entire state had to follow the new times. It started out as six months on DST and six months off.

In 1973, the country started a test run of doing year long DST, but it wasn’t liked and didn’t last. In 1986, the time frame of DST changed from six months on, six months off to seven months on, five months off. Then in 2005, it changed again to the time frame still used today, with DST lasting eight months and taking a break for four.

From 1987 to 2006, the shifts took place on the first Sunday of March and the first Sunday of November. It was 2007 when it shifted to the current set of days.

As of 2017, all states except for most parts of Arizona and Hawaii follow Daylight Savings Time. The parts of Arizona that do follow it are some of the reservations in the state. Almost all countries steadily follow DST as well, though some may not participate in it one year or has parts of their country that opt out completely.

In the United States, it is usually always called Daylight Savings Time while other countries may call it differently. It is sometimes called “Summer Time” when observed and “Winter Time” when not. Other names for when DST isn’t being observed are “Standard Time” and “Normal Time.”

Daylight Savings Time was originally started and widely accepted to try and save energy, but according to the same Time article, some studies have shown that the time change doesn’t show to help much, if at all. Some have shown a small decrease in energy use while others have shown an increase in energy use.

The shift always occurs at 2 a.m., jumping to 3 a.m. and making that day, which will be March 11, only 23 hours long instead of 24.

Everyone still has their opinions on whether it is a worth while ordeal to lose an hour every second Sunday of March. Some view it as more sun means more fun or more time during the day to get things done. Others view it as less good.

One Minot woman, Kirsti Erickson, pointed out that the hour change can be hard for people with children.

“Whether it’s fall back or spring forward, it’s horrible with kids. They don’t adjust very well to the change either way,” she said.

Many have just accepted it as a common part of the year and accept it. The main inconvenience is to remember to reset any clocks that don’t automatically change on their own, otherwise, you might be somewhere at the wrong time.