Sunshine Protection Act

[drt]

This was attempted briefly during the Carter Administration as an energy saving measure.
It was quickly repealed after scores of mothers complained about their young children having
to go to school in the dark.

Granted the effects in Florida would be less pronounced than they would be in
a northerly state like Maine or Michigan.

It was also done beginning in January 1973 in response to the Arab Oil embargo under former President Nixon; many complaints from mother’s and schools at that time as well.

I know former President Carter was mocked and laughed at for endorsing solar power, making government offices turn down the thermostats in winter to save fuel, but my memory must be bad, as I don’t recall the winter DST during his one term as POTUS.

 

[FreddyE1977]

I recall it because I was one of the kids in school whose mom was raising holy heck over it.

 

[frankberry]

Back in 1973, the FCC issued a ton of pre-sunrise authorities to daytime-only AM stations. Otherwise, sign-on would have been 8:15am.

 

[joebtsflk1]

I remember the winter without Standard Time, turns out that I didn't remember right. Per WikipediaIt was about 2/3rds of a winter without Standard Time. DST started in early January of 1974 which was during the Nixon administration.

For something really strange, look at the map of US Standard Time Zones for 1913 . There were only two time zones on the border with Mexico. Pacific Time ended at El Paso, where Central Time began. Yes, there was a two hour difference between El Paso TX and the southern portions of New Mexico. The Mountain time zone looked like a giant funnel that drained out at El Paso. And all of Florida was in the Central time zone.

 

[anotherguyTN]

In looking at that map Tennessee was all in the Central time zone. I've always wondered why time zones didn't follow state lines more, but I guess that in a state like TN that is longer than it is high that could cause problems as well. Sunrise and sunset would be close to an hour earlier in Knoxville compared to Memphis. And the zig zagging lines on both sides of the Central zone don't make much sense.

 

[Ai4i]

How many of us are aware that centuries ago,
the dateline swung from east of Russian America (Alaska)
to west ofJapan? Basically,
if you went north or south,
anywhere in the Pacific,
the day would change