Paige LeClairIt’s that time of year again, where we fall back an hour, however, did you know that Daylight Savings Time does not just take place in North America but around the world.
For military personnel who are deployed, they may have already experienced it as Latvia, Syria, Ukraine, Lebanon and Jordan turned their clocks back earlier this week.
Certain areas of the world do not use Daylight Saving Time such as Mali, Norway, Kuwait, and Iraq.
This weekend, the U.S. and the majority of Canada will fall back one hour, except for Saskatchewan.
This tradition began in Port Arthur, Ontario, in 1908. Today it is known as Thunder Bay. The idea did not catch on globally until Germany introduced Daylight Saving Time in 1916, two years into the First World War.
Although many sources credit Benjamin Franklin as the first to suggest time change, in 1905, British builder William Willett suggested setting the clocks ahead 20 minutes on each Sunday in April and switching them back by the same amount on each Sunday in September.
This caught the attention of Robert Pearce, British Member of Parliament who later introduced a bill to the House of Commons in 1908.
However, Willett died in 1915, a year prior to the United Kingdom adopting DST. It is unknown whether he was aware that it had been in practice seven years before his death, in Canada.
Today Daylight Saving Time takes place in 40 per cent of countries worldwide and affects 1 billion people.
To check if your deployed loved ones, friends or family are in a location that participates in Daylight Saving Time visit the Time and Date website.
