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The history of standard time in the United States began November 18, 1883, when United States and Canadian railroads instituted standard time in time zones. Before then, time of day was a local matter, and most cities and towns used some form of local solar time , maintained by some well-known clock (for example, on a church steeple or in a ...
Historically, standard time was established during the 19th century to aid weather forecasting and train travel. Applied globally in the 20th century, the geographical regions became time zones. The standard time in each time zone has come to be defined as an offset from Universal Time.
Time zones of the world. A time zone is an area which observes a uniform standard time for legal, commercial and social purposes. Time zones tend to follow the boundaries between countries and their subdivisions instead of strictly following longitude, because it is convenient for areas in frequent communication to keep the same time.
It is ultimately the authority of the secretary of transportation, in coordination with the states, to determine which regions will observe which of the standard time zones and if they will observe daylight saving time. [7] As of August 9, 2007, the standard time zones are defined in terms of hourly offsets from UTC. [8]
Map of U.S. time zones with new CST and EST areas displayed. Some U.S. time zones, such as the Samoa Time Zone, are not on this map. This is a list of the time offsets by U.S. states, federal district, and territories. For more about the time zones of the U.S. see time in the United States. Most states are entirely contained within one time zone.
The Standard Time Act of 1918, also known as the Calder Act, was the first United States federal law implementing Standard time and Daylight saving time in the United States. [2] It defined five time zones for the continental United States and authorized the Interstate Commerce Commission to define the limits of each time zone.
The Uniform Time Act of 1966, Pub. L. 89–387, 80 Stat. 107, enacted April 13, 1966, was a Law of the United States to "promote the adoption and observance of uniform time within the standard time zones" prescribed by the Standard Time Act of 1918.
Arthur C. Clarke proposed the use of a single time zone in 1976. [2] Attempts to abolish time zones date back half a century [1] and include the Swatch Internet Time. Economics professor Steve Hanke and astrophysics professor Dick Henry at Johns Hopkins University have been proponents of the concept and have integrated it in their Hanke–Henry Permanent Calendar.