Turn Back Your Clock Halloween Night !

On Sunday at 2 a.m. Daylight Saving Time officially ends until the second Sunday in March.

Some will turn their clocks back before they go to bed on Saturday night (Halloween) – others will do so Sunday morning. And some will forget – arriving to church an hour early!

According to National Geographic, not all states observe Daylight Saving Time. Exceptions are Hawaii and most of Arizona.

Here are some other interesting facts from various Web sites:

· Benjamin Franklin, when serving as US minister to France, wrote an article recommending earlier opening and closing of shops to save the cost of lighting. In England, William Willett in 1907 began to urge the adoption of Daylight Saving Time. During World War I the plan was adopted in England, Germany, France and many other countries. In the US, Robert Garland of Pittsburgh was a leading influence in securing the introduction and passage of a law (signed by President Wilson on March 31, 1918) establishing Daylight Saving Time in US.

· In 1883 the U.S. railroad industry established official time zones with a set standard time within each zone. Congress eventually came on board, signing the railroad time zone system into law in 1918. The only federal regulatory agency in existence at that time happened to be the Interstate Commerce Commission, so Congress granted the agency authority over time zones and any future modifications that might be necessary.

· Part of the 1918 law also legislated for the observance of Daylight Saving Time nationwide. That section of the act was repealed the following year, and daylight saving time thereafter became a matter left up to local jurisdictions.

· During World War II, President Franklin Roosevelt instituted year-round Daylight Saving Time, called “War Time,” from Feb. 9, 1942 to Sept. 30, 1945.

· Finally, in 1966, Congress passed the Uniform Time Act, which standardized the start and end dates for Daylight Saving Time but allowed individual states to remain on standard time if their legislatures allowed it.

· Beginning in 2007, Daylight Saving Time is extended one month and begins for most of the United States at: 2 a.m. on the second Sunday in March and lasts until 2 a.m. on the first Sunday of November.

Changing our clocks this weekend – while we yearn for those longer days – also serves as a reminder to check the batteries and expiration dates in our smoke detectors and carbon monoxide alarms.

Fire departments everywhere recommend for public safety reasons that we check those batteries twice a year and the best way to remember is to do so when we “fall back or spring forward!”

It is also a good time to make sure you have enough smoke and carbon monoxide detectors and that they are placed in appropriate locations in your home.