December 16, 1914: Duluth Officials endorse Daylights Savings Time

On this day in Duluth in 1914, Duluth Mayor William Prince and members of the Commercial Club announced to the Duluth News Tribune that they were in favor of a plan by the Chicago Chamber Association to “push the hands of the nation’s clocks forward one hour, and give the entire country more daylight at the end of the day.” Later that day Duluth’s George Bate would lobby his fellow Rotarians to support the idea as well. The modern idea of Daylight Savings Time (DST) was proposed by New Zealand entomologist George Vernon Hudson in 1895 so he would have more time to look for insects. Englishman William Willett came up with a similar idea in 1905 partly because he was an avid golfer and “disliked cutting short his round at dusk.” Despite lobbying for more than 15 years, it wasn’t until Germany and its allies adopted the idea in 1916 that England and the rest of Europe started pushing time back and forth. America entered the war, and in 1918 DST began in the U.S.