History
Summer Time was introduced first during the First World War. However, most countries discontinued the practice after the war. It was then re-started in various countries during the Second World War and its immediate after-math. Again it was widely cancelled by the 1950s, although re-introduced in isolated cases until the late 1960s when the energy crisis began to prompt policy makers to re-introduce the policy across the continent. It has remained in place in most European countries since that time.
Historically the countries of Europe had different practices for observing summer time, but this hindered coordination of transport, communications and movements. Starting in 1981 the European Community began issuing directives requiring member states to legislate particular start and end dates for summer-time.
Since 1981 each directive has specified a transition time of 01:00 UTC and a start date of the last Sunday in March, but the end dates have differed. Successive Directives laid down two dates for the end: one on the last Sunday in September applied by the continental Member States, and the other on the fourth Sunday in October for the United Kingdom and Ireland. In 1996 the end date was changed to the fourth Sunday in October for all countries. In 1998 the end date was adjusted to be the last Sunday in October; this happened to be the same as the previous rule for 1996 and 1997. The ninth directive, currently in force, has made this permanent.
Read more about this topic: European Summer Time
Famous quotes containing the word history:
“If you look at history you’ll find that no state has been so plagued by its rulers as when power has fallen into the hands of some dabbler in philosophy or literary addict.”
—Desiderius Erasmus (c. 1466–1536)
“Both place and time were changed, and I dwelt nearer to those parts of the universe and to those eras in history which had most attracted me.”
—Henry David Thoreau (1817–1862)
“... in a history of spiritual rupture, a social compact built on fantasy and collective secrets, poetry becomes more necessary than ever: it keeps the underground aquifers flowing; it is the liquid voice that can wear through stone.”
—Adrienne Rich (b. 1929)