Here’s When We Change The Clocks in Maine, New Hampshire & Massachusetts

Whether you're for it or against it, the history of Daylight Saving Time goes back to efforts to make better use of daylight during the longer days of the year, thus conserving energy and improving productivity.

Believe it or not, THE Benjamin Franklin is often credited with the concept of DST. According to Time & Date, in a satirical letter to the Journal de Paris, he actually suggested waking up earlier to make use of morning sunlight and reduce candle usage. Imagine that? Conserving candles!

The modern idea of DST was proposed by George Hudson just a few years ago in 1895. Hudson, an entomologist from New Zealand, wanted more daylight hours in the evening for collecting insects, Time & Date explained.

By 1907, British builder William Willett advocated for DST in his pamphlet The Waste of Daylight. He actually proposed moving the clocks forward to give people more daylight hours in the evening, though it wasn't implemented during his lifetime.

Time & Date said that in 1916 Germany became the first country to implement DST, using it as a wartime measure to conserve fuel during World War I. Other countries, including the United Kingdom and the United States, soon followed in 1918, the year the Red Sox won their 5th World Series.

The only problem is that the time change wasn't initially all that popular, so it was quickly repealed and wasn't re-implemented until 1942. It wasn't until 1966, however, that the Uniform Time Act was passed with made DST standard across the country.

Nowadays, people often debate whether we should keep DST all the time, or get rid of it permanently, though no federal decision has been made on either of those arguments. So, now that we're in the short, cold days of January, when DO we actually change the clocks (Spring ahead)?

Well, you'll have to wait a couple more months as we don't change the clocks ahead an hour until 2am on Sunday, March 9th. That will be the official beginning of the year's Daylight Saving Time. Enjoy those long days because we change them back again in November.