"For a week every October, people organizing international catch-ups and meetings on both sides of the Atlantic may be briefly confused: Did I just miss that conference call? Why is my grandmother calling me so early? Most people quickly remember: It's that strange time each fall when Europe and the United States are out of sync as they switch from daylight saving time to standard time."
"The idea of daylight saving time had been floated for several hundred years, but didn't become a standardized common practice written into law in many countries until the early 20th century. Europe first adopted it during World War I as a wartime measure to conserve energy. Germany and Austria began moving their clocks by an hour in the summer of 1916. The U.K. and other countries involved in the war followed soon after, as did the United States and Canada."
Europe and the United States change clocks on different dates each autumn, creating a week when transatlantic time differences shift. In Europe clocks go back at 2 a.m. on the last Sunday in October; in the U.S. and Canada they revert at 2 a.m. on the first Sunday in November. During that week the time difference between cities like London and New York is one hour shorter, complicating international meetings. Daylight saving time moves clocks forward in spring to extend summer daylight and back again in autumn. The practice was adopted during World War I and was synchronized among EU members in 2002; broader international coordination remains lacking.
Read at Fortune
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