2013 Daylight Savings Time Ends November 3: Here Are Some Interesting Facts

Daylight saving time draws to a close on November 3 at 2 a.m. which means waking up at 7am the next morning will feel like 8am!

So how do you plan on spending your extra hour each day? If you’re total nerd like us perhaps you’ll spend that time telling your friends about a bunch of geeky daylight savings time facts.

Did you know that Benjamin Franklin suggested firing cannons at sunrise to help sluggish sleepers get out of bed during the change over? Franklin reportedly came up with the idea for daylight savings time, however, that report has never been confirmed.

Were you also aware that in the 1950s and 1960s where was no uniform DST rules so the U.S. internal clock was thrown into complete chaos. For example, the Twin Cities of Minneapolis and St. Paul were on different clocks. Imagine waking up in St. Paul and driving to work in Minneapolis only to realize that you were late for your shift.

Here’s a fact that most of us never think about. Twins born during the switch could find that the second born twin is actually listed as being born first. For example, one twin is born at 1:50am and the next twin is born at 2:01am. Because the closed fall back at 2:00am the second twin will be listed as being born at 1:01am. The older brother or sister all of a sudden becomes the younger of the pair.

One big positive note to mention is that the U.S. Crime Rate decreases when daylight savings time goes into effect.

And a final and impressive note, in 1999 Palestinian terrorists forgot about daylight saving time when programming bombes they wanted to transport into Israel. Three terrorists were killed when the timer on their bombs went off one hour before they had planned.

From a weird twins birth scenario to terrorist killing bombs, daylight savings time has quite the strange and fantastical history.