Daylight saving time (DST) ends on Sunday, Nov. 5, 2017 at 2 a.m. ET. Most Americans will set their clocks back an hour at this time. This makes for darker days, but they will gain an extra hour of sleep.
The tradition of daylight saving time can be traced back to 1908 and is thought to have been originally conceived by founding father Benjamin Franklin.
However, it is New Zealand scientist George Vernon Hudson who is first credited for proposing a two-hour shift forward in the fall and a two-hour shift back in the spring. And in 1905, British builder William Willett set his clocks ahead and publicly campaigned about the “waste of daylight” in 1907. In 1916, Germany became the first country to enact daylight saving time in order to “save fuel” and conserve electricity during World War I. The United Kingdom followed weeks after.
