News & Events

On this day in 1918, daylight savings time went into effect for the first time. 

Daylight Saving Time (DST) is a government policy regulating the timing of daylight during the summer months. While DST's existence is taken for granted in modern American life, the adoption and expansion of the policy was heavily debated, with strong opposition that persists to the present day—a full century after its inception as a World War I energy‐efficiency program. After reviewing the history of DST, we analyze the political economy of congressional vote choice on DST policy.  

Clocks will move ahead an hour on the second Sunday in March and back on the first Sunday in November, adding three weeks in the spring and a week in the fall to daylight time. By increasing daylight at the end of the day, U.S. citizens hope to conserve energy and reduce the need for artificial light.  

Forty-eight states and the District of Columbia reset their clocks move forward from standard time, starting daylight saving time and giving us more late-evening sunlight. From a health standpoint, most sleep and circadian experts say we should stay in in standard time instead, as that early-morning sunlight is key to maintaining our circadian rhythms, sleep-wake cycles and overall health.

This article looks at the most significant public debate over time in Montreal's history: the beginnings of daylight saving time (1907-1928) in Montreal, Canada. Seeing daylight saving time as an example of the disembedding of time from place, the article demonstrates the importance of local social dynamics in the creation of meanings of modernity. Daylight saving time began as an idea to save money and improve people's lives, though it was ridiculed until the First World War, when it was put in place in Montreal and much of North America and Europe. Yet after the war, it was rejected as a national measure, and subsequently much of North America and eventually even the Island of Montreal turned into a patchwork of time zones.

Randolph Caldecott was born on this day in 1846.  While working as a bank clerk, he began drawing for periodicals such as London Society, and, after he moved to London, Punch and Graphic. He developed a gently satirical style and achieved success with illustrations for Washington Irving’s books The Sketch Book (1875) and Bracebridge Hall (1876). A publisher saw his works with Irving and offered Caldecott the chance to illustrate a series of picture books. Hailed as his best work, these colored illustrations for 16 children's tales include The House That Jack Built, Hey Diddle Diddle, and The Grand Panjandrum Himself. The drawings made him famous, and two of these illustrated books were issued approximately every Christmas from 1878 until the year of his death in 1886.  

Since 1920, the American Library Association has issued a medal to honor children's book illustrators.  The Caldecott Medal for excellence in children's-book illustration by an American citizen or resident is named for him.  

Here are some recent Caldecott winners:

National Freedom of Information Day is an annual event on or near March 16, the birthday of James Madison, who is widely regarded as the Father of the Constitution and the foremost advocate for openness in government.

Knowledge will forever govern ignorance: And a people who mean to be their own Governors, must arm themselves with the power which knowledge gives.

—Madison to William Taylor Barry, August 4, 1822

 Frank Heindel launched a citizen’s investigation on electronic voting machines in South Carolina. Using publicly available Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) requests, he asked for a copy of the paper trail and received a CD in 2016.