Each spring, as many Montanans prepare to set their clocks ahead one hour, a familiar question arises: Why do we still observe Daylight Saving Time? While it may feel like a modern inconvenience — especially when we lose that hour of sleep — the history behind the time change stretches back more than a century and is rooted in practicality, economics, and even wartime strategy.
The concept of shifting time to better match daylight is often mistakenly credited to Benjamin Franklin. In 1784, Franklin jokingly suggested that Parisians could save money on candles by waking earlier to use morning s...