Was Daylight Savings Time Ben Franklin’s Idea?

The idea of daylight saving time was first conceived by Benjamin Franklin in 1784 when he published an essay titled “An Economical Project for Diminishing the Cost of Light” that proposed to minimize the use of candles by getting up earlier to make use of the morning sunlight.

DST was first used in practice in Germany to replace artificial lighting so they could save fuel during WWI in 1916. It was quickly adopted by the UK and many other countries including the United States. Many countries reverted back to normal after the war.