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Daylight Saving Time

Daylight saving time

Daylight saving time (also called DST) is the North American term for a system intended to "save" daylight (the British observe summer time, and likewise the Europeans). The official time is adjusted forward, (usually) one hour from its official standard time, remaining that way for the duration of the spring and summer months. This is intended to provide a better match between the hours of daylight and the active hours of work and school. DST is most commonly used in temperate regions, due to the considerable variation in the amount of daylight versus darkness through the seasons in those regions. Note that the term commonly used in the United States, Daylight Savings Time, is technically incorrect: the correct name as provided by the act which inaugurated it in the United States is Daylight Saving Time.

Origin

It is sometimes asserted that DST was first proposed by Benjamin Franklin in a letter to the editors of the Journal of Paris. (Read the [http://webexhibits.org/daylightsaving/franklin3.html full text].) However, the article was humorous; Franklin was not proposing DST, but rather that people should get up and go to bed earlier. It was first seriously proposed by William Willett in the [http://webexhibits.org/daylightsaving/willett.html "Waste of Daylight"], published in 1907, but he was unable to get the British government to adopt it despite considerable lobbying. The idea of daylight saving time was first put into practice by the German government during the First World War between April 30 and October 1, 1916. Shortly afterward, the United Kingdom followed suit, first adopting DST between May 21 and October 1, 1916. Then on March 19, 1918, the U.S. Congress established several time zones (which were already in use by railroads and most cities since 1883) and made daylight saving time official (which went into effect on March 31) for the remainder of World War I. It was observed for seven months in 1918 and 1919. The law, however, proved so unpopular (mostly because people rose and went to bed earlier than in current times) that the law was later repealed.

Observation of DST

Daylight saving time is generally a temperate zone practice; day lengths in the tropics do not vary enough to justify DST. Hawaii, the only U.S. state in the tropics, does not observe DST. The amount of the time shift varies, but one hour is the most common. The dates of the beginning and ending of DST also vary by country. With a few exceptions, switchovers between standard time and daylight saving time generally occur in the early morning hours of a Sunday morning, presumably because doing so then causes less disruption than a change on a weekday would. DST commonly begins in the Northern Hemisphere on either the first Sunday in April or the last Sunday in March, and ends on the last Sunday in October. In the Southern Hemisphere, the beginning and ending dates are switched (thus the time difference between, e.g., the United Kingdom and Chile may be three, four, or five hours).

Usage and history by location

Africa

Egypt

Egypt switches to DST on midnight of the last Thursday of April, since the weekend holiday for most Egyptians is on Friday, thus giving workers and students a chance to adjust.

Asia

China

The People's Republic of China experimented with DST from 1986, but abandoned it in the 1990s. The PRC now uses one universal time zone for all of the nation from Urumqi in the northwest to Fujian in the southeast; the size of the nation was a major factor why DST was not considered practical in China.

India

India used DST briefly during its wars with Pakistan and China.

Iran

Iran uses the Persian calendar. Thus, DST in Iran starts on the first day of Farvardin (around 21-22 March) and ends on the first day of Mehr (around 22 September).

Israel

Israel adopts Daylight Saving Time on the last Friday before April 2 at 02:00, and returns to standard time at 02:00 of the Sunday of the month of Tishrei between Rosh Hashanah and Yom Kippur. Israel's Daylight Saving Time rules have changed repeatedly in recent years; there has been trouble reaching a consensus regarding Gregorian calendar end dates for DST as they are dependant on Jewish Holidays, which follow the lunar Hebrew calendar. For more on this subject, see Israeli Daylight Savings Law.

Pakistan

Pakistan experimented with DST in 2002 going from +5:00 to +6:00. It has not used DST since then.

Australia

In Australia, daylight savings time is a state/territory-based initiative. Some states/territories implement it and some do not. New South Wales, Victoria, Tasmania, Australian Capital Territory and South Australia apply daylight savings time. Tasmania starts DST earlier than the others, usually near the beginning of October. Western Australia, Northern Territory and Queensland do not. See the Australian time zones article or [http://www.australia.gov.au/335 this site] for maps and further information on standard and daylight savings time in Australia.

Europe

All countries in Europe, except Iceland as noted below, observe daylight-saving time and change on the same date: moving clocks forward one hour on the last Sunday in March and back one hour on the last Sunday in October. In the West European (UTC), Central European (UTC+1), and East European (UTC+2) time zones the change is simultaneous: on both dates the clocks are changed everywhere at 01:00 UTC, i.e. from local times of 01:00/02:00/03:00 to 02:00/03:00/04:00 in March, and vice versa in October. (See also: European Summer Time). In Russia, however, although the changeover dates are the same, clocks are moved forward or back at 02:00 winter time in all zones. Thus in Moscow (local time = UTC+3 in winter, UTC+4 in summer), daylight-saving time commences at 23:00 UTC on the day before the last Sunday in March, and ends at 23:00 UTC on the day before the last Sunday in October.

Iceland

With Iceland observing UTC all year round, despite being at a longitude which would indicate UTC-1, the country may be said to be on continuous DST. Polar or near-polar locations such as Iceland often opt out, as summer in these locations usually brings nearly uninterrupted daylight.

North America

North America generally follows the same procedure, going by local time in each zone, each time zone switching at 02:00 LST (local standard time) to 03:00 LDT (local daylight time) on the first Sunday in April, and again from 02:00 LDT to 01:00 LST on the last Sunday in October. The Canadian province of Newfoundland and Labrador is an exception in that the time changes take place at 00:01 local standard time and 00:01 local daylight time respectively. Also, in 1988, they experimented with Double Daylight Time, when the clocks went ahead by two hours, instead of the usual one hour. The Energy Policy Act of 2005, signed by President George W. Bush, will extend DST and might prompt neighboring countries with integrated economies and schedules (especially Canada and Mexico) to adopt these changes as well. The Canadian provinces of Ontario, Manitoba and Québec have already pledged to change their daylight saving rules to match the new US rules. [http://www.canada.com/montrealgazette/story.html?id=cc530669-0d84-44fe-b58f-7b68200874a1&k=63015 (The Montreal Gazette)]

Canada

In Canada, time is under provincial, not federal, jurisdiction. The province of Saskatchewan is the only part of that country (other than northeastern British Columbia and Southampton Island) that does not use DST, that is, it does not change times in spring and fall. Saskatchewan is bisected by the 105th meridian, the central meridian of the Mountain Standard Time Zone (GMT -7), yet clocks are kept at GMT minus six hours all year long. (This policy was implemented when the Saskatchewan Time Act was passed in 1966, to solve the problems that arose when time zones varied from town to town.) Thus, in the summer months Saskatchewan is in sync with Mountain Daylight Time and in the winter months it is in sync with Central Standard Time. Observationally, this is equivalent to the province being on Mountain Daylight Time year-round, though officially the province is considered to be part of the Central time zone. The charter of the city of Lloydminster, which is bisected by the Saskatchewan–Alberta border, gives it a special exception (among areas in Saskatchewan) to use DST. Lloydminster and its immediately surrounding region in Saskatchewan use the same timekeeping routine used by Alberta, DST with Mountain Standard Time. See [http://www.municipal.gov.sk.ca/mrd/mrdpubtimesys.shtml this document produced by Saskatchewan Government Relations] for further details on Saskatchewan's time policies.

Cuba

Cuba always starts its DST on April 1 but the end date varies. Since April 2004, Cuba has remained on DST.

United States

Daylight saving time was reinstated in the United States on February 9, 1942, again as a wartime measure to conserve resources. This remained in effect until World War II began winding down and the requirement was removed on September 30, 1945. From 1945 to 1966, U.S. federal law did not address daylight saving time. States and localities were free to observe daylight saving time or not. This resulted in a patchwork where some areas observed DST while adjacent areas did not, and it was not unheard of to have to reset one's clock several times during a relatively short trip (e.g., bus drivers operating between Moundsville, West Virginia, and Steubenville, Ohio had to reset their watches seven times over 35 miles). The U.S. federal Uniform Time Act of 1966 mandated that daylight saving time begin nationwide on the last Sunday of April and end on the last Sunday of October. Any state that wanted to be exempt from daylight saving time could do so by passing a state law, provided that it exempt the entire state. The law was amended in 1972 to permit states that straddle a time zone boundary to exempt the entire area of the state lying in one time zone. The law was amended again in 1986 to begin daylight saving time on the first Sunday in April, to take effect the following year. In response to the 1973 energy crisis, daylight saving in the United States was begun earlier in both 1974 and 1975, commencing on the first Sunday in January (January 6) in the former year and the last Sunday in February (February 23) in the latter. Starting March 11, 2007, daylight saving time will be extended another four to five weeks, from the second Sunday of March to the first Sunday of November. The change was introduced by the Energy Policy Act of 2005; the House had originally approved a motion that would have extended DST even further. Proponents claimed that the extension would save "the equivalent of" 10,000 barrels of oil per day, but this figure was based on U.S. Department of Energy information from the 1970s, the accuracy and relevance of which the DoE no longer stands by. There is very little recent research on what the actual positive effects, if any, might be. (See [http://news.nationalgeographic.com/news/2005/07/0728_050728_daylight.html this article], for example.) The extension, which puts the U.S. out of step with other countries in North America (for example Canada), was greeted by criticism from the airline industry and those concerned for the safety of children traveling to school in the dark before the late sunrise (see [http://www.gainesville.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20050723/WIRE/207230308/1117/news this article] for example). An additional issue raised by this extension is that it requires reconfiguration of virtually every computer in the United States. Most computers are programmed to adjust automatically for DST, but they do so based on static tables stored directly on the computer itself. In order to change the dates and times at which the automatic jump to or from DST occurs, these tables must be modified, which requires some sort of manual intervention by a human being in the great majority of cases. A two-minute procedure for updating a computer, multiplied by a hundred million computers, represents nearly 1700 years of full-time labor. More difficult to quantify is the amount of labor and money that may be spent correcting errors that arise due to a failure to update computers. Certain types of information systems (those that schedule future events with reference to UTC, for example) are almost guaranteed to encounter serious desynchronization problems unless both computers and databases are carefully updated—in some cases by hand.

Arizona

Most of Arizona does not observe DST. However, the large Navajo Indian Reservation within it does.

Hawaii

Hawaii does not observe DST.

Indiana

DST is a long-standing controversy in Indiana, not only as an agricultural state, but also because the border separating the Eastern and Central time zones divides the state. In the past, neighboring communities sometimes ended up one or even two hours apart. Being out-of-sync with neighboring states and the national changing of clocks, it is argued, has a negative economic impact on the state. It has been demonstrated that some businesses have located out of state due to the time-related confusion. Prior to October 30, 2005, the state has three kinds of time zones:
- 77 counties, most of the state, are on Eastern Standard Time but do not use DST;
- 5 counties near Chicago, Illinois and 5 counties in the southwestern corner of the state are on Central Standard Time and do use DST; and
- 2 counties near Cincinnati, Ohio and 3 counties near Louisville, Kentucky are on Eastern Standard time but do observe DST. Their observance of DST is unofficial in this case, as a strict reading of the Uniform Time Act would not allow for this situation, but by observing DST, they remain synchronized with the greater Louisville and Cincinnati metropolitan areas. On April 29, 2005, the Indiana legislature voted to begin observing daylight-saving time in 2006. Currently, most of the state is in the Eastern time zone; however, its time zone is currently under federal review, as discussed in [http://www.indystar.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20050429/NEWS02/504290510 this article]. There was further controversy after this passed, as some people that supported it initially had thought that the time would fall back an extra hour in winter instead of going ahead an extra hour in summer. On October 25, 2005, the U.S. Department of Transportation, which is overseeing the proposed time-zone boundary, published a tenative plan [http://www.dot.gov/affairs/dot15605.htm], which is as follows:
- 77 counties, most of the state, will be on Eastern Standard Time and will use DST.
- The 5 counties near Chicago, Illinois and 5 counties in the southwestern corner of the state that were originally in Central Standard Time remain in Central Standard Time and will use DST.
- Five additional counties, two near Chicago (St. Joseph and Starke) and three in the southwestern corner (Knox, Pike, and Perry) will be moved to Central Standard Time and will use DST. The plan, though, is not final, and local hearings will be held in November to hear the residents' opinions on the subject.

Mexico

Mexico has adopted DST nationwide, even in its tropical regions, because of its increasing economic ties to the United States. The Mexican state of Sonora does not observe DST because it borders on the U.S. state of Arizona, which also does not observe DST.

South America

Chile

Chile switches to DST at 24:00 on the second Saturday in October and reverts to Local Standard Time (LST) at 24:00 on the second Sunday the following March. The current law which affects the entire country was enacted in 1970, but it had observed the practice as early as 1927 when the country had been divided into two distinct time zones. In specific years the starting and ending dates have been modified for political or climatic reasons.

Brazil

Brazil adopted DST for the first time in 1931, but uninterruptedly since 1985 in southern states (south, southeast regions and states of Goiás and Mato Grosso do Sul). Starting and ending dates are variable: normally, Brazilian DST starts at 00:00 on an October (rarely November) Sunday and ends at 00:00 on a February Sunday.

Rationales for DST

One of the major reasons given for observing DST is energy conservation. Theoretically, the amount of residential electricity needed in the evening hours is dependent both on when the sun sets and when people go to bed. Because people tend to observe the same bedtime year-round, by artificially moving sunset one hour later, the amount of energy used is theoretically reduced. United States Department of Transportation studies showed that DST reduces the country's electricity usage by one percent while DST is in effect. Part of the reason that it is normally observed in the late spring, summer, and early autumn is because during the winter months the amount of energy saved by moving sunset one hour later is negated by the increased need for morning lighting by moving sunrise by the same amount. During the summer most people would wake up after the sun rises, regardless of whether daylight saving time is in effect or not, so there is no increased need for morning lighting to offset the afternoon energy savings. Another perceived benefit of DST is increased opportunities for outdoor activities. Most people plan outdoor activities during the increased hours of sunlight. Other benefits cited include prevention of traffic injuries (by allowing more people to return home from work or school in daylight), and crime reduction (by reducing people's risk of being targets of crimes that are more common in dark areas). When the U.S. went on extended DST in 1974 and 1975 in response to the 1973 energy crisis, Department of Transportation studies found that observing DST in March and April saved 10,000 barrels of oil a day, and prevented about 2,000 traffic injuries and 50 fatalities saving about U.S. $28 million in traffic costs. (Stats from [http://www.boulder.nist.gov/timefreq/general/daylightsavingtime.html this article]).

Criticism of DST

DST is not universally accepted; many localities do not observe it. Opponents claim that there is not enough benefit to justify needing to adjust clocks twice every year. The disruption in sleep patterns associated with setting clocks either forward or backward correlates with a spike in the number of severe auto accidents, as well as lost productivity as sleep-disrupted workers adjust to the schedule change. It is also noted that much effort is spent reminding everyone twice a year of the change, and thousands are inconvenienced by showing up at the wrong time when they forget. There is also a question whether the savings in lighting costs justifies the increase in summertime air conditioning costs. While many people use more sunlight under DST, most people also experience more heat, which prompts many people to turn on the air conditioner during the warmer afternoon hours. When air conditioning was not widely available, the change did save energy; however, air conditioning is much more widespread now than it was several decades ago. Air conditioning often uses more energy than artificial lighting. It was for this reason that Arizona rejected DST and opted to stay on standard time all year. It is also speculated that one of the benefits, more afternoon sun, would also actually increase energy consumption as people get into their cars to enjoy more time for shopping and the like. No formal studies have been performed, but an enormous amount of time has been spent by software developers to deal with the fact that 2400 hours past 2pm is not necessarily 2pm 100 days later. For example, during a North American time change, an autumn night where clocks are reset from 3 AM summer to 2 AM winter time, times between 2AM and 3AM will occur twice, causing confusion in transport schedules, payment systems, etc. Some studies do show that changing the clock increases the traffic accident rate. Following the spring shift to Daylight Saving Time (when one hour of sleep is lost) there is a measurable increase in the number of traffic accidents that result in fatalities. Some suspect that the change in lighting conditions confuses drivers in their regular commutes. Others speculate that it relates more to the amount of sleep a person gets. Still others suspect that people hurry because they have looked at an incorrect clock and discover that they are late. And a few even suggest that the traffic accidents are caused by people trying to reset the clocks in their cars while driving. Some campaigners in Britain would like the country to stay on British Summer Time (BST) all year round, or in other words, adopt Central European Time and abolish BST. Alternatively, some would like Britain to adopt Central European Time and jump forward another hour during the summer (adopting a Single/Double Summer Time from Britain's perspective). This would make winter evenings longer, thereby reducing traffic accidents and cases of seasonal affective disorder. Opponents point to the longer hours of darkness on winter mornings, especially in Scotland, which might well cause an increase in road accidents. It has even been suggested that Scotland should be placed on a different time zone from the rest of the UK, which, unlikely though it may sound, would be possible as the UK Parliament could legislate to put the UK forward an hour, and then the Scottish Parliament could put Scotland back onto GMT. DST is particularly unpopular among people working in agriculture because the animals do not observe it, and thus the people are placed out of synchronization with the rest of the community, including school times, broadcast schedules, and the like.

Mnemonic

The mnemonic "spring forward, fall back" tells us how to reset clocks when the time changes, regardless of hemisphere (although it has to be remembered that spring and autumn occur during different months in the northern and southern hemispheres). This uses the word "fall" to mean "autumn"; while this usage has died out in British English, it is still very common in North American English. Another common mnemonic of equal meaning is "spring ahead, fall behind."

Associated practices

Fire safety officials in Australia, Canada, New Zealand, and the United States encourage citizens to use the two annual time changes as a reminder to check the batteries in home and office fire alarms and smoke detectors. For example, the [http://www.cfa.vic.gov.au/ Country Fire Authority] of Victoria in Australia has been running a program called "Change Your Clock, Change Your Smoke Alarm Battery" for several years. This is especially important in autumn, just before the heating season causes an increase in home fires.

The name

In the standard form of the name, "daylight saving" is a compound adjective (part of which is a participle) that modifies "time." A common variant is daylight savings time. Although this alternate form is frequently heard in speech, it is nonstandard and appears rarely in edited writing. Most compound adjectives are joined with a hyphen, but "daylight-saving time," too, is nonstandard. Nevertheless, the form "daylight savings time" appears without remark as to its nonstandardness in some dictionaries, including The American Heritage Dictionary.

Notes

# [http://www.ajph.org/cgi/content/abstract/85/1/92 Ferguson, S.A. et al. (1995) Daylight saving time and motor vehicle crashes: the reduction in pedestrian and vehicle occupant fatalities. American Journal of Public Health 85, 92–95.]

Books

- Prerau, David. [http://seizethedaylight.com Seize the Daylight: The Curious and Contentious Story of Daylight Saving Time] (Thunder’s Mouth Press; ISBN 1-56025-655-9)
- Prerau, David. [http://savingthedaylight.com Saving the Daylight: Why We Put the Clocks Forward] (Granta Books; ISBN 1-86207-796-7) — The Story of Summer Time/Daylight Saving time with a focus on the U.K.
- Downing, Michael. [http://www.shoemakerhoard.com/catalog/spring.html Spring Forward: The Annual Madness of Daylight Saving Time] (Shoemaker & Hoard; ISBN 1-59376-053-1)

External links

- [http://www.seizethedaylight.com/dst/ A Brief History of DST]
- [http://webexhibits.org/daylightsaving/ Straightforward discussion of DST]
- [http://webexhibits.org/daylightsaving/b.html When We Change Our Clocks]
- [http://europa.eu.int/eur-lex/pri/en/oj/dat/2001/l_031/l_03120010202en00210022.pdf EU directive 2000/84/EC]
- [http://nationalatlas.gov/articles/boundaries/a_savingtime.html Saving Time, Saving Energy] - United States DST schedule (including new rules starting in 2007), explanation, history
- [http://www.timeanddate.com/time/aboutdst.html DST changeover times throughout the world]
- [http://www.twinsun.com/tz/tz-link.htm Sources for daylight saving time data, including histories and predictions]
- [http://www.merlyn.demon.co.uk/uksumtim.htm Summer Time] by JR Stockton. With future changeover dates EU (until 2007 final, from then extrapolating)
- [http://www.worldtimeserver.com/ World Time Server]
- [http://www.mcmaster.ca/inabis98/occupational/coren0164/two.html Sleep deficit and accidents]
- [http://www.nast.tk National Association of Standard Time]
- [http://wwp.greenwichmeantime.com/ Greenwich Mean Time: World Time]
- [http://photosydney.blogspot.com/2004/12/daylight-saving.html PhotoSydney: Daylight Saving] examines daylight saving in Australia.
- [http://pcdsh01.on.br/tzedit.zip Time Zone Editor for Windows] (download .zip)
- [http://www.Standardtime.com A site opposing DST] Category:Time zones ko:여름 시간 ja:夏時間 th:เวลาออมแสง

British Summer Time

British Summer Time (BST), known in Ireland as Irish Summer Time (IST), is the daylight saving time in effect in the United Kingdom and Republic of Ireland between the last Sunday in March and the last Sunday in October each year. In both cases, the change takes place at 01:00 Greenwich Mean Time (GMT/UTC). It is also known as Western European Summer Time. BST is the same as Central European Time (CET): one hour in advance of GMT, i.e. UTC+1. Most countries which use CET in winter move to Central European Summer Time UTC+2 in summer. The start and end dates of British Summer Time and European Summer Time are somewhat asymmetrical in terms of daylight hours; for example, the time of year with a similar amount of daylight to late October is mid-February, well before the start of BST. The asymmetry reflects temperature more than the length of daylight. Starting in 1916, the dates for the beginning and end of BST each year were mandated by the British Parliament. In February 2002, the Summer Time Order 2002[http://www.opsi.gov.uk/si/si2002/20020262.htm] permanently changed the dates and times to match European rules for moving to and from daylight saving time. The European compromise was closer to previous British practice than to the practice elsewhere in Europe. Each year a national debate occurs just before the time reverts to GMT in October. In 2004, an interesting contribution was made by English MP Nigel Beard, who tabled a Private Member's Bill in the House of Commons proposing that England and Wales should be able to determine their own time independently of Scotland and Northern Ireland. If passed into law, this bill would potentially see the United Kingdom with two different timezones for the first time in history. During World War II, Britain retained the hour's advance on GMT at the start of the winter of 1940 and continued to advance the clocks by an extra hour during the summers until the end of the summer of 1944. During these summers Britain was thus 2 hours ahead of GMT and operating on British Double Summer Time (BDST). The clocks were not advanced for the summer of 1945 and were reverted to GMT at the end of the summer of 1945. In 1947 the clocks were advanced by one hour twice during the spring and put back twice during the autumn so that Britain was on BDST during the height of the summer. Safety campaigners, including the Royal Society for the Prevention of Accidents (RoSPA), have made recommendations that British Summer Time be maintained during the winter months, and that a "double summertime" be applied to the current British Summer Time period, putting the UK two hours ahead of GMT during summer. RoSPA suggest this would reduce the number of accidents over this period as a result of the lighter evenings, as was demonstrated when the British Standard Time scheme was trialled between 1968 and 1971, when Britain remained on UTC+1 all year. RoSPA have called for the two year trial to be repeated with modern evaluation methods. The proposal is opposed by farmers and other outdoor workers, and many residents of Scotland, as it would mean that, in northern Britain, the winter sunrise would not occur until 10a.m. or even later.

Start and end dates of British (and Irish) Summer Time

Click here for a table starting at 2007 and ending at 1916.

Books

- Prerau, David. [http://savingthedaylight.com Saving the Daylight: Why We Put the Clocks Forward] (Granta Books; £14.99; ISBN 1-86207-796-7) — The Story of Summer Time/Daylight Saving time with a focus on the U.K.

External links

- [http://www.savingthedaylight.com/dst/ A Brief History of BST/DST]
- [http://www.srcf.ucam.org/~jsm28/british-time/ History of legal time in Britain]
- [http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/uk_news/england/west_yorkshire/3213979.stm BBC news report]: Safety call as clocks go back.
- [http://www.rospa.com/news/releases/2005/pr415_26_10_05_road.htm RoSPA Press Release]: RoSPA calls for switch to lighter nights to save lives!
- [http://wwp.greenwichmeantime.com/info/bst2.htm BST FAQ] Category:Time zones

European Summer Time

European Summer Time is the daylight saving time practised in Europe, the period during which clocks are advanced by one hour in relation to the official time observed during the rest of the year. This is done in all of the countries of Europe except Iceland (which observes UTC all year round), and has also been prescribed by a directive of the European Union [http://europa.eu.int/smartapi/cgi/sga_doc?smartapi!celexapi!prod!CELEXnumdoc&lg=EN&numdoc=32000L0084&model=guichett]. This period extends from 01.00 UTC on the last Sunday in March until 01.00 UTC on the last Sunday in October each year.

Exact timing in the next several years

European Summer Time begins (clocks go forward) at 01.00 UTC on

- 27 March 2005
- 26 March 2006
- 25 March 2007
- 30 March 2008 Equation used to calculate the beginning of European Summer Time:
Sunday (31 - (5
- y/4 + 4) mod 7) March at 01.00 UTC
(valid through 2099, courtesy of Robert H. van Gent, EC) European Summer Time ends (clocks go back) at 01.00 UTC on

- 30 October 2005
- 29 October 2006
- 28 October 2007
- 26 October 2008 Equation used to calculate the end of European Summer Time:
Sunday (31 - (5
- y/4 + 1) mod 7) October at 01.00 UTC
(validity and credits as above)

Terminology

In most of Europe the word Summer is added to the name of each European time zone during this period: thus, in the UTC+1 time zone, Central European Time becomes Central European Summer Time (UTC+2). In the United Kingdom local time during this period is known as British Summer Time (BST), in Ireland as Irish Summer Time (IST), while in both countries local time during the rest of the year is normally referred to as Greenwich Mean Time (GMT), however Western European Time (WET) is gaining usage in Ireland, the most probable cause of which is the fact that Greenwich is in the UK, and Western European Time is more neutral.

Russia

The Russian Federation observes Summer Time and makes the change forward and back on the same dates as the European Union (respectively, on the last Sunday in March and the last Sunday in October) – with the important difference, however, that the changeover on both dates takes place in Russia not at 01.00 UTC as in the rest of Europe, but at 02.00 local time (03.00 local daylight time in October) in each time zone.

Books

- [http://savingthedaylight.com Saving the Daylight: Why We Put the Clocks Forward by David Prerau] (Granta Books; £14.99; ISBN 1-86207-796-7) - The Story of Summer Time/Daylight Saving time with a focus on the U.K. and Europe

External link

- [http://europa.eu.int/smartapi/cgi/sga_doc?smartapi!celexapi!prod!CELEXnumdoc&lg=EN&numdoc=32000L0084&model=guichett EU Directive 2000/84/EC on summer-time arrangements] Category:Time zones Category:Europe

Temperate

:For the usage in virology, see temperate (virology). In geography, temperate latitudes of the globe lie between the tropics and the polar circles. The changes in these regions between summer and winter are generally subtle, warm or cool, rather than extreme, burning hot or freezing cold. This makes the temperate climate in general the most agreeable of all the climates. However, a temperate climate can have very unpredictable weather. One day it may be sunny, the next it may be raining, and after that it may be cloudy. These erratic weather patterns occur in summer as well as winter. The north temperate zone extends from the Tropic of Cancer at about 23.5 degrees north latitude to the Arctic Circle at about 66.5 degrees north latitude. The south temperate zone extends from the Tropic of Capricorn at about 23.5 degrees south latitude to the Antarctic Circle at about 66.5 degrees south latitude. Within these borders there are many individual climate types, which are generally grouped into two categories: continental and maritime. The maritime climate is clearly affected by the oceans, which help to sustain somewhat stable temperatures throughout the year. In the temperate zones, the prevailing winds are to the west, the western edge of temperate continents most commonly experience this maritime climate. Such regions include Western Europe, especially the UK, and western North America at latitudes between 40° and 60° north. The continental climate is usually situated inland, with warmer summers and colder winters. The large land mass increases its effects on heat reception and loss. In North America, the Rocky Mountains act as a climate barrier to the maritime air blowing from the west, creating a continental climate to the east. In Europe, the maritime climate is able to stabilize temperatures further inland, because the major mountain range - the Alps - is oriented east-west. The idea of a temperate "zone" was first hypothesized by the ancient Greek scholar Aristotle. He said that the earth was divided into three types of climatic zones, based on their distance from the equator. Thinking that the area near the equator was too hot for habitation, Aristotle dubbed the region around the equator (from 23.5° N to 23.5° S) as the "Torrid Zone." He reasoned that from both the Arctic Circle and the Antarctic Circle to their respective poles was permanently frozen. He called this uninhabitable zone the "Frigid Zone." The only area that Aristotle believed was livable was the "Temperate Zone." The two Temperate Zones were thought to lie between the Tropics and the Arctic and Antarctic Circles. One of the reasons Aristotle believe that the Temperate Zone was the best for life could come from the fact that he lived in that zone. Aristotle's map was very oversimplified, although the general idea was correct. Today, the most commonly used climate map is one developed by German climatologist and amateur botanist Wladimir Köppen (1846-1940) which divides the world into six major climate regions, based on average annual precipitation, average monthly precipitation, and average monthly temperature. Category:Climate ko:온대 ja:温帯

William Willett

William Willett (August 10, 1856 - March 4, 1915) is the inventor of Daylight saving time. Willett was born in Farnham, Surrey and educated at Marylebone Grammar School. After some commercial experience, he entered his father's building business, Willett Building Services. Between them they created a reputation for 'Willett built' quality houses in choice parts of London and the south, notably in Chelsea. He lived most of his life in Chislehurst, Kent, where, it is said, after riding his horse in Petts Wood near his home early one summer morning and noticing how many blinds were still down, the idea for Daylight Saving Time first occurred to him. This was not the first time that the idea of adapting to daylight hours had been mooted, however. Benjamin Franklin had done so in 1784 in a light-hearted letter published in the Journal of Paris [http://webexhibits.org/daylightsaving/franklin3.html]. Although Franklin's facetious suggestion was simply that people should get up earlier in summer, he is usually attributed as the inventor of DST while Willett is often ignored. Using his own financial resources, in 1907 William published a pamphlet The Waste of Daylight [http://webexhibits.org/daylightsaving/willett.html]. In it he proposed that the clocks should be advanced by 80 minutes in the summer. The evenings would then remain light for longer, increasing daylight recreation time and also saving 2.5 million pounds in lighting costs. He suggested that the clocks should be advanced by 20 minutes at a time at 2 am on successive Sundays in April and be retarded by the same amount on Sundays in September. 1907 Through vigorous campaigning by 1908 Willett had managed to gain the support of an MP, Robert Pearce, who made several unsuccessful attempts to get it passed into law. A young Winston Churchill also promoted it for a time (see "A Silent Toast to William Willett" by Winston S. Churchill, Pictorial Weekly, 1934)[http://www.winstonchurchill.org/i4a/pages/index.cfm?pageid=266], and the idea was examined again by a parliamentary select committee in 1909 but again nothing was done. The outbreak of the First World War made the issue more important primarily because of the need to save coal. Germany had already introduced the scheme when the bill was finally passed in Britain on May 17, 1916 and the clocks were advanced by an hour on the following Sunday, May 21 — enacted as a wartime production-boosting device under the Defence of the Realm Act. It was subsequently adopted in many other countries. William Willett junior did not live to see daylight saving become law, he died of influenza in 1915 at the age of 58. He is commemorated in Petts Wood by a memorial sundial, set permanently to Daylight Saving Time. The Daylight Inn in Petts Wood is also named in his honour. His house in the London Borough of Bromley is marked with a blue plaque.

References

- Maria Box, Encyclopedia Britannica, (1968 ed.).
- Donald Carle, British Time, (London: Crosby Lockwood, 1947).
- D. Prout, Victorian Society Annual, (1989), 217-46.
- Andrew Saint, Oxford Dictionary of National Biography. Willett, William Willett, William Willett, William

1907

1907 (MCMVII) was a common year starting on Tuesday (see link for calendar).

Events

January

- January 6 - Maria Montessori opens her first school and daycare center for working class children in Rome (Casa dei Bambini in San Lorenzo).
- January 14 - An earthquake in Kingston, Jamaica kills more than 1,000.
- January 23 - Charles Curtis from Kansas, becomes the first Native American US Senator.

February

- February 22 - Scouting is founded by Robert Baden-Powell in the United Kingdom.

March

- March 5 - The new Duma is opened in St. Petersburg, Russia and 40,000 demonstrators had to be dispersed by Russian troops.
- March 18 - Train robbery in Sweden (first and only as of 2004)
- March 22 - The first cabs with taxi meters began operating in London.

May

- May 8 - Mount Peleé erupts
- May 27 - A Bubonic plague outbreak begins in San Francisco, California.

June

- June 1 - Colin Blythe takes 17 wickets for 48 runs against Northamptonshire at Northampton in one day. It is the best analysis ever recorded for a county cricket match (or for a single day's bowling), and not bettered in first-class cricket until 1956.
- June 5 - BAPS Swaminarayan religion established.
- June 11 - George Dennett, aided by Gilbert Jessop, dismisses Northamptonshire for 12 runs, the lowest total in first-class cricket.

July

- July 6 - Guardians of Irish Crown Jewels notice that they have been stolen
- July 25 - Korea becomes a protectorate of Japan.

August

- August 1-9 - Baden-Powell leads the first Scout camp on Brownsea Island, England.
- August 31 - Formation of the Anglo-Russian Entente.

September

- September 26 - New Zealand and Newfoundland become a dominion.

October

- October 24 - A major American financial crisis was averted when when J. P. Morgan, E. H. Harriman, James Stillman, Henry Clay Frick, and other Wall Street financiers created a $25,000,000 pool to invest in the shares on the plunging New York Stock Exchange.

November

- November 16 - Indian Territory and Oklahoma Territory become Oklahoma and are admitted as the 46th U.S. state.

December

- December 19 - Explosion in coal mine in Jacobs Creek, Pennsylvania - 239 dead

Undated

- The Diamond Sutra of 868, a Buddhist scripture later dated as earliest example of block printing, is discovered in the Mogao Caves.
- The triode thermionic amplifier invented by Lee DeForest, starting the development of electronics as a practical technology.
- The Autochrome Lumière is the first color photography process marketed.
- Herero Wars end
- French warship Jena explodes - 117 dead
- First parliamentary elections in the Philippines
- Adlon Hotel finished in Berlin
- The Moine Thrust Belt in Scotland becomes the first thrust belt to be discovered in the world.
- The first non-profit school in California is created, Polytechnic School.
- The Lockport Powerhouse is built.

Births

January-March

- January 20 - Barbara Stanwyck, American actress (d. 1990)
- January 20 - Paula Wessely, Austrian actress (d. 2000)
- January 23 - Hideki Yukawa, Japanese physicist, Nobel Prize laureate (d. 1981)
- February 1 - Günter Eich, German writer (d. 1972)
- February 15 - Jean Langlais, French composer and organist (d. 1991)
- February 15 - Cesar Romero, American actor (d. 1994)
- February 17 - Buster Crabbe, American swimmer and actor (d. 1983)
- February 21 - W. H. Auden, English poet (d. 1973)
- February 22 - Sheldon Leonard, American actor, writer, director, and producer (d. 1997)
- February 22 - Robert Young, American actor (d. 1998)
- February 27 - Mildred Bailey, American singer (d. 1951)
- March 13 - Maria Pia de Saxe-Coburg-Gotha-Braganca, claimant to the Portuguese throne (d. 1995)
- March 8 - Constantine Caramanlis, Greek politician (d. 1998)
- March 15 - Zarah Leander, Swedish actress and singer (d. 1981)
- March 22 - Lucia dos Santos, Potuguese nun and visionary (d. 2005)
- March 23 - Daniel Bovet, Swiss-born scientist, recipient of the Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine (d. 1992)

April-June

- April 12 - Felix de Weldon, Austrian-born sculptor (d. 2003)
- April 13 - Harold Stassen, American politician (d. 2001)
- April 15 - Nikolaas Tinbergen, Dutch ornithologist, recipient of the Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine (d. 1988)
- April 23 - Fritz Wotruba, Austrian sculptor (d. 1975)
- April 24 - William Sargant, British psychiatrist (d. 1988)
- April 29 - Tino Rossi, French singer (d. 1983)
- April 29 - Fred Zinnemann, Austrian director (d. 1997)
- May 2 - Pinky Lee, American comedian (d. 1993)
- May 9 - Baldur von Schirach, Nazi official (d. 1974)
- May 11 - Rose Ausländer, German poet (d. 1988)
- May 12 - Katharine Hepburn, American actress (d. 2003)
- May 13 - Dame Daphne du Maurier, English author (d. 1989)
- May 14 - Ayub Khan, President of Pakistan (d. 1974)
- May 22 - Hergé, Belgian comics author (d. 1983)
- May 22 - Sir Laurence Olivier, English actor and director (d. 1989)
- May 26 - John Wayne, American actor (d. 1979)
- May 26 - Rachel Carson, American environmental writer (d. 1964)
- May 30 - Elly Beinhorn, German pilot
- June 14 - René Char, French poet (d. 1988)
- June 23 - James Meade, English economist, Nobel Prize laureate (d. 1995)
- June 25 - J. Hans D. Jensen, German physicist, Nobel Prize laurete (d. 1973)

July-September

- July 6 - Frida Kahlo, Mexican painter (d. 1954)
- July 7 - Robert A. Heinlein, American science fiction author (d. 1988)
- August 8 - Benny Carter, American musician (d. 2003)
- August 12 - Joe Besser, American comedian (d. 1988)
- August 13 - Viscount William Waldorf Astor, British politician (d. 1966)
- September 12 - Spud Chandler, baseball player (d. 1990)
- September 15 - Fay Wray, Canadian-born actress (d. 2004)
- September 18 - Leon Askin, Austrian actor (d. 2005)
- September 18 - Edwin McMillan, American chemist, Nobel Prize laureate (d. 1991)
- September 26 - Bep van Klaveren, Dutch boxer (d. 1992)
- September 27 - Maurice Blanchot, French philosopher and writer (d. 2003)
- September 29 - Gene Autry, American actor (d. 1998)

October-December

- October 2 - Alexander R. Todd, Baron Todd, Scottish chemist, Nobel Prize luarete (d. 1997)
- October 5 - Mrs. Miller, American singer (d. 1997)
- October 9 - Lord Hailsham, British politician (d. 2001)
- October 15 - Varian Fry, American journalist and rescuer (d. 1967)
- October 19 - Roger Wolfe Kahn, American bandleader (d. 1962)
- October 22 - Jimmie Foxx, baseball player (d. 1967)
- November 14 - Howard W. Hunter, president of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints (d. 1995)
- November 14 - Astrid Lindgren, Swedish children's writer (d. 2002)
- November 14 - William Steig, American cartoonist (d. 2003)
- November 16 - Burgess Meredith, American actor (d. 1997)
- November 18 - Compay Segundo, Cuban musician (Buena Vista Social Club) (d. 2003)
- November 28 - Alberto Moravia, Italian novelist (d. 1990)
- December 10 - Lucien Laurent, French footballer (d. 2005)
- December 19 - Jimmy McLarnin, Irish-born boxer (d. 2004)
- December 22 - Dame Peggy Ashcroft, British actress (d. 1991)
- December 23 - James Roosevelt, American businessman and politician (d. 1991)
- December 27 - Johann Wilhelm Trollmann, German boxer (d. 1943)

Undated

- Rafael Godoy, Colombian composer (d. 1973)
- Ismail Nasiruddin Shah ibni Almarhum Sultan Zainal Abidin III, King of Malaysia (d. 1979)
- Zhang Chongren, Chinese artist (d. 1998)

Deaths

- January 31 - Timothy Eaton, Canadian department store founder (b. 1834)
- February 2 - Dmitri Mendeleev, Russian chemist (b. 1834)
- February 16 - Giosue Carducci, Italian writer, Nobel Prize laureate (b. 1835)
- February 16 - Clémentine of Orléans, daughter of King Louis-Philippe of France (b. 1817)
- February 20 - Henri Moissan, French chemist, Nobel Prize laureate (b. 1852)
- February 26 - C. W. Alcock, English footballer, journalist, and football promoter (b. 1842)
- March 19 - Thomas Bailey Aldrich, American poet and novelist (b. 1836)
- May 12 - Joris-Karl Huysmans, French author (b. 1848)
- August 15 - Joseph Joachim, Austrian violinist (b. 1831)
- August 16 - James Hector, Scottish geologist (b. 1834)
- September 4 - Edvard Grieg, Norwegian composer (b. 1843)
- September 6 - Sully Prudhomme, French writer, Nobel Prize laureate (b. 1829)
- November 16 - Robert I, Duke of Parma, last ruling Duke of Parma (b. 1848)
- November 28 - Stanisław Wyspiański, Polish writer, painter, and architect (b. 1869)
- December 8 - King Oscar II of Sweden (b. 1829)
- December 17 - Lord Kelvin, Irish-born physicist and engineer (b. 1824)

Nobel Prizes

- Physics - Albert Abraham Michelson
- Chemistry - Eduard Buchner
- Medicine - Charles Louis Alphonse Laveran
- Literature - Rudyard Kipling
- Peace - Ernesto Teodoro Moneta, Louis Renault Category:1907 ko:1907년 ms:1907 ja:1907年 simple:1907 th:พ.ศ. 2450

Lobbying

Lobbying is the practice of private advocacy with the goal of influencing a governing body, in order to ensure that an individual's or organization's point of view is represented in the government. A lobbyist is a person who is paid to influence legislation as well as public opinion. A more tactful description might be said to be someone who is engaged in public affairs. Most major corporations and political interest groups hire professional lobbyists to promote their interests as intermediaries; others maintain in-house government or public relations departments. Think tanks aim to lobby through regular releases of detailed reports and supporting research to the media for dissemination . A separate form of lobbying, called "outside" lobbying or grassroots lobbying, seeks to affect the legislature or other bodies indirectly, through changing public opinion (or purporting to — fake grassroots campaigns are known as astroturfing). A modification of the same, aimed to leaders and influential persons in the community, is known as grasstops. Lobbying is in many countries a regulated activity, with limits placed on how it is conducted, in an attempt to prevent political corruption. In the United States for example, lobbyists must be registered unless they represent an elected official, or an organization of elected officials, such as the National Governors Association.

Alleged corruption in lobbying

Lobbying is frequently performed on behalf of organizations which also make campaign contributions. This has led to allegations of corruption by opponents of some lobbying organizations. Politicians are sometimes placed in apparently compromising positions because of their need to solicit financial contributions for their campaigns. Critics complain that they then appear to be acting in the interests of those who fund them, giving rise to talk of political corruption. Supporters of the system respond that many politicians act in the interests of those who fund them due to common ideologies or shared local interests, and that lobbyists merely support those who agree with their positions. Several states and cities have passed Clean Elections laws to be sure that lobbyists gain influence by the persuasiveness of their arguments rather than the size of their campaign contributions.

Lobbying in the United States

Lobbyists in the United States target the United States Senate, the United States House of Representatives, and state legislatures. They may also represent their clients' or organizations' interests in dealings with federal, state, or local executive branch agencies or the courts. Lobbyists sometimes also write legislation and whip bills. In July 2005, Public Citizen published a report entitled "The Journey from Congress to K Street": the report analyzed hundreds of lobbyist registration documents filed in compliance with the "Lobbying Disclosure Act" and the "Foreign Agents Registration Act", among other sources. It found that since 1998, 43 percent of the 198 members of Congress who left government to join private life have registered to lobby. The Washington Post described these results as reflecting the "sea change that has occurred in lawmakers' attitudes toward lobbying in recent years." The paper noted that :Congressional historians say that lawmakers rarely became lobbyists as recently as two decades ago. They considered the profession to be tainted and unworthy of once-elected officials such as themselves. And lobbying firms and trade groups were leery of hiring former members of Congress because they were reputed to be lazy as lobbyists, unwilling to ask former colleagues for favors. But starting in the late 1980s, high salaries for lobbyists, an increasing demand for lobbyists, greater turnover in Congress, and a change in the control of the House all contributed to a change in attitude about the appropriateness of former elected officials becoming lobbyists. Former lawmakers are eagerly hired as lobbyists because of their relationships with their former colleagues as well as other contacts. The Public Citizen report included a case study of one particularly successful lobbyist, Bob Livingston, who stepped down as Speaker-elect and resigned his seat in 1999 after a sex scandal. In the six years since his resignation, his lobbying group grew into the 12th largest non-law lobbying firm, earning nearly $40 million by the end of 2004. During roughly the same time period, Livingston, his wife, and his two political action committees (PACs) contributed over $500,000 to the PACs or campaign funds of various candidates. The increasing number of former lawmakers becoming lobbyists has led Russ Feingold to propose paring back the many Capitol Hill privileges enjoyed by former senators and representatives. His plan would deprive lawmakers-turned-lobbyists of privileges such as unfettered access to otherwise "members only" areas such as the House and Senate floors and the House gym.

Lobbying in Brussels

As of 1999, the European Commission assumed the following numbers:
- approximately 3 000 special interest groups of varying types in Brussels, with up to 10 000 employees working in the lobbying sector. (by contrast, in the United States, as of mid 2005, there were nearly 35,000 registered lobbyists for Congress alone.)
- Within this total there are more than 500 European and international federations (whose constituent members belonging to national associations number more than 5 000).
- about 50 offices in Brussels representing countries, regional and local authorities (some of which may of course participate in the institutional framework of the Community and it is only their other activities which are concerned by this communication).
- more than 200 individual firms with direct representation, and about 100 consultants (management, and public relations) with offices in Brussels and many others dealing with Community affairs.
- about 100 law firms in Belgium specializing in Community law and many more in other countries (both member states and beyond).

External links

;General:
- [http://www.nova.edu/~kornblau/lobbying_links.htm Nova Southeastern University: Lobbying Links] ;Lobbying in the United States:
- [http://www.PoliticalMoneyLine.com/ PoliticalMoneyLine]
- http://www.sourcewatch.org/ -- Wiki to collect information about lobbyism, formerly Disinfopedia
- http://sopr.senate.gov/ -- U.S. government searchable database of registered lobbyists
- http://www.lobbyinginfo.org/ -- A Public Citizen project, including their [http://www.lobbyinginfo.org/documents/RevolveDoor.pdf July 2005 report] in PDF format
- [http://www.australianpolitics.com/usa/lobby/ List of Lobby Groups in the United States]
- http://www.opensecrets.org/
- http://www.fundrace.org/
- http://www.carmengroup.com/ -- Lobbying site with huge collection of links, information
- http://www.usdoj.gov/criminal/fara/ -- United States Foreign Agents Registration Act
- http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2005/07/26/AR2005072601562.html -- Capitol Hill as a steppingstone to K Street
- http://dir.yahoo.com/Business_and_Economy/Business_to_Business/Government/Lobbying/ -- Yahoo Business Lobbyist Listing ;Lobbying in Europe:
- [http://www.alter-eu.org Alliance for Lobbying Transparency and Ethics Regulation (ALTER-EU)]
- [http://www.corporateeurope.org/ Corporate Europe Observatory (CEO)]
- [http://www.europarl.eu.int/workingpapers/pana/w5/default_en.htm Rules on lobbying and intergroups in the national parliaments of the Member States. Working document (1996)]
- [http://www4.europarl.eu.int/estudies/internet/workingpapers/afco/pdf/104_en.pdf Lobbying in the European Union: current rules and practices (2003)], in PDF format
- [http://www.seap.nu/ The Society of European Affairs Professionals (SEAP)]
- [http://www.lobbywatch.de/ Wiki collecting information about lobbyism in Germany]
- [http://www.publicaffairs.ac/ European Centre for Public Affairs] ;Lobbying in Canada:
- [http://www.lobbygov.org Non-profit Wiki on lobbying and active citzenship in Canada] ;Lobbying in the UK
- [http://www.appc.org.uk/homepage.html Association of Professional Political Consultants]
- [http://www.pubaffairs.org/home.html Public Affairs networking site] Category:Political terms Category:Lobbying Category:Lobbying groups Category:Political corruption

World War I

, and the use of new, devastating weapons - tanks, aircraft, machine guns, and poison gas.]] World War I, also known as the First World War, the Great War, the War of the Nations and the War to End All Wars, was a world conflict lasting from 1914 to 1919, with the fighting lasting until 1918. The label World War I or First World War did not come into general use until after the outbreak of World War II in 1939, and until then it was known as the Great War or the World War. The war was fought by the Allied Powers on one side, and the Central Powers on the other. No previous conflict had mobilized so many soldiers or involved so many in the field of battle. By its end, the war had become the second bloodiest conflict in recorded history (behind the Taiping Rebellion), though it was surpassed within a generation by World War II. World War I became infamous for trench warfare; this was especially true of the Western Front. The trenches went from the North Sea to the border of Switzerland in Europe. More than 9 million died on the war's battlefields, and nearly that many more on the home fronts because of food shortages, genocide, and ground combat. Among other notable events, the first large-scale bombing from the air was undertaken and some of the century's first large-scale civilian massacres took place, as one of the aspects of modern efficient, non-chivalrous warfare. In the First World War 5% of casualties were civilian. In the Second World War that was 50%. World War I proved to be the decisive break with the old world order, marking the final demise of absolutist monarchy in Europe. Four empires were shattered: the German, the Austro-Hungarian, the Ottoman, and the Russian. Their four dynasties, the Hohenzollerns, the Habsburgs, the Ottomans, and the Romanovs, who had roots of power back to the days of the Crusades, all fell during or after the war. The post-war failure to deal effectively with many of the causes and results of the War would lead to the rise of Fascism in Italy, Nazism in Germany and the outbreak of World War II within a generation. The War was the catalyst for the Bolshevik Russian Revolution, which would inspire later Communist revolutions in countries as diverse as China and Cuba, and would lay the basis for the Cold War standoff between the Soviet Union and the United States. In the east, the demise of the Ottoman Empire paved the way for a modern democratic successor state, Turkey. In Central Europe, new states such as Czechoslovakia and Yugoslavia were born and Poland was re-created. __TOC__

Causes

Poland of Franz Ferdinand. The murder was the igniting torch of World War I.]] :See also: Causes of World War I and Participants in World War I On June 28, 1914, Franz Ferdinand, Archduke of Austria and heir to the Austro-Hungarian throne, was assassinated in Sarajevo by Gavrilo Princip, a Bosnian Serb student. He was part of a group of fifteen assassins, acting with support from the Black Hand, a secret society founded by pan-Serbian nationalists, with links to the Serbian military. The assassination sparked little initial concern in Europe. The Archduke himself was not popular, least of all in the Austro-Hungarian Empire. While there were riots in Sarajevo following the Archduke's death, these were largely aimed at the Serbian minority. Though this assassination has been linked as the direct trigger for World War I, the war's real origins lie further back, in the complex web of alliances and counterbalances that developed between the various European powers after the defeat of France and formation of the German state under the leadership of Otto von Bismarck in 1871.

Reasons & Responsibilities

- See also: Causes of World War I There are many different hypotheses that try to explain who, or what, is to blame for the outbreak of the First World War. Early explanations, prominent in the 1920s and 1930s, stressed the official version of responsibility as described in the Treaty of Versailles and Treaty of Trianon, that Germany and its allies were solely responsible for the war. However, as time progressed, scholars began looking toward the rigidity of both German and Russian military planning, each of which stressed the importance of striking first and executing plans quickly. The fact that for many decades the British had been accustomed to colonial wars which were won relatively easily against much weaker adversaries certainly helped build enthusiasm for the Great war. In addition, the fact that no major political force opposed the war meant that those who did not agree with it had little organisational power to build opposition, though small protests continued throughout the war. Another cause of the war was the building of alliances and arms races. An example of the latter is the launch of HMS Dreadnought, a revolutionary battleship that rendered all previous ships obsolete as "pre-dreadnoughts", in 1906. This weakened Britain's power as a seafaring nation and sparked a major naval arms race in shipbuilding, particularly between Britain and Germany due to new imperialism. Overall, nations in the Triple Entente became fearful of the Triple Alliance and vice versa. The civilian leaders of the European powers also found themselves facing a wave of nationalist zeal that had been building across Europe for years. This left governments with ever fewer options and little room to manoeuvre as the last weeks of July 1914 slipped away. Frantic diplomatic efforts to mediate the Austrian-Serbian quarrel simply became irrelevant, as the automatic military escalations between Germany and Russia reinforced one another. Furthermore, the problem of communications in 1914 should not be underestimated; all nations still used telegraphy and ambassadors as the main form of communication, resulting in delays from hours to even days. There is probably no single concise or conclusive assessment of the exact cause of the First World War.

Outbreak of war

ambassadors are depicted in green, the Central Powers in red, and neutral countries in yellow.]] Austria–Hungary was created in the "Ausgleich of 1867" after Austria was defeated by Prussia. As agreed in 1867, the Habsburgs were the Emperors of the Austrian Empire. With the formation of the Dual Monarchy, Franz Josef became leader of a nation with sixteen ethnic groups and five major religions speaking no fewer than nine languages. In large measure because of the vast disparities that existed within the Empire, Austrians and Hungarians always viewed growing Slavic nationalism with deep suspicion and concern. Thus the Austro-Hungarian government grew worried with the near-doubling in size of neighbouring Serbia's territory as a result of the Balkan Wars of 1912–1913. Serbia, for its part, made no qualms about the fact that it viewed all of Southern Austria–Hungary as part of a future Great South Slavic Union. This view had also garnered considerable support in Russia. Many in the Austrian leadership, not least Habsburg Emperor Franz Joseph, and Conrad von Hötzendorf, worried that Serbian nationalist agitation in the southern provinces of the Empire would lead to further unrest among the Austro-Hungarian Empire's other disparate ethnic groups. The Austro-Hungarian government worried that a nationalist Russia would back Serbia to annex Slavic areas of Austria–Hungary. The feeling was that it was better to destroy Serbia before they were given the opportunity to launch a campaign. After the assassination of Franz Ferdinand by Gavrilo Princip and nearly a month of debate the government of Austria–Hungary sent a 10-point ultimatum to Serbia (July 23, 1914) — the so called July Ultimatum — to be unconditionally accepted within 48 hours. The ultimatum was the first of a series of diplomatic events known as the July Crisis which set off a chain reaction and a general war in Europe. The Serbian government agreed to all but one of the demands in the ultimatum, noting that participation in its judicial proceedings by a foreign power would violate its constitution. Austria–Hungary nonetheless broke off diplomatic relations (July 25) and declared war (July 28) through a telegram sent to the Serbian government. The Russian government, which had pledged in 1909 to uphold Serbian independence in return for Serbia's acceptance of the Bosnia annexation, mobilised its military reserves on 30 July following a breakdown in crucial telegram communications between Kaiser Wilhelm and Tsar Nicholas II (the famous "Willy and Nicky" correspondence), who was under pressure by his military staff to prepare for war. Germany demanded (31 July) that Russia stand down its forces, but the Russian government persisted, as demobilization would have made it impossible to re-activate its military schedule in the short term. Germany declared war against Russia on August 1 and, two days later, against the latter's ally France. The outbreak of the conflict is often attributed to the alliances established over the previous decades — Germany-Austria-Italy vs France-Russia; Britain and Serbia being aligned with the latter. In fact, none of the alliances were activated in the initial outbreak, though Russian general mobilization and Germany's declaration of war against France were motivated by fear of the opposing alliance being brought into play. Britain declared war against Germany on August 4. This was ostensibly provoked by Germany's invasion of Belgium on August 4 1914, whose independence Britain had guaranteed to uphold in the Treaty of London of 1839, and which stood astride the planned German route for invasion of Russia's ally France. Unofficially, it was already generally accepted in government that Britain could not remain neutral, since without the co-operation of France and Russia its colonies in Africa and India would be under threat, while German occupation of the French Atlantic ports would be an even larger threat to British trade as a whole.

The spread of war

;1914
- July 23: Austria-Hungary ultimatum to Serbia.
- July 28: Austria-Hungary declares war on Serbia.
- July 31: Russia begins mobilization.
- August 1: Germany declares war on Russia.
- August 2: German troops occupy Luxembourg.
- August 3: Germany declares war on France.
- August 4: Germany invades neutral Belgium; the United Kingdom declares war on Germany in response.
- August 6: Montenegro sides with its traditional ally, Serbia, and declares war on Austria-Hungary.
- August 10: Austria-Hungary declares war on Russia.
- August 12: The United Kingdom and France declare war on Austria-Hungary.
- August 23: Japan declares war on Germany.
- September: Unity Pact signed by France, Britain, and Russia.
- October 9: Belgium falls to German troops at the Siege of Antwerp.
- October 29: The Ottoman Empire enters the war on the side of Germany and Austria-Hungary.
- November 2: Russia declares war on the Ottoman sultanate.
- November 5: France and United Kingdom declare war on the Ottoman sultanate.
- December 25: Christmas Truce in the Trenches. ;1915
- April 25: Gallipoli campaign commences. Turks defeat Allies crushingly.
- April 26: Italy secretly signs the London Pact with the Triple Entente.
- May 23: Italy declares war on Austria-Hungary.
- October 14: Bulgaria declares war on Serbia and enters the war on the side of Germany and Austria-Hungary. ;1916
- March 9: Germany declares war on Portugal (see Portugal in the Great War).
- August 27: Romania declares war on Austria-Hungary.
- August 28: Italy declares war on Germany. ;1917
- January 16: Germany sends the Zimmermann Telegram to Mexico, proposing an alliance against the United States.
- April 6: The United States declares war on Germany.
- June 27: Greece enters the war on the side of the Entente.
- July 6: Arab Revolt troops under Lawrence Of Arabia capture Aqaba, a main sea port for the Ottoman Empire.
- August 14: The Republic of China declares war on Germany.
- October 26: Brazil declares war on Germany.
- November 7: The October Revolution takes place in Russia.
- December 7: United States declares war on Austria-Hungary. ;1918
- January 8: President Woodrow Wilson made his famous Fourteen Points address, introducing the idea of a League of Nations.
- 3 March: Russia and the Central Powers sign the Treaty of Brest-Litovsk, marking Russia's exit from World War I.
- October 30: Mudros/Turkish Armistice signed opening Turkish territory to Entente military operations.
- November 11: Armistice signed, end of World War I. ;1919
- 28 June: Treaty of Versailles, official end to World War I between the Entente and Germany. ;1920
- 4 June: Treaty of Trianon, partition of Austro-Hungarian Empire's Kingdom of Hungary. ;1923
- 24 July: Treaty of Lausanne, peace made with Turkey.
- 29 October: Turkey changes its government to republic.

Opening battles

republic Some of the very first actions of the war occurred far from Europe, in Africa and in the Pacific Ocean. On August 8 1914 a combined French and British Empire force invaded the German protectorate of Togoland. On August 10 German forces based in South-West Africa attacked South Africa. New Zealand occupied German Samoa (30 August 1914) and on September 11 the Australian Naval and Military Expeditionary Force landed on the island of Neu Pommern, which formed part of German New Guinea. Within a few months the Entente forces had accepted the surrender of or driven out German forces in the Pacific. Sporadic and fierce fighting continued in Africa for the remainder of the war. In Europe, Germany and Austria-Hungary suffered from miscommunication regarding each army's intentions. Germany had originally guaranteed to support Austria-Hungary's invasion of Serbia, but the interpretations of this idea differed. Austro-Hungarian leaders thought Germany would cover her northern flank against Russia, but Germany had planned for Austria-Hungary to focus the majority of its troops on Russia while Germany dealt with France on the Western Front. This confusion forced the Austro-Hungarian army to split its troop concentrations from the south in order to meet the Russians in the north. The Serb army, coming up from the south of the country, met the Austrian army at the Battle of Cer on 12 August 1914. The Serbians occupied defensive positions against the Austrians. The first attack came on August 16th, between parts of the 21st Austro–Hungarian division and parts of the Serbian Combined division. In harsh night-time fighting the battle ebbed and flowed, until Stepa Stepanovic rallied the Serbian line. Three days later the Austrians retreated across the Danube, having suffered 21,000 casualties as against 16,000 Serbian. This marked the first major Allied victory of the war. The Austrians had not achieved their main goal of eliminating Serbia, and it became increasingly likely that Germany would have to maintain forces on two fronts. Germany's plan (named the Schlieffen plan) to deal with the Franco-Russian alliance involved delivering a knock-out blow to the French and then turning to deal with the more slowly mobilized Russian army. Rather th