Time Zone Changes in 2001

Lee Hotz (2001-03-08):

I queried the folks at Columbia who spent the summer at Vostok and this is
what they had to say about time there:
"in the US Camp (East Camp) we have been on New Zealand (McMurdo)
time, which is 12 hours ahead of GMT. The Russian Station Vostok was
6 hours behind that (although only 2 miles away, i.e. 6 hours ahead
of GMT). This is a time zone I think two hours east of Moscow. The
natural time zone is in between the two: 8 hours ahead of GMT."

Attached to: Antarctica/Vostok (antarctica)

Paul Eggert (2001-05-04):

This seems to be hopelessly confusing, so I asked Lee Hotz about it
in person.  He said that some Antarctic locations set their local
time so that noon is the warmest part of the day, and that this
changes during the year and does not necessarily correspond to mean
solar noon.  So the Vostok time might have been whatever the clocks
happened to be during their visit.  So we still don't really know what time
it is at Vostok.

Attached to: Antarctica/Vostok (antarctica)

Anthony Fok (2001-12-20):

BTW, I did some research on-line and found some info regarding these five
historic timezones from some Taiwan websites.  And yes, there are official
Chinese names for these locales (before 1949).

Attached to: Asia/Shanghai (asia)

Gwillim Law (2001-05-28):

http://www.sumatera-inc.com/go_to_invest/about_indonesia.asp#standtime
says that Indonesia's time zones changed on 1988-01-01.  Looking at some
time zone maps, I think that must refer to Western Borneo (Kalimantan Barat
and Kalimantan Tengah) switching from UTC+8 to UTC+7.

Attached to: Asia/Jakarta (asia)

Ephraim Silverberg (2001-01-11):

I coined "IST/IDT" circa 1988.  Until then there were three
different abbreviations in use:

JST  Jerusalem Standard Time [Danny Braniss, Hebrew University]
IZT  Israel Zonal (sic) Time [Prof. Haim Papo, Technion]
EEST Eastern Europe Standard Time [used by almost everyone else]

Since timezones should be called by country and not capital cities,
I ruled out JST.  As Israel is in Asia Minor and not Eastern Europe,
EEST was equally unacceptable.  Since "zonal" was not compatible with
any other timezone abbreviation, I felt that 'IST' was the way to go
and, indeed, it has received almost universal acceptance in timezone
settings in Israeli computers.

In any case, I am happy to share timezone abbreviations with India,
high on my favorite-country list (and not only because my wife's
family is from India).

Attached to: Zion (asia)

Rives McDow (2001-05-13):

In addition to Mongolia starting daylight savings as reported earlier
(adopted DST on 2001-04-27 02:00 local time, ending 2001-09-28),
there are three time zones.

Provinces [at 7:00]: Bayan-Ölgii, Uvs, Khovd, Zavkhan, Govi-Altai
Provinces [at 8:00]: Khövsgöl, Bulgan, Arkhangai, Khentii, Töv,
Bayankhongor, Övörkhangai, Dundgovi, Dornogovi, Ömnögovi
Provinces [at 9:00]: Dornod, Sükhbaatar

[The province of Selenge is omitted from the above lists.]

Attached to: Mongol (asia)

Scott Harrington (2001-08-29):

On KQED's "City Arts and Lectures" program last night I heard an
interesting story about daylight savings time.  Dr. John Heilbron was
discussing his book "The Sun in the Church: Cathedrals as Solar
Observatories"[1], and in particular the Shrine of Remembrance[2] located
in Melbourne, Australia.

Apparently the shrine's main purpose is a beam of sunlight which
illuminates a special spot on the floor at the 11th hour of the 11th day
of the 11th month (Remembrance Day) every year in memory of Australia's
fallen WWI soldiers.  And if you go there on Nov. 11, at 11am local time,
you will indeed see the sunbeam illuminate the special spot at the
expected time.

However, that is only because of some special mirror contraption that had
to be employed, since due to daylight savings time, the true solar time of
the remembrance moment occurs one hour later (or earlier?).  Perhaps
someone with more information on this jury-rig can tell us more.

[1] http://www.hup.harvard.edu/catalog/HEISUN.html
[2] http://www.shrine.org.au

Rives McDow (2001-11-01):

I correspond regularly with the Dansk Polarcenter, and wrote them at
the time to clarify the situation in Thule.  Unfortunately, I have
not heard back from them regarding my recent letter.  [But I have
info from earlier correspondence.]

According to the center, a very small local time zone around Thule
Air Base keeps the time according to UTC-4, implementing daylight
savings using North America rules, changing the time at 02:00 local time....

The east coast of Greenland north of the community of Scoresbysund
uses UTC in the same way as in Iceland, year round, with no dst.
There are just a few stations on this coast, including the
Danmarkshavn ICAO weather station mentioned in your September 29th
email.  The other stations are two sledge patrol stations in
Mestersvig and Daneborg, the air force base at Station Nord, and the
DPC research station at Zackenberg.

Scoresbysund and two small villages nearby keep time UTC-1 and use
the same daylight savings time period as in West Greenland (Godthåb).

The rest of Greenland, including Godthåb (this area, although it
includes central Greenland, is known as west Greenland), keeps time
UTC-3, with daylight savings methods according to European rules.

It is common procedure to use UTC 0 in the wilderness of East and
North Greenland, because it is mainly Icelandic aircraft operators
maintaining traffic in these areas.  However, the official status of
this area is that it sticks with Godthåb time.  This area might be
considered a dual time zone in some respects because of this.

Attached to: Thule (europe)

Rives McDow (2001-11-19):

I heard back from someone stationed at Thule; the time change took place
there at 2:00 AM.

Attached to: Thule (europe)

Steffen Thorsen (2001-05-01):

Although I could not find it explicitly, it seems that Jan Mayen and
Svalbard have been using the same time as Norway at least since the
time they were declared as parts of Norway.  Svalbard was declared
as a part of Norway by law of 1925-07-17 no 11, section 4 and Jan
Mayen by law of 1930-02-27 no 2, section 2. (From
<http://www.lovdata.no/all/nl-19250717-011.html> and
<http://www.lovdata.no/all/nl-19300227-002.html>).  The law/regulation
for normal/standard time in Norway is from 1894-06-29 no 1 (came
into operation on 1895-01-01) and Svalbard/Jan Mayen seem to be a
part of this law since 1925/1930. (From
<http://www.lovdata.no/all/nl-18940629-001.html>) I have not been
able to find if Jan Mayen used a different time zone (e.g. -0100)
before 1930. Jan Mayen has only been "inhabited" since 1921 by
Norwegian meteorologists and maybe used the same time as Norway ever
since 1921.  Svalbard (Arctic/Longyearbyen) has been inhabited since
before 1895, and therefore probably changed the local time somewhere
between 1895 and 1925 (inclusive).

Attached to: Germany (europe)

Paul Eggert (2001-03-06):

Sicily and Sardinia each had their own time zones from 1866 to 1893,
called Palermo Time (+00:53:28) and Cagliari Time (+00:36:32).
During World War II, German-controlled Italy used German time.
But these events all occurred before the 1970 cutoff,
so record only the time in Rome.

Attached to: Italy (europe)

Gwillim Law (2001-06-05):

There's considerable evidence that Sakhalin Island used to be in
UTC+11, and has changed to UTC+10, in this decade.  I start with the
SSIM, which listed Yuzhno-Sakhalinsk in zone RU10 along with Magadan
until February 1997, and then in RU9 with Khabarovsk and Vladivostok
since September 1997....  Although the Kuril Islands are
administratively part of Sakhalin oblast', they appear to have
remained on UTC+11 along with Magadan.

Attached to: Europe/Kaliningrad (europe)

Paul Eggert (2001-03-06):

Daylight Saving Time was first suggested as a joke by Benjamin Franklin
in his whimsical essay "An Economical Project for Diminishing the Cost
of Light" published in the Journal de Paris (1784-04-26).
Not everyone is happy with the results:

I don't really care how time is reckoned so long as there is some
agreement about it, but I object to being told that I am saving
daylight when my reason tells me that I am doing nothing of the kind.
I even object to the implication that I am wasting something
valuable if I stay in bed after the sun has risen.  As an admirer
of moonlight I resent the bossy insistence of those who want to
reduce my time for enjoying it.  At the back of the Daylight Saving
scheme I detect the bony, blue-fingered hand of Puritanism, eager
to push people into bed earlier, and get them up earlier, to make
them healthy, wealthy and wise in spite of themselves.

-- Robertson Davies, The diary of Samuel Marchbanks,
Clarke, Irwin (1947), XIX, Sunday

For more about the first ten years of DST in the United States, see
Robert Garland, Ten years of daylight saving from the Pittsburgh standpoint
(Carnegie Library of Pittsburgh, 1927).
https://web.archive.org/web/20160517155308/http://www.clpgh.org/exhibit/dst.html

Shanks says that DST was called "War Time" in the US in 1918 and 1919.
However, DST was imposed by the Standard Time Act of 1918, which
was the first nationwide legal time standard, and apparently
time was just called "Standard Time" or "Daylight Saving Time".

From Paul Eggert (2019-06-04) and Tim Parenti (2026-07-21):
Here is the legal basis for the US federal rules.
* Public Law 65-106 (1918-03-19) implemented standard and daylight saving
time for the first time across the US, springing forward on March's last
Sunday and falling back on October's last Sunday.
https://www.loc.gov/law/help/statutes-at-large/65th-congress/session-2/c65s2ch24.pdf
* Public Law 66-40 (1919-08-20) repealed DST on October 1919's last Sunday.
https://www.loc.gov/law/help/statutes-at-large/66th-congress/session-1/c66s1ch51.pdf
* Public Law 77-403 (1942-01-20) started wartime DST on 1942-02-09.
https://www.loc.gov/law/help/statutes-at-large/77th-congress/session-2/c77s2ch7.pdf
* Public Law 79-187 (1945-09-25) ended wartime DST on 1945-09-30.
https://www.loc.gov/law/help/statutes-at-large/79th-congress/session-1/c79s1ch388.pdf
* Public Law 89-387 (1966-04-13) reinstituted a national standard for DST,
from April's last Sunday to October's last Sunday, effective 1967.
https://www.govinfo.gov/content/pkg/STATUTE-80/pdf/STATUTE-80-Pg107.pdf
* Public Law 93-182 (1973-12-15) applied DST year-round as an emergency
measure.  It took effect on the fourth Sunday after its enactment,
effectively moving the 1974 spring-forward to 01-06.
https://www.govinfo.gov/content/pkg/STATUTE-87/pdf/STATUTE-87-Pg707.pdf
It was meant to last for 16 months or two winters (through 1975-04-27);
however...
* Public Law 93-434 (1974-10-05) created an exemption for much of the second
winter, restoring standard time from the usual date of 1974-10-27 while
moving the 1975 spring-forward up to February's last Sunday.
https://www.govinfo.gov/content/pkg/STATUTE-88/pdf/STATUTE-88-Pg1209.pdf
* Public Law 99-359 (1986-07-08) moved the spring-forward to April's first
Sunday.
https://www.govinfo.gov/content/pkg/STATUTE-100/pdf/STATUTE-100-Pg764.pdf
* Public Law 109-58 (2005-08-08), effective 2007, moved the spring-forward
to March's second Sunday and the fall-back to November's first Sunday.
https://www.govinfo.gov/content/pkg/PLAW-109publ58/pdf/PLAW-109publ58.pdf
All transitions are at 02:00 local time.

From Arthur David Olson:
Before the Uniform Time Act of 1966 took effect in 1967, observance of
Daylight Saving Time in the US was by local option, except during wartime.

Attached to: US (northamerica)

Paul Eggert (2001-07-16):

The final rule was published in the
Federal Register 65, 160 (2000-08-17), pp 50154-50158.
https://www.gpo.gov/fdsys/pkg/FR-2000-08-17/html/00-20854.htm

Attached to: America/Kentucky/Monticello (northamerica)

Paul Eggert (2001-07-17):

We don't know where the line used to be within Kearny County, KS,
so omit that change for now.
See America/Indiana/Knox for the Starke County, IN change.
See America/North_Dakota/Center for the Oliver County, ND change.
West Wendover, NV officially switched from Pacific to mountain time on
1999-10-31.  See the
Federal Register 64, 203 (1999-10-21), pp 56705-56707.
https://www.gpo.gov/fdsys/pkg/FR-1999-10-21/html/99-27240.htm
However, the Federal Register says that West Wendover already operated
on mountain time, and the rule merely made this official;
hence a separate tz entry is not needed.

Michigan

Attached to: Detroit (northamerica)

Paul Eggert (2001-03-06):

Garland (1927) writes "Cleveland and Detroit advanced their clocks
one hour in 1914."  This change is not in Shanks.  We have no more
info, so omit this for now.

Attached to: Detroit (northamerica)

Rives McDow (2001-01-20):

The preceding decision came into effect at midnight, Saturday Nov 4, 2000.

Attached to: NT_YK (northamerica)

Rives McDow (2001-03-07):

The premier of Nunavut has issued a ministerial statement advising
that effective 2001-04-01, the territory of Nunavut will revert
back to three time zones (mountain, central, and eastern).  Of the
cities in Nunavut, Coral Harbor is the only one that I know of that
has said it will not observe dst, staying on EST year round.  I'm
checking for more info, and will get back to you if I come up with
more.
[Also see <http://www.nunatsiaq.com/nunavut/nvt10309_06.html> (2001-03-09).]

Attached to: NT_YK (northamerica)

Gwillim Law (2001-02-20):

There are some other discrepancies between the Decrees page and the
tz database.  I think they can best be explained by supposing that
the researchers who prepared the Decrees page failed to find some of
the relevant documents.

Attached to: Mexico (northamerica)

Gwillim Law (2001-01-19):

<http://www.reforma.com/negocios_y_dinero/articulo/064481/> ... says
(translated):...
January 17, 2000 - The Energy Secretary, Ernesto Martens, announced
that Summer Time will be reduced from seven to five months, starting
this year....
http://www.publico.com.mx/scripts/texto3.asp?action=pagina&pag=21&pos=p&secc=naci&date=01/17/2001
[translated], says "summer time will ... take effect on the first Sunday
in May, and end on the last Sunday of September.

Attached to: Mexico (northamerica)

Arthur David Olson (2001-01-25):

The 2001-01-24 traditional Washington Post contained the page one
story "Timely Issue Divides Mexicans."...
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/articles/A37383-2001Jan23.html
... Mexico City Mayor López Obrador "...is threatening to keep
Mexico City and its 20 million residents on a different time than
the rest of the country..." In particular, López Obrador would abolish
observation of Daylight Saving Time.

Official statute published by the Energy Department
http://www.conae.gob.mx/ahorro/decretohorver2001.html#decre
(2001-02-01) shows Baja and Chihauhua as still using US DST rules,
and Sonora with no DST.  This was reported by Jesper Nørgaard (2001-02-03).

Attached to: Mexico (northamerica)

Paul Eggert (2001-03-03):

https://www.latimes.com/archives/la-xpm-2001-mar-03-mn-32561-story.html
James F. Smith writes in today's LA Times
* Sonora will continue to observe standard time.
* Last week Mexico City's mayor Andrés Manuel López Obrador decreed that
the Federal District will not adopt DST.
* 4 of 16 district leaders announced they'll ignore the decree.
* The decree does not affect federal-controlled facilities including
the airport, banks, hospitals, and schools.

For now we'll assume that the Federal District will bow to federal rules.