(FOXNEWS) – The federal government enacted nationwide
Daylight Saving Time amid the darkest depths of wartime
fears on this day in history, Feb. 9, 1942.

"Passed by Congress and signed into law by President
Franklin D. Roosevelt, the year-round daylight saving time
required that clocks be moved ahead one hour for the
remainder of the war as a national defense measure to
conserve energy," notes Fishwrap, a blog of historic
newspaper headlines.

The federal action went into effect just two months after
the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor plunged the United
States into World War II. 

Franklin Delano Roosevelt
(January 30, 1882 – April 12, 1945)