<P> William Sword Frost, mayor of Orillia, Ontario, introduced daylight saving time in the municipality during his tenure from 1911 to 1912 . </P> <P> Starting on April 30, 1916, the German Empire and its World War I ally Austria - Hungary were the first to use DST (German: Sommerzeit) as a way to conserve coal during wartime . Britain, most of its allies, and many European neutrals soon followed suit . Russia and a few other countries waited until the next year, and the United States adopted it in 1918 . </P> <P> Broadly speaking, daylight saving time was abandoned in the years after the war (with some notable exceptions including Canada, the UK, France, and Ireland). However, it was brought back for periods of time in many different places during the following decades and commonly during World War II . It became widely adopted, particularly in North America and Europe, starting in the 1970s as a result of the 1970s energy crisis . </P> <P> Since then, the world has seen many enactments, adjustments, and repeals . For specific details, an overview is available at Daylight saving time by country . </P>

When will daylight savings time be phased out