Shorttitle: | Standard Time Act |
Longtitle: | An Act to save daylight and to provide standard time for the United States. |
Nickname: | Calder Act Standard Time Act of 1918 |
Enacted By: | 65th |
Effective Date: | March 19, 1918 |
Cite Public Law: | 65-106 |
Sections Created: | §§ 261–264 [1] |
Introducedin: | Senate |
Introducedby: | William M. Calder (R-NY) |
Passedbody1: | House |
Passeddate1: | March 15, 1918 |
Passedvote1: | 253-40 |
Signedpresident: | Woodrow Wilson |
Signeddate: | March 19, 1918 |
The Standard Time Act of 1918, also known as the Calder Act, was the first United States federal law implementing Standard time and Daylight saving time in the United States.[2] It defined five time zones for the continental United States and authorized the Interstate Commerce Commission to define the limits of each time zone.
The section concerning daylight saving time was repealed by the act titled An Act For the repeal of the daylight-saving law,, over President Woodrow Wilson's veto.
As a result of an 1966 amendment of Section 261 to add more time zones, the wording in Section 264 of the act wrongly placed most of the state of Idaho (south of the Salmon River) in CST (Central Standard Time), but was amended in 2007 by Congress to MST (Mountain Standard Time).[3] MST was observed prior to the correction.