Daylight saving time: Minneapolis, St. Paul used to be in different time zones
Daylight Saving Time: Minneapolis, St. Paul began it weeks apart
Differences over daylight saving time have caused train crashes, riots and general confusion, but here in Minnesota, it led to a war of words between Minneapolis and St. Paul in the 1960s. Check out this story from 2008 by FOX 9's Maury Glover on daylight saving time issues in the Twin Cities.
MINNEAPOLIS (FOX 9) - In Minnesota, daylight saving time in the mid-1960s led to a war of words between Minneapolis and St. Paul.
Maury Glover, in 2008, looked back in time when Minneapolis and St. Paul were an hour apart.
"You crossed the river, and you were in another time zone," Bob Tuerk of The House of Clocks told Maury.
The United States started using Daylight Saving Time during World War I as a way to conserve energy and fuel for the fight against Germany. But after World War II, different states, counties and cities were deciding on their own when to move their clocks ahead.
This made headlines in 1965 when the St. Paul City Council voted to begin daylight saving time two weeks ahead of Minneapolis. The rest of the nation was on a pretty standard time by that point, but Minnesota wasn't going with the rest of the nation, so St. Paul decided it wanted to be with Wisconsin and the rest of the nation as far as when daylight saving time started and stopped.
Politicians predicted the one-hour difference would be intolerable and cause utter chaos, but thankfully the time turmoil ended a couple of weeks later.
The next year, Congress made all states begin daylight saving time at the same time, resolving the problem.