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Daylight saving time is the convention of advancing clocks so that afternoons have more daylight and mornings have less. Typically clocks are adjusted forward one hour near the start of spring and are adjusted backward in autumn; the ancients lengthened summer hours instead. Presaged by a 1784 satire, modern DST was first proposed in 1907 by William Willett, and 1916 saw its first widespread use as a wartime measure aimed at conserving coal. Despite controversy, many countries have used it since then; details vary by location and change occasionally. Adding daylight to afternoons benefits retailing, sports, and other activities that exploit sunlight after working hours, but causes problems for farmers and other workers whose hours depend on the sun. Extra afternoon daylight cuts traffic fatalities; its effect on health and crime is less clear. DST is said to save electricity by reducing the need for artificial evening lighting, but the evidence for this is weak and DST can boomerang by boosting peak demand, increasing overall electricity costs. DST's clock shifts complicate timekeeping and can disrupt meetings, travel, billing, medical devices, and heavy equipment. (more...)

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From Wikipedia's newest articles:

...that as the Northern Division headquarters for the Illinois Central Railroad the Amboy Depot (pictured) had authority over 53 train stations?
...that Lee Choon Seng, a Singaporean philanthropist built a Buddhist temple with the intention of liberating the spirits of those killed during the 1942 Battle of Pasir Panjang?
...that the 1922 Swatow Typhoon killed 50,000 people in Swatow (now Shantou, China), out of a total population of 65,000?
...that in three years during World War II, the U.S. Army prisoner of war camp called Camp Atlanta had more occupants than the nearby town of Atlanta, Nebraska has had in its entire existence?
...that auto racing icon Dan Gurney tricked competitors into installing his Gurney flap upside down?
...that voice exchange, the preeminent compositional technique of the medieval Notre Dame school, died out in art music but remains a characteristic feature of rounds?

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In the news

Pakistani forces storm the Lal Masjid in Islamabad, bringing the seven-day siege to an end.

Pope Benedict XVI (pictured) removes restrictions on celebrating the old Latin Mass.
Venus Williams and Roger Federer win the women's and men's singles, respectively, at the 2007 Wimbledon Championships.
Live Earth concerts are held at eleven locations around the world in an effort to raise awareness of global warming.
Sochi, Russia, is chosen by the International Olympic Committee as the host city for the 2014 Winter Olympics.
Alan Johnston, a BBC correspondent kidnapped by Palestinian gunmen in March, is released.
Alinghi beats Team New Zealand in the final race of the 2007 America's Cup, winning the regatta 5–2.

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On this day...

July 11: Naadam in Mongolia begins.

1302 – Flemish infantry successfully halted a French invasion near Kortrijk in the Battle of the Golden Spurs.
1789 – French Revolution: Jacques Necker was dismissed as Director-General of Finances and ordered to leave France at once.
1804 – U.S. Vice President Aaron Burr mortally wounded former U.S. Treasury Secretary Alexander Hamilton (pictured) during a duel in Weehawken, New Jersey.
1957 – Prince Karīm al-Hussaynī succeeded Sultan Mahommed Shah as the Aga Khan, becoming the 49th Imam of the Shia Ismaili Muslims.
1995 – Bosnian Genocide: Bosnian Serb forces under Ratko Mladić began the Srebrenica massacre in Potočari, Srebrenica, eventually killing an estimated total of 8,000 Bosniaks.

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Recent days: July 10 – July 9 – July 8

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Today's featured picture

An 1885 illustration of pomegranate (Punica granatum) fruit and foliage. Native from Iran to the Himalayas in northern India, the pomegranate is now cultivated mainly in the drier parts of California and Arizona for its fruits exploited commercially as juice products, which have been gaining in popularity since 2001. In the global functional food industry, pomegranate is often mentioned among a novel category of exotic plant sources called "superfruits".

Artist: Otto Wilhelm Thomé

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