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What about Antarctica?
by Chris Carrier June 27, 1996

June 27, 1996

Peter.Hullah(a)eurocontrol.fr wrote: >And just for the fun: What about Antartica!!! What about Antarctica? Here is what I know, and some questions I have that I wonder if anyone can answer: I remember reading in a book dated 1973 that all interior stations (didn't mention how that was defined) kept "New Zealand time." Siple, the first commander of the South Pole station, stated that he would have liked to have kept GMT at the station, but that he found it more convenient to keep GMT+12 as supplies for the station were coming from McMurdo Sound, which was on GMT+12 because New Zealand was on GMT+12 all year at that time (1957). (Source: Siple's book 90 degrees SOUTH.) Admiral Byrd maintained "180th meridian time" at Little America, which would have been about a half hour slow on LMT; it is unknown if he meant GMT plus or minus 12 (can anyone enlighten us). In the winter of 1934, when he was at Advance Base, (he wrote the book ALONE based on his experiences there during a polar winter, including almost dying of carbon monoxide poisoning) he stated that he was "experimenting with moonlight saving" by putting his time forward 2 hours; don't know if this was GMT+14 or GMT-10. Byrd Station, which operated from the late 1950s until the early 1970s, was located at 80S, 120W and operated on CST all year; double summer time. Questions: Does McMurdo and Pole Station run on GMT+12 all year, GMT+13 all year (the time in New Zealand in summer) or switch from +12 to +13 as New Zealand? If the latter, don't people at the SP feel kind of silly about seasonal time changes in a place where daylight lasts 6 months, (nautical) twilight a month on each end, and 4 months of darkness? Do "all interior stations keep New Zealand time" presently, as was claimed by the author of that book I read (author and title forgotten) back in 1973? If so, when was this convention adopted? Any stations observe seasonal time changes? (A thought; could some stations advance time in the austral WINTER, to keep the same time relationship as their north-hemisphere mother country?) Any stations on a local time that could be considered weird, such as a time standard >1 hour fast or >30 minutes slow on LMT? Chris Carrier

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Bethel, Alaska time zone history.
by sbowling＠gi.alaska.edu June 25, 1996

June 25, 1996

I am trying to work out time of obsevation corrections for a number of climate stations in Alaska. This requires that I know the time zone, as well as the time of day that observations were made, for each point in the station's history. I now have most of the Alaska stations straight, though I am a little nervous about the boundary between the Yukon and Pacific time zones prior to the 1950's. Bethel, however, is giving me a real problem. The station is located almost on the boundary between what was (prior to 1983) the boundary between the Bering and Alaska/Hawaii time zones, and the information I have (not much) suggests that it may have switched back and forth. Does anyone have any information on this? Sue Ann Bowling Geophysical Institute, University of Alaska Fairbanks URL: http://climate.gi.alaska.edu/Bowling/Bowling.html

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Inuvik time
by Chris Carrier June 24, 1996

June 24, 1996

As per a request from someone last week, I decided to check my information concerning the time zoning for Inuvik, NWT Canada. I have distinct memory of Inuvik being in the Mountain zone in 1974, and of a phone call to the airport there around 1979-80 where they said they were on MT but had been on PT but had changed to MT, and when I asked why they said that the main reason was that they wanted to be on the same time as Edmonton for commercial reasons. I would place the phone call was in May, because both the US and the NWT were on daylight time then and I asked for the time of sunrise and sunset, and was quoted a time of sunrise and sunset consonant with MDT (about 3 hours ahead of Inuvik's LMT) and a length of daylight of about 19 hours (sunrise at 05:?? and sunset at 00:??). The only written source I have on hand is the Nautical Almanac standard time charts from the early 60s to the late 80s, a rather unreliable source because the Almanac is printed >2 years in advance; for example, the charts have the US on daylight time during all of the 1974-5 winter when we were not; and the 1987 Almanac, in which the time chart is stated as "corrected to September 1984" has the UK ending BST on October 11 when in fact it ended October 25. (I believe that the UK and the rest of the EC had a deal to synchronize the end of summer time on the second Sunday in October in 1984-6, but that this deal fell apart and the UK continued to use summer time in October and the rest of the EC didn't.) The 1972 Almanac with its standard time chart "corrected to April 1970" states that Inuvik would have been on PT, being in "Canada, NWT west of 120" as well as several editions previous. The 1973 Almanac "corrected to September 1970" has Inuvik on MT as well as do all future editions, as part of "Canada, NWT west of 102". So "recent" to the two people I talked with at the airport could have referred to 1970, and the implication from the Almanac would be that the change from PT to MT would have been on the last Sunday in April of that year, and that my own recollection of Inuvik being on PT for a time during the mid-late 70s after being on MT in 1974 is wrong. I would, however, take Whitman and/or Shanks word on the matter before I would take the Almanac's due to its lead time problem. Is/was there a newspaper in Inuvik in those years? Examination of sunrise/sunset times, especially in February, March, April and November, would be of interest. Anyhow, those are my own recollections/info... Chris Carrier

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Re: Time zone codes
by Antoine Leca June 20, 1996

June 20, 1996

Gwillim Law 919-852-4294 wrote a very interesting (to me) post: > [snipped; see the original post] > > Note 3: > > A four-letter time zone code could be formed as follows: > > Letters 1-2 = ISO 3166 country code > Letter 3 = position of time zone within country (A=westernmost or only, > followed by B, C, D, ... moving eastward) For a ethic point of view, I prefer going on the other way, because it follows the sun. But it's only a point of view. > Letter 4 = X for standard time, Y for DST (summer time), Z for standard > time or DST depending on which is in force > > Using this scheme, and bearing in mind that the United States has six > time zones (Hawaii-Aleutian, Alaska, Pacific, Mountain, Central, and > Eastern), we would say that New York City is in the USFZ time zone. A > particular local time in New York could be labeled, say, 9:13 USFX if it > were in the winter; 4:30 pm USFY if it were in the summer; or 17:59 USFZ > if it's not necessary to specify whether UTC-5 or UTC-4 is in force. > (This is informal usage, of course. I'm not making any assumption about > how time zone codes would interact with ISO 8601.) Since Arizona > observes Mountain Standard Time year round, its time zone could be > specified as USDX. > > This code has a few drawbacks. In some cases there would be many labels > for what is logically the same time zone (in Europe, BEAZ, NLAZ, LUAZ, > FRAZ, DEAZ, etc., would always mean the same thing, under existing > policies; You can use the same policy as the one which is used for currency (ISO4217?): use a code not for the country, but for the authority. And as EU is the authority (or a sort of, I know the reality are laws voted by locales parlaments), and as XE is already used for ECU, European Currency Unit (code XEC), we could name the EU timezones: XEA? for WET/GMT etc. (more exactly: XEAX/XEAZ for GMT and XEAY for BST/IST ;-) XEB? for MET/CET/MSZ/HEC... ;;-) XEC? for EET But then we can see immediatly a major drawback: What is the westernmost zone? For EU, it is clearly WET/GMT, as the Azores are a "ultraperipherical province" (this is an ugly translation of the French "région ultra-périphérique") like Guadeloupe or the Reunion. From the ISO3166/ISO4217 point of view, Guadeloupe is in a different part of the world, and incurred an different code (GP or XC for Caraibs/West Indies). But as Azores are part of [the] Portugal, they have to be count under the XE authority. So the Azores timezone (-0100/+0000 in summer) must be XEA?, and WET/GMT must be XEB?, etc. Even more difficult would be the case of the creation of a new timezone _not_ at the eastern point (and we all know this is not a chimera). In the first time, I was dreaming of a set of letters with fixed intervals; for not having the "westernmost" problem, the set can be biased, that is allocated from the middle af the alphabet (M). However, this don't work very good, because of the value of the interval: obviously, 1 hour isn't sufficient, and in the today use we have to use at least an 1/4 hour interval (for Chatham Is); and as far as Russia is on 13 timezones, we need at least 49 letters in the set. Pretty too much for the latin alphabet (and the devanagari either, as he counts 48 letters ;-) > likewise, Canada's CADZ would match USFZ). Conversely, there > would be a few cases where two different time zones would have the same > code. For example, in Australia, the states of Victoria and Tasmania > are both on UTC+10 with a summer time that's UTC+11, but Tasmania begins > summer time about a month before Victoria does. They would both be > AUCZ. Also, for countries with remote territories like France (with its > overseas departments Guadeloupe, Reunion, etc.), it would be doubtful > whether the time zones for those territories should be included under > the mother country: would FRAZ be used for France, or for Guadeloupe? Good argument, but wrong example. According to ISO3166:1989, the mainland ("Metropolitan") France has the code FX, so the european timezone (mine) must be FXAZ; and Guadeloupe/Martinique/Guyane (-0400 all year round) would be in GPAX/MQAX/GFAX, Reunion (+0300) in REAX, and for French Polynesia, -1000 in PFAX, -0930 in PFBX and -0900 in PFCX (etc.) > If you reply that the set of time zones for a given country should match > the territory included in the country's ISO 3166 code, I must point out > that ISO 3166 tactfully refuses to specify the extent of each country on > the map. ISO 3166 codes may not even represent disjoint territories. > > Gwillim Law | ENCOMPASS > law(a)encmail.encompass.com | 1100 Crescent Green, Suite 210 > phone: 919-852-4294 | Cary, N.C. 27511-8106 > fax: 919-852-4299 | United States of America And just for the fun: What about Antartica!!! Antoine LECA

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Re: Why is CET called MET?
by Dik.Winter＠cwi.nl June 20, 1996

June 20, 1996

> The time zone in which Germany is located is called by a German > law "Mitteleuropaeische Zeit (MET)" in winter and "Mitteleuropaeische MEZ > Sommerzeit (MESZ)" in summer. Do you have any formal reference why > "Central European Time" is any more correct than "Middle European > Time"? Of course not, but MET is perfect Dutch (Midden Europesche Tijd). So there is a very good reason to use this abbreviation ;-). > I can quote the German "Zeitgesetz" for MET, what can you quote for CET? MEZ I think. And in French it is HEC. But I think there may be an English reference to CET from the period that the British were on CET. These discussions are a bit bogus in my opinion, there is already a de-facto standard to call it MET, so why change. In the same spirit we could question the addition "DST". The term "Daylight Saving Time" is (as far as I know) truly US. Here it is called "Summer Time" in all languages that I know. dik -- dik t. winter, cwi, kruislaan 413, 1098 sj amsterdam, nederland, +31205924098 home: bovenover 215, 1025 jn amsterdam, nederland; http://www.cwi.nl/~dik/

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Re: Why is CET called MET?
by sgh＠banshee.cb.lucent.com June 19, 1996

June 19, 1996

> From: Peter Hullah <Peter.Hullah(a)eurocontrol.fr> > Organization: EUROCONTROL European Organisation for the Safety of Air > Navigation > Date: Tue, 18 Jun 1996 15:06:45 +0200 > > I was under the impression that the correct term was "Coordinated Universal > Time" and its abbrevation was "UTC" ("CUT" having, so I heard, been ruled > out as it's a vulgar word in Dutch!) Actually, I was told that the designation was a compromise between several European nations. It was decided that the common time reference would still be Greenwich, England (instead of some other city on the same longitude), but the compromise was that its name would be French (the French for "Universal Time Coordinated" -- I don't speak French) -- thus UTC. --- Scott G. Hall Lucent Technologies, Bell Labs, BCS

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Re: Why is CET called MET?
by Peter Hullah June 18, 1996

June 18, 1996

Markus Kuhn wrote: > > Peter Hullah <Peter.Hullah(a)eurocontrol.fr> writes: > > >Simple. "Middle European Time" is not the English translation of > >"Mitteleuropaeische Zeit", "Central European Time" is! We don't say, > >and never have said, "Middle Europe" in English. > > Ok, perhaps you are right here. What term uses the EU document in which > the summer time switching rules are announced? I have no idea, but it's quite probable that they could have used MET, having found it in some standard or other. It doesn't make the standard correct just because the EU uses it. > The official German term "Weltzeit" also does not translate into > "world time" but into "universal time" in English. Which is crazy since it has nothing to do with the universe and lots to do with the world! It strikes me as somewhat arrogant, and must really annoy the green men on their planet near alpha-centuri!! > >Just watch Sky TV, EuroSport TV, BBC Prime, or listen to Radio Luxemburg > >(if it's still on the air in English on 208m as it was "when I was a kid" > > What the TV and radio stations use does not necessarily indicate what is > correct terminology. Journalists tend to be pretty ignorant about such topics > often. They generally use what their audience is accustomed to using - there's no point in communicating with people in a way they don't understand! (It's only places like France which forbid journalists from using other than the "correct terminology" and even then, it only applies to journalists paid by the state.) In this case, their English-speaking audience talks about Romania/Bulgaria/etc being in Central Europe, not in "Middle Europe". They are not likely to take very kindly to some "international committee" changing their language for them for no apparent reason. "Correct terminology" should, at least, be based on correct usage. How would you feel if you were told that, from now on, you had to refer to "Zentraleuropa" because it was the translation of "Central Europe" which was the "correct terminology". > For example: BBC still says GMT, although the correct term has been > Universal Time (UT) since 1972 (when I was an exactly 1.00 year old kid ;-). > Astronomers have been using the term Universal Time even since a > conference in 1928. I was under the impression that the correct term was "Coordinated Universal Time" and its abbrevation was "UTC" ("CUT" having, so I heard, been ruled out as it's a vulgar word in Dutch!) Again, the BBC uses what its audience understands - GMT and BST. The French say "Heure d'hiver" and "Heure d'ete" and, when setting up computers' timezones, abbreviate them to "HIV" and "ETE". It has nothing to do with the "official name" of the time zone. On the other hand, if it had been decided to call retain the name "GMT" I can't imagine it being changed to "Greenwich Average Time" on the whim of a committee. I don't, therefore, see why such a committee has decided to rename "CET", which is perfectly good English, understood by nearly every English-speaker and has been in use for ages, to "MET" which is none of these. My original question was "Why?". I am sure that there must be a good reason for this term's being the way it is. Is "CET" a swear-word in some other language? -- Peter H.C. Hullah Technical Services mailto:Peter.Hullah@eurocontrol.fr EUROCONTROL Experimental Centre Phone: +33 1 69 88 75 49 BP 15, Rue des Bordes, Fax: +33 1 60 85 15 04 91222 BRETIGNY SUR ORGE CEDEX France

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Why use zone names at all?
by Chris Carrier June 18, 1996

June 18, 1996

Actually, in a worldwide database I would avoid using zone names altogether and use numbers only; whatever MET or CET is right, they're both GMT+1. Same for BST and IST.

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Why is CET called MET?
by Paul Eggert June 17, 1996

June 17, 1996

[The following item, posted on comp.std.internat, is of interest to the tz mailing list. If Hullah's right, `MET' should be replaced by `CET' everywhere in <URL:ftp://elsie.nci.nih.gov/pub/tzdata96h.tar.gz> except for the `MET' timezone itself. I realize this might break things, though. Comments? --eggert] From: Peter Hullah <Peter.Hullah(a)eurocontrol.fr> Newsgroups: comp.std.internat Subject: Why is CET called MET? Date: Mon, 17 Jun 1996 17:25:44 +0200 Organization: EUROCONTROL European Organisation for the Safety of Air Navigation Message-ID: <31C578F8.258F(a)eurocontrol.fr> Hi, I'm sure this has done the rounds many times before, but I'm new to this group and don't have the archives handy. Can someone please tell me why the heck Central European Time (i.e. the timezone for Central Europe) - which has been called that since I was a kid (a long time!) and still is called that by every English speaking European who cares, especially the satellite TV stations - is known as MET in International standards? Where on Earth is 'Middle Europe'? Doesn't the ISO group, or others, responsible for writing the standards (ISO 8601 et al) have a native English-speaker on it? Thanks Pete -- Peter H.C. Hullah Technical Services mailto:Peter.Hullah@eurocontrol.fr EUROCONTROL Experimental Centre Phone: +33 1 69 88 75 49 BP 15, Rue des Bordes, Fax: +33 1 60 85 15 04 F-91222 BRETIGNY SUR ORGE CEDEX

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a small town in Kent to revive local time zone?
by Paul Eggert June 17, 1996

June 17, 1996

In <URL:news:4q3nc7$qu4@airgun.wg.waii.com> ltso(a)phoenix.london.waii.com (Marc Brett) writes: a small town in Kent is planning to revive its own local time zone -- 5 min 41 sec ahead of GMT! I asked him for more, and he wrote by private mail: I heard it on today's noon BBC news broadcast. It seems to be a millennium celebration project so that this town (on the east coast) can have bragging rights to starting the new year 2000 before Greenwich. Should be in tomorrow's papers, and maybe in the electronic equivalent of same (Guardian, Daily Telegraph, Evening Standard?) He'll see if he can dig up more, and I thought I'd alert the tz list too. (I wonder what the EU will have to say about this. :-)

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British Double Summer Time (BDST)
by Chris Carrier June 14, 1996

June 14, 1996

I remember reading in various wartime issues of the London Times the acronym BDST for British Double Summer Time. Look for the published time of sunrise and sunset in The Times, when BDST was in effect, and if you find a zone reference it will say, "All times B.D.S.T."

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Comment on last posting
by Chris Carrier June 14, 1996

June 14, 1996

Comments on the last posting to the mailing list: I can confirm that British Double Summer Time began on Easter Monday in 1945, at the request of religious leaders, who didn't want the change made on Easter Sunday because it might interfere with attendance at services. (Source: London Times, 1945 Apr 2.) I was under the impression that Northern Ireland observed BDST on the same dates that the rest of the UK did, but that the Republic of Ireland remained on GMT+1 (BST) all year long during WW2 whether or not the UK was on BST or BDST. I just called the AT&T operator to get the time in St. John's, Newfoundland and was quoted GMT-2:30. This would be Newfoundland single, not double, DST. So if they were advancing 2 hours instead of 1 in 1989 (which I find doubtful without confirmation) they are no longer doing it. A call a few days ago to our friends at AT&T got me a time quote for Beijing and Shanghai, of GMT+8. I presume from this that the PRC is no longer into seasonal time changes, and that the whole nation is on GMT+8, which works out in practice to standard time on most of the coast, DST in Chungking, 2*DST in Urumchi (Urumqi) 3*DST in Kashgar, and DST in reverse in Manchuria. Also I remember hearing that Inuvik was on MST w/DST in the early 1970s, then switched to PST w/DST, then switched back to MST w/DST in 1979. Also find it hard to believe an Arctic location would have used DST in peacetime before the late 1960s; unfortunately I don't have precise info available.

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proposed zoneinfo changes for Canada, Britain, Ireland
by Paul Eggert June 13, 1996

June 13, 1996

Here are proposed changes to the tz database, taken from the following: * I went through Shanks to find all unique timezone histories in Canada since 1970; one (America/Dawson_Creek) is unique in Canada even today. * An anonymous tz contributor showed that `IST' is the correct name for summer time in Dublin. * While proofreading the above correction I found some other bugs for Britain and Ireland in 1968 and 1971, which Peter Ilieve kindly verified. * New comments about the noted DST innovator Benjamin Franklin; about a couple of time zone mysteries associated with Watson Lake, Yukon, and Liverpool, Nova Scotia; and about a few other subjects. Comments (particularly from Canadian readers) are welcome. Here is a more detailed log of the proposed changes: europe data: In Dublin use `IST' instead of `BST' (since 1921-12-06). London's 1971-10-31 transition was at 03:00, not 02:00. Set isdst=1 in Belfast, Dublin, and London from 1968-02-18 to 1968-10-27. northamerica data: Create the zone America/Dawson_Creek, which observes MST all year. Northwest Territories and Yukon did not observe DST from 1966 through 1979, so create zones for Inuvik, Iqaluit, Pangnirtung, Rankin_Inlet, Yellowknife. Create the zones America/Nipigon and America/Rainy_River for EST and CST locales that did not observe DST in 1970-1973. Create the zone America/Thunder_Bay, which skipped DST in 1973. Create the zone America/Dawson, which switched from YST to PST in 1973. Create the zone America/Swift_Current for west Saskatechewan towns that switched from MST/MDT to CST in 1972. Create zone America/Glace_Bay for AST locales that did not use DST in 1970-1971. Regina observed CST (not MDT) between 1960 and 1966. Whitehorse's 1966-07-01 transition was at 02:00 (not 00:00). Northwest Territories and Yukon observed double DST in 1965. In 1959, Regina switched from MDT to MST on 10-25, not 09-27. Whitehorse switched from YDT to YST on 1945-09-30 (this transition was missing). comments: Add comments about noted DST innovators B Franklin and W Willett, plus an acerbic quote about DST by R Davies. Remove old vague or misleading comments about Canadian rules. Move comments about Canadian provinces closer to the tables that they describe, and add a header for each major table. Touch up comments about Italy. Add a source for this year's changes to Mexico's rules. Here is the proposed patch: =================================================================== RCS file: RCS/europe,v retrieving revision 1996.8 retrieving revision 1996.8.1.1 diff -c -r1996.8 -r1996.8.1.1 *** europe 1996/05/09 21:40:46 1996.8 --- europe 1996/06/13 05:39:38 1996.8.1.1 *************** *** 125,130 **** --- 125,139 ---- # transition date for London, namely 1847 Sep 22. We don't know as much # about Dublin, so we use 1880 Aug 2, the legal transition time. + # From Paul Eggert (1996-06-12): + # Summer Time was first seriously proposed by William Willett (1857-1915), + # a London builder who circulated a pamphlet ``Waste of Daylight'' (1907) + # that proposed advancing clocks 20 minutes on each of four Sundays in April, + # and retarding them by the same amount on four Sundays in September. + # A bill was drafted in 1909 and introduced in Parliament several times, + # but it met with ridicule and opposition, especially from farming interests. + # One-hour Summer Time was eventually adopted as a wartime measure in 1916. + # From Arthur David Olson (January 19, 1989): # # A source at the British Information Office in New York avers that it's *************** *** 418,423 **** --- 427,448 ---- # who provided the wartime regulations and a snippet of Hansard explaining # why double summer time started on a Monday in 1945 (it was Easter). + # From Peter Ilieve <peter(a)aldie.co.uk> (1996-05-29): + # I have now got a copy of the British Standard Time Act 1968. + # It says (S4(2)) that it expires at 02:00 GMT on 31 October 1971 unless + # an Order in Council was passed in Parliament to make the Act permanent. + # No Order was passed, so 02:00 1971-10-31 it is... + # + # Interestingly, it says baldly `This Act shall come into force on + # 27 October 1968', without giving a time. As S1 of the Act merely + # stated that `The time for general purposes in the United Kingdom + # (to be known as British standard time) shall be one hour in + # advance of Greenwich mean time throughout the year; ...' you could + # possibly argue that the start time of BStandardT was 00:00 1968-10-27, + # especially as the Act repealed the Summer Time Acts 1916--1947 in toto, + # thereby destroying the authority of the Summer Time Order specifying + # summer time in 1968.... + # From Peter Ilieve <peter(a)memex.co.uk> (November 18, 1993) # # Here is a revised version of my tabrules file for the perl script I sent *************** *** 617,623 **** # To maintain strict historical accuracy you could start a new UK ending rule # of Oct Sun>=22 in 1990. ! # From Paul Eggert <eggert(a)twinsun.com> (November 18, 1993): # # As Ilieve remarks, the date `20 April 1924' in the table of ``Summer Time: A # Consultation Document'' (Cm 722, 1989) table is a transcription error; --- 642,648 ---- # To maintain strict historical accuracy you could start a new UK ending rule # of Oct Sun>=22 in 1990. ! # From Paul Eggert <eggert(a)twinsun.com> (1996-06-12): # # As Ilieve remarks, the date `20 April 1924' in the table of ``Summer Time: A # Consultation Document'' (Cm 722, 1989) table is a transcription error; *************** *** 637,651 **** # It actually just had one transition. # * Northern Ireland used single daylight savings time throughout WW II. # Actually, it conformed to Britain. # ! # The following claim by Shanks is possible though doubtful; ! # we'll ignore it for now. # * Jersey, Guernsey, and the Isle of Man did not switch from GMT # to daylight savings time until 1921 Apr 3, when they began to # conform with Great Britain. # # Whitman says Dublin Mean Time was -0:25:21, which is more precise than Shanks. # Rule NAME FROM TO TYPE IN ON AT SAVE LETTER/S # 1916 to 1925--irregular Rule GB-Eire 1916 only - May 21 2:00s 1:00 BST --- 662,689 ---- # It actually just had one transition. # * Northern Ireland used single daylight savings time throughout WW II. # Actually, it conformed to Britain. + # * GB-Eire changed standard time to 1 hour ahead of GMT on 1968-02-18. + # Actually, that date saw the usual switch to summer time. + # Standard time was not changed until 1968-10-27 (the clocks didn't change). # ! # The following claims by Shanks are possible though doubtful; ! # we'll ignore them for now. # * Jersey, Guernsey, and the Isle of Man did not switch from GMT # to daylight savings time until 1921 Apr 3, when they began to # conform with Great Britain. + # * Dublin's 1971-10-31 switch was at 02:00, even though London's was 03:00. + # # # Whitman says Dublin Mean Time was -0:25:21, which is more precise than Shanks. + # From an anonymous contributor (1996-06-02): + # The law governing time in Ireland is under Statutory Instrument SI 395/94, + # which gives force to European Union 7th Council Directive # 94/21/EC. + # Under this directive, the Minister for Justice in Ireland makes appropriate + # regulations. I spoke this morning with the Secretary of the Department of + # Justice (tel +353 1 678 9711) who confirmed to me that the correct name is + # "Irish Summer Time", abbreviated to "IST". + # Rule NAME FROM TO TYPE IN ON AT SAVE LETTER/S # 1916 to 1925--irregular Rule GB-Eire 1916 only - May 21 2:00s 1:00 BST *************** *** 710,720 **** Rule GB-Eire 1960 only - Apr 10 2:00s 1:00 BST Rule GB-Eire 1961 1963 - Mar lastSun 2:00s 1:00 BST Rule GB-Eire 1964 1967 - Mar Sun>=19 2:00s 1:00 BST Rule GB-Eire 1972 1980 - Mar Sun>=16 2:00s 1:00 BST # 1953 to 1980, ending rules Rule GB-Eire 1953 1960 - Oct Sun>=1 2:00s 0 GMT ! Rule GB-Eire 1961 1967 - Oct Sun>=23 2:00s 0 GMT ! Rule GB-Eire 1971 only - Oct 31 3:00 0 GMT Rule GB-Eire 1972 1980 - Oct Sun>=23 2:00s 0 GMT # 1981 on Rule GB-Eire 1981 1995 - Mar lastSun 1:00u 1:00 BST --- 748,758 ---- Rule GB-Eire 1960 only - Apr 10 2:00s 1:00 BST Rule GB-Eire 1961 1963 - Mar lastSun 2:00s 1:00 BST Rule GB-Eire 1964 1967 - Mar Sun>=19 2:00s 1:00 BST + Rule GB-Eire 1968 only - Feb 18 2:00s 1:00 BST Rule GB-Eire 1972 1980 - Mar Sun>=16 2:00s 1:00 BST # 1953 to 1980, ending rules Rule GB-Eire 1953 1960 - Oct Sun>=1 2:00s 0 GMT ! Rule GB-Eire 1961 1968 - Oct Sun>=23 2:00s 0 GMT Rule GB-Eire 1972 1980 - Oct Sun>=23 2:00s 0 GMT # 1981 on Rule GB-Eire 1981 1995 - Mar lastSun 1:00u 1:00 BST *************** *** 724,752 **** # Zone NAME GMTOFF RULES FORMAT [UNTIL] Zone Europe/London -0:01:15 - LMT 1847 Sep 22 ! 0:00 GB-Eire %s 1968 Feb 18 2:00 ! 1:00 - BST 1971 Oct 31 2:00 0:00 GB-Eire %s 1996 0:00 EU GMT/BST Zone Europe/Belfast -0:23:40 - LMT 1880 Aug 2 -0:25:21 - DMT 1916 May 21 2:00 # Dublin MT -0:25:21 1:00 DST 1916 Oct 1 3:00 ! 0:00 GB-Eire %s 1968 Feb 18 2:00 ! 1:00 - BST 1971 Oct 31 3:00 0:00 GB-Eire %s 1996 0:00 EU GMT/BST Zone Europe/Dublin -0:25:21 - LMT 1880 Aug 2 -0:25:21 - DMT 1916 May 21 2:00 # Dublin MT -0:25:21 1:00 DST 1916 Oct 1 3:00 ! 0:00 GB-Eire %s 1940 Feb 25 2:00 ! 0:00 1:00 BST 1946 Oct 6 2:00 0:00 - GMT 1947 Mar 16 2:00 ! 0:00 1:00 BST 1947 Nov 2 2:00 0:00 - GMT 1948 Apr 18 2:00 ! 0:00 GB-Eire %s 1968 Feb 18 2:00 ! 1:00 - BST 1971 Oct 31 3:00 ! 0:00 GB-Eire %s 1996 ! 0:00 EU GMT/BST ############################################################################### --- 762,791 ---- # Zone NAME GMTOFF RULES FORMAT [UNTIL] Zone Europe/London -0:01:15 - LMT 1847 Sep 22 ! 0:00 GB-Eire %s 1968 Oct 27 ! 1:00 - BST 1971 Oct 31 2:00u 0:00 GB-Eire %s 1996 0:00 EU GMT/BST Zone Europe/Belfast -0:23:40 - LMT 1880 Aug 2 -0:25:21 - DMT 1916 May 21 2:00 # Dublin MT -0:25:21 1:00 DST 1916 Oct 1 3:00 ! 0:00 GB-Eire %s 1968 Oct 27 ! 1:00 - BST 1971 Oct 31 2:00u 0:00 GB-Eire %s 1996 0:00 EU GMT/BST Zone Europe/Dublin -0:25:21 - LMT 1880 Aug 2 -0:25:21 - DMT 1916 May 21 2:00 # Dublin MT -0:25:21 1:00 DST 1916 Oct 1 3:00 ! 0:00 GB-Eire %s 1921 Dec 6 ! 0:00 GB-Eire GMT/IST 1940 Feb 25 2:00 ! 0:00 1:00 IST 1946 Oct 6 2:00 0:00 - GMT 1947 Mar 16 2:00 ! 0:00 1:00 IST 1947 Nov 2 2:00 0:00 - GMT 1948 Apr 18 2:00 ! 0:00 GB-Eire GMT/IST 1968 Oct 27 ! 1:00 - IST 1971 Oct 31 2:00u ! 0:00 GB-Eire GMT/IST 1996 ! 0:00 EU GMT/IST ############################################################################### *************** *** 1294,1304 **** # Italy # From Paul Eggert (1996-05-06): # For Italian DST we have three sources: Shanks, Whitman, and F. Pollastri ! # <http://pisolo.cstv.to.cnr.it/toi/it/ienitlt.html> (see `FP' below), # taken from a publication of the Italian National Electrotechnical Institute. # When the three sources disagree, guess who's right, as follows: # ! # year FP Shanks (S) Whitman (W) Go with: # 1916 06-03 06-03 24:00 06-03 00:00 FP & W # 09-30 09-30 24:00 09-30 01:00 FP; guess 24:00s # 1917 04-01 03-31 24:00 03-31 00:00 FP & S --- 1333,1343 ---- # Italy # From Paul Eggert (1996-05-06): # For Italian DST we have three sources: Shanks, Whitman, and F. Pollastri ! # <URL:http://pisolo.cstv.to.cnr.it/toi/uk/ienitlt.html> (see `FP' below), # taken from a publication of the Italian National Electrotechnical Institute. # When the three sources disagree, guess who's right, as follows: # ! # year FP Shanks (S) Whitman (W) Go with: # 1916 06-03 06-03 24:00 06-03 00:00 FP & W # 09-30 09-30 24:00 09-30 01:00 FP; guess 24:00s # 1917 04-01 03-31 24:00 03-31 00:00 FP & S =================================================================== RCS file: RCS/northamerica,v retrieving revision 1996.7 retrieving revision 1996.7.1.1 diff -c -r1996.7 -r1996.7.1.1 *** northamerica 1996/05/03 02:49:59 1996.7 --- northamerica 1996/06/13 05:39:38 1996.7.1.1 *************** *** 21,26 **** --- 21,44 ---- # Make sure you have the errata sheet; the book is somewhat useless without it. # It is the source for the US and Puerto Rico entries below. + # From Paul Eggert (1996-06-12): + # Daylight Saving Time was first suggested as a joke by Benjamin Franklin + # in his whimsical essay ``Turkey vs Eagle, McCauley is my Beagle'' (1784). + # Not everyone is happy with the results: + # + # I don't really care how time is reckoned so long as there is some + # agreement about it, but I object to being told that I am saving + # daylight when my reason tells me that I am doing nothing of the kind. + # I even object to the implication that I am wasting something + # valuable if I stay in bed after the sun has risen. As an admirer + # of moonlight I resent the bossy insistence of those who want to + # reduce my time for enjoying it. At the back of the Daylight Saving + # scheme I detect the bony, blue-fingered hand of Puritanism, eager + # to push people into bed earlier, and get them up earlier, to make + # them healthy, wealthy and wise in spite of themselves. + # + # -- Robertson Davies, The Diary of Samuel Marchbanks (1947), XIX, Sunday + # From Arthur David Olson: # US Daylight Saving Time ended on the last Sunday of *October* in 1974. # See, for example, the front page of the Saturday, October 26, 1974 *************** *** 463,540 **** # Canada - # Canada is reportedly lots easier than the US--leastways since 1951. - # I don't know what they did before then. - # 4.3BSD claims that it's perfectly regular. - # According to a posting in "comp.bugs.misc", "comp.unix.wizards", etc. - # on February 8, 1987, by Dave Sherman of the Law Society of Upper Canada, - # "...Canada (well, Ontario and at least some of the other provinces) are - # adopting the new daylight savings time rules...". We assume all of - # Canada is doing so. - - # From Bob Devine (January 28, 1988): - # All of Canada did have DST from your first rule except Saskatchewan. - # Which parts did not observe DST is hard to pinpoint but most of the - # province follows the rules. - # NOTE: those that didn't have DST for that rule, also - # probably did not have it for several years previous. - - # From U. S. Naval Observatory (January 19, 1989): - # CANADA NEW FDL 3.5H BEHIND UTC ST.JOHN'S - # CANADA NEW FDL 1.5H BEHIND UTC APR 3 - OCT 29 - # CANADA ATLANTIC 4 H BEHIND UTC HALIFAX - # CANADA ATLANTIC 3 H BEHIND UTC APR 3 - OCT 29 - # CANADA EASTERN 5 H BEHIND UTC TORONTO, MONTREAL, OTTAWA - # CANADA EASTERN 4 H BEHIND UTC APR 3 - OCT 29 - # CANADA CENTRAL 6 H BEHIND UTC REGINA, WINNIPEG - # CANADA CENTRAL 5 H BEHIND UTC APR 3 - OCT 29 - # CANADA MOUNTAIN 7 H BEHIND UTC CALGARY, EDMONTON - # CANADA MOUNTAIN 6 H BEHIND UTC APR 3 - OCT 29 - # CANADA PACIFIC 8 H BEHIND UTC VANCOUVER - # CANADA PACIFIC 7 H BEHIND UTC APR 3 - OCT 29 - # CANADA YUKON SAME AS PACIFIC DAWSON - - # From Arthur David Olson (January 21, 1989): - # April 3 fell on a Sunday in 1988; October 29 fell on a Sunday in 1989. Ahem. - # Note claim that there's double DST in Newfoundland and that Yukon should - # be same as Pacific. - - # From W. Jones (jones(a)skdad.usask.ca) (November 6, 1992): - # The. . .below is based on information I got from our law library, the - # provincial archives, and the provincial Community Services department. - # A precise history would require digging through newspaper archives, and - # since you didn't say what you wanted, I didn't bother. - # - # Saskatchewan is split by a time zone meridian (105W) and over the years - # the boundary became pretty ragged as communities near it reevaluated - # their affiliations in one direction or the other. In 1965 a provincial - # referendum favoured legislating common time practices. - # - # On 15 April 1966 the Time Act (c. T-14, Revised Statutes of - # Saskatchewan 1978) was proclaimed, and established that the eastern - # part of Saskatchewan would use CST year round, that districts in - # northwest Saskatchewan would by default follow CST but could opt to - # follow Mountain Time rules (thus 1 hour difference in the winter and - # zero in the summer), and that districts in southwest Saskatchewan would - # by default follow MT but could opt to follow CST. - # - # It took a few years for the dust to settle (I know one story of a town - # on one time zone having its school in another, such that a mom had to - # serve her family lunch in two shifts), but presently it seems that only - # a few towns on the border with Alberta (e.g. Lloydminster) follow MT - # rules any more; all other districts appear to have used CST year round - # since sometime in the 1960s. - # - # Here's how I would summarize things. Establish a "Saskatchewan" CST - # time zone, and note that it officially exists as of 15 April 1966. Any - # current exceptions can put themselves in the "Mountain" zone, since - # those are the rules they follow. Any past exceptions can be forgotten, - # since that's what those who live here have done. - - # From Arthur David Olson (November 21, 1992): - # East-Saskatchewan kept to avoid problems for folks using that zone by name; - # plain Saskatchewan added. - # From Alain LaBont<e'> <ALB(a)immedia.ca> (1994-11-14): # I post here the time zone abbreviations standardized in Canada # for both English and French in the CAN/CSA-Z234.4-89 standard.... --- 481,486 ---- *************** *** 567,573 **** # From Paul Eggert <eggert(a)twinsun.com> (1994-11-22): # Alas, this sort of thing must be handled by localization software. ! # From Shanks (1991): # Rule NAME FROM TO TYPE IN ON AT SAVE LETTER/S Rule StJohns 1917 1918 - Apr Sun>=8 2:00 1:00 D Rule StJohns 1917 only - Sep 17 2:00 0 S --- 513,533 ---- # From Paul Eggert <eggert(a)twinsun.com> (1994-11-22): # Alas, this sort of thing must be handled by localization software. ! # The data for Canada are all from Shanks (1991). ! ! ! # Rule NAME FROM TO TYPE IN ON AT SAVE LETTER/S ! Rule Canada 1918 only - Apr 14 2:00 1:00 D ! Rule Canada 1918 only - Oct 31 2:00 0 S ! Rule Canada 1942 only - Feb 9 2:00 1:00 D ! Rule Canada 1945 only - Sep 30 2:00 0 S ! Rule Canada 1974 1986 - Apr lastSun 2:00 1:00 D ! Rule Canada 1974 max - Oct lastSun 2:00 0 S ! Rule Canada 1987 max - Apr Sun>=1 2:00 1:00 D ! ! ! # Newfoundland ! # Rule NAME FROM TO TYPE IN ON AT SAVE LETTER/S Rule StJohns 1917 1918 - Apr Sun>=8 2:00 1:00 D Rule StJohns 1917 only - Sep 17 2:00 0 S *************** *** 606,611 **** --- 566,581 ---- -3:31 StJohns N%sT 1935 Mar 30 -3:30 StJohns N%sT + + # Labrador, New Brunswick, Nova Scotia, Prince Edward I + + # From Paul Eggert (1996-06-12): + # Shanks writes that since 1970 most of this region has been like Halifax. + # Many locales did not observe peacetime DST until 1972; + # Glace Bay, NS is the largest that we know of. + # Shanks also writes that Liverpool, NS was the only town in Canada to observe + # DST in 1971 but not 1970; for now we'll assume this is a typo. + # Rule NAME FROM TO TYPE IN ON AT SAVE LETTER/S Rule Halifax 1916 only - Apr 1 0:00 1:00 D Rule Halifax 1916 only - Oct 1 0:00 0 S *************** *** 650,655 **** --- 620,640 ---- # Zone NAME GMTOFF RULES FORMAT [UNTIL] Zone America/Halifax -4:14:24 - LMT 1902 Jun 15 -4:00 Halifax A%sT + Zone America/Glace_Bay -3:59:48 - LMT 1902 Jun 15 + -4:00 Canada A%sT 1953 + -4:00 Halifax A%sT 1954 + -4:00 - AST 1972 + -4:00 Halifax A%sT + + + # Ontario, Quebec + + # From Paul Eggert (1996-06-12): + # Shanks writes that since 1970 most of this region has been like Montreal. + # Thunder Bay skipped DST in 1973. + # Many smaller locales did not observe peacetime DST until 1974; + # Nipigon (EST) and Rainy River (CST) are the largest that we know of. + # Far west Ontario is like Winnipeg; far east Quebec is like Halifax. # Rule NAME FROM TO TYPE IN ON AT SAVE LETTER/S Rule Mont 1917 only - Mar 25 2:00 1:00 D *************** *** 683,688 **** --- 668,685 ---- # Zone NAME GMTOFF RULES FORMAT [UNTIL] Zone America/Montreal -4:54:16 - LMT 1884 -5:00 Mont E%sT + Zone America/Thunder_Bay -5:57:00 - LMT 1895 + -5:00 Canada E%sT 1970 + -5:00 Mont E%sT 1973 + -5:00 - EST 1974 + -5:00 Canada E%sT + Zone America/Nipigon -5:53:04 - LMT 1895 + -5:00 Canada E%sT + Zone America/Rainy_River -6:17:56 - LMT 1895 + -6:00 Canada C%sT + + + # Manitoba # Rule NAME FROM TO TYPE IN ON AT SAVE LETTER/S Rule Winn 1916 only - Apr 23 0:00 1:00 D *************** *** 712,717 **** --- 709,748 ---- Zone America/Winnipeg -6:28:36 - LMT 1887 Jul 16 -6:00 Winn C%sT + + # Saskatchewan + + # From Paul Eggert (1996-06-12): + # Shanks writes that since 1970 most of this region has been like Regina. + # Some western towns (e.g. Swift Current) switched from MST/MDT to CST in 1972. + # Other western towns (e.g. Lloydminster) are like Edmonton. + + # From W. Jones <jones(a)skdad.usask.ca> (November 6, 1992): + # The. . .below is based on information I got from our law library, the + # provincial archives, and the provincial Community Services department. + # A precise history would require digging through newspaper archives, and + # since you didn't say what you wanted, I didn't bother. + # + # Saskatchewan is split by a time zone meridian (105W) and over the years + # the boundary became pretty ragged as communities near it reevaluated + # their affiliations in one direction or the other. In 1965 a provincial + # referendum favoured legislating common time practices. + # + # On 15 April 1966 the Time Act (c. T-14, Revised Statutes of + # Saskatchewan 1978) was proclaimed, and established that the eastern + # part of Saskatchewan would use CST year round, that districts in + # northwest Saskatchewan would by default follow CST but could opt to + # follow Mountain Time rules (thus 1 hour difference in the winter and + # zero in the summer), and that districts in southwest Saskatchewan would + # by default follow MT but could opt to follow CST. + # + # It took a few years for the dust to settle (I know one story of a town + # on one time zone having its school in another, such that a mom had to + # serve her family lunch in two shifts), but presently it seems that only + # a few towns on the border with Alberta (e.g. Lloydminster) follow MT + # rules any more; all other districts appear to have used CST year round + # since sometime in the 1960s. + # Rule NAME FROM TO TYPE IN ON AT SAVE LETTER/S Rule Regina 1918 only - Apr 14 2:00 1:00 D Rule Regina 1918 only - Oct 31 2:00 0 S *************** *** 723,737 **** Rule Regina 1939 1941 - Oct Sun>=8 0:00 0 S Rule Regina 1942 only - Feb 9 2:00 1:00 D Rule Regina 1945 only - Sep lastSun 2:00 0 S ! Rule Regina 1946 only - Apr 14 2:00 1:00 D ! Rule Regina 1946 only - Oct 13 2:00 0 S ! Rule Regina 1947 1960 - Apr lastSun 2:00 1:00 D ! Rule Regina 1947 1959 - Sep lastSun 2:00 0 S # Zone NAME GMTOFF RULES FORMAT [UNTIL] ! Zone America/Regina -6:58:36 - LMT 1905 Sep ! -7:00 Regina M%sT 1966 Apr 15 -6:00 - CST # Rule NAME FROM TO TYPE IN ON AT SAVE LETTER/S Rule Edm 1918 1919 - Apr Sun>=8 2:00 1:00 D Rule Edm 1918 only - Oct 31 2:00 0 S --- 754,783 ---- Rule Regina 1939 1941 - Oct Sun>=8 0:00 0 S Rule Regina 1942 only - Feb 9 2:00 1:00 D Rule Regina 1945 only - Sep lastSun 2:00 0 S ! Rule Regina 1946 only - Apr Sun>=8 2:00 1:00 D ! Rule Regina 1946 only - Oct Sun>=8 2:00 0 S ! Rule Regina 1947 1959 - Apr lastSun 2:00 1:00 D ! Rule Regina 1947 1958 - Sep lastSun 2:00 0 S ! Rule Regina 1959 only - Oct lastSun 2:00 0 S ! # ! Rule Swift 1957 only - Apr lastSun 2:00 1:00 D ! Rule Swift 1957 only - Oct lastSun 2:00 0 S ! Rule Swift 1959 1961 - Apr lastSun 2:00 1:00 D ! Rule Swift 1959 only - Oct lastSun 2:00 0 S ! Rule Swift 1960 1961 - Sep lastSun 2:00 0 S # Zone NAME GMTOFF RULES FORMAT [UNTIL] ! Zone America/Regina -6:58:36 - LMT 1905 Sep ! -7:00 Regina M%sT 1960 Apr lastSun 2:00 ! -6:00 - CST ! Zone America/Swift_Current -7:11:20 - LMT 1905 Sep ! -7:00 Canada M%sT 1946 Apr lastSun 2:00 ! -7:00 Regina M%sT 1950 ! -7:00 Swift M%sT 1972 Apr lastSun 2:00 -6:00 - CST + + # Alberta + # Rule NAME FROM TO TYPE IN ON AT SAVE LETTER/S Rule Edm 1918 1919 - Apr Sun>=8 2:00 1:00 D Rule Edm 1918 only - Oct 31 2:00 0 S *************** *** 754,759 **** --- 800,812 ---- Zone America/Edmonton -7:33:52 - LMT 1906 Sep -7:00 Edm M%sT + + # British Columbia + + # From Paul Eggert (1996-06-12): + # Shanks writes that since 1970 most of this region has been like Vancouver. + # Dawswon Creek uses MST. Much of east BC is like Edmonton. + # Rule NAME FROM TO TYPE IN ON AT SAVE LETTER/S Rule Vanc 1918 only - Apr 14 2:00 1:00 D Rule Vanc 1918 only - Oct 31 2:00 0 S *************** *** 767,789 **** # Zone NAME GMTOFF RULES FORMAT [UNTIL] Zone America/Vancouver -8:12:28 - LMT 1884 -8:00 Vanc P%sT # Rule NAME FROM TO TYPE IN ON AT SAVE LETTER/S ! Rule Yukon 1918 only - Apr 14 2:00 1:00 D ! Rule Yukon 1918 only - Oct 27 2:00 0 S ! Rule Yukon 1919 only - May 25 2:00 1:00 D ! Rule Yukon 1919 only - Nov 1 0:00 0 S ! Rule Yukon 1942 only - Feb 9 2:00 1:00 D ! Rule Yukon 1965 only - Apr 25 0:00 1:00 D ! Rule Yukon 1965 only - Oct 31 2:00 0 S ! Rule Yukon 1980 1986 - Apr lastSun 2:00 1:00 D ! Rule Yukon 1980 max - Oct lastSun 2:00 0 S ! Rule Yukon 1987 max - Apr Sun>=1 2:00 1:00 D ! # Zone NAME GMTOFF RULES FORMAT [UNTIL] Zone America/Whitehorse -9:00:12 - LMT 1900 Aug 20 ! -9:00 Yukon Y%sT 1966 Jul ! -8:00 Yukon P%sT ! # Parts of Yukon (e.g. Dawson) didn't switch to -8:00 until 1973 Oct 28. ############################################################################### --- 820,869 ---- # Zone NAME GMTOFF RULES FORMAT [UNTIL] Zone America/Vancouver -8:12:28 - LMT 1884 -8:00 Vanc P%sT + Zone America/Dawson_Creek -8:00:56 - LMT 1884 + -8:00 Canada P%sT 1947 + -8:00 Vanc P%sT 1972 Aug 30 2:00 + -7:00 - MST + + + # Northwest Territories, Yukon + + # From Paul Eggert (1996-06-12): + # Dawson switched to PST in 1973. Inuvik switched to MST in 1979. + # Shanks's table for Watson Lake is corrupted, so we have no data there. # Rule NAME FROM TO TYPE IN ON AT SAVE LETTER/S ! Rule NT_YK 1918 only - Apr 14 2:00 1:00 D ! Rule NT_YK 1918 only - Oct 27 2:00 0 S ! Rule NT_YK 1919 only - May 25 2:00 1:00 D ! Rule NT_YK 1919 only - Nov 1 0:00 0 S ! Rule NT_YK 1942 only - Feb 9 2:00 1:00 D ! Rule NT_YK 1945 only - Sep 30 2:00 0 S ! # 0:00 ?? ! Rule NT_YK 1965 only - Apr lastSun 0:00 2:00 DD ! Rule NT_YK 1965 only - Oct lastSun 2:00 0 S ! Rule NT_YK 1980 1986 - Apr lastSun 2:00 1:00 D ! Rule NT_YK 1980 max - Oct lastSun 2:00 0 S ! Rule NT_YK 1987 max - Apr Sun>=1 2:00 1:00 D ! # Zone NAME GMTOFF RULES FORMAT [UNTIL] ! Zone America/Pangnirtung -4:22:56 - LMT 1884 ! -4:00 NT_YK A%sT ! Zone America/Iqaluit -4:33:52 - LMT 1884 # Frobisher Bay ! -5:00 NT_YK E%sT ! Zone America/Rankin_Inlet -6:08:40 - LMT 1884 ! -6:00 NT_YK C%sT ! Zone America/Yellowknife -7:37:24 - LMT 1884 ! -7:00 NT_YK M%sT ! Zone America/Inuvik -8:54:00 - LMT 1884 ! -8:00 NT_YK P%sT 1979 Apr lastSun 2:00 ! -7:00 NT_YK M%sT Zone America/Whitehorse -9:00:12 - LMT 1900 Aug 20 ! -9:00 NT_YK Y%sT 1966 Jul 1 2:00 ! -8:00 NT_YK P%sT ! Zone America/Dawson -9:17:40 - LMT 1900 Aug 20 ! -9:00 NT_YK Y%sT 1973 Oct lastSun 2:00 ! -8:00 NT_YK P%sT ! ############################################################################### *************** *** 868,873 **** --- 948,957 ---- # The Decree was published in Mexico's Official Newspaper on January 4th. # # -------------- End Forwarded Message -------------- + # From Paul Eggert (1996-06-12): + # For an English translation of the decree, + # see ``Diario Oficial: Time Zone Changeover'', + # <URL:http://mexico-travel.com/extra/timezone_eng.html> (1996-01-04). # From Shanks (1991): # Rule NAME FROM TO TYPE IN ON AT SAVE LETTER/S

1 0

Extracting timezone for a particular location
by llovero＠camb-lads.loral.com June 12, 1996

June 12, 1996

Hello - I am a software engineer working on a government project that needs timezone information for particular locations. It is an application that uses Advanced Distributed Simulation and sets up "wargaming scenarios" in different areas of the world. Each exercise is played on a different terrain database that represents a different part of the world. What I'm looking for is a way to take a location and look up what time zone it is in (the actual information I need is offset from UTC). I cannot depend on any environment variables being set because subsequent exercises may be run on different terrain databases. Any data files need to work on both big-endian and little-endian machines, so the comment in the tzarchive files about a new binary versions of timezone information intrigued me. The software needs to be public domain so it can be released with the project. Thanks for any info you can provide. - Linda Lovero -------- Linda Lovero Lockheed Martin Advanced Distributed Simulation Phone: (617)441-2009 50 Moulton Street Fax: (617)441-2069 Cambridge, MA 02138 email: llovero(a)camb-lads.loral.com

1 0

tz test suite?
by Roland McGrath June 5, 1996

June 5, 1996

Has anyone kept track of all the timezone bugs and made a regression test suite that can be applied to a C library to make sure it handles time zones correctly for the various definitions of correct?

1 0

tzcode96h.tar.gz
by ado June 5, 1996

June 5, 1996

tzcode96h.tar.gz is now available for anonymous ftp from elsie.nci.nih.gov (165.112.73.1) in the ~ftp/pub directory: -rw-r--r-- 1 ado 75300 Jun 5 08:02 tzcode96h.tar.gz The above includes the fix for handling transitions specified in Universal Time; some "public domain" notices have also been added. --ado

1 0

zoneinfo europe
by Tony Sanders June 3, 1996

June 3, 1996

Hi, someone complained to me that: > At 22h37 WEZ here in Dublin you are showing time for Dublin, Ireland at > > Fri May 31 22:35:45 BST 1996 > > Dublin time is (currently) Irish Summer Time (IST) or WEZ (West > Europaische Zeit). Hi there. We are using the zoneinfo data from 4.4BSD-lite The current data I have for Dublin reads: Zone Europe/Dublin -0:25:21 - LMT 1880 Aug 2 -0:25:21 - DMT 1916 May 21 2:00 # Dublin MT -0:25:21 1:00 DST 1916 Oct 1 3:00 0:00 GB-Eire %s 1940 Feb 25 2:00 0:00 1:00 BST 1946 Oct 6 2:00 0:00 - GMT 1947 Mar 16 2:00 0:00 1:00 BST 1947 Nov 2 2:00 0:00 - GMT 1948 Apr 18 2:00 0:00 GB-Eire %s 1968 Feb 18 2:00 1:00 - BST 1971 Oct 31 3:00 0:00 GB-Eire %s Is there an official place to pick up current versions of the zoneinfo files? [and/or is anyone still maintaining them?] I suppose it is possible that BST is still the official timezone for Dublin but I gathered from the zoneinfo file that you would be interested in this information if you didn't already have it.

2 1

8th EU directive, YRDST experiences
by Chris Carrier June 3, 1996

June 3, 1996

Peter Ilieve > INTERNET:peter@aldie.co.uk wrote a Reply to: Re: 8th EU directive, UK on CET, Port. PTA >The reason it was done this early is largely because the seventh directive >was produced quite late, 30 May 1994. This didn't leave much time for >National Governments to enact their own legislation. For example the >UK Summer Time order wasn't made until 2 November 94, and that was >for the 1995 dates. This caught out many diary publishers as in 1995 >the UK ended summer time on 22 October, the 4th Sunday, rather than the >more traditional Sunday after the 4th Saturday (29 Oct). Even May of >the year before is a bit late for timetable planning. I agree there are some advantages to doing it up at least a year in advance ... last Friday (May 31) I received a 1997 wall calendar I ordered in mid-May, and this calendar had a copyright date of 1995. In the Nautical Almanac, whose timezone records I have back to the early 1960s, the timezone list is usually updated to late in the THIRD calendar year before the year the almanac is printed for, and although they state that "in general no attempt is made to list the beginning and end of summer time, as they are subject to frequent changes on short notice" they do give the dates for the US and UK, often erroneously because of changes made after the date of publication ... for example the UK in the mid-80s is listed as ending Summer Time on the second Sunday in October because of a deal with the EC that apparently fell through, and the US is listed on DST all year from 1974 January 6 to 1975 October 26, as called for in the Emergency DST Act of 1973, while not mentioning the later law that was passed (by angry popular demand, which I would like to think I had a part in forming, at least locally) in late 1974 calling for a reversion to Standard Time from 1974 October 27 to 1975 February 23. >>Personally, I think time zone changes are of sufficent importance that there >>ought to be constitutional language requiring a public referendum in the >>affected area before a change in rules is made. >Constitutional language is hard to find in the UK, Good point. In that case insert phrase "Act of Parliament" in lieu. Here in California our state's constitution forbids a number of acts, without a referendum and allows for people to propose ballot measures "the initative." I understand a number of European countries provision for referenda in their constitutions, and the UK had a referendum once on Common Market membership. >and I doubt that summer time would be high on the list of priorities if we >did choose to invent some. :-) Depends on the situation. In the UK's current situation, or in 83% of the US, it's not a high priority; but it would be if the UK were on CET, it would be, just as it was in Portugal. >[re: `option 2', the UK moving an hour forward, both summer and winter] >The pressure for this change >seems to be coming from a vociferous pressure group within the UK. One would think they would have learnt their lesson in 1968-71, just as the US did in 1974. After the 1974 DST mess virtually nobody advocated favoring year-round DST, although, of course, a movement started in 1975 for an increased summer time period which achieved success in 1986, as from 1987 the US began DST on the first, instead of the last, Sunday in April. But YRDST has very little support in the US, judging by letters to papers and proposals in Congress post-1975 versus pre-1973, where a bill in Congress calling for permanent YRDST "New Standard Time" was introduced in 1972, the same year another bill calling for the contiguous USA to adopt a standard time of GMT- 06:30 throughout, the equivalent of DST and a half on the West Coast plus an extra hour in summer, the same situation Portugal just decided to dump. Of course, by 1996 about a third of the population would have had no personal memory of their countries' respective YRDST experiences. >The government have been too timid ever since the consultation exercise >about this in 1989 to make any decision, the matter is officially `under >constant review'. My guess is that if they do decide to change they would >try very hard to blame the change on the Commission and the EU in general, >hence the prominent notes by the Commission in this survey report saying >`nothing to do with us gov'. I would be interested in seeing or knowing where I could get copies of any official docs on this. Was the matter discussed in The Times? (London) Interesting that the European system allows member nations to set their own zone, but makes summer time mandatory, the opposite of the American system (Uniform Time Act of 1967, as amended) makes the zone set by the federal government while allowing states to opt out of the 'advanced' (summer or daylight saving) time provision. >I reported back in February the results of an >email exchange with Martin Bruckmann in Portugal <martin(a)ci.ua.pt>. He said: >-And, a novelty (or back to how it was before E.U.): Portugal is >-re-adopting its more natural time, i.e. the same as in the U.K. It is >-still 1h delay compared to its solar time, but it's already better than >-the E.U. imposed Central European Time, which forced little kids to >-wake up very early to go to school in the total darkness in Winter... Actually Portugal's delay is about 30m compared to solar time (make that about 40m on the coast)so they, like Ireland, really ought to consider going on GMT- 0:30, as that meridian runs through them and GMT doesn't. Chris Carrier

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Re: 8th EU directive, UK on CET, Port. PTA
by peter＠aldie.co.uk May 31, 1996

May 31, 1996

Chris Carrier <72157.3334(a)CompuServe.COM> wrote: > Actually I would think that they should not make any formal proposals until > after 1996 Oct 27, when the first October of the EU on DST is over, to gauge > public reaction to it. The reason it was done this early is largely because the seventh directive was produced quite late, 30 May 1994. This didn't leave much time for National Governments to enact their own legislation. For example the UK Summer Time order wasn't made until 2 November 94, and that was for the 1995 dates. This caught out many diary publishers as in 1995 the UK ended summer time on 22 October, the 4th Sunday, rather than the more traditional Sunday after the 4th Saturday (29 Oct). Even May of the year before is a bit late for timetable planning. The reason it was late was that the sixth directive only said that the Council of Ministers, acting on a proposal from the Commission, would produce a directive by 1 Jan 94. The Commission didn't produce its proposal until 27 Sep 93, not leaving much time for the rest of the process. In retaliation, the Council specified a two step process for producing the next directive, the Commission to produce proposals by 1 Jan 96, and the Council to finalise it by 1 Jan 97. > Personally, I think time zone changes are of sufficent importance that there > ought to be constitutional language requiring a public referendum in the > affected area before a change in rules is made. Constitutional language is hard to find in the UK, and I doubt that summer time would be high on the list of priorities if we did choose to invent some. :-) [re: `option 2', the UK moving an hour forward, both summer and winter] > >The UK government still hasn't formally decided what to do about this issue. > >I am sure they just wish it would go away so they never have to decide. > > Tell the Commission, in polite diplomatic language of course, to blow it out > their ear, to use a common American expression, ... Personally, I would suggest another orifice, I too am no fan of this idea. :-) The problem isn't with the Commission pushing this idea on the UK government. Our current government is quite capable of telling the Commission to get stuffed (currently, with beef offal :-). The pressure for this change seems to be coming from a vociferous pressure group within the UK. The government have been too timid ever since the consultation exercise about this in 1989 to make any decision, the matter is officially `under constant review'. My guess is that if they do decide to change they would try very hard to blame the change on the Commission and the EU in general, hence the prominent notes by the Commission in this survey report saying `nothing to do with us gov'. > >With Portugal having rejoined the UK and > >Eire in the GMT zone I still can't see the UK changing. > > I heard that the Portuguese equivalent of the Parent Teachers Association had > a lot to do with getting Portugal back on GMT. Can anyone supply more details > on this? This may well be true. I reported back in February the results of an email exchange with Martin Bruckmann in Portugal <martin(a)ci.ua.pt>. He said: -And, a novelty (or back to how it was before E.U.) : Portugal is -re-adopting its more natural time, i.e. the same as in the U.K. It is -still 1h delay compared to its solar time, but it's already better than -the E.U. imposed Central European Time, which forced little kids to -wake up very early to go to school in the total darkness in Winter... and: -Yes, it is true. Actually, we just stayed with "Winter time" instead of -changing to Summer time this year. This has been decided by the new Prime -Minister and his government a month ago or so. Exact legal references ? I -don't have any, nor would I know where to look for them. which I rather inaccurately paraphrased as: =After a bit more clarification it seems that the new Portugese Prime =Minister has got fed up with getting up in the dark in the Winter and =has decided they won't put the clocks forward this March. Peter Ilieve peter(a)aldie.co.uk

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couldn't resist ...
by eubank＠itl.atr.co.jp May 31, 1996

May 31, 1996

>With Portugal having rejoined the UK and An unfortunate carriage return left this very strange sentence fragment. This unification thing is clearly getting out of hand. Really, I think they'd be surprised to hear they were ever a part of the UK :-) Stephen Eubank eubank(a)itl.atr.co.jp

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8th EU directive, UK on CET, Port. PTA
by Chris Carrier May 31, 1996

May 31, 1996

Peter Ilieve > INTERNET:peter@aldie.co.uk wrote on the Proposal for an Eighth European Parliament and Council Directive on Summer-Time Arrangements >The long march towards the next, eighth, EU summer time directive has begun. >The last directive told the Commission to produce proposals for the next >directive by 1 Jan 96. These people have no concept of deadlines so they >finally got around to it on 25 April. It proposes no change to the >current rules of last Sunday in March to last Sunday in October, Actually I would think that they should not make any formal proposals until after 1996 Oct 27, when the first October of the EU on DST is over, to gauge public reaction to it. DST is a complicated subject for people who have forgotten basic math, and the majority of the population will frequently support a time rule change proposal until they see it implemented and they find out that that extra hour of light in the evening results in getting up in total darkness only AFTER the rule change is made. A great example occurred in the US during the winter of 1973-4, when the spring DST change was moved from April to January 6. Polls taken in December showed >70% of the American public in favor of the earlier start; polls taken in late January, after three weeks of most people getting up before nautical twilight, showed >70% in favor of going back on standard time. Personally, I think time zone changes are of sufficent importance that there ought to be constitutional language requiring a public referendum in the affected area before a change in rules is made. >It says, as did the 7th directive, that these dates/times don't apply to >overseas territories of the Member States. One would hope not, as a number of such territories are tropical and have <1 hour difference between earliest and latest sunrise, or south temperate and would be on standard time in summer and daylight time in winter. BTW, my contacts in Australia inform me that the .au states that use DST all used the last Sunday in October to the last Sunday in March, the opposite of the EU dates. Personally, I would be in favor of a world agreement to use the last Sundays in March and September to go on and off; if one is going to use DST Down Under, September to March, in the northern hemisphere, March to September. That would mean the time relations would only shift twice a year. >Attached to the proposal is a report from the Commission on .. >summer time in the EU which is interesting from a UK perspective. It seems >to be enthusiastically in favour of what it lists as `option 2': the >moving of the UK into the central European timezone. The effect is >slightly spolied by prominent notes at the start and end to the effect >that the timezone that Member States inhabit is nothing whatever to do >with the Commission. The UK was on European time (so-called "British Standard Time" or summer time all year) from 1968 to 1971, and I remember the (loud and totally justified) protest against it. Sunrise in Scotland and parts of Ireland (the Republic went along with the North) was delayed until >10 a.m. in winter. I remember one brief letter to The Times (London) which summed up the silliness of the whole idea of putting the UK on European Time: "there are about 3,000 telephone links between Britain and the Continent. Why do we need to get 55 million people out of bed in the dark to answer them??" The 'option 2' proposal would in fact be worse than BST; it would be summer time in the winter with double summer time from the last Sundays in March to October. The UK did this only during the shortages-of-everything-including- energy of World War II, and even then the double summer time period was shorter (about four months in high summer) than double summer time as Central European Summer Time. >The UK government still hasn't formally decided what to do about this issue. >I am sure they just wish it would go away so they never have to decide. Tell the Commission, in polite diplomatic language of course, to blow it out their ear, to use a common American expression, and have the British representatives to the Commission propose that Spain, France and Benelux go back on GMT, which is the astronomically correct time zone for those countries and the zone they were on pre-1940. (Well, maybe not Benelux, as neither 0 or 15E runs through them and their standard was 15m or 20m fast on GMT 1919-39). >With Portugal having rejoined the UK and >Eire in the GMT zone I still can't see the UK changing. I heard that the Portuguese equivalent of the Parent Teachers Association had a lot to do with getting Portugal back on GMT. Can anyone supply more details on this? Chris Carrier

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Proposal for an Eighth European Parliament and Council Directive on Summer-Time Arrangements
by peter＠aldie.co.uk May 30, 1996

May 30, 1996

The long march towards the next, eighth, EU summer time directive has begun. The last directive told the Commission to produce proposals for the next directive by 1 Jan 96. These people have no concept of deadlines so they finally got around to it on 25 April. It proposes no change to the current rules of last Sunday in March to last Sunday in October, always at 01:00 GMT. It proposes that the directive should run for four years and gives dates as follows: year start end 1998 29 Mar 25 Oct 1999 28 Mar 31 Oct 2000 26 Mar 29 Oct 2001 25 Mar 28 Oct It says that having it run for four years is important to the transport industry, etc. This wording appeared in the proposal for the seventh directive but that was eventually knocked back to only three years. This one may go the same way. It says, as did the 7th directive, that these dates/times don't apply to overseas territories of the Member States. The document reference is COM(96) 106 final. Attached to the proposal is a report from the Commission on the application of summer time in the EU which is interesting from a UK perspective. It seems to be enthusiastically in favour of what it lists as `option 2': the moving of the UK into the central European timezone. The effect is slightly spolied by prominent notes at the start and end to the effect that the timezone that Member States inhabit is nothing whatever to do with the Commission. The UK government still hasn't formally decided what to do about this issue. I am sure they just wish it would go away so they never have to decide. With Portugal having rejoined the UK and Eire in the GMT zone I still can't see the UK changing. Peter Ilieve peter(a)aldie.co.uk

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zic mishandles `u'-format UNTIL (+ patch)
by Paul Eggert May 29, 1996

May 29, 1996

While preparing some proposed patches to historical data for Belfast, Dublin, and London, I noticed that zic miscompiles the latest tz data's March 1996 transition for Europe/Lisbon. Here's the line that is miscompiled: # Zone NAME GMTOFF RULES FORMAT [UNTIL] 1:00 EU MET%s 1996 Mar 31 1:00u Here is the zdump output: Europe/Lisbon Sat Mar 30 23:59:59 1996 GMT = Sun Mar 31 00:59:59 1996 MET isdst=0 Europe/Lisbon Sun Mar 31 00:00:00 1996 GMT = Sun Mar 31 01:00:00 1996 WET DST isdst=1 The transition should occur at 01:00 UTC, not 00:00 UTC. Here is a proposed patch. =================================================================== RCS file: RCS/zic.c,v retrieving revision 1996.8 retrieving revision 1996.8.1.1 diff -c -r1996.8 -r1996.8.1.1 *** zic.c 1996/05/16 18:00:12 1996.8 --- zic.c 1996/05/29 21:29:04 1996.8.1.1 *************** *** 1694,1704 **** ** Now we may get to set starttime for the next zone line. */ if (useuntil) { - starttime = tadd(zp->z_untiltime, -gmtoff); startttisstd = zp->z_untilrule.r_todisstd; startttisgmt = zp->z_untilrule.r_todisgmt; if (!startttisstd) starttime = tadd(starttime, -stdoff); } } writezone(zpfirst->z_name); --- 1694,1706 ---- ** Now we may get to set starttime for the next zone line. */ if (useuntil) { startttisstd = zp->z_untilrule.r_todisstd; startttisgmt = zp->z_untilrule.r_todisgmt; + starttime = zp->z_untiltime; if (!startttisstd) starttime = tadd(starttime, -stdoff); + if (!startttisgmt) + starttime = tadd(starttime, -gmtoff); } } writezone(zpfirst->z_name);

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tzcode96g.tar.gz
by ado May 16, 1996

May 16, 1996

The file tzcode96g.tar.gz is now available by anonymous ftp from elsie.nci.nih.gov (165.112.73.1) in the ~ftp/pub directory: -rw-r--r-- 1 ado 74838 May 16 14:00 tzcode96g.tar.gz This incorporates the fix for the simultaneous-DST-and-zone-change challenge. --ado

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Simultaneous zone and DST changes
by ado May 15, 1996

May 15, 1996

The basic challenge with places such as Stanley (where a time-zone shift and a DST change were done at the same instant in 1985, resulting in no change of wall clock time) is that there's an hour when such a place is neither fish nor fowl. Here's a table summarizing what's happening on September 14/15 1995 in five different circumstances; each row of the table gives data for a particular instant in time. The circumstances: 1. What's happening in places that run on GMT 2. What's happening in (hypothetical) places that always run on EST/EDT using Falkland rules 3. What's happening in (hypothetical) places that always run on AST/ADT using Falkland rules 4. What zdump tells us is currently produced by zic for Stanley 5. And what we (presumably) really want for Stanley. =============================================================================== GMT-------|Always-ExT-----|Always-AxT-----|Stanley (now)--|Stanley (wanted) 15 2:59:59|14 23:59:59 EST|14 22:59:59 AST|14 23:59:59 EST|14 23:59:59 EST 15 3:00:00|15 01:00:00 EDT|14 23:00:00 AST|14 23:00:00 AST|15 00:00:00 ADT/EST 15 3:59:59|15 01:59:59 EDT|14 23:59:59 AST|14 23:59:59 AST|15 00:59:59 ADT/EST 15 4:00:00|15 02:00:00 EDT|15 01:00:00 ADT|15 01:00:00 ADT|15 01:00:00 ADT =============================================================================== The "Stanley (wanted)" stuff matches neither the "Always ExT" stuff nor the "Always AxT" stuff (regardless of whether you pick ADT or EST for Stanley to use as a time zone abbreviation during the strange hour). Among the ways to get from "Stanley (now)" to "Stanley (wanted)": 1. Hard code the transition hour--that is, where there are now lines that read... Zone Atlantic/Stanley -3:51:24 - LMT 1890 -3:51 - SMT 1912 Mar 12 -4:00 Falk A%sT 1983 May -3:00 Falk E%sT 1985 Sep 15 -4:00 Falk A%sT ...add a line to cover the hour in 1985... Zone Atlantic/Stanley -3:51:24 - LMT 1890 -3:51 - SMT 1912 Mar 12 -4:00 Falk A%sT 1983 May -3:00 Falk E%sT 1985 Sep 15 -3:00 - EST 1985 Sep 15 1:00 # <<<< -4:00 Falk A%sT 2. Set up zic to notice situations such as the above and "do the right thing." This would involve a code change something like this (with the "horrid special case" check perhaps made more strict): =============================================================================== SCCS/s.zic.c: 7.74 vs. 7.75 *** 7.74/zic.c Tue May 14 14:25:04 1996 --- 7.75/zic.c Tue May 14 14:25:06 1996 *************** *** 1,6 **** #ifndef lint #ifndef NOID ! static char elsieid[] = "@(#)zic.c 7.74"; #endif /* !defined NOID */ #endif /* !defined lint */ --- 1,6 ---- #ifndef lint #ifndef NOID ! static char elsieid[] = "@(#)zic.c 7.75"; #endif /* !defined NOID */ #endif /* !defined lint */ *************** *** 1397,1406 **** if (isdsts[0] == 0) while (attypes[fromi].type == 0) ++fromi; /* handled by default rule */ ! for ( ; fromi < timecnt; ++fromi) if (toi == 0 || attypes[toi - 1].type != attypes[fromi].type) attypes[toi++] = attypes[fromi]; timecnt = toi; } /* --- 1397,1414 ---- if (isdsts[0] == 0) while (attypes[fromi].type == 0) ++fromi; /* handled by default rule */ ! for ( ; fromi < timecnt; ++fromi) { ! /* ! ** Horrid special case. ! */ ! if ((fromi + 1) < timecnt && ! attypes[fromi + 1].at - attypes[fromi].at == ! SECSPERHOUR) ! continue; if (toi == 0 || attypes[toi - 1].type != attypes[fromi].type) attypes[toi++] = attypes[fromi]; + } timecnt = toi; } /* =============================================================================== I lean toward the second approach; are there any better ideas out there? --ado

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