<http://webexhibits.org/daylightsaving/> discussion and corrections
I compared the current version of the Webexhibits Daylight Saving Time pages with the tz database at <ftp://elsie.nci.nih.gov/pub/tz/> and have the following comments. <http://webexhibits.org/daylightsaving/g.html> says: * Fiji observes DST; but our information is that they stopped in 2000. * Mongolia observes DST; but our information is that they no longer do so (as of 2002). * Tonga observes DST from the first Saturday in October to third Saturday in April; but our information is that it is now the first Sunday in November to the last Sunday in January. * Russia observes the same DST rules as Europe; but Europe switches at 01:00 UTC, whereas Russia switches at 02:00 local time. * Cuba observes DST starting April 1; but our current information is that they start on the first Sunday in April, i.e. that they use the North American rules except that they change clocks at midnight rather than at 02:00. * Brazil observes DST from the first Sunday in October to the last Sunday in February; but this year it's the first Sunday in November to the third Sunday in February (rules vary quite a bit from year to year). Also, equatorial Brazil does not observe DST. * We have lots of different reports about the Falklands, but your data differs from all of our reports. Do you have a citation for your info? (The Falklands appears to be somewhat catch-as-catch-can.) * Do you have a reference for your information that Rothera, Antarctica, is 3 hours behind UTC all year? * Paraguay has changed its rules; it now observes DST from the first Sunday in September to the first Sunday in April. See decree no. 16350, dated 2002-02-26. A few other comments: <http://webexhibits.org/daylightsaving/b.html> says "the Eastern Time Zone portion of the State of Indiana" does not observe DST. This is true for most of that part of Indiana, but as you point out in <http://webexhibits.org/daylightsaving/f.html>, a few counties in southeastern Indiana observe EST with DST. So perhaps you could say "most of the Eastern Time Zone portion of the State of Indiana" instead. <http://webexhibits.org/daylightsaving/c.html> says "Eventually, in 1925, it was enacted that summer time should begin on the day following the third Saturday in April. The date for closing of summer time was fixed for the first Saturday in October." As can be seen in <http://student.cusu.cam.ac.uk/~jsm28/british-time/>, this is incorrect for both the starting and the ending days. Perhaps you could replace that with "Eventually, in 1925, it was enacted that summer time should begin on the day following the third Saturday in April (or one week earlier if that day was Easter Day). The date for closing of summer time was fixed for the day after the first Saturday in October." <http://webexhibits.org/daylightsaving/d.html> says "Nor was the suggestion of Charles Dowd of Saratoga Springs, N. Y., in 1870, to establish standard time meridians taken seriously." This is a bit harsh, as Dowd revised his proposal in 1872 and the revised proposal was adopted virtually unchanged by the railways of the USA and Canada eleven years later. Certainly Fleming deserves a lot of the credit, but it goes too far to say that Dowd was not taken seriously. <http://webexhibits.org/daylightsaving/e.html> says "This [1916] action was immediately followed by other countries in Europe, Netherlands, Belgium, Denmark, Sweden, Norway, Italy, France and Portugal." You might want to add Luxembourg and Turkey to that list. Also Tasmania, Nova Scotia, and Manitoba, though these regions are not in Europe. It also says "In 1917, Australia, Newfoundland and Nova Scotia initiated it." Hmm, perhaps your records for Nova Scotia differ from ours? We have Halifax as not observing DST in 1917, even though it did observe in 1916. Other areas that introduced DST in 1917 were Russia, Iceland, Spain and Quebec. (In this area our data come from Shanks.) <http://webexhibits.org/daylightsaving/g.html> says "During the summer, Russia's clocks are two hours ahead of standard time." This is not quite true, at least by the ordinary definition of "standard time". For example, Moscow standard time (UTC+3) is about a half-hour ahead of local mean time (UTC+2:30); this is about the same situation as Detroit, whose standard time (UTC-5) is also about a half-hour ahead of local mean time (UTC-5:32). It is true that Russian standard time tends to be further in advance of local mean time than is usual for the rest of the world, but it goes too far to say that Russia is on DST or double-DST all year. Thanks for your job in maintaining that set of web pages; they're quite nice.
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Paul Eggert