Daylight saving time ends throughout United States

Nov. 2 (UPI) -- Residents throughout the United States -- except Arizona and Hawaii -- gained extra hour of sleep at 2 a.m. Sunday when they turned their clocks to standard time from daylight saving time.

They "fell back" with sunrises and sunset occurring earlier during the winter months.

Daylight saving time will return at 2 a.m. March 8, when clocks "spring forward."

In the past people had to change all of their clocks by hand. But most electronic devices automatically make the switch.

The U.S. territories of American Samoa, Guam, Puerto Rico, the Northern Marina Islands, the U.S. Minor Outlying Islands and the U.S. Virgin Islands also do not observe daylight saving time.

More than 70 nations use the two-time method but the beginning and end dates vary. Europe moves its clocks back one week later than the United States.

Clocks also will change in most portions of Canada as well as northern Mexico. Much of the rest of Mexico changed one week earlier, though the states of Sonora and Quintana Roo do not observe daylight saving time.

Seven states have approved legislation to make daylight saving time permanent: Alabama, Arkansas, Nevada, Oregon, Tennessee, Washington and Florida. But the change needs to be approved by the U.S. Congress.

In 1966, President Lyndon B. Johnson signed the Uniform Time Act, which was established as a way to continue to conserve energy because there will be less time needed to use lights in homes.

In 2007, daylight saving time moved to the second Sunday of March from the last Sunday of April. And standard time moved from the last Sunday of October to the first Sunday of November.

Daylight saving time was first used in 1908 by a few hundred Canadians in Thunder Bay, Ontario.

Germany popularized daylight saving time on April 30, 1916, to save coal during World War I.