[ale] Daylight Savings Time

[joe at madewell.com (Joe Steele)]

Michael B. Trausch wrote:
> Interestingly enough, it seems that the New_York timezone (the one that I 
> generally use since it makes the flip between EST and EDT as necessary) 
> seems to have more data in it then the EST5EDT zone, which I thought was 
> the right one to use.  Any idea why it seemingly has two extra zones (EWT 
> and EPT)?


Eastern War Time:  Began 2/9/42 when the clocks were set ahead 1 hour.

"Eastern Peace Time":  Began 8/14/45 when the Japanese surrendered 
(clocks remained set ahead 1 hour).

Eastern Standard Time returned 9/30/45 and remained in place until 1967, 
at least at the national level.

Outside of wartime (when time changes were mandated nationally), states 
and localities were free to observe daylight savings time as they 
wished.  Hence, the New_York timezone file is different from the EST5EDT 
file because of localized time policy in New York (and other similar 
areas).  The EST5EDT file only contains rules that apply nationally.

--Joe