Wednesday, May 06, 2009

Birthday Redux

End of Daylight Saving TimeCoincidentally, all of the kids in my family (my siblings and I) were born on Wednesdays ... sort of. John was born Wednesday 14 May 1952, Jim on Wednesday 26 August 1953, David on Wednesday 1 January 1958, and I was born on Wednesday 6 May 1959 ... sort of.

From the Illinois Dept. of Public Health web site's FAQ on vital records --

Note: Prior to July 1, 1959, births and deaths were to be recorded on standard time, even though the community in which the birth or death took place was observing daylight savings time. On July 1, 1959, a new law became effective legalizing daylight savings time as being state standard time between the last Sunday in April at 2 a.m. and the last Sunday in October at 2 a.m. Since July 1, 1959, all births and deaths are recorded using the current time.

So prior to 1 July 1959, roughly 4% (1/24th) of births during DST in Illinois were recorded in standard time the day before. Everyone born between midnight and 1am DST had their birth time recorded as between 11pm and midnight the night before, in standard time. This places me among the last to experience this effect, as I was born at 12:23am on Wednesday 6 May 1959 (by the clock on the wall), which was officially recorded as 11:23pm on Tuesday 5 May.

1 comment:

Patrick O'H. said...

Happy Belated 50th birthday!