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Author
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Topic: Mercury launch times: EST vs EDT
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MOL
Member Posts: 102
From: Los Angeles, CA
Registered: Oct 2004
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posted 10-26-2019 09:10 PM
   
If you look online at NASA's official history pages, and other sources on the Internet, it states that Freedom 7 launched at 9:34 EST on May 5, 1961. However, Daylight Savings Time began in the United States on April 30, 1961. Furthermore, when looking at The New York Times account of the Freedom 7 mission in its May 6, 1961 articles, it states the launch time as 10:34 EDT. Is the issue here that Florida did not observe Daylight Savings Time in 1961? |
Robert Pearlman
Editor Posts: 43576
From: Houston, TX
Registered: Nov 1999
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posted 10-26-2019 10:16 PM
Daylight Saving Time was not universal until the passage of the Uniform Time Act in 1966. Prior to that, most states observed year round Standard Time as it was up to each state or locality to decide. |
MOL
Member Posts: 102
From: Los Angeles, CA
Registered: Oct 2004
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posted 10-26-2019 10:50 PM
Thanks — so then can we say with certainty that if you were in Florida watching the Freedom 7 launch, your watch would have read "9:34," but in New York City it was 10:34? |
MOL
Member Posts: 102
From: Los Angeles, CA
Registered: Oct 2004
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posted 10-26-2019 11:18 PM
Thanks to the great time machine of the New York Times online archives, I just was able to solve this. Reading an article published on April 29, 1961 it states: Besides New York, states changing entirely to Daylight Time tomorrow are California, Connecticut, Delaware, Illinois, Indiana, Maine, Massachusetts, Nevada, New Hampshire, New Jersey, Pennsylvania, Rhode Island, Vermont, Washington and Wisconsin. Thus Florida was not on the list — so that means no launch from the Cape prior to the 1966 act would have ever been expressed in Daylight Time! | |
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