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10<h2>How to Read the <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tz_database">tz
11Database</a> Source Files</h2>
12<h3>by Bill Seymour</h3>
13<p>This page uses the <code>America/Chicago</code> and
14<code>Pacific/Honolulu</code> zones as examples of how to infer
15times of day from the <a href="tz-link.html">tz database</a>
16source files. It might be helpful, but not absolutely necessary,
17for the reader to have already downloaded the
18latest release of the database and become familiar with the basic layout
19of the data files. The format is explained in the &ldquo;man
20page&rdquo; for the zic compiler, <code>zic.8.txt</code>, in
21the <code>code</code> subdirectory.</p>
22
23<p>We&rsquo;ll begin by talking about the rules for changing between standard
24and daylight saving time since we&rsquo;ll need that information when we talk
25about the zones.</p>
26
27<p>First, let&rsquo;s consider the special daylight saving time rules
28for Chicago (from the <code>northamerica</code> file in
29the <code>data</code> subdirectory):</p>
30
31<table border="1">
32<tr>
33  <th colspan="6">From the Source File</th>
34</tr>
35<tr>
36  <td colspan="6" align="center"><table><tr><td>
37<pre>
38#Rule NAME    FROM TO   TYPE IN  ON      AT   SAVE LETTER
39Rule  Chicago 1920 only  -   Jun 13      2:00 1:00 D
40Rule  Chicago 1920 1921  -   Oct lastSun 2:00 0    S
41Rule  Chicago 1921 only  -   Mar lastSun 2:00 1:00 D
42Rule  Chicago 1922 1966  -   Apr lastSun 2:00 1:00 D
43Rule  Chicago 1922 1954  -   Sep lastSun 2:00 0    S
44Rule  Chicago 1955 1966  -   Oct lastSun 2:00 0    S
45</pre>
46  </td></tr></table></td>
47</tr>
48<tr>
49  <th colspan="6">Reformatted a Bit</th>
50</tr>
51<tr>
52  <th>From</th>
53  <th>To</th>
54  <th colspan="2">On</th>
55  <th>At</th>
56  <th>Action</th>
57</tr>
58<tr align="center">
59  <td colspan="2">1920 only</td>
60  <td colspan="2">June 13<small><sup>th</sup></small></td>
61  <td rowspan="6">02:00 local</td>
62  <td>go to daylight saving time</td>
63</tr>
64<tr align="center">
65  <td>1920</td>
66  <td>1921</td>
67  <td rowspan="5">last Sunday</td>
68  <td>in October</td>
69  <td>return to standard time</td>
70</tr>
71<tr align="center">
72  <td colspan="2">1921 only</td>
73  <td>in March</td>
74  <td rowspan="2">go to daylight saving time</td>
75</tr>
76<tr align="center">
77  <td rowspan="2">1922</td>
78  <td>1966</td>
79  <td>in April</td>
80</tr>
81<tr align="center">
82  <td>1954</td>
83  <td>in September</td>
84  <td rowspan="2">return to standard time</td>
85</tr>
86<tr align="center">
87  <td>1955</td>
88  <td>1966</td>
89  <td>in October</td>
90</tr>
91</table>
92
93<p>We&rsquo;ll basically just ignore the <code>TYPE</code> column.
94In the 2007j release, the most recent as of this writing, the
95<code>TYPE</code> column never contains anything but a hyphen,
96a kind of null value. (From the description in <code>zic.8.txt</code>,
97this appears to be a mechanism for removing years from a set
98in some localizable way. It&rsquo;s used in the file, <code>pacificnew</code>,
99to determine whether a given year will have a US presidential election;
100but everything related to that use is commented out.)
101
102<p>The <code>SAVE</code> column contains the wall clock offset from
103local standard time.
104This is usually either zero for standard time or one hour for daylight
105saving time; but there&rsquo;s no reason, in principle, why it can&rsquo;t
106take on other values.
107
108<p>The <code>LETTER</code> (sometimes called <code>LETTER/S</code>)
109column can contain a variable
110part of the usual abbreviation of the time zone&rsquo;s name, or it can just
111be a hyphen if there&rsquo;s no variable part. For example, the abbreviation
112used in the central time zone will be either &ldquo;CST&rdquo; or
113&ldquo;CDT&rdquo;. The variable part is &lsquo;S&rsquo; or &lsquo;D&rsquo;;
114and, sure enough, that&rsquo;s just what we find in
115the <code>LETTER</code> column
116in the <code>Chicago</code> rules. More about this when we talk about
117&ldquo;Zone&rdquo; lines.
118
119<p>One important thing to notice is that &ldquo;Rule&rdquo; lines
120want at once to be both <i>transitions</i> and <i>steady states</i>:
121<ul>
122<li>On the one hand, they represent transitions between standard and
123daylight saving time; and any number of Rule lines can be in effect
124during a given period (which will always be a non-empty set of
125contiguous calendar years).</li>
126<li>On the other hand, the <code>SAVE</code> and <code>LETTER</code>
127columns contain state that exists between transitions. More about this
128when we talk about the US rules.</li>
129</ul>
130
131<p>In the example above, the transition to daylight saving time
132happened on the 13<small><sup>th</sup></small> of June in 1920, and on
133the last Sunday in March in 1921; but the return to standard time
134happened on the last Sunday in October in both of those
135years. Similarly, the rule for changing to daylight saving time was
136the same from 1922 to 1966; but the rule for returning to standard
137time changed in 1955. Got it?</p>
138
139<p>OK, now for the somewhat more interesting &ldquo;US&rdquo; rules:</p>
140
141<table border="1">
142<tr>
143  <th colspan="6">From the Source File</th>
144</tr>
145<tr>
146  <td colspan="6" align="center"><table><tr><td>
147<pre>
148#Rule NAME FROM TO   TYPE IN  ON        AT   SAVE LETTER/S
149Rule  US   1918 1919  -   Mar lastSun  2:00  1:00 D
150Rule  US   1918 1919  -   Oct lastSun  2:00  0    S
151Rule  US   1942 only  -   Feb 9        2:00  1:00 W # War
152Rule  US   1945 only  -   Aug 14      23:00u 1:00 P # Peace
153Rule  US   1945 only  -   Sep 30       2:00  0    S
154Rule  US   1967 2006  -   Oct lastSun  2:00  0    S
155Rule  US   1967 1973  -   Apr lastSun  2:00  1:00 D
156Rule  US   1974 only  -   Jan 6        2:00  1:00 D
157Rule  US   1975 only  -   Feb 23       2:00  1:00 D
158Rule  US   1976 1986  -   Apr lastSun  2:00  1:00 D
159Rule  US   1987 2006  -   Apr Sun&gt;=1   2:00  1:00 D
160Rule  US   2007 max   -   Mar Sun&gt;=8   2:00  1:00 D
161Rule  US   2007 max   -   Nov Sun&gt;=1   2:00  0    S
162</pre>
163  </td></tr></table></td>
164</tr>
165<tr>
166  <th colspan="6">Reformatted a Bit</th>
167</tr>
168<tr>
169  <th>From</th>
170  <th>To</th>
171  <th colspan="2">On</th>
172  <th>At</th>
173  <th>Action</th>
174</tr>
175<tr align="center">
176  <td rowspan="2">1918</td>
177  <td rowspan="2">1919</td>
178  <td rowspan="2">last Sunday</td>
179  <td>in March</td>
180  <td rowspan="3">02:00 local</td>
181  <td>go to daylight saving time</td>
182</tr>
183<tr align="center">
184  <td>in October</td>
185  <td>return to standard time</td>
186</tr>
187<tr align="center">
188  <td colspan="2">1942 only</td>
189  <td colspan="2">February 9<small><sup>th</sup></small></td>
190  <td>go to &ldquo;war time&rdquo;</td>
191</tr>
192<tr align="center">
193  <td colspan="2" rowspan="2">1945 only</td>
194  <td colspan="2">August 14<small><sup>th</sup></small></td>
195  <td>23:00 <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Universal_Time">UT</a></td>
196  <td>
197    rename &ldquo;war time&rdquo; to &ldquo;peace<br>time;&rdquo;
198    clocks don&rsquo;t change
199  </td>
200</tr>
201<tr align="center">
202  <td colspan="2">September 30<small><sup>th</sup></small></td>
203  <td rowspan="9">02:00 local</td>
204  <td rowspan="2">return to standard time</td>
205</tr>
206<tr align="center">
207  <td rowspan="2">1967</td>
208  <td>2006</td>
209  <td rowspan="2">last Sunday</td>
210  <td>in October</td>
211</tr>
212<tr align="center">
213  <td>1973</td>
214  <td>in April</td>
215  <td rowspan="6">go to daylight saving time</td>
216</tr>
217<tr align="center">
218  <td colspan="2">1974 only</td>
219  <td colspan="2">January 6<small><sup>th</sup></small></td>
220</tr>
221<tr align="center">
222  <td colspan="2">1975 only</td>
223  <td colspan="2">February 23<small><sup>rd</sup></small></td>
224</tr>
225<tr align="center">
226  <td>1976</td>
227  <td>1986</td>
228  <td>last Sunday</td>
229  <td rowspan="2">in April</td>
230</tr>
231<tr align="center">
232  <td>1987</td>
233  <td>2006</td>
234  <td>first Sunday</td>
235</tr>
236<tr align="center">
237  <td rowspan="2">2007</td>
238  <td rowspan="2">present</td>
239  <td colspan="2">second Sunday in March</td>
240</tr>
241<tr align="center">
242  <td colspan="2">first Sunday in November</td>
243  <td>return to standard time</td>
244</tr>
245</table>
246
247<p>There are two interesting things to note here.</p>
248
249<p>First, the time that something happens (in the <code>AT</code>
250column) is not necessarily the local wall clock time. The time can be
251suffixed with &lsquo;s&rsquo; (for &ldquo;standard&rdquo;) to mean
252local standard time (different from wall clock time when observing
253daylight saving time); or it can be suffixed with &lsquo;g&rsquo;,
254&lsquo;u&rsquo;, or &lsquo;z&rsquo;, all three of which mean the
255standard time at the
256<a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Prime_Meridian">prime meridian</a>.
257&lsquo;g&rsquo; stands for &ldquo;<a
258href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Greenwich_Mean_Time">GMT</a>&rdquo;;
259&lsquo;u&rsquo; stands for &ldquo;<a
260href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Universal_Time">UT</a>&rdquo; or &ldquo;<a
261href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Coordinated_Universal_Time">UTC</a>&rdquo;
262(whichever was official at the time); &lsquo;z&rsquo; stands for the
263<a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nautical_time">nautical time zone</a>
264Z (a.k.a. &ldquo;Zulu&rdquo; which, in turn, stands for &lsquo;Z&rsquo;).
265The time can also be suffixed with &lsquo;w&rsquo; meaning &ldquo;wall
266clock time;&rdquo; but it usually isn&rsquo;t because that&rsquo;s the
267default.</p>
268
269<p>Second, the day in the <code>ON</code> column, in addition to
270&ldquo;<code>lastSun</code>&rdquo; or a particular day of the month,
271can have the form, &ldquo;<code>Sun&gt;=</code><i>x</i>&rdquo; or
272&ldquo;<code>Sun&lt;=</code><i>x</i>,&rdquo; where <i>x</i> is a day
273of the month. For example, &ldquo;<code>Sun&gt;=8</code>&rdquo; means
274&ldquo;the first Sunday on or after the eighth of the month,&rdquo; in
275other words, the second Sunday of the month. Furthermore, although
276there are no examples above, the weekday needn&rsquo;t be
277&ldquo;<code>Sun</code>&rdquo; in either form, but can be the usual
278three-character English abbreviation for any day of the week.</p>
279
280<p>And the US rules give us more examples of a couple of things
281already mentioned:</p>
282
283<ul>
284<li>The rules for changing to and from daylight saving time are
285actually <i>different sets</i> of rules; and the two sets can change
286independently. Consider, for example, that the rule for the return to
287standard time stayed the same from 1967 to 2006; but the rule for the
288transition to daylight saving time changed several times in the same
289period.  There can also be periods, 1946 to 1966 for example, when no
290rule from this group is in effect, and so either no transition
291happened in those years, or some other rule is in effect (perhaps a
292state or other more local rule).</li>
293
294<li>The <code>SAVE</code> and <code>LETTER</code> columns
295contain <i>steady state</i>, not transitions. Consider, for example,
296the transition from &ldquo;war time&rdquo; to &ldquo;peace time&rdquo;
297that happened on August 14, 1945. The &ldquo;1:00&rdquo; in
298the <code>SAVE</code> column is <i>not</i> an instruction to advance
299the clock an hour. It means that clocks should <i>be</i> one hour
300ahead of standard time, which they already are because of the previous
301rule, so there should be no change.</li>
302
303</ul>
304
305<p>OK, now let&rsquo;s look at a Zone record:</p>
306
307<table border="1">
308<tr>
309  <th colspan="5">From the Source File</th>
310</tr>
311<tr>
312  <td colspan="6" align="center"><table><tr><td>
313<pre>
314#Zone       NAME      GMTOFF   RULES FORMAT [UNTIL]
315Zone  America/Chicago -5:50:36 -       LMT  1883 Nov 18 12:09:24
316                      -6:00    US      C%sT 1920
317                      -6:00    Chicago C%sT 1936 Mar  1  2:00
318                      -5:00    -       EST  1936 Nov 15  2:00
319                      -6:00    Chicago C%sT 1942
320                      -6:00    US      C%sT 1946
321                      -6:00    Chicago C%sT 1967
322                      -6:00    US      C%sT
323</pre>
324  </td></tr></table></td>
325</tr>
326<tr>
327  <th colspan="5">Columns Renamed</th>
328</tr>
329<tr>
330  <th rowspan="2">Standard Offset<br>
331    from <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Prime_Meridian">Prime
332    Meridian</a></th>
333  <th rowspan="2">Daylight<br>Saving Time</th>
334  <th rowspan="2">Abbreviation(s)</th>
335  <th colspan="2">Ending at Local Time</th>
336</tr>
337<tr>
338  <th>Date</th>
339  <th>Time</th>
340</tr>
341<tr align="center">
342  <td>&minus;5:50:36</td>
343  <td>not observed</td>
344  <td>LMT</td>
345  <td>1883-11-18</td>
346  <td>12:09:24</td>
347</tr>
348<tr align="center">
349  <td rowspan="2">&minus;6:00:00</td>
350  <td>US rules</td>
351  <td rowspan="2">CST or CDT</td>
352  <td>1920-01-01</td>
353  <td>00:00:00</td>
354</tr>
355<tr align="center">
356  <td>Chicago rules</td>
357  <td>1936-03-01</td>
358  <td rowspan="2">02:00:00</td>
359</tr>
360<tr align="center">
361  <td>&minus;5:00:00</td>
362  <td>not observed</td>
363  <td>EST</td>
364  <td>1936-11-15</td>
365</tr>
366<tr align="center">
367  <td rowspan="4">&minus;6:00:00</td>
368  <td>Chicago rules</td>
369  <td>CST or CDT</td>
370  <td>1942-01-01</td>
371  <td rowspan="3">00:00:00</td>
372</tr>
373<tr align="center">
374  <td>US rules</td>
375  <td>CST, CWT or CPT</td>
376  <td>1946-01-01</td>
377</tr>
378<tr align="center">
379  <td>Chicago rules</td>
380  <td rowspan="2">CST or CDT</td>
381  <td>1967-01-01</td>
382</tr>
383<tr align="center">
384  <td>US rules</td>
385  <td colspan="2">&mdash;</td>
386</tr>
387</table>
388
389<p>There are a couple of interesting differences between Zones and Rules.</p>
390
391<p>First, and somewhat trivially, whereas Rules are considered to
392contain one or more records, a Zone is considered to be a single
393record with zero or more <i>continuation lines</i>. Thus, the keyword,
394&ldquo;<code>Zone</code>,&rdquo; and the zone name are not
395repeated. The last line is the one without anything in
396the <code>[UNTIL]</code> column.</p>
397
398<p>Second, and more fundamentally, each line of a Zone represents a
399steady state, not a transition between states. The state exists from
400the date and time in the previous line&rsquo;s <code>[UNTIL]</code>
401column up to the date and time in the current
402line&rsquo;s <code>[UNTIL]</code> column. In other words, the date and
403time in the <code>[UNTIL]</code> column is the instant that separates
404this state from the next. Where that would be ambiguous because
405we&rsquo;re setting our clocks back, the <code>[UNTIL]</code> column
406specifies the first occurrence of the instant. The state specified by
407the last line, the one without anything in the <code>[UNTIL]</code>
408column, continues to the present.</p>
409
410<p>The first line typically specifies the mean solar time observed
411before the introduction of standard time. Since there&rsquo;s no line before
412that, it has no beginning. <code>8-) </code> For some places near the <a
413href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/International_Date_Line">International
414Date Line</a>, the first <i>two</i> lines will show solar times
415differing by 24 hours; this corresponds to a movement of the Date
416Line.  For example:</p>
417
418<pre>
419#Zone NAME          GMTOFF   RULES FORMAT [UNTIL]
420Zone America/Juneau 15:02:19 -     LMT    1867 Oct 18
421                    -8:57:41 -     LMT    ...
422</pre>
423
424<p>When Alaska was purchased from Russia in 1867, the Date Line moved
425from the Alaska/Canada border to the Bering Strait; and the time in
426Alaska was then 24 hours earlier than it had
427been. <code>&lt;aside&gt;</code>(6 October in the Julian calendar,
428which Russia was still using then for religious reasons, was followed
429by <i>a second instance of the same day with a different name</i>, 18
430October in the Gregorian calendar. Isn&rsquo;t civil time
431wonderful? <code>8-)</code>)<code>&lt;/aside&gt;</code></p>
432
433<p>The abbreviation, &ldquo;LMT&rdquo; stands for &ldquo;local mean
434time&rdquo;, which is an invention of
435the <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tz_database">tz
436database</a> and was probably never actually used during the
437period. Furthermore, the value is almost certainly wrong except in the
438archetypal place after which the zone is named. (The tz database
439usually doesn&rsquo;t provide a separate Zone record for places where
440nothing significant happened after 1970.)</p>
441
442<p>The <code>RULES</code> column tells us whether daylight saving time is being observed:
443<ul>
444<li>A hyphen, a kind of null value, means that we have not set our
445clocks ahead of standard time.</li>
446
447<li>An amount of time (usually but not necessarily &ldquo;1:00&rdquo;
448meaning one hour) means that we have set our clocks ahead by that
449amount.</li>
450
451<li>Some alphabetic string means that we <i>might have</i> set our
452clocks ahead; and we need to check the rule the name of which is the
453given alphabetic string.</li>
454</ul>
455
456<p>An example of a specific amount of time is:</p>
457<pre>
458#Zone NAME            GMTOFF RULES FORMAT [UNTIL]
459Zone Pacific/Honolulu ...                 1933 Apr 30 2:00
460                      -10:30 1:00  HDT    1933 May 21 2:00
461                      ...
462</pre>
463
464<p>Hawaii tried daylight saving time for three weeks in 1933 and
465decided they didn&rsquo;t like it. <code>8-) </code>Note that
466the <code>GMTOFF</code> column always contains the standard time
467offset, so the wall clock time during this period was GMT &minus;
46810:30 + 1:00 = GMT &minus; 9:30.</p>
469
470<p>The <code>FORMAT</code> column specifies the usual abbreviation of
471the time zone name. It can have one of three forms:</p>
472<ul>
473
474<li>a string of three or more characters that are either ASCII alphanumerics,
475&ldquo;<code>+</code>&rdquo;, or &ldquo;<code>-</code>&rdquo;,
476in which case that&rsquo;s the abbreviation</li>
477
478<li>a pair of strings separated by a slash
479(&lsquo;<code>/</code>&rsquo;), in which case the first string is the
480abbreviation for the standard time name and the second string is the
481abbreviation for the daylight saving time name</li>
482
483<li>a string containing &ldquo;<code>%s</code>,&rdquo; in which case
484the &ldquo;<code>%s</code>&rdquo; will be replaced by the text in the
485appropriate Rule&rsquo;s <code>LETTER</code> column</li>
486</ul>
487
488<p>The last two make sense only if there&rsquo;s a named rule in effect.</p>
489
490<p>An example of a slash is:</p>
491<pre>
492#Zone NAME          GMTOFF RULES FORMAT  [UNTIL]
493Zone  Europe/London ...                  1996
494                    0:00   EU    GMT/BST
495</pre>
496
497<p>The current time in the UK is called either Greenwich mean time or
498British summer time.</p>
499
500<p>One wrinkle, not fully explained in <code>zic.8.txt</code>, is what
501happens when switching to a named rule. To what values should
502the <code>SAVE</code> and <code>LETTER</code> data be initialized?</p>
503
504<ul>
505<li>If at least one transition has happened, use
506the <code>SAVE</code> and <code>LETTER</code> data from the most
507recent.</li>
508
509<li>If switching to a named rule before any transition has happened,
510assume standard time (<code>SAVE</code> zero), and use
511the <code>LETTER</code> data from the earliest transition with
512a <code>SAVE</code> of zero.
513
514</ul>
515
516<p>And three last things about the <code>FORMAT</code> column:</p>
517<ul>
518
519<li>The <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tz_database">tz
520database</a> gives abbreviations for time zone names in <i>popular
521usage</i>, which is not necessarily &ldquo;correct&rdquo; by law. For
522example, the last line in
523<code>Zone</code> <code>Pacific/Honolulu</code> (shown below) gives
524&ldquo;HST&rdquo; for &ldquo;Hawaii standard time&rdquo; even though the
525<a href="https://www.law.cornell.edu/uscode/text/15/263">legal</a>
526name for that time zone is &ldquo;Hawaii-Aleutian standard time.&rdquo;
527This author has read that there are also some places in Australia where
528popular time zone names differ from the legal ones.
529
530<li>No attempt is made to <a
531href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Internationalization_and_localization">localize</a>
532the abbreviations. They are intended to be the values returned through the
533<code>"%Z"</code> format specifier to
534<a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/C_(programming_language)">C</a>&rsquo;s
535<a href="http://pubs.opengroup.org/onlinepubs/9699919799/functions/strftime.html"><code>strftime</code></a>
536function in the
537<a href="http://kirste.userpage.fu-berlin.de/chemnet/use/info/libc/libc_19.html#SEC324">&ldquo;C&rdquo; locale</a>.
538
539<li>If there is no generally-accepted abbreviation for a time zone,
540a numeric offset is used instead, e.g., <code>+07</code> for 7 hours
541ahead of Greenwich. By convention, <code>-00</code> is used in a
542zone while uninhabited, where the offset is zero but in some sense
543the true offset is undefined.
544</ul>
545
546<p>As a final example, here&rsquo;s the complete history for Hawaii:</p>
547
548<table border="1">
549<tr>
550  <th colspan="6">Relevant Excerpts from the US Rules</th>
551</tr>
552<tr>
553  <td colspan="6" align="center"><table><tr><td>
554<pre>
555#Rule NAME FROM TO   TYPE IN  ON      AT     SAVE LETTER/S
556Rule  US   1918 1919 -    Oct lastSun  2:00  0    S
557Rule  US   1942 only -    Feb  9       2:00  1:00 W # War
558Rule  US   1945 only -    Aug 14      23:00u 1:00 P # Peace
559Rule  US   1945 only -    Sep 30       2:00  0    S
560</pre>
561  </td></tr></table></td>
562</tr>
563<tr>
564  <th colspan="6">The Zone Record</th>
565</tr>
566<tr>
567  <td colspan="6" align="center"><table><tr><td>
568<pre>
569#Zone NAME            GMTOFF    RULES FORMAT [UNTIL]
570Zone Pacific/Honolulu -10:31:26 -     LMT    1900 Jan  1 12:00
571                      -10:30    -     HST    1933 Apr 30  2:00
572                      -10:30    1:00  HDT    1933 May 21  2:00
573                      -10:30    US    H%sT   1947 Jun  8  2:00
574                      -10:00    -     HST
575</pre>
576  </td></tr></table></td>
577</tr>
578<tr>
579  <th colspan="6">What We Infer</th>
580</tr>
581<tr>
582  <th rowspan="2">Wall-Clock<br>Offset from<br>Prime Meridian</th>
583  <th rowspan="2">Adjust<br>Clocks</th>
584  <th colspan="2">Time Zone</th>
585  <th colspan="2">Ending at Local Time</th>
586</tr>
587<tr>
588  <th>Abbrv.</th>
589  <th>Name</th>
590  <th>Date</th>
591  <th>Time</th>
592</tr>
593<tr align="center">
594  <td>&minus;10:31:26</td>
595  <td>&mdash;</td>
596  <td>LMT</td>
597  <td>local mean time</td>
598  <td>1900-01-01</td>
599  <td>12:00</td>
600</tr>
601<tr align="center">
602  <td>&minus;10:30</td>
603  <td>+0:01:26</td>
604  <td>HST</td>
605  <td>Hawaii standard time</td>
606  <td>1933-04-30</td>
607  <td rowspan="3">02:00</td>
608</tr>
609<tr align="center">
610  <td>&minus;9:30</td>
611  <td>+1:00</td>
612  <td>HDT</td>
613  <td>Hawaii daylight time</td>
614  <td>1933-05-21</td>
615</tr>
616<tr align="center">
617  <td>&minus;10:30&sup1;</td>
618  <td>&minus;1:00&sup1;</td>
619  <td>HST&sup1;</td>
620  <td>Hawaii standard time</td>
621  <td>1942-02-09</td>
622</tr>
623<tr align="center">
624  <td rowspan="2">&minus;9:30</td>
625  <td>+1:00</td>
626  <td>HWT</td>
627  <td>Hawaii war time</td>
628  <td>1945-08-14</td>
629  <td>13:30&sup2;</td>
630</tr>
631<tr align="center">
632  <td>0</td>
633  <td>HPT</td>
634  <td>Hawaii peace time</td>
635  <td>1945-09-30</td>
636  <td rowspan="2">02:00</td>
637</tr>
638<tr align="center">
639  <td>&minus;10:30</td>
640  <td>&minus;1:00</td>
641  <td rowspan="2">HST</td>
642  <td rowspan="2">Hawaii standard time</td>
643  <td>1947-06-08</td>
644</tr>
645<tr align="center">
646  <td>&minus;10:00&sup3;</td>
647  <td>+0:30&sup3;</td>
648  <td colspan="2">&mdash;</td>
649</tr>
650<tr>
651  <td colspan="6">
652    &sup1;Switching to US rules&hellip;most recent transition (in 1919) was to standard time
653  </td>
654</tr>
655<tr>
656  <td colspan="6">
657    &sup2;23:00 <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Universal_Time">UT</a>
658    + (&minus;9:30) = 13:30 local
659  </td>
660</tr>
661<tr>
662  <td colspan="6">
663    &sup3;Since <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/ISO_8601">1947&ndash;06&ndash;08T12:30Z</a>,
664    the civil time in Hawaii has been
665    <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Universal_Time">UT</a>/<a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Coordinated_Universal_Time">UTC</a>
666    &minus; 10:00 year-round.
667  </td>
668</tr>
669</table>
670
671<p>There will be a short quiz later. <code>8-)</code></p>
672
673<hr>
674<address>
675This web page is in the public domain, so clarified as of
6762015-10-20 by Bill Seymour.
677<br>
678All suggestions and corrections will be welcome; all flames will be amusing.
679Mail to was at pobox dot com.
680</address>
681</body>
682</html>
683