Most people in North America will enjoy an extra hour this weekend as we adjust our clocks back an hour and switch back to Standard Time. Standard Time was the norm until the Germans first instituted a time change during the First World War to save energy. From then on, most countries around the world began adopting Daylight Saving Time for a significant part of the year.

CTVNews.ca has compiled some historical and quirky facts on Daylight Saving Time:

1. Standard Time is not actually the norm most of the year, as most Canadians spend 34 weeks on Daylight Saving Time and only 18 weeks on Standard Time.

2. New Zealander George Vernon Hudson proposed the modern idea in 1895 looking for a way to extend after-work daylight hours to increase the amount of time he could spend on his hobby of collecting insects. It wasn't until 1916 that Germany and Austria-Hungary organized the first implementation. Those countries changed the clocks to conserve coal during the First World War.

3. The Dominion of Newfoundland became one of the first jurisdictions in North America to implement DST in 1917. The U.S. instituted it in 1918.

4. If we stayed on DST during the winter, the sun wouldn't rise until about 9 a.m. in many parts of Canada.

5. Saskatchewan has not followed DST since the 1960s, choosing instead to observe Central Standard Time year-round and never adjust the clocks. Lloydminster, Sask., which is straddles the border with Alberta, follows Mountain Time and does change the clocks with DST. Canadians who live in Creston, B.C., Southampton Island, Nunavut, Pickle Lake and Atikokan, Ontario and eastern parts of Quebec will also not enjoy an extra hour of sleep Saturday night.

6. Egypt began following DST in 1988, but the idea was nixed following the 2011 revolt that toppled former President Hosni Mubarak. In May, Egypt's military-backed interim government announced the clocks would move ahead an hour to save energy.

7. Before the DST extension, the National Golf Foundation estimated a seven-week extension would increase revenues for the golf industry by up to $300 million. A study in 1999 showed DST increases revenue in the European Union's leisure sector by about three per cent.

8. DST used to run from the first Sunday in April until the last Sunday in October. In 2005, U.S. President George W. Bush added almost a month to DST so it now runs from the second Sunday in March until the first Sunday in November. Canada followed suit to avoid mass confusion.

9. The sun never rises during the winter in Antarctica, but researchers on the continent still change their clocks to sync with stations in Chile and New Zealand that send supplies to their research centres.

10. In 2007, a woman delivered twins in North Carolina. One was born at 1:32 a.m. and the second came 34 minutes later, but because the clocks switched back an hour, the second baby was technically born at 1:06 a.m. The younger child became the older one on birth registration records. Luckily, the twins are not heirs to a throne.