The zone database adds more historic entries than they do modern ones. You can; however, calculate the correct 1942 "summer war time" in the british isles if you're so inclined. The tendency to do this while also copying copyrighted text into the file shows that the zone maintainers are not interested in the same problems most users are.
The TZ database is a complete mess. The whole thing should be replaced with a '.timezone' TLD, each civil time keeping authority should get control over it, and TXT records used to publish current TZ information. OS Vendors can cache all that in the OS if they like, but this secondary central time authority has outlived it's usefulness.
(Generally. I know plenty of shops deployed Exchange in 2009 and it still works so why fix it, goshdarnit! Those people aren’t generally updating their OS either though.)