OK
You just made me have my one blonde moment!
I just thought "hmmm I didn't realize we had to do that?!"
chrissie
I said that to someone at work this morning and he said 'oh, yeah, right' and then looked at me with that look I know oh so well, the one that says, 'are you some kind of idiot?
Anyway, some Leap Year Facts:
The original Roman 355 day calendar had an extra 22-day month every few years to maintain the correct seasonal changes. By the time Julius Caesar took reign, the seasons no longer occurred during the same months they once had.
This was remedied in 45 B.C. by removing the extra month and adding the extra day to a few months instead.
Julius Caesar proclaimed the last day of February as Leap Year Day, skipping it three out of four years. Back then, February 30th was the last day of the last month of the year, which is why he picked it.
Around 10 BC, it was found that the priests in charge of computing the calendar had been adding leap years every three years instead of the four decreed by Caesar (Vardi 1991, p. 239). As a result of this error, no more leap years were added until 8 A.D. Leap years were therefore 45 BC, 42 BC, 39 BC, 36 BC, 33 BC, 30 BC, 27 BC, 24 BC, 21 BC, 18 BC, 15 BC, 12 BC, 9 BC, 8 AD, 12 AD, and every fourth year thereafter, until the Gregorian calendar was introduced
In 4 A.D. Emperor Caesar Augustus corrected a counting error in Leap Years. He also had the month of August named after him, and took the last day of February so that August can have 31 days, just like Julius' month. Now February has 29 days in Leap Years.
The calendar was finally perfected by Pope Gregory XIII in 1582 who predicted Easter and Christmas would eventually fall on top of each other without his intervention.
Pope Gregory determined that Leap Day should fall on any year divisible by 4 but not 100 (except when the year is divisible by 400).
Century years were made leap years if they were divisible by 400. So, 2000 was a Leap Year, but 1900 was not.
Today our year is 365.2425 days, off from our solar year by .00031, or one day's error over 4,000 years.
If you're a "Leaper," you will have beaten the 1,506 odds against being born on Leap Day
There is now in existence the Worldwide Leap Year Birthday Club and the Worldwide Leap Year Festival.
Leap Year was the traditional time that women could propose marriage. When the rules of courtship were stricter, women were only allowed to pop the question on one day every four years - February 29th.
It is believed this tradition was started in 5th century Ireland when St.Bridget complained to St. Patrick about women having to wait for so long for a man to propose. So, according to legend, St. Patrick said women could propose on this one day in February during the Leap Year. According to English law, February 29th was ignored and had no legal status. Folks assumed that traditions would also have no status on that day. It was also reasoned that since the leap year day existed to fix a problem in the calendar, it could also be used to fix an old and unjust custom that only let men propose marriage.
The first documentation of this practice dates back to 1288, when Scotland passed a law that allowed women to propose marriage to the man of their choice in that year.
They also made it law that any man who declined a proposal in a Leap Year must pay a fine. The fine could range from a kiss to payment for a silk dress or a pair of gloves.
In the United States, some people have referred to this date as Sadie Hawkins Day, with women being given the right to run after unmarried men to propose.
There is a Greek superstition that claims couples have bad luck if they marry during a leap year. Apparently one in five engaged couples in Greece will avoid planning their wedding during a leap year.
Herman Hollerith developed the first computer on Leap Day 1860. He had been a special agent for the US census, and developed punch cards and electric tabulating machines in time to process the census returns, reducing considerably the time needed to complete the clerical work. Hollerith's venture became part of what is now the IBM Corporation.
The Gotthard railway tunnel between Switzerland & Italy was completed on Leap Day 1880.
Dutch scientists produced solid helium on Leap Day 1908.
The discovery of the first pulsar in space was announced on Leap Day 1968.
There are currently around 4.1 million Leapers in the world today.
Ann Lee (founder of Shakerism) was born in Manchester Leap Day 1736
Rossini (composer) was born on Leap Day 1792
John Holland, American inventor of the submarine, was born on Leap Day 1792
Jimmy Dorsey (bandleader) was born Leap Day 1904
Ja Rule (Rap Artist) born Leap Day 1976
1964 Olav Henriksen born - The 2nd of 3 siblings born on consecutive Leap Days
Leap Year Day Babies born in 1884 had no birthday during their entire teen-age years. Why? Because 1900 was not a Leap Year.
The premise of Gilbert and Sullivan's musical The Pirates of Penzance is based on the birth of the main character on a leap day. Frederic was, as a child, apprenticed to a band of tenderhearted, orphaned pirates by his nurse who, being hard of hearing, had mistaken her master's instructions to apprentice the boy to a pilot. Frederic, upon completing his 21st year, rejoices that he has fulfilled his indentures and is now free to return to respectable society. But it turns out that he was born on February 29, Leap Year Day, and he remains apprenticed to the pirates until his 21st birthday (when he's 84!).