Random Leap Day Information

The Gregorian calendar follows three criteria to determine which years will be leap years:
• Every year that is divisible by four is a leap year;
• Of those years, if it can be divided by 100. it is not a leap year, unless
• The year is divisible by 400, then it is a leap year.

Leap years are needed to keep our calendar in alignment with the Earth's revolutions around the sun:

A leap day is more likely to occur on Mondays or Wednesdays, rather than other days, because the Gregorian calendar repeats itself every 400 years. Therefore. February 29
can occur 15 times on a Monday or Wednesday, 14 times on a Friday or Saturday, and
13 times on a Sunday, Tuesday, or Thursday.

Some famous people born on February 29:
468 – Pope Paul III
1736 – Ann Lee, founder of Sha Kerism
1792 – Gioacchino Rossini, Italian composer (William Tell; The Barber of Seville)
1792 – John Holland, American inventor of the submarine
1896 – Morarji Desai, former Indian prime minister
1904 – Jimmy Dorsey, bandleader
1916 – Dinah Shore, American singer
1924 – Al Rosen American baseball player
1924 – Carlos Humberto Romero, former president of El Salvador
1960 – Richard Ramirez, American serial killer
1960 – Anthony "Tony" Robbins, American motivational speaker
1964 – Lyndon Byers, Canadian hockey player
1972 – Antonio Sabàto, Jr, Italian-born actor
1976 – Ja Rule, American rapper and actor
1980 – Chris Conley, American musician and songwriter/composer

Some events that took place on February 29 in history:
1692 – First accusations began during the Salem witch trials
1848 – Neufchatel declares the independence of Switzerland
1860 – Herman Hollerith developed the first computer
1908 – Dutch scientists produced solid helium.
1940 – Hattie Mcda Niel was the first African American actress to win an Oscar
1944 – The invasion of the Admiralty Islands during World War II
1952 – The first WALK/DON'T WALK signs were installed in New York City
1964 – Australian swimmer, Dawn Fraser, received her 36th world record
1964 – Olav Henriksen, the second of 3 siblings, born on consecutive leap days
1968 – Discovery of the first pulsar in space was announced
1972 – The Carpenters received a gold record for the hit single Hurting Each Other.

A leap second used to be added to, or deleted from, some years by scientists on January 1st or July 1st, because they believed that some years were longer than others due to weather. Every few years, scientists agreed to add or remove a second from a year right at midnight on those dates, but now scientists have discovered that the earth is not rotating as fast and have deemed this practice unnecessary.

Many countries use a lunar calendar to celebrate religious holidays. Whenever the lunar calendar falls behind the solar calendar by more than a moon month, a leap moon month is added to the lunar calendar.

If you are a Leaper, you will have beaten the 1506:1 odds against being born on leap day. There are currently around 4.1 million Leapers in the world today.

Traditionally, when the rules of courtship were more strict, women were only allowed to propose marriage on one day every four years: February 29th. 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.

According to English law, February 29th was ignored and had no legal status.

People who are not themselves Leapers, but like and celebrate leap day, are called Leapophiles.

Happy Leap Day...