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Leap Year Facts and History
INFORMATIVE 
Tags: Leap, Year, Facts, Interesting, History, 29, February, Feb, Past, Info
Here are some interesting facts about the history of Leap Years.
| 1. | 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. |
| 2. | This was remedied in 45 B.C. by removing the extra month and adding the extra day to a few months instead. |
| 3. | 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. |
| 4. | 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). |
| 5. | Century years were made leap years if they were divisible by 400. So, 2000 was a Leap Year, but 1900 was not. |
| 6. | At the same time, Pope Gregory moved the end of the year to December 31st. |
| 7. | Today our year is 365.2425 days, off from our solar year by .00031, or one day's error over 4,000 years. |
| 8. | Leap Seconds! Some years are longer than others. This is mostly due to weather. Every few years, scientists agreed to add or remove a second from a year right at midnight on January 1st or July 1st. This is called a Leap Second. Scientists have now discovered that the Earth is not rotating as fast, and have deemed this practice unnecessary! |
| 9. | If you're a "Leapling" (born on a Leap day), you will have beaten the 1,506 odds against being born on Leap Day |
| 10. | 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. |
| 11. | 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. |
| 12. | Superman is a Leap Day Baby! He is a comic book character, so he can have whatever birthday his creator decides to give him. An article in TIME magazine, March 14 1988, proclaimed Superman to be born on February 29. However, If you figure it out, there is no way anyone can be 50 'years' old on February 29, of any Leap Year. They would have to be 48 or 52. And, if someone did turn 50 'Leap Years' old on February 29, 1988, they would have been born in 1784! |
| 13. | 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. |
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