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February 29 is a date that occurs only every four years, in years evenly divisible by 4, such as 1988, 1996, 2008 or 2016 (with the exception of century years not divisible by 400, such as 1900). These are called leap years, and February 29 is the 60th day of the Gregorian calendar in such a year, with 306 days remaining until the end of that year. February 29 is also known as bissextile day.

Leap years

Although the modern calendar counts a year as 365 days, a complete revolution around the sun takes approximately 365 days and 6 hours. Every four years, an extra twenty-four hours have accumulated, so one extra day is added to that calendar to keep the count coordinated with the sun's apparent position.

A century year, which ends in two zeros, is not a leap year unless it is also evenly divisible by 400. This means that 1600 and 2000 were leap years, and 2400 and 2800 will also be, 1800 and 1900 were not, and the years 2100 and 2200 will not be leap years. To correct a slight inaccuracy that remains (it isn't exactly six hours extra), it has been proposed that years evenly divisible by 4,000 should not be leap years; but this rule has not been officially adopted.

A leap day is more likely to fall on a Monday than on a Sunday. This is because the Gregorian calendar repeats itself every 400 years, which is exactly 20871 weeks including 97 leap days. Over this period February 29 falls thirteen times on a Sunday, Tuesday or Thursday; fourteen times on a Friday or Saturday; and fifteen times on a Monday or Wednesday.

The concepts of the leap year and leap day are distinct from the leap second, which results from changes in the Earth's rotational speed.

The Romans, already realizing the need for an extra day every four years, chose February 24 because it followed the last day of their calendar, which then was February 23. It was given the name "bissextile day" meaning extra sixth day before the Kalends of March or start of a new year.

An English law of 1256 decreed that in leap years, the leap day and the day before are to be reckoned as one day for the purpose of calculating when a full year has passed. Thus, in England and Wales a person born on February 29 legally reaches the age of 18 or 21 on February 28 of the relevant year. In the European Union, February 29 officially became the leap day only in 2000.

There was a tradition that women may make a proposal of marriage to men only in leap years, further restricted in some cases to only February 29. There is a tradition that in 1288 the Scottish parliament under Queen Margaret legislated that any woman could propose in Leap Year; few parliament records of that time exist, and none concern February 29. Another component of this tradition was that if the man rejects the proposal, he should soften the blow by providing a kiss, one pound currency, and a pair of gloves (some later sources say a silk gown). There were similar notions in France and Switzerland.

In France, there is a humorous periodical called La Bougie du Sapeur (The Sapper's Candle) published every February 29 since 1980. The name is a reference to the sapper Camembert. The eighth issue will be published in 2008.

Events

• 1504 - Christopher Columbus uses his knowledge of a lunar eclipse that night to convince Native Americans to provide him with supplies.
• 1704 - Queen Anne's War: French forces and Native Americans stage a raid on Deerfield, Massachusetts, killing 100 men, women, and children.
• 1712 - February 29 is followed by February 30 in Sweden, in a move to abolish the Swedish calendar for a return to the Old style.
• 1720 - Queen Ulrika Eleonora of Sweden abdicates in favour of her husband, who becomes King Frederick I.
• 1864 - American Civil War: Kilpatrick-Dahlgren Raid fails - Plans to free 15,000 Union soldiers being held near Richmond, Virginia are thwarted.
• 1892 - St. Petersburg, Florida incorporated.
• 1916 - Child labor: In South Carolina, the minimum working age for factory, mill, and mine workers is raised from twelve to fourteen years old.
• 1932 - TIME magazine features eccentric American politician William "Alfalfa" Murray on its cover after Murray stated his intention to run for President of the United States.
• 1936 - Baby Snooks, played by Fanny Brice, debuts on the radio program The Ziegfeld Follies of the Air.
• 1940 - For her role as Mammy in Gone with the Wind, Hattie McDaniel becomes the first African American to win an Academy Award.
• 1940 - Finland initiates Winter War peace negotiations
• 1940 - In a ceremony held in Berkeley, California, because of the war, physicist Ernest Lawrence receives his 1939 Nobel Prize in Physics from the Sweden's Consul General in San Francisco.
• 1944 - World War II: The Admiralty Islands are invaded in the American General Douglas MacArthur-led Operation Brewer.
• 1952 - The island of Heligoland is restored to German authority.
• 1956 - U.S. President Dwight D. Eisenhower announces to the nation that he is running for a second term.
• 1960 - An earthquake in Morocco kills over 3,000 people and nearly destroys Agadir in the southern part of the country.
• 1964 - In Sydney, Australian swimmer Dawn Fraser sets a new world record in the 100-meter freestyle swimming competition (58.9 seconds).
• 1972 - Vietnam War: Vietnamization - South Korea withdraws 11,000 of its 48,000 troops from Vietnam.
• 1972 - Hank Aaron becomes the first player in the history of Major League Baseball to sign a $200,000 contract.
• 1984 - Canadian Prime Minister Pierre Trudeau announces he will retire as soon as the Liberals can elect another leader.
• 1988 - South African archbishop Desmond Tutu is arrested along with 100 clergymen during a five-day anti-apartheid demonstration in Cape Town
• 1996 - Novelist Joan Collins awarded US $1 million from Random House for breach of contract.
• 1996 - A Peruvian Boeing 737 crashes in the Andes, killing 123 people.
• 2000 - Six year old Dedrick Owens shoots and kills Kayla Rolland, also six years old, at Theo J. Buell Elementary School in Mount Morris Township, Michigan.
• 2004 - Jean-Bertrand Aristide resigns as President of Haiti following popular rebel uprising.

Births

A person who was born on February 29 may be called a "leapling". In non-leap years they may celebrate their birthday on 28 February or 1 March.

For legal purposes, their legal birthdays depend on how different laws count time intervals. In England and Wales the legal birthday of a leapling is 28 February in common years (see Leap Years, above). In Taiwan the legal birthday of a leapling is also February 28 in common years. In both cases, a person born on February 29 1980 would have legally reached 18 years old on February 28 1998.

"If a period fixed by weeks, months, and years does not commence from the beginning of a week, month, or year, it ends with the ending of the day which proceeds the day of the last week, month, or year which corresponds to that on which it began to commence. But if there is no corresponding day in the last month, the period ends with the ending of the last day of the last month."

There are many instances in children's literature where a person's claim to be only a quarter of their actual age turns out to be based on counting their leap-year birthdays. A similar device is used in the plot of the Gilbert and Sullivan operetta The Pirates of Penzance. Frederic, born on February 29, was apprenticed to a band of pirates until his 21st birthday, meaning that with all the missed birthdays, until he was 84 years old.

• 1468 - Pope Paul III (d. 1549)
• 1692 - John Byrom, English poet (d. 1763)
• 1724 - Eva Marie Veigel, ballet dancer and wife of actor David Garrick (d.1822)
• 1736 - Ann Lee, American founder of Shakers (d. 1784)
• 1792 - Gioacchino Rossini, Italian composer (d. 1868)
• 1840 - John Philip Holland, Irish inventor (d. 1914)
• 1852 - Frank Gavan Duffy, Australian judge (d. 1936)
• 1860 - Herman Hollerith, American statistician (d. 1929)
• 1896 - Morarji Desai, Prime Minister of India (d. 1995)
• 1896 - William A. Wellman, American film director (d. 1975)
• 1904 - Jimmy Dorsey, American bandleader (d. 1957)
• 1904 - Pepper Martin, baseball player (d. 1965)
• 1904 - Rukmini Devi Arundale, Indian dancer and founder of Kalakshetra (d. 1986)
• 1908 - Balthus, French-Polish painter (d. 2001)
• 1908 - Dee Brown, American writer (d. 2002)
• 1908 - Alf Gover, English cricketer (d. 2001)
• 1916 - Dinah Shore, American singer (d. 1994)
• 1920 - Arthur Franz, American actor (d. 2006)
• 1920 - James Mitchell, American actor
• 1920 - Michèle Morgan, French actress
• 1920 - Howard Nemerov, American poet (d. 1991)
• 1924 - Al Rosen, American baseball player
• 1924 - David Beattie, New Zealand Governour General
• 1924 - Carlos Humberto Romero, President of El Salvador
• 1928 - Joss Ackland, English actor
• 1928 - Tempest Storm, American burlesque performer
• 1932 - Jaguar, Brazilian cartoonist
• 1932 - Gene Golub, American mathematician (d. 2007)
• 1932 - Masten Gregory, American F1 Driver (d. 1985)
• 1936 - Jack Lousma, astronaut
• 1936 - Henri Richard, Canadian hockey player
• 1936 - Alex Rocco, American actor
• 1940 - Ecumenical Patriarch Bartholomew I of Constantinople
• 1940 - William H. Turner, Jr. American horse trainer
• 1944 - Phyllis Frelich, American actress
• 1944 - Dennis Farina, American actor
• 1944 - Paolo Eleuteri Serpieri, Italian illustrator
• 1944 - Ene Ergma, Estonian politician
• 1948 - Jirō Akagawa, Japanese novelist
• 1952 - Sharon Dahlonega Raiford Bush, American television personality
• 1952 - Tim Powers, American writer
• 1952 - Raisa Smetanina, Russian cross-country skier
• 1952 - Bart Stupak, American politician
• 1956 - Jonathan Coleman, Anglo-Australian entertainer
• 1956 - Bob Speller, Canadian politician
• 1956 - Aileen Wuornos, American serial killer (d. 2002)
• 1956 - J. Randy Taraborrelli, American celebritiy journalist
• 1960 - Ian McKenzie Anderson, British musician
• 1960 - Khaled, Algerian raï musician
• 1960 - Richard Ramirez, American serial killer
• 1960 - Tony Robbins, American motivational speaker
• 1964 - Lyndon Byers, Canadian hockey player
• 1964 - Jahred Shane, Afro-Brazilian rapper/singer of (həd) p.e.
• 1968 - Chucky Brown, American basketball player
• 1968 - Pete Fenson, American curler
• 1968 - Naoko Iijima, Japanese actress
• 1968 - Gonzalo Lira, Chilean-American novelist
• 1968 - Bryce Paup, American football player
• 1968 - Wendi Peters, British actress
• 1972 - Antonio Sabàto, Jr., Italian-born actor
• 1972 - Dave Williams, American singer (Drowning Pool) (d. 2002)
• 1972 - Saul Williams, American rapper, poet, and actor
• 1972 - Pedro Zamora, Cuban-born American AIDS activist (d. 1994)
• 1976 - Ja Rule, American rapper and actor
• 1980 - Simon Gagné, Canadian ice hockey player
• 1980 - Taylor Twellman, American soccer player
• 1980 - Chris Conley, American musician
• 1984 - Cam Ward, Canadian ice hockey player
• 1984 - Darren Ambrose, English footballer
• 1984 - Adam Sinclair, Indian Hockey player
• 1988 - Scott Golbourne, English footballer

Deaths

• 1528 - Patrick Hamilton, Scottish religious reformer (martyred) (b. 1504)
• 1592 - Alessandro Striggio, Italian composer (b. 1540)
• 1604 - John Whitgift, Archbishop of Canterbury (b. 1530)
• 1740 - Pietro Ottoboni, Italian cardinal (b. 1667)
• 1744 - John Theophilus Desaguliers, French philosopher (b. 1683)
• 1820 - Johann Joachim Eschenburg, German literary critic (b. 1743)
• 1868 - Ludwig I of Bavaria (b. 1786)
• 1928 - Ina Coolbrith, first poet laureate of California (b. 1841)
• 1940 - Edward Frederic Benson, English writer (b. 1867)
• 1944 - Pehr Evind Svinhufvud, President of Finland (b. 1861)
• 1956 - Elpidio Quirino, President of the Philippines (b. 1890)
• 1968 - Tore Ørjasæter, Norwegian poet (b. 1886)
• 1980 - Gil Elvgren, American artist (b. 1914)
• 1992 - Ruth Pitter, English poet (b. 1897)
• 2000 - Dennis Danell, American Artist (b. 1961)
• 2004 - Jerome Lawrence, American playwright (b. 1915)

Holidays and observances

• Bahá'í Faith - Day 4 of Ayyám-i-Há (Intercalary Days) (in leap years only) - days in the Bahá'í calendar devoted to service and gift giving.
• Discordianism - St. Tib's Day.
• February 29 (Eastern Orthodox liturgics)

External links

• BBC: On This Day
• The New York Times: On This Day
• On This Day in Canada

Notes

1. Some modern authors dispute this, although they are unable to cite any source which says that an alternative date was used.
2. Clarissa Bye, "Take the Leap Today, Girls," Sydney Morning Herald, February 29, 2004. Retrieved July 27, 2007.
3. Article 121 of the Civil Code Part I General Principles of the Republic of China in effect in Taiwan.

• February