Although the modern calendar counts a year as 365 days, a complete revolution around the sun takes approximately 365 days and 6 hours. Accordingly, an extra day is accumulated and added to the calendar every four years. That’s called a “Leap Day,” and appears as February 29th every four years.

The original Roman calendar added an extra month “every few years” to maintain the correct seasonal changes. The more accurate Julian calendar was implemented in 45 BCE, and introduced the leap day, which at that time fell on February 24, due to February being the last month of the calendar.

In 1582 Pope Gregory XIII refined the Julian calendar with a new rule that a century year is not a leap year unless it is evenly divisible by 400. The introduction of the Gregorian calendar was observed in some countries including Italy, Poland, Portugal, and Spain. The conversion took longer for other countries such as Great Britain (1752) and Lithuania (1915).

Weird traditions and beliefs followed the leap day through medieval times. In medieval Scotland, women could only make a proposal of marriage to men in leap years, and in some cases, only on February 29 (although actual records are sketchy, some claim this was actually legislated). Similar traditions apparently also apparently notions in France and Switzerland.

Some notable February 29th events:

• 1504 – Christopher Columbus uses his knowledge of a lunar eclipse that night to convince Native Americans to provide him with supplies.
• 1720 – Queen Ulrika Eleonora of Sweden abdicates in favour of her husband, who becomes King Frederick I.
• 1892 – St. Petersburg, Florida incorporated.
• 1956 – U.S. President Dwight D. Eisenhower announces to the nation that he is running for a second term.
• 2004 – Jean-Bertrand Aristide resigns as President of Haiti following popular rebel uprising.

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