Who Is Considered The “Father Of Leap Year?”

National Time Refund Day celebrates that one day every four years, February 29th, when we get back something notoriously hard to reclaim: time.

• 46 BC – Fast forward about 3,000 years and Julius Caesar, Ruler of the Roman Empire became the modern day Father of Leap Year.
• 8 AD – The Julian calendar adds an extra day to February.
• 5th Century – A tradition that has its origins in 5th century Ireland allows women to propose marriage to a man on leap day. According to lore, Saint Brigid complained on behalf of young maids that their men were too shy to propose. To appease her, Saint Patrick declared that on February 29th would be a day when women could propose.
• 972 – Catholics honor St. Oswald, a beloved saint who died on leap day in the year 972. His feast day is celebrated on February 28th every year.
• 1504 – A lunar eclipse on leap day 1504 have Christopher Columbus the perfect foil to trick the natives into continuing to provide supplies to his stranded expedition
• 1582 – Pope Gregory XIII states that the leap day would occur in any year divisible by four.
• 1752 – The first modern leap year is celebrated in Britain.
• 1928 – There is an official Leap Day cocktail. And it’s called…the Leap Day Cocktail! This colorful cousin of the martini was invented by pioneering bartender Harry Craddock at London’s Savoy Hotel in 1928. According to the 1930 Savoy Cocktail Book, “It is said to have been responsible for more proposals than any other cocktail ever mixed.
• 1940 – Hattie McDaniel, known for her role as Mammy in Gone with the Wind, was awarded the first Academy Award for an African American on leap day 1940.
• 1960 – Late on the evening of leap day 1960 the city of Agadir in Morocco the earth shook for 15 seconds. A small city of 2,500 was abruptly woken. The quake was considered a moderate one, but it devastated the city killing two thirds of its residents.
• The first traces of a 365-day calendar with a leap year was in the Egyptian Empire. The goal of the Egyptians was to create a calendar that mimicked the Solar Calendar allowing them to keep their seasons on track
• Caesar felt it was time to recognize that winter truly existed and created a 12 month 365-day calendar based off that of the Egyptians
• This new calendar was fabulous for a few years but it was slowly realized that the earth actually has 365.24 days per year as opposed to 365. To correct this, Caesar instituted a Leap Year once every four years to ensure the man-made and solar calendars stayed aligned
• Some cultures didn’t have leap year on Feb 29^th — instead, February 24^th occurred twice.
• 4.1 million people in the world are leap day babies
• Leap day babies are called leapers or leaplings
• There is a one in 1,461 chance of being a leap day baby
• Quite a few famous people were born on February 29^th
• Every year divisible by 4 is a leap year.
• But every year divisible by 100 is NOT a leap year
• Unless the year is also divisible by 400, then it is still a leap year.
• There was not a leap day in 1900 and there will not be one in 2100. So a baby born on February 29, 2096 will be in the 3rd grade on his 1st birthday!
• There will be 8 years between leap years 2096 and 2104
• Women often choose this day to propose marriage to men
• Getting married in a leap year is considered bad luck in Greece, so one in five engaged couples try to avoid it
• According to the World Heritage Encyclopedia, in the 1800s, the British-born James Milne Wilson, who later became the eighth premier of Tasmania, “was born on a leap day and died on a leap day.” Wilson died on February 29th, 1880, on his “17th” birthday, or aged 68 in regular years. Maybe that’s not that crazy though, since you are more likely to die on your birthday.
• In four million years, Leap Days will be unnecessary. After another 4 million years go by on Earth, the day will lengthen by another 56 seconds: the exact amount necessary for a tropical year to require exactly 365 days.
• Leap Year Birthdays:
  • Tony Robbins – Author – 1960
  • Simon Gagne – Hockey Player – 1980
  • Saul Williams – poet, actor, writer, musician – 1972
  • Dennis Farina – Actor – 1944
  • Billy Turner – Horse Trainer – Triple Crown winner – 1940
  • Bryce Paup – Football player – 1968
  • Olav Henriksen, Leif-Martin Henriksen, and sister Heidi Henriksen – siblings all born on February 29 in different years. No they are not triplets. 1960, 1964, 1968
  • Chucky Brown – NBA basketball player – 1968
  • Cary Conklin – NFL quarterback – 1968
  • Phyllis Frelich – deaf American actress – Member of National Theatre of the Deaf – 1944
  • Fabien Bownes – NFL wide receiver – 1972
  • Jack Lousma – Astronaut – Skylab 3, Space shuttle Columbia – 1936
  • William Hathaway – U.S. Senator – 1924
  • Al Rosen – Baseball player – 1924
  • Dinah Shore – Actress – 1916
  • Dee Alexander Brown II – Historian and novelist
  • Stanley Swash – CEO of Woolworths – 1908
  • John Byrom – English poet, inventor of short hand – 1692
  • Jimmy Dorsey – Saxophonist, composer and bandleader – 1904
  • Herman Hollerith – Statistician, inventor.-1860
  • John “Pepper” Martin – Baseball player 1904

Sources:

National Day Calendar

AuPair Care

Readers Digest

Forbes

National Today