HAPPY LEAP YEAR

every four years (sorta)

Why is 2012 a leap year? Which years are leap years any way? Can you tell me when the next leap year is? How do you know if a given year is a leap year or not? What makes a given year a leap year?

Most years have 365 days but leap years have 366 days in them. The extra day, February 29, makes up for the difference between a 365 day calendar and the earth’s actual rotation around the sun. Leap years happen 97 years out of every 400, not once every 4 years as is commonly assumed. This means that years that are divisible by 4 aren’t necessarily leap years.

Leap years are divisible by 4 unless the year is divisible by 100 and is also divisible by 400. Therefore 1600 and 2000 were leap years and 2400 and 2800 will be too. The years that aren’t leap years are called “common years”. The National Maritime Museum has more information on leap years.

Expressed in pseudocode:
If ((year modulo 4 is 0) and (year modulo 100 is not 0)) or (year modulo 400 is 0) Then
leapYear = true
Else
leapYear = false
End if

This is a list of all the leap years in the 20th and 21st centuries:
1904, 1908, 1912, 1916, 1920, 1924, 1928, 1932, 1936, 1940, 1944, 1948, 1952, 1956, 1960, 1964, 1968, 1972, 1976, 1980, 1984, 1988, 1992, 1996, 2000, 2004, 2008, 2012, 2016, 2020, 2024, 2028, 2032, 2036, 2040, 2044, 2048, 2052, 2056, 2060, 2064, 2068, 2072, 2076, 2080, 2084, 2088, 2092, 2096

Not everyone has a birthday every year. If you were born on Leap Day your birthday only comes every 4 years. Those born on February 29th are called leaplings. Who knew?

Who was born on Leap Day? Who's a leapling? Ja Rule (1976), Tony Robbins (1960), Dennis Farina (1944), Tempest Storm (1928), Al Rosen (1924), Dinah Shore (1916), Dee Alexander Brown II (1908), Jimmy Dorsey (1904), Gioacchino Rossini (1792), Ann Lee (1736), and John Byrom (1692).

Statistically, about one in 1,461 births are a leapling; there are an estimated 200,000 in the US and 4.1 million worldwide.

Sadie Hawkins Day is synonymous with February 29th, the day when women can ask men to marry them (according to Li’l Abner). St. Patrick bowed to St. Bridget’s complaints and set Feb 29th as the day when could ask men to marry them. Queen Margaret in Scotland decreed the same in 1288.

February 29 is called an intercalary day. Anthony TX claims to be the Leap Year Capital of the World. Texans...

In 1504 Christopher Columbus used his knowledge of a lunar eclipse that night to convince Native Americans in Jamaica to provide him with supplies. In 1960 the first Playboy Club opened in Chicago. In 1968 Dr. Jocelyn Bell Burnell discovers the first pulsar.

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