6. So lets kick off with the ‘why?’ - Leap years are needed so that the calendar is in alignment with the earth’s motion around the sun. It was the ancient Egyptians who first figured out that the solar year and the man-made calendar year didn’t always match up. It takes the Earth a little longer than a year to travel around the Sun — 365 days, 5 hours, 48 minutes, and 46 seconds, to be exact. Therefore, as the hours accumulated over the centurys, an extra day was occasionally added to the calendar, and over time the practice became more or less official. It was the Romans who first designated February 29 as leap day. Later, a more precise formula still in use today was adopted in the 16th century when the Gregorian calendar fine-tuned the calculations to include a leap day. It turns out the criteria stretch to more than the year being divisible by four:

1. Every year divisible by 4 is a leap year.
2. But every year divisible by 100 is NOT a leap year
3. Unless the year is also divisible by 400, then it is still a leap year.

These rules in practice - 1900 was not a leap year - 2000 was.

5. In a world where characters don’t age beyond a certain point, Superman’s creators have nevertheless given the hero a birthday - February 29th - chosen to accommodate his Kryptonian genetics and the as yet unanswered question as to whether he will age as those around him. Clark Kent celebrates a separate birthday - the day the Kent’s found his crashed spaceship - June 16th.

4. It seems the tradition of women proposing to men on this day has its roots in Ireland - as the story goes, the tradition of women romantically pursuing men in leap years began in 5th century Ireland, when St. Bridget complained to St. Patrick about the fair sex having to wait for men to propose. Patrick finally relented and set February 29 aside as a day allowing women the right to ask for a man’s hand in marriage.The tradition continued in Scotland, when Queen Margaret declared in 1288 that on February 29 a woman had the right to pop the question to any man she fancied. Menfolk who refused were faced with a fine in the form of a kiss, a silk dress, or a pair of gloves given to the rejected lady fair.

A similar modern American tradition, Sadie Hawkins Day, honors “the homeliest gal in the hills” created by Al Capp in the cartoon strip Li’l Abner. In the famous story line, Sadie and every other woman in town were allowed on that day to pursue and catch the most eligible bachelors in Dogpatch. Although the comic strip placed Sadie Hawkins Day in November, today it has become almost synonymous with February 29.

3.  While those born on February 29th are often meant to be especially gifted and unique individuals scouring through the selection below the names on the list don’t exactly trip of the tongue through familiarity. Though I do know a woman who has had her life turned around by Tony Robbins.

• 1468 – Pope Paul III (d. 1549)
• 1792 – Gioacchino Rossini, Italian composer (William Tell, The Barber of Seville) (d. 1868)
• 1896 – Morarji Desai, former Indian prime minister (d. 1995)
• 1916 – Dinah Shore, American singer (d. 1994)
• 1924 – Al Rosen, American baseball player
• 1924 – Carlos Humberto Romero, former president of El Salvador
• 1960 – Richard Ramirez, American serial killer
• 1960 – Anthony (Tony) Robbins, American motivational speaker
• 1964 – Lyndon Byers, Canadian hockey player
• 1972 – Antonio Sabàto Jr, Italian-born actor
• 1976 – Ja Rule, American rapper and actor
• 1980 – Chris Conley, American musician and songwriter/composer

2. Trying to accomodate this variable and construct a calendar is a tricky business.

When Rome emerged as a world power, the difficulties of making a calendar were well known, but the Romans complicated their lives because of their superstition that even numbers were unlucky. Hence their months were 29 or 31 days long, with the exception of February, which had 28 days. However, four months of 31 days, seven months of 29 days, and one month of 28 days added up to only 355 days. Therefore the Romans invented an extra month called Mercedonius of 22 or 23 days. It was added every second year.

Even with Mercedonius, the Roman calendar eventually became so far off that Julius Caesar, advised by the astronomer Sosigenes, ordered a sweeping reform. 46 B.C. was made 445 days long by imperial decree, bringing the calendar back in step with the seasons. Then the solar year (with the value of 365 days and 6 hours) was made the basis of the calendar. The months were 30 or 31 days in length, and to take care of the 6 hours, every fourth year was made a 366-day year. Moreover, Caesar decreed the year began with the first of January, not with the vernal equinox in late March.

This calendar was named the Julian calendar, after Julius Caesar, and it continues to be used by Eastern Orthodox churches for holiday calculations to this day. However, despite the correction, the Julian calendar is still 11¹/2 minutes longer than the actual solar year, and after a number of centuries, even 11¹/2 minutes adds up.

1. Today is February 29th 2008, Happy Leap Day everybody!