@ February 29 LEAP Year - LEAP Day © 1995-2008 Leap Day (February 29th)
@ February 29 LEAP Year - LEAP Day
(an extra day / 24 hours / 1440 minutes / 86,400 seconds) Why???
the Original Leap Day Site
Welcome Home LEAPERS! page down for more info!
^{By John Strohsacker LEAPER ~ 1968 Baltimore MD USA}
Greetings from Baltimore, Maryland USA 
About Leaper John Strohsacker: I am a professional sports photographer and have been running a very successful greeting card business the last few years. I am also a certified public accountant. I was born on Feb 29th, 1968.  Back in late 1995 early 1996 I decided to compile information about Feb. 29th I had found on the internet.
Back then google was not around and yahoo was just getting started.  It took a while to find information on the origins of Leap Day - Leap Year.
This page was the result of my search into Leap Year - Leap Day. Not long after publishing this page in 1995, I  began receiving hundreds of e-mails from fellow leap year babies happy to find other leap day babies are out there. I took this for granted, having been in a high school class with two other leap day kids.  For the thousands of leap year babies out there, Howdy! Hopefully this site will provide you with information for yourself and those that ask you about this unique day. Thanks for stopping in.
I usually update the site in early February so come back to see updates.

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leap frog

Join our Flickr Group to share photos and discussion on LEAP Day.
http://www.flickr.com/groups/february29th/

Click on the cards below to see other cards I have designed.

http://www.mystro.com/

John Strohsacker (10 leap years) -Feb 29, 2008  ENJOY

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^{Some great fun facts for those of us lucky enough to be born on a day that comes around every four years.} 
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You have a 1 in 1506 or 1 in 1,461 chance of being born on February 29th 
Depends how you calculate it and what day it falls on.
Want To Know Why? Click Here

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 About 200,000 people in the US & 4.1 million people in the World are Leap Day Babies
based on the US Census Population Clocks

"Growing up when there wasn't a 29th, my parents gave me a "birthday weekend" so we usually celebrated the closest weekend, the 28th and the 1st! I didn't get presents every day, but  they did something special for me each day!"   Melissa W. ----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Sunday on Feb. 29 has occurred only three  times from 1900 to 2000: in 1920, 1948 and 1976.  After 2004, the next year it will happen is 2032.  Happens every 28 years.

^{Here's where we start:}
Why do we have Leap Day?
(and why do I only get a REAL birthday once every four years?)
w/information provided by Royal Greenwich Observatory:

Our solar year (the time required for Earth to travel once around the Sun) is 365.24219 days.

Our calendar year is either 365 days in non leap years or 366 days in leap years (Feb 29th inserted). 

A leap year every 4 years gives us 365.25 days, sending our seasons off course and eventually in the wrong months.

To change .25 days to .24219, we need to skip a few leap days (Feb 29ths) .... century marks not divisible by 400.  So with a few calculations tweek the calendar by skipping 3 of 4 century leap years to average out our calendar year to 365.2425, which is pretty darn close to the solar year 365.24219.

Here’s the history:
The Romans originally had a 355-day calendar.  To keep up with the seasons, an extra 22 or 23-day month was inserted every second year.  For reasons unknown, this extra month was only observed now and then.  By Julius Caesar’s time, the seasons no longer occurred at the same calendar periods as history had shown.  To correct this, Caesar eliminated the extra month and added one or two extra days to the end of various months (his month included, which was Quintilis, later renamed Julius we know it as July).  This extended the calendar to 365 days.  Also intended was an extra calendar day every fourth year (following the 28th day of Februarius).  However, after Caesar’s death in 44 B.C., the calendars were written with an extra day every 3 years instead of every 4 until corrected in 8 A.D.  So again, the calendar drifted away from the seasons.  By 1582, Pope Gregory XIII recognized that Easter would eventually become closer and closer to Christmas.  The calendar was reformed so that a leap day would occur in any year that is divisible by 4 but not divisible by 100 except when the year is divisible by 400.  Thus 1600 and 2000, although century marks, have a Leap Day. 

The calendar we use today, known as the Gregorian calendar, makes our year 365.2425 days only off from our solar year by .00031, which amounts to only one day’s error after 4,000 years.
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Here is a great starting place to learn more about the calendar and leap day
Royal Greenwich Observatory.
_{Leaflet No. 52:`The Year AD 2000'   |   Leaflet No. 50: `Calendar' |  Leaflet No. 48: `LeapYear'}
These were replaced and here is an updated Leap Year explaination

Calendars from around the world (e-book)

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The question you will be asked all day is ....
Q: When does a person born on Feb 29 celebrate his birthday? 
A: Answer is Here  by Mensanator
Send me some creative responses
http://www.flickr.com/groups/february29th/

"Thirty days hath September,
April, June, and November;
All the rest have thirty-one
Excepting February alone:
Which hath but twenty-eight, in fine,
Till leap year gives it twenty-nine." :-)
"Thirty Days Hath September" rhyme

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"Was XXXX year a Leap Year?" 
JavaScript Leap Year Calculator by dataIP
to the rescue... click here

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Bill Hollon<<><>>calendarman
All you ever wanted to know about calendars 

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Cake Design by  Santoni's Market  Copyrighted 2000-2004
^{Quadrennial LeapDayPotpourri(fun leap stories)}

^{Februray 29th - Leap Day - 2000 
If you're like most people, you shudder at the thought of one more Y2K 
headache, millenium bug, computer glitch, or Spam-storing person camping out 
in a makeshift fort waiting for the world to end.  The world did not end and 
it's not going to.  But this thought was real-- just momentarily for some, 
yet in others' minds for years: how to get around potential disasters 
resulting from a few misplaced numbers? 
---------------------------------- 
Which brings us to today, February 29, a day created just to get around 
potential disasters.  Leap Day, a day born long ago out of calculation 
dilemmas similar to those we faced more recently. Despite thousands of 
high-paid techies and millions of dollars in innovative software, we were 
still left struggling in Y2K with a number crunch equal to the one faced by 
 team of abacus-toting scientists and mathematicians in 1582.  How 
far have we come? It took nearly 1600 years of fine-tuning our modern-day 
calendar to avoid such disasters as snow falling in July and sunbathing in 
November. The flaws encountered within the otherwise ingenious Roman Calendar 
make for Leap Day's unique history. 
------------------------- 
The original Roman 355 day calendar had an extra 22-day month every few years 
to maintain the correct seasonal changes. By the time Julius Caesar took 
reign, the seasons no longer occurred during the same months they once had. 
Panicking, he remedied this in 44 B.C. by tossing the extra month and adding 
the extra day to a few months instead.  He threw in a month in honor of 
himself (Julius-- July) and died a happy man having solved the calendar woes. 
Not quite. Still creating seasonal confusion, the calendar was again changed, 
first from an extra day every 3 years, to one every 4 years in 8 A.D.  It was 
then finally perfected  with some complicated logic by Pope Gregory XIII in 
1582 (who predicted Easter and Christmas would eventually fall on top of each 
other without his divine intervention). He determined that Leap Day should
fall on any year divisible by 4 but not 100 (except when the year is 
divisible by 400), setting up a calendar nearly identical to that of Mother 
Nature.  Thus, today our year is 365.2425 days, off from our solar year by 
.00031, or one day's error over 4,000 years.  Not bad.  And without this
extra day, who knows of the chaos that might have ensued? 
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If you're a "Leaper," you will celebrate today with passion close to the 
fervor of this past New Year's Eve.  Party till you drop; make up for the 3 
years you spent watching friends and family hit milestone birthdays on days
that actually exist.  Cherish the fact that you have beaten the 1,506 odds 
against being born on Leap Day, into this secret society, a parallel universe 
that flashes before our eyes every 4 years restoring order to all mankind. 
Sigh some relief that you don't have to spend Birthday 2000 on February 28th 
or March 1st, pretending again. If you're 40, convince yourself you're 10 and 
reconnect with your inner child. Throw a party with Frog Legs, Hops, and 
Grasshopper Pie on the menu, and serve Leap Year Cocktails. Join the 
Worldwide Leap Year Birthday Club and attend the Worldwide Leap Year 
Festival. And buy one of those annoying desktop zodiak calendars you've 
always wanted, to read your real birthday horoscope! 
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If you're a woman, wait no longer for that engagement ring-- today, Sadie 
Hawkins day, is your day to propose marriage. This tradition originates in 
Ireland in the 5th century, when St. Bridget convinced St. Patrick to allow 
one day that a woman could propose.  If the man refused, he was fined 
(incidentally, St. Bridget proposed to St. Patrick that day; he said no).
1,600 years later, the fine has been ousted (who's idea was that?), but women 
still have only this one day every 4 years set aside to profess their love 
and commitment for the men in their lives. Again, just how far have we come? 
-------------------------------------------- 
For most not fortunate enough to celebrate a birthday today, it may be simply 
an extra day we have to trudge to work without getting paid. Even so, it's
one special day out of every 1,460 that somehow, in the grand scheme of 
things, prevents seasons from colliding and keeps life interesting. 
by AS Dawson 2/23/2000 ©}

One my favorite math books! 
Innumeracy : Mathematical Illiteracy and ItsConsequencesby John Allen Paulos
Review
Booknews, Inc. , September 1, 1989
Paulos (mathematics, Temple U.) examines many aspects of popular culture, from stock scams and newspaper psychics to diet and medical claims to demonstrate the popular misperceptions resulting from the inability to deal with large numbers, probability, ratios. No bibliography or index. Annotation copyright Book News, Inc. Portland, Or. 
 

DAY

"time required for a celestial body to turn once on its axis especially the period of the Earth's rotation."EB

YEAR

"time required for the Earth to travel once around the Sun, about 365 1/4 days. This fractional number makes necessary the periodic intercalation of days in any calendar that is to be kept in step with the seasons"EB

LEAP YEAR

"Year containing some intercalary period, especially a Gregorian year having a 29th day of February instead of the standard 28 days. The astronomical year, the time taken for the Earth to complete its orbit around the Sun, is about 365.242199 days" EB

Gregorian Calendar

The Gregorian Calendar was proclaimed in 1582 by Pope Gregory XIII as a reform of the Julian calendar established by Julius Caesar. 
We use the Gregorian Calendar today.  The Gregorian "calendar year is now 365.2425 days and the error compared with the true
value amounts to only 3 days in 10,000 years."RGO