97 Fun Facts About Leap Year

How many days does a leap year contain in the Gregorian calendar?

A leap year has 366 days: February gets a 29th day so the calendar keeps pace with the roughly 365.24-day solar year; lunisolar calendars such as the Hebrew one add a whole month instead.

Under the Gregorian rule, a year divisible by 100 is a leap year only if it is also divisible by what?

Only century years divisible by 400 keep their leap day, which is why 2000 had a 29 February but 1700, 1800 and 1900 did not.

Which of these century years has only 28 days in February?

2100 will be the first year divisible by four to skip its leap day since 1900, a correction that stops the calendar slipping behind the seasons.

Which holiday do many Orthodox churches celebrate on 7 January because their older calendar now runs 13 days behind?

Christmas: those churches keep the calendar Rome used before 1582, whose surplus leap days have pushed its 25 December to 7 January on the modern one.

About how long will the Gregorian calendar take to drift a full day out of step with the seasons?

About 3,000 years: the calendar's average year of 365.2425 days is less than half a minute longer than the seasons' true cycle, so the error builds very slowly.

Which Roman leader introduced the calendar with a leap day every four years, in 46 BC?

Julius Caesar ordered the reform as dictator, and stretched 46 BC with extra months so that his new calendar could start in step with the seasons on 1 January 45 BC.

Rome's year 46 BC, stretched to 445 days to realign the calendar with the seasons, earned which nickname?

The year of confusion was so named because two extra months were slotted in between November and December, on top of the usual leap month, to drag the calendar back into line.

Rome's leap-year calendar of 46 BC was modelled on the 365-day solar year of which older civilisation?

Egypt: Rome's reformers swapped an erratic lunar calendar for the 365-day Egyptian solar year and added a leap day every fourth year, with the astronomer Sosigenes advising.

A leap day makes up for roughly how much extra time Earth needs each year to finish its orbit?

About 6 hours: a year really lasts 365 days, 5 hours and 48 minutes or so, and four of those leftovers add up to roughly one extra day.

The word 'bissextile', an old term for a leap year, literally means what?

Twice sixth: Romans counted days down to the first of March, and in a leap year the sixth day before it was counted a second time instead of adding a new date.

Which global sporting event is normally held in leap years?

The Summer Olympics have fallen in leap years since 1896 with two exceptions: Paris 1900, a century year with no leap day, and Tokyo 2020, postponed to 2021.

In 1582, which month lost ten days when Catholic countries switched to the Gregorian calendar?

October 1582 jumped straight from Thursday the 4th to Friday the 15th in Spain, Italy and other Catholic lands, while the run of weekdays carried on unbroken.

On leap day 1940, who became the first Black performer to win an Academy Award?

Hattie McDaniel won Best Supporting Actress for Gone with the Wind on 29 February 1940, yet at the ceremony she was seated at a segregated table at the side of the room.

Britain's 1752 calendar switch helps explain why which annual period there still begins on 6 April?

The tax year once closed on Lady Day, 25 March; when the calendar jumped forward in 1752 the deadline was kept the same number of days away, landing in early April.

Britain's Calendar (New Style) Act 1750 cut how many days from September when it took effect?

Eleven days: Wednesday 2 September was followed by Thursday 14 September; the same act moved the start of England's legal year from 25 March to 1 January, as Scotland had done in 1600.

Which country, in 1923, became the last in Orthodox Europe to adopt the Gregorian calendar for civil use?

Greece switched on 1 March 1923, but only for civil life: the decree left religious matters alone, so Orthodox feasts kept their old dates.

Which country's calendar actually contained a February 30, in 1712?

Sweden had botched a gradual switch to the new calendar, so in 1712 it added a second leap day, 30 February, to get back in step with the old one.

The term 'leap year' is thought to arise because, after a leap day, a fixed date does what?

A date jumps two weekdays, not one, once 29 February intervenes: Halloween fell on a Tuesday in 2023 but a Thursday in 2024, leaping over Wednesday.

A person born on February 29 is often called a what?

Leapling is the usual nickname, alongside 'leaper' and 'leap-day baby'; the odds of a 29 February birth are about 1 in 1,461, and a leapling born in 1996 had seen only seven true birthdays by 2024.

Who supposedly struck the deal with St Patrick allowing women to propose in a leap year?

Brigid of Kildare, the legend goes, told St Patrick that men were too slow to propose and won women a day of their own every four years; the tale is not recorded before the 19th century.

The Irish leap-day proposal tradition is known by what name?

Bachelor's Day, also called Ladies' Privilege, is the Irish name for 29 February proposals; folklore says a man who refused owed the woman a silk gown to soften the blow.

A dubious story of a 1288 Scottish leap-year law says proposing women had to wear what?

A red petticoat, by the popular account, though the 'law' is credited to Queen Margaret of Scotland, who in 1288 was a five-year-old living abroad, one reason historians doubt it.

By British leap-year tradition, a man who turned down a woman's proposal owed her several pairs of what?

Gloves were the forfeit, perhaps so that she could hide a hand with no engagement ring; in Finland the price of saying no was said to be enough fabric for a skirt.

The Leap Year cocktail was created in 1928 at which London hotel?

The Savoy: head barman Harry Craddock mixed the Leap Year cocktail (gin, Grand Marnier, sweet vermouth, lemon) for the hotel's 29 February 1928 celebrations and printed it in The Savoy Cocktail Book in 1930.

On the evening of 29 February 1504, which explorer used a predicted lunar eclipse to frighten Jamaicans into feeding his crew?

Christopher Columbus, stranded on Jamaica, knew from an almanac that the Moon would darken that night, so he warned the islanders it was a sign of divine anger and they resumed supplying food.

In which Gilbert and Sullivan opera must the hero, born on 29 February, serve out his apprenticeship until his 21st birthday?

The Pirates of Penzance turns on the catch: Frederic is 21 but, as a leap-day baby, has had only five birthdays, so his indenture binds him for another 63 years.

Which actress stars with Matthew Goode in Leap Year (2010), about proposing in Ireland on February 29?

Amy Adams plays Anna, who sets out for Dublin to propose on 29 February but is blown off course to Dingle, where Matthew Goode's surly innkeeper Declan agrees to drive her across Ireland.

Sadie Hawkins Day, often confused with Leap Day, originated in which comic strip?

Li'l Abner: Al Capp introduced Sadie Hawkins Day on November 15, 1937 as a footrace in which Dogpatch's unmarried women chased the bachelors; college campuses turned it into a girl-asks-boy dance.

Which composer of The Barber of Seville was born on February 29, 1792?

Gioachino Rossini, born in Pesaro on 29 February 1792, lived to 76 but saw only 18 actual birthdays because 1800 was not a leap year; Ann Lee, founder of the Shakers, was born on 29 February 1736.

Which rapper, who topped the US charts with 'Always on Time', was born on 29 February 1976?

Ja Rule was born Jeffrey Atkins in Queens on leap day 1976, so his 48th birthday in 2024 was only the twelfth to fall on his actual birth date.

Which health awareness day was first held on 29 February 2008?

Rare Disease Day was launched by the patient alliance EURORDIS on 29 February 2008 because the date itself is rare; in ordinary years it moves to 28 February.

The Hebrew calendar adds a leap month seven times every 19 years so that which festival always falls in spring?

Passover must coincide with the spring barley harvest, but twelve lunar months fall short of a solar year, so without the extra month it would slide backwards through the seasons.

In the Hebrew calendar, what is the extra 30-day period inserted in a leap year called?

Adar Rishon, or first Adar, is the month added in a leap year; Purim then waits for the second Adar, and only a minor 'little Purim' is marked in the first.

Which calendar adds no leap months, so its year slips through all four seasons over about 33 years?

The Islamic calendar is purely lunar: twelve moons fall well short of a solar year, which is why Ramadan arrives earlier every year and can land in any season.

Which country's calendar has a thirteenth month of just five days, or six in a leap year?

Ethiopia's calendar has twelve 30-day months plus a short thirteenth, which gains a sixth day every fourth year without exception; its year count also runs seven or eight years behind the West's.

Ayyám-i-Há, four or five days of gifts and charity added before the final month, belong to which religious calendar?

The Baháʼí calendar has 19 months of 19 days, which leaves four or five days over; Ayyám-i-Há fills the gap so that the year stays in step with the Sun.

When a leap second is added, which reading does an official UTC clock show just before midnight?

23:59:60 appears for a single second, a reading no ordinary clock can show; leap seconds were introduced in 1972 to keep atomic time in step with Earth's slightly irregular spin.

Since 1980, which country has had a satirical newspaper that is published only on 29 February?

France's La Bougie du Sapeur began in 1980 as a joke between friends and has appeared only on leap day since, so a new issue comes out once every four years.

Which country asked to delay the end of leap seconds until 2040 because its satellite-navigation system builds them in?

Russia's GLONASS, unlike GPS, adjusts its clocks for leap seconds, so when metrologists voted in 2022 to stop adding them they set a deadline of 2035 to give time to adapt.

The main reason Earth's rotation is gradually slowing, forcing leap seconds, is what?

Tidal friction is the brake: the Moon's pull on the oceans drags on Earth's spin, stretching the day by roughly two milliseconds every century.

Which spreadsheet program deliberately keeps a bug treating 1900 as a leap year?

Microsoft Excel treats 29 February 1900 as a real date so that its day numbers match Lotus 1-2-3, the older rival whose error it copied; fixing it would shift almost every date in existing spreadsheets by one day.

Which portable music player froze worldwide on 31 December 2008 because of a leap-year bug?

Zune 30 players locked up at midnight because their clock code looped endlessly on day 366 of the year; owners had to let the battery drain and wait for 1 January.

Which US event, held every four years, almost always falls in a leap year?

The presidential election has landed in a leap year every time but twice: 1800 and 1900, century years that skipped their leap day.

The Gregorian calendar was designed to keep which astronomical event near the 21st of its month?

The spring equinox: the reform restored it to about 21 March, where it had stood at the Council of Nicaea in 325, because the date of Easter is reckoned from it.

Which motivational speaker and self-help author was born on 29 February 1960?

Tony Robbins was born on 29 February 1960, so when he turned 64 in 2024 it was only the sixteenth birthday to fall on his real birth date.

Which games console locked players out on 1 March 2010 because its clock wrongly treated 2010 as a leap year?

PlayStation 3 consoles of the original design expected a 29 February 2010 that never came, and the resulting clock error stopped many games from starting until the date rolled on.

The Solar Hijri year used in Iran begins with which festival?

Nowruz opens the month of Farvardin at the start of spring; because the year is pegged to the Sun's position rather than to a fixed rule, its leap years are set by astronomy.

Which camera company used a 13-month calendar internally until 1989, with leap day slotted in after June?

Kodak adopted the International Fixed Calendar in 1928 at its founder's urging: thirteen identical 28-day months, with an extra one called Sol in midsummer.

On leap day 2020, which country became the first in the world to make all public transport free?

Luxembourg scrapped fares on every bus, tram and train in the country on 29 February 2020, keeping a charge only for first-class rail seats.

In which sitcom does Mitchell's partner Cam, born on February 29, treat turning 40 as his tenth birthday?

Modern Family aired the episode, titled Leap Day, on 29 February 2012, with Mitchell scrambling to arrange a last-minute birthday cruise.

Which zodiac sign, the twelfth and last in the sequence, is shared by everyone born on February 29?

Pisces begins around February 19, so the leap day always lands about ten days into the sign of the two fishes.

On leap day 2008, which British royal was pulled out of Afghanistan after media leaks of a secret tour?

Prince Harry had spent ten weeks in Helmand Province directing air support before two foreign outlets broke an agreed media blackout.

Which Old West lawman, famous for killing Billy the Kid, was himself shot dead on leap day 1908?

Pat Garrett was killed on a roadside near Las Cruces, New Mexico, during a quarrel over a goat herd, and exactly who fired is still disputed.

Which tech company introduced the leap smear, later followed by Amazon, to absorb each leap second gradually?

Google stretches every second slightly across a full day around the leap second, so its clocks never have to show an extra tick.

In the 2010 film Leap Year, Anna Brady sets out for which city to propose to her boyfriend Jeremy?

Dublin takes Anna days to reach: a storm, a runaway car, a stolen suitcase and a missed train all get in the way first.

Which film won every one of its 11 nominations at the Oscars ceremony held on leap day 2004?

The Return of the King tied Ben-Hur and Titanic for the most Oscars ever won, and its clean sweep set a new mark as the largest in Academy history.

On leap day 2024, a date bug knocked pay-at-the-pump fuel stations offline for most of the day in which country?

New Zealand motorists found self-service pumps refusing cards for much of the day because the payment software could not cope with a 29th of February.

Which Nobel Peace Prize winner was arrested with fellow clergy during a Cape Town protest march on leap day 1988?

Desmond Tutu, by then Archbishop of Cape Town, was stopped on a petition march to parliament in the same month that the government banned 17 anti-apartheid organisations.

Which Japanese landmark, which became the world's tallest tower in 2011, was completed on leap day 2012?

Tokyo Skytree stands 634 metres tall, a figure chosen because 6, 3 and 4 can be read as Musashi, an old name for the region around it.

Which Moroccan city was wrecked by an earthquake late on leap day 1960, killing about a third of the population?

Agadir was levelled by a quake of only moderate magnitude, 5.8, because it struck at a shallow depth close to the city.

Which capital city's siege, three times longer than Stalingrad's, was officially declared over on leap day 1996?

Sarajevo endured 1,425 days under siege from April 1992, outlasting even the siege of Leningrad by more than a year.

On leap day 2020, the United States and the Taliban signed a peace agreement in which Gulf capital?

Doha gave the accord its common name; the deal promised a full pull-out of American and NATO troops within 14 months if the Taliban kept its side.

Which Caribbean country's president, Jean-Bertrand Aristide, was ousted and flown into exile on leap day 2004?

Haiti's ousted leader was flown to the Central African Republic and later claimed that American forces had kidnapped him, which US officials denied.

Which hockey great scored his 800th NHL goal on leap day 1980 while playing for the Hartford Whalers at 51?

Gordie Howe retired after that season with 801 goals, a league record that stood until Wayne Gretzky broke it.

On leap day 1972, which Atlanta Braves slugger became the first baseball player to earn $200,000 a year?

Hank Aaron signed a three-year, $600,000 deal while sitting on 639 career home runs, 75 short of Babe Ruth's record.

Which Canadian prime minister announced his retirement on leap day 1984 after a night-time walk in the snow?

Pierre Trudeau said he made up his mind while walking through a snowy Ottawa the day before, and a walk in the snow became Canadian shorthand for quitting politics.

Which English singer, a teen idol with The Monkees in the 1960s, died on leap day 2012?

Davy Jones had once been an apprentice jockey, and he suffered his fatal heart attack after tending his horses at a farm in Florida.

Which Roman emperor ordered leap days skipped for years after priests wrongly added one every three years?

Augustus ruled that twelve years should pass with no leap day at all, cancelling the three extra days the priests had slipped in over 36 years.

Which astronomer, named by Pliny the Elder, advised Rome's dictator on the 46 BC reform that created the leap day?

Sosigenes is generally considered the principal designer of the reform, yet almost nothing is known about him beyond Pliny's brief mentions.

Which Roman official decided each time whether the leap month Mercedonius would be added to the 355-day year?

The pontifex maximus and his fellow priests were often politicians, so a year might be stretched to keep an ally in office or left short to hurry a rival out.

Which legendary successor to Romulus is credited with adding January and February to the Roman calendar?

Numa Pompilius is also said to have given the other months 29 or 31 days because Romans thought even numbers unlucky, leaving February the odd one out.

What do astronomers call the 365.2422-day cycle of the seasons that leap days are designed to follow?

The tropical year is one full round of the seasons, and the old Julian average of 365.25 days overshot it by about 11 minutes every year.

Leap seconds exist because Earth's spin drifts against atomic clocks, which define the second using which element?

Caesium atoms tick 9,192,631,770 times in one official second, a beat far steadier than the turning of a planet.

Which Persian poet and mathematician helped design the 1079 Jalali calendar and its 33-year leap cycle?

Omar Khayyam, best known in the West for the Rubaiyat, worked from an observatory at Isfahan built for the reform, and Iran's calendar still descends from it.

Which territory switched from the Julian to the Gregorian calendar when it was sold to the United States in 1867?

Alaska's weekdays slipped as well as its dates, because the handover also moved the territory to the American side of the International Date Line.

Which American founding father was born on 11 February 1731 by the old calendar, later restyled 22 February 1732?

George Washington gained a year as well as days, because the same British reform moved New Year's Day from Lady Day back to the first of January.

Which traditional calendar adds a leap month about every three years, keeping its New Year in January or February?

Chinese leap months take the number of the month they follow, so a year can hold a fourth month and then a leap fourth month.

Which US state's border town of Anthony declared itself the Leap Year Capital of the World in 1988?

Texas's Anthony shares the title with the neighbouring Anthony in New Mexico, and the twin towns throw a parade and festival for leap-day babies every four years.

Pedro Sánchez, born on leap day 1972, became prime minister of which country in 2018 after a no-confidence vote?

Spain's parliament ousted Mariano Rajoy on 1 June 2018, and the Madrid-born Sánchez was sworn in the very next day.

Morarji Desai, born on leap day 1896, became prime minister of which country in 1977 at the age of 81?

India's Morarji Desai led the Janata Party government and lived to 99, by which time he was the world's oldest living former head of government.

Ann Lee, born in Manchester on leap day 1736, led which celibate religious sect from England to America in 1774?

The Shakers earned their nickname from the ecstatic dancing of their worship, and Mother Ann taught that celibacy was the only true road to salvation.

Which pope, born on leap day 1468, excommunicated Henry VIII and convened the Council of Trent?

Paul III was also the pope to whom Copernicus dedicated his book placing the Sun at the centre, and Michelangelo painted the Last Judgement during his reign.

Which singer and TV host, born on leap day 1916, helped found a women's golf major that long carried her name?

Dinah Shore, a keen golfer herself, helped launch the Colgate Dinah Shore tournament in 1972, and it grew into one of the majors of the women's tour.

Which big-band leader and saxophonist, born on leap day 1904, often shared a stage with his trombonist brother Tommy?

Jimmy Dorsey and his brother co-led a band until Tommy stormed off stage in 1935; they ran rival orchestras for years before reuniting in 1953.

Leonard Shoen, born on leap day 1916, co-founded which do-it-yourself moving rental company with his wife in 1945?

U-Haul began with trailers that Shoen built on his in-laws' ranch, splitting the rental fees with the gas stations that acted as his agents.

In the 2010 film Leap Year, a storm diverts Anna Brady's transatlantic flight to which capital city?

Cardiff is only the first detour: Anna hires a boat across the Irish Sea, and the same storm puts her ashore on the far side of Ireland from her goal.

In Leap Year (2010), Declan O'Callaghan runs the pub in which seaside Irish village where Anna is put ashore?

Dingle is where the surly innkeeper agrees to drive Anna across the country for 500 euros, because his pub is threatened with foreclosure.

Which Severance and Step Brothers actor plays Jeremy, the boyfriend Anna hopes to marry, in Leap Year (2010)?

Adam Scott's Jeremy does finally propose, but only because the board of an upmarket apartment building prefers its buyers to be married.

Which 3rd Rock from the Sun star appears briefly as Jack Brady, Anna's father, in the 2010 film Leap Year?

John Lithgow won three Emmys as Dick Solomon, the alien commander of that sitcom, and later another for playing Winston Churchill in The Crown.

In Leap Year (2010), Declan reclaims his mother's ring, of which traditional Irish design, from a former fiancée?

Claddagh rings show two hands clasping a crowned heart, for friendship, loyalty and love, and Declan ends the film proposing with his.

Which comedy star makes a guest appearance in the spoof holiday film shown within 30 Rock's 2012 episode Leap Day?

Jim Carrey sends up his own feel-good comedies in the fake film, with Andie MacDowell as his wife in a nod to her part in Groundhog Day.

In Parks and Recreation, which Pawnee office scapegoat is revealed as a leap-day baby in the episode Sweet Sixteen?

Jerry Gergich was born on February 29, 1948, so the 64th birthday marked in the episode is only his sixteenth real one, hence its title.

In Alan Moore's comic For the Man Who Has Everything, which superhero is brought gifts on a February 29 birthday?

Superman is found in a trance, an alien plant wrapped around him, by friends who have come to the Fortress of Solitude with birthday presents.

Which director of Hilary and Jackie and Shopgirl made the 2010 romantic comedy Leap Year?

Anand Tucker, born in Thailand and based in London, started out directing factual television and adverts before moving into feature films.

Which Serbian scientist devised the 1923 Revised Julian calendar, more accurate than the Gregorian in its leap years?

Milutin Milanković, better known for tying ice ages to slow changes in Earth's orbit, kept only those century leap years that leave 200 or 600 when divided by 900.

What do watchmakers call a mechanical complication that tracks month lengths and leap years without manual correction?

A perpetual calendar keeps count of the leap cycle on its own, whereas the simpler annual calendar, patented for wristwatches in 1996, still needs resetting after each February.

Which former Chicago police detective, born on leap day 1944, played Joe Fontana on Law & Order?

Dennis Farina was still on the force when director Michael Mann hired him as a police consultant and then gave him a small part in the 1981 film Thief.