Community Corner

Patch Poll: How Will You Spend the Extra Leap Day Hours?

Plus, check out our fun Leap Year facts.

Today marks an unusual—and very occasional—day on the calendar.

We’re talking about Leap Day, that extra last day in February that only comes around once every four years.

The reason behind adding an extra day to the calendar is to keep the calendar in sync with the earth’s revolutions around the sun. It takes 365.242199 days for the earth to complete a full rotation around the sun. Our calendar, however, marks out 365 days a year. If we didn’t add a day every four years, we would lose six hours from our calendar every year. In the course of a century, that would add up to a loss of 24 days. Eek!

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As fans of the film Leap Year already will know, Feb. 29 also traditionally is a day where women are “permitted” to romantically pursue men. The tradition dates back to fifth-century Ireland, when St. Bridget lamented to St. Patrick about the "fair sex having to wait for men to propose."

As a result, St. Patrick relented and declared Feb. 29 to be set aside as a day when women could ask men for their hand in marriage. Got that, ladies?

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Leap Day also provides some unusual birthday issues for those born on Feb. 29. Is the birthday girl 13 or 52? We’re pretty sure the answer depends on how youthful she’s feeling that day.

Below are some more fun facts about Leap Day as well as a few famous Leap Year babies.

Just for fun, we also want to know what you’re going to do with your extra 24 hours today. Answer our Patch Poll, or leave your plans in the comment section.

Fun Facts for Leap Year:

  • Julius Caesar introduced leap year around 45 BCE.
  • On Feb. 29, 1860, Herman Hollerith invented the first electric tabulating machine, the forerunner to the calculator.
  • Hattie McDaniel, the first black person to win an Oscar, won the award for Best Supporting Actress for her role as Mammy in Gone with the Wind. The awards ceremony took place on Feb. 29, 1940.
  • The chances of being born in a leap year are 1 in 1,461.

Famous Leap Year Births:

  • 1792: Italian opera composer Gioacchino Rossini
  • 1916: Singer Dinah Shore
  • 1920: Pulitzer Prize-winning poet Howard Nemerov
  • 1924: Cleveland Indians third baseman Al Rosen
  • 1960: Motivational speaker Tony Robbins
  • 1972: Actor Antonio Sabato, Jr.
  • 1976: Rapper Ja Rule


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