Talk:February 29
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February 29: A leap day in the Gregorian calendar.
- 1704 - Joint French and Native American forces destroyed Deerfield, Massachusetts during Queen Anne's War.
- 1712 - February 29 was followed by February 30 in Sweden, in a move to abolish the Swedish calendar.
- 1940 - At the 12th Academy Awards ceremony, Hattie McDaniel became the first African American to win an Oscar.
- 1988 - South African archbishop Desmond Tutu (pictured) was arrested along with 100 clergymen during a five-day anti-apartheid demonstration in Cape Town
- 2004 - Jean-Bertrand Aristide resigned as President of Haiti following popular rebel uprising.
Recent days: February 28 – February 27 – February 26
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("1915 - Child labor: In South Carolina ...") Was 1915 a Leap Year for some reason I can't fathom?
Ja Rule's b/day is given on February 28 as well as 29. Possibly a Leap Day confusion.
someone wrote: :Not true. February 29 is not added in leap years. February 24 is.
Was that someone thinking of the Roman or Julian calendar? February 24 occurs every year in the Gregorian calendar, so far as I know. --MichaelTinkler
No, in both the Roman, the Julian and the Gregorian calendar, February 24 is the added day. Of course February 24 exists in non-leap years also, but it is a different day. The day called "Feb. 24" in non-leap years is actually "Feb. 25" in leap years, and the non-leap year "Feb 28" is leap year "Feb 29". The origins go back to the Roman period -- Feb 24 is the bissextile day -- I think talk:leap year explains it. -- SJK
- While it's historically true that February 24 was the "added" leap day up until 1996, the European Union, drawing upon its ineffable wisdom, has declared that February 29 would be the leap day starting in the year 2000. Best to finesse it with 'occurs'. -- Someone else 23:51 Nov 1, 2002 (UTC)
Under births, one of the years in 1763. But 1763 is not a leap year. What is the correct year? Eric119 23:02 Apr 22, 2003 (UTC)
- It looks like Ann Lee's dates are Feb 29, 1736 - Sept 8, 1784, so someone just flipped two digits. Fixed now. -- Someone else 23:25 Apr 22, 2003 (UTC)
The opening paragraph is wrong -- it says "with one exception", but actually there are two exceptions to the simple rule (one slightly arcane xception that century years are excluded, and one even more arcane exception that quatracentenary years are included). I tried to fix this earlier, but someone reverted my changes; I had done quite a rewrite as an attempt. So rather than try again, I'll just mention the mistake here, and hope someone else will fix it this time, and maybe it will last :) Pagan 09:53, 1 Jan 2004 (UTC)
>>>If you can divide the century by 400 and get a whole number, it's a leap year (leap century). So 2000 was a leap year. 2100, 2200 and 2300 are not. Pity the poor slob born on Feb-29, 2099. He won't have a birthday for 8 years! BTW. The leap-century math was kinda ignored by MicroSoft when they wrote Excel. Look on "The Leap Year Day Honor Roll" webpage and you'll get all the gory details.
There is a tradition that women may make a proposal of marriage to men only on February 29
"to men only"? What if they are bissextile?
February 29th is Superman's Birthday. Seriously! - Sparky 22:22, 29 Feb 2004 (UTC)
Have you heard the joke that February 29 is Job's birthday? When he said 'Let the day perish wherein I was born', God didn't grant his request entirely but made a concession to him by obliterating the day three years in four. Jess Cully 10:48, 29 July 2005 (UTC)
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[edit] Feb 29th NOT the definition of a leap year!
See Soviet revolutionary calendar or February 30. In odd circumstances there has been a Feb 29th outside of a leap year. Shouldn't this sentence bee removed?
[edit] Question re Feb 29.
Is it better that Feb 29 falls:
- in the middle of the year, or
- at the end of the year?
When March was the first Month, and December the 10th month, Feb 29 did indeed fall at the end of the year.
Syd1435 05:58, 2004 Nov 22 (UTC)
Agree that the end of the year is the best place for leap day. Let's have December 32 in leap years and extend the Christmas-New Year festivities. Jess Cully 10:44, 29 July 2005 (UTC)
[edit] Waiting an extra day?
Article says: An English law of 1256 decrees that in leap years the leap day and the day before are to be reckoned as one day for the purpose of calculating when a full year has passed; thus, in England and Wales a person born on February 29 legally reaches the age of 18 or 21 on February 28 of the relevant year. In the European Union, February 29 only officially became the leap day in 2000.
If the law really does say that, that would also mean that someone born on February 28 on a non-leap year isn't 18 until February 29 if that is a leap year.
- Previous was by User:Random832
- No, if you are born in the middle of April 2nd, you become 18 at the beginning of April 2nd. 12 AM February 28 is the beginning of the "day" that includes February 28 and February 29. DenisMoskowitz 15:45, 2005 August 10 (UTC)
In "The Pirates of Penzance" - an Operetta by Gilbert and Sullivan: Frederic encounters Ruth and the Pirate King. They inform him that his apprenticeship was worded so as to bind him to them until his twenty-first birthday – and, because that birthday happens to be on the extra day of Leap Year (February 29), that means that technically only five birthdays have passed ("When you had left our pirate fold"). Frederic is convinced that he must rejoin the pirates by this logic. (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Pirates_of_Penzance) Does the above law prove Gilbert & Sullivan wrong?
- Not necessarily. English laws are drafted without using the term "birthday", instead always saying 'when a person has reached the age of' X years. Using 'birthday' leaves things open to the Gilbert & Sullivan interpretation. Jess Cully 13:47, 12 October 2006 (UTC)
[edit] Questionable Facts
The article states that "a century year is not a leap year unless ... it leaves a remainder of 200 or 600 when divided by 900. Note that years divisible by 4000 will currently not be leap years, despite being divisble by 400." I havent read about this anywhere and it sound to me like nonsense. Unless someone can confirm the facts i will delete them. --AMorris (talk)●(contribs) 05:05, 21 September 2005 (UTC)
Note that years divisible by 4000 will currently not be leap years, despite being divisble by 400. This is patently false. No mention of a longer intercalation period is mentioned in the Papal Bull establishing the Gregorian calendar. No changes have been made since then. I am going to change the article to state that such an idea has been proposed, but not put into action (for among other reasons, it's not immediately clear who has the authority to do so). 68.227.80.79 23:44, 26 November 2005 (UTC)
Probably the United Nations or the International Astronomical Union. Jess Cully 15:12, 12 December 2005 (UTC)
The divisible by 4000 discussion is mildly interesting, but one we'll have to pick up in roughly 1,993 years. If we're still not sure then, we'll have to get back on it around CE 7995. Tzittnan 20:04, 28 February 2007 (UTC)
[edit] Birth year query
1900 - Giorgos Seferis, Greek poet and Nobel laureate (d. 1971)—how so, since 1900 wasn't a leap year? Was Greece still following the Julian Calendar?
- Yes, it was. Greece adopted the Gregorian Calendar in 1917. Jess Cully 13:44, 12 October 2006 (UTC)
[edit] Leap day is more likely to fall on a Monday than on a Sunday
The article says "a leap day is more likely to fall on a Monday than on a Sunday." Surely this can't be true, can it? Pelago 11:51, 3 March 2006 (UTC)
Yes, it is correct. I didn't believe it either, so I checked!
400 years contain 97 leap days. This is a total of 400*365+97 days, which is 146097 days, which is exactly 20871 weeks. Therefore 29th February is the same day of the week (Tuesday, in fact) in all years divisible by 400. So the 97 leap-days within each 400-year cycle cannot be equally spread over the days of the week. In fact there are 13 Sundays, Tuesdays and Thursdays, 14 Fridays and Saturdays, and 15 Mondays and Wednesdays.
[edit] Women proposing?
The paragraph on Women proposing on the leap day or year is quaint, but it is presented as having the force of law in some juristdiction. Could we get more specific info on when and where this "tradition" was in practice, with maybe even an example or two? -- 75.26.2.209 17:41, 30 June 2006 (UTC)
Lookup "Sadie Hawkins Day".
Can we have a reference inserted for this? In 1288 the Scottish parliament legislated that any woman could propose in Leap Year. (You know, date, title, section, paragraph, stuff like that!)
[edit] Kayla Rolland
Is she really considered a notable death because she was only a school shooting victim, which is not notable to the world, even if it did made major headlines in local areas? The Legendary Ranger 22:11, 30 July 2006 (UTC)
- I've removed the bit about the shooting from events. Fabricationary 22:21, 30 July 2006 (UTC)
[edit] Unusual date?
Is February 29 really an unusual date?? --218.186.9.3 09:14, 22 December 2006 (UTC)'
>>It only comes once every 1461 days. You '365ers' aren't too quick, are you?
[edit] Birth of Richard Ramirez
According to the births on this page, "1960 - Richard Ramirez, American serial killer", however according to the page for Richard Ramirez, he was born February 28, 1960 - this is also cited (but the cited link requires registration. Looks like quite an infamous person over in the US, so can anyone confirm one date over the other? --Woodgreener 15:46, 21 January 2007 (UTC)
[edit] Ash Wednesday
Has Ash Wednesday ever fallen on February 29th? If not, which leap year which will have February 29 on a Wednesday will have Ash Wednesday on February 29? 69.110.178.92,04:10 2 March 2007 (UTC)
