Everything You Need to Know About the Leap Day Calendar

Leap Years mess up our calendars every four years. Every four years, the Leap Day calendar includes an extra day. An extra day to do what? Well, that’s up to you.

But how did the Leap Day calendar get to what it is today?

Well, it started with Julius Caesar.

How was the Leap Day calendar created?

For the past 400 years, we’ve followed the Gregorian calendar, which syncs up with how long it takes for Earth to orbit the sun once. Since a calendar year is 365 days, then it must take 365 days for Earth to orbit the sun once, right?

Well, not really.

It takes approximately 365.2422 days, which translates to 365 days, five hours, 48 minutes and 45 seconds. And to make up for the extra .25 hours of our day that we lose everyday, we added an extra day every four years.

On the other hand, the Roman Calendar had 355 days with an extra 22-day month every two years. Sounds ridiculous, right? Well, Julius Caesar seemed to think so, too. So, he made his astronomer come up with something better. Thus, Sosigenes of Alexandria came up with the idea of changing the calendar to 365 days a year with an extra day added every four years.

Caesar implemented this suggestion in 46 B.C.

Then, 500 years later, Pope Gregory XIII came along and his astronomers decided to tweak the calendar to make it more accurate, so they agreed to lose three days every 400 years.

But what does this mean and how often does a leap year occur?

Because the Gregorian calendar was introduced in 1582, leap year was no longer calculated by just dividing four to the years.

Since it actually takes Earth 365.2422 to orbit the sun, adding an extra day every four years added too much time, so the Gregorian calendar balanced everything out.

Due to this, leap year only occurs on century years that are divisible by 400. So, 1700, 1800 and 1900 weren’t leap years but 1600 and 2000 were.

What should you do the next time Leap Year comes around?

If you’re wondering, the next Leap Year will occur in 2020, which is only three years away. But if you want to be able to calculate the next Leap Year yourself, here’s how.

Since leap years occur every four years, leap years are evenly divisible by four, such as 2012, 2014 and 2016. But if it’s a century year and it’s divisible by 100 and not 400, then it’s not a leap year.

So, when leap year comes around again in 2020, you’ll be prepared to calculate when Feb. 29 will appear on your calendars again.

What are some famous Leap Day birthdays?

Leap Day babies can only celebrate their birthdays on its actual day every four years. But this community of people isn’t as small as you may think. There are about 4 million Leap Year babies all around the world. And, of course, some of them are famous.

Here’s a list of some famous Leap Year babies you may recognize:

• Tony Robbins: an American author, entrepreneur and philanthropist
• Ja Rule: a rapper
• Mark Foster: lead vocalist for the American indie-pop band Foster the People
• Jessie T. Usher: American actor

Here are some facts about Leap Year birthdays.

Leap Year birthdays are a lot more common than you’d think.

• Under 200,000 people have a Leap Year birthday in the U.S.
• There are 1,461 days in four years, so you have a 1 in 1,461 chance of having a Leap Year birthday.
• There is a Guinness World Record for most consecutive generations born on Feb. 29. Peter Anthony was born in Ireland on Feb. 29, 1940. His son, Peter Eric was born on the same day in 1964, as was his granddaughter Bethany Wealth in 1996.

So, now that you understand the Leap Day calendar a little better, you can spend the day making the most of it. You can go skydiving, celebrate a birthday, take a trip. Either way, don’t miss out on the extra 24 hours we receive once every four years.