Today is the Day Women Are 'Permitted' to Propose to Men and Other Fun Leap Year Facts

Every four years, we add an extra day to the calendar to keep it 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 a mere 365 days a year. If we did not add a day every four years, we would lose six hours from our calendar every year. That would add up to the loss of 24 days in the course of 100 years!

Fun Facts for Leap Year:

• February 29 is traditionally a day where women are “permitted” to romantically pursue men. The tradition dates back to 5th century Ireland when St. Bridget lamented to St. Patrick about the "fair sex having to wait for men to propose." As a result, Patrick relented and declared that February 29 is the day that would be set aside when women can ask men for their hand in marriage.
• Greek superstition claims that bad luck will come to couples that marry during a leap year. Allegedly one in five engaged couples in Greece will avoid planning their wedding during a leap year.
• Julius Caesar introduced Leap Years around 45 BC.
• In the 16th century, the Gregorian calendar fine-tuned the calculations to include a leap day in years only divisible by four and stipulated that no year divisible by 100 would have a leap year, except if it was divisible by 400—What? So that means that 1900 was not a leap year, 2000 was and so are 2012, 2016, 2020, 2024, and so on.
• On February 29 in the year 1860, Herman Hollerith invented the first electric tabulating machine, the forerunner to the calculator.
• Hattie McDaniel was the first black person to win an Oscar. McDaniel won Best Supporting Actress for her role as Mammy in Gone with the Wind. The awards ceremony took place on February 29, 1940.
• The chances of being born on a Leap Year are 1 in 1,461.
• Norway's Henriksen siblings are recognized by the Guinness Book of World Records. The three siblings were born on three consecutive leap days. Heidi Henriksen, 1960; Olav Henriksen, 1964; and Leif-Martin Henriksen, 1968.

Famous Leap Year Births:

• 1792: Italian opera composer Gioacchino Rossini
• 1916: Singer Dinah Shore
• 1920: Pulitzer Prize-winning poet Howard Nemerov
• 1924: Cleveland Indians 3rd Baseman Al Rosen
• 1976: Rapper Ja Rule

For more fun trivia on Leap Years, click here.