Ah, the feel of the magical day that only comes around every four years—February 29. Historical study of Leap Years is pretty interesting and shows how advanced our ancient ancestors were. In the first century BCE, Julius Caesar and his astronomer recalculated the 355-day Roman calendar after they noticed it was out of sync with the seasons. They came up with the 365-day calendar that would occasionally add an extra day to February—this created the Julian calendar.
Then in 1582, Pope Gregory XII and his astronomers had to readjust the calendar again. Over the years, the Julian calendar had created an 11-day difference between the calendar and the seasons. To re-sync everything, the Gregorian calendar—which we still use today—first adjusted the date by moving from March 11 to March 22. That made up for 11-days. Then, it changed the leap year rules by stating that a century year could only be a leap year if it were divisible by 400. So, 2000 was a leap year, but 1900 wasn’t.
Even today, the calendar isn’t precise. Over the next 3,000 years, the tiny difference between the calendar year and the solar year will add up to a one-day difference. Hopefully, someone will still be around to have to worry about coming up with a way to correct it.
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Let’s take a look at two other big events that happen on Leap Years.
Summer Olympics. Every four years, we get to enjoy the summer games. It also brings around the only reason I ever tune into NBC. I’m more of a fan of the winter games, as they have the fun sports to watch—hockey, curling, and luge (and related events). I guess locally, eyes will be on Michael Phelps, but I just can’t get into swimming. If I wanted to watch a bunch of skinny guys do something I can’t, I’d watch porn. Since the summer games are in London, I hope that Pippa’s butt doesn’t overshadow the events as it did at the royal wedding.
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Presidential elections. We’re in the thick of another election year that is of little interest to me. I’ll vote, but I can’t get into the politics behind it all. I have often failed to vote along party lines in the past and this year, I actually changed parties for the first time since I first registered. Elections is one case that that Pippa’s butt could really spice up. Maybe we can work out a trade.
