Feb. 29, 2008
- your chances of being born on leap day are about 1 in 1500.
- There are about 187,000 people in the US and 4 million people in the world who were born on Leap Day.
- Egyptians were the first people to add a leap day every four years. However, the Romans were the first to choose February 29th as the official date.
- 2008 has five Fridays in February. Between 1904 and 2096, leap years with the same day of the week for each date repeat every 28 years. The last time February had five Fridays was in 1980 and the next time will be in 2036.
- Sweden (and Finland) had a "double" leap year in 1712, because two days were added to February. That year there was a date February 30, 1712. This was done because the leap year in 1700 was dropped, and Sweden's calendar was not synchronized with any other calendar. By adding an extra day in 1712, they were back on the Julian calendar.
- A leap day is more likely to fall on a Monday than on a Sunday. This is because the Gregorian calendar repeats itself every 400 years, which is exactly 20,871 weeks including 97 leap days. Over this period, Feb. 29 falls 13 times on a Sunday, Tuesday or Thursday; 14 times on a Friday or Saturday; and 15 times on a Monday or Wednesday.
- The Gotthard railway tunnel between Switzerland & Italy was completed on Leap Day 1880.
- Dutch scientists produced solid helium on Leap Day 1908
- Leap Year Day Babies born in 1884 had no birthday during their entire teen-age years. Why? Because 1900 was not a Leap Year.
