Leap Day: The Calendar's Rarest Birthday
February 29 exists only in leap years, a calendar correction introduced by Julius Caesar in 46 BC to account for the extra quarter-day it takes Earth to orbit the Sun. People born on this date — called "leaplings" — celebrate their actual birthday once every four years, creating curious legal complications around age and milestones that vary from country to country.
February 29
What Else Happened on February 29
la décrétion de Childebert est publiée. Inspiré par la reine mère Brunehilde, ce texte organise et modernise la justice et la police en Austrasie (la date exact…
Odo wasn't supposed to be king. He was a count, not a Carolingian. But when Vikings besieged Paris in 885, he held the city for eleven months while Emperor Char…
صدور قانون في اسكتلندا يقضي بتغريم الرجل الأعزب إذا ما طلبت يده امرأة ورفض طلبها.
Christopher Columbus threatened to summon divine wrath by predicting a lunar eclipse, a calculated bluff that terrified the Taíno people into surrendering food …
Abel Tasman left Batavia in 1644 to find whether New Guinea connected to the mysterious southern land he'd glimpsed two years earlier. He sailed the entire nort…
Abel Tasman left Batavia on January 29, 1644, commanding three ships with orders to find out if New Guinea connected to the mysterious southern land he'd glimps…
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