ORLANDO, Fla. – A leap year, contrary to the usual 365-day cycle, spans 366 days. This adjustment is necessary due to the true duration of a year being approximately 365.25 days, not the commonly recognized 365 days.
Leap years recur every four years, wherein years divisible evenly by four, like 2024, feature 366 days. The additional day is inserted into the calendar on Feb. 29.
Nevertheless, there exists a caveat to this pattern concerning century years, such as 1900. Given that a year is marginally shorter than 365.25 days, incorporating an extra day every four years results in an accumulation of roughly three extra days over 400 years.
[EXCLUSIVE: Become a News 6 Insider (it’s FREE) | PINIT! Share your photos]
Consequently, only one in every four century years is designated as a leap year. Century years are leap years only if they are divisible evenly by 400. Hence 1700, 1800, 1900, and 2100 did not observe leap years, while 1600 and 2000 did.
Julius Caesar is considered the “Father of Leap Year” coming up with the the concept of the leap year back in 45 BCE. At that time, the early Romans followed a 355-day calendar year, to ensure festivals consistently aligned with the seasons, they introduced a 22 or 23-day month every other year.
Seeking a simpler idea, Julius Caesar revised the calendar to span 365 days, with the assistance of his astronomer, Sosigenes, who performed the necessary mathematical calculations.
The idea involved adding days to various months of the year. Specifically, every fourth year, beginning after Feb. 28, an additional day was inserted, thus establishing the leap year pattern.
In 1582, Pope Gregory XIII further refined the calendar by instituting the rule that Leap Day would be inserted in any year divisible by four, as previously described.
Get today’s headlines in minutes with Your Florida Daily: