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You have a 1 in 1,506 chance of being born on February 29th
Heres the history: The Romans originally had a 355-day calendar. To
keep up with the seasons, an extra 22 or 23-day month was inserted every second year. For reasons unknown, this extra
month was only observed now and then. By Julius Caesars time, the seasons no longer occurred at the same calendar periods
as history had shown. To correct this, Caesar eliminated the extra month and added one or two extra days to the end
of various months (his month included, which was Quintilis, later renamed Julius we know it as July). This extended
the calendar to 365 days. Also intended was an extra calendar day every fourth year (following the 28th day of Februarius).
However, after Caesar's death in 44 B.C., the calendars were written with an extra day every 3 years instead of every 4 until
corrected in 8 A.D. So again, the calendar drifted away from the seasons. By 1582, Pope Gregory XIII recognized
that Easter would eventually become closer and closer to Christmas. The calendar was reformed so that a leap day would
occur in any year that is divisible by 4 but not divisible by 100 except when the year is divisible by 400. Thus 1600
and 2000, although century marks, have a Leap Day.
The calendar we use today, known as the Gregorian calendar, makes our year 365.2425
days only off from our solar year by .00031, which amounts to only one days error after 4,000 years.
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