You might want to keep this for her (from
http://antwrp.gsfc.nasa.gov/apod/ap000229.html). Then you can tease her about
waiting 400 years for her next birthday.
2000 February 29
Even as leap days go, today is a remarkable one. In 46 BC, Julius Caesar, ...
created a calendar system that added one leap day every four years. Acting on
advice by Alexandrian astronomer Sosigenes, Caesar did this to make up for the
fact that the Earth's year is slightly more than 365 days. In other words, the
time it takes for the Earth to circle the Sun is slightly more than the time it
takes for the Earth to rotate 365 times (with respect to the Sun -- actually we
now know this takes about 365.24219 rotations). So, if calendar years contained
365 days they would drift from the actual year by about 1 day every 4 years.
Eventually July (named posthumously for Julius Caesar himself) would occur
during the northern hemisphere winter! By adopting a leap year with an extra day
every four years, the calendar year would drift much less. This Julian Calendar
system was used until the year 1582 when Pope Gregory XIII added that leap days
should not occur in years ending in "00" except if divisible by 400, providing
further fine-tuning. This Gregorian Calendar system is the one in common use
today. Therefore, even though this year 2000 ends in "00", it remains a leap
year, and today is the added leap day. That makes today the first leap day for a
centurial year since year 1600 and the second such leap day of the Gregorian
Calendar.
Mike Butler wrote:
> Sure enough, by 7:30 PM I had a new baby girl on my hands, and a "Leapling"
> at that. Nicole is 8lbs 1oz (3.72Kg), 19.5" (495mm)lg, not bad for
> three weeks early!
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