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October 10, 2008 6:44:42 PM CDT

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Stories related to: leap year

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4 Stories

  • February 2008

    • Why We Have Leap Year

      New York Times  |  Feb 29, 08 2:35 PM CST

      Why We Have Leap Year

      (Newser) - It's leap day, and scientist Chris Turner uses his extra time to muse in th e New York Times on its origins. Julius Caesar came up with a plan—pinning the calendar to the Earth's circling of the sun—in 46 BC as a way to synchronize months with the seasons. But one circuit takes 365 days, 5 hours, 49 minutes, creating the need for an extra day every 4 years. More »

      Tags

      leap year  • Gregorian calendar  • Pope Gregory XIII  • Julius Caesar

    • Leap Day Cocktails Lost to Time

      Wall Street Journal  |  Feb 29, 08 11:27 AM CST

      Leap Day Cocktails Lost to Time

      (Newser) - Feb. 29 still comes once every four years, but celebratory cocktails marking the bissextile have gone out of fashion—along with a leap-year tradition that requires plenty of liquid courage, Eric Felten notes in the Wall Street Journal . Women who proposed marriage during the leap year could not be denied; little wonder desperate lasses were expected to sport scarlet petticoats. More »

      Tags

      New York City  • London  • marriage  • New Orleans  • Washington DC  • Dublin  • cocktails  • leap year  • James Joyce

    • Zoos Leap Into Year of Frog

      Florida Today  |  Feb 29, 08 9:23 AM CST

      Zoos Leap Into Year of Frog

      (Newser) - How could any zoo resist? Leap Day, in the Year of the Frog, is being celebrated by zoos and conservationists everywhere as the perfect time to draw attention to the plight of amphibians. "We want to get people talking about frogs and thinking about them," said one zookeeper. "But the main thing we want them to understand is that the frogs in their back yard are really, really important.”  More »

      Tags

      environment  • endangered species  • zoo  • zookeeper  • frogs  • leap year

  • January 2008

    • Leap Into 2008 Was Miles Early

      St. Louis Post-Dispatch  |  Jan 2, 08 12:18 PM CST

      Leap Into 2008 Was Miles Early

      (Newser) - The Earth finished another rotation around the sun in 2007—just about. At midnight on December 31, it was actually about 400,000 miles short of where it had been a year before, and that annual shortfall is why we have leap years, explains the St. Louis Post-Dispatch. Leap years like 2008 have an extra day to ensure the calendar and seasons keep pace. More »

      Tags

      Earth  • calendars  • leap year  • Gregorian calendar  • Pope Gregory XIII

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