Origins of Roman Calendar
From The Atlanta Journal-Constitution, December 29, 1995, p.2:
Most years ending in "00" are not leap
years, but those divisible by 400 (including 2000)
are. The Julian calendar, authorized by Julius
Caesar in 46 B.C., assumed that the year had
365 1/4 days, with a 366-day leap year added
every fourth year.
In A.D. 730, an Anglo-Saxon monk, the Venerable
Bede, calculated that the Julian year was 11 minutes
and 14 seconds too long, an error of about one day
every 128 years. But nothing was done about it for
800 years. In 1582, the accumulated error was
estimated at 10 days, and Pope Gregory XIII decreed
that the day following Oct. 4 would be Oct. 15.
To make future adjustments for the error
(about three days every 400 years), it was decided
that years ending in "00" would be common years rather
than leap years -- except those divisible by 400.
So 1600 was a leap year and 2000 also will be,
but 1700, 1800 and 1900 were not.
Bissextile. The day which is added every fourth
year to the month of February, in order to make the
year agree with the course of the sun.
Leap year, consisting of 366 days, and happening every
fourth year, by the addition of a day in the month of
February, which in that year consists of twenty-nine days.
By statute 21 Hen. III., the 28th and 29th of February
count together as one day. This statute is in force
in some of the United States. Porter v. Holloway, 43 Ind.
35; Harker v. Addis, 4 Pa. 515.
(Black's Law Dictionary, Fourth Edition, 1951).
The New York Times, January 5, 1995:
"Wait a Second ... That Was a Leap Day!"
To the Editor:
In your Dec. 31 issue, two references are made to the "leap second" that
was to be added to the last hour of 1995. One was in the Week in Review
section, the other in the magazine column by James Gleick. Both draw an
analogy between the periodic addition of a second at the end of a year
to the insertion of an extra day in leap yers.
The re appears to be a logical disconnect in the use of the term "leap
second" and linking it to the term "leap year." The additon of an extra
day to the calendar once in a four years defines a leap year, not a leap
day, week or month.
Linguistic consistency demands, therefore, that the additional second
added at the end of the year not be referred to as a leap second nor
lend the "leap" designation to the last minute or hour but rather to the
last day. Dec. 31, 1995, should be called a leap day.
Jacob E. Goldman
Westport, Conn., Jan. 2, 1996
Quiz answers:
- Minimum: 1 (2097-2106 would only have one leap year, 2104! 2100 is not a leap year, as explained above!)
- Maximum: 3 (1996-2005 would have 1996, 2000, 2004)
Since January 7, 1996, The
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