Celebrating Leap Year in Chronicling America
Why is an extra day added to the calendar every 4 years? And why does that day happen to be added to the end of February? Well, you can ask our Science Reference Services for a more detailed response to those questions, but a simple explanation is that it takes the Earth a bit longer than exactly 365 days to orbit the Sun. The fact that the day was added to February, which has only 28 days every year other than a leap year, has to do with Pope Gregory XIII, the maker of the Gregorian calendar, the one we follow. Read more in these two newspaper articles: “The Twenty-Ninth and How it Happened” and “Earth Dividend Given Earth-Dwellers in ‘40.”
Birthdays
If February 29 happens to be your birthday, you might be called a leaper, leapling, or simply a leap day baby. Here are some examples of newspaper articles we found in Chronicling America* about celebrating a birthday that only comes around every 4 years.
Sometimes leap birthdays are shared with other family members. For instance, Deborah and Barbara are two first cousins with the same exact birthday of February 29, 1952.
And sometimes birthdays are celebrated in the immediate family. James and Marjorie share the same birthdate– just four years apart.
Although it is not related to newspapers, we certainly couldn’t help but mention that a famous superhero in our comic book collection also has a leap year birthday. Can you guess who it is? Read to the end for the answer!
Marriage Proposals
According to an Irish tradition, a leap year opened the door for women to propose marriage to men, either only on February 29 or anytime during that year.
The press helped promote this idea by offering awards to the year’s “leap-year couple.”
Suffragist, activist, and lawyer Inez Milholland famously proposed to Dutch businessman, Eugen Jan Boissevain and they wed in London in July 1913. See her advice for a successful proposal in the newspaper article below and if you need more counsel, check out this blog post featuring an 1880 book called How to Get a Husband!: Leap Year Manual.
Sales
Many retailers took advantage of the extra day of the year to offer deals to customers that only come around every 4 years, as seen in numerous newspaper advertisements over the years.
What will you do with your “extra” day? Let us know in the comments!
* The Chronicling America historic newspapers online collection is a product of the National Digital Newspaper Program and jointly sponsored by the Library and the National Endowment for the Humanities. Follow Chronicling America on X @ChronAmLOC and click here to subscribe to Headlines & Heroes and never miss a post.
(**If you guessed Superman, you were right!)
