February 29: On this Day, Zodiac, Leap Day and Historical Events

February 29 is day 60 of the year and exists only in leap years — roughly one year in four, with an exception every century.

The next February 29 falls on Tuesday, February 29, 2028.

This is the only date on the calendar that most years do not have, and the questions people ask about it are mostly about that irregularity rather than about the date itself.

The rule is not “every four years.” Three times in every four centuries, a year divisible by four is not a leap year at all: 1700, 1800 and 1900 were common years, 2000 was a leap year, and 2100 will not be.

When is the next February 29?

The weekday advances by five each occurrence, not by four. A leap year contains 366 days, which is 52 weeks plus two, so the same date four years later lands five weekdays forward rather than four. The cycle repeats every 28 years — February 29, 2056 is a Tuesday, as 2028 is.

That 28-year cycle breaks across a skipped century year. The pattern will not carry through 2100.

The leap year rule

A year is a leap year if it satisfies all of the following:

1. It is divisible by 4.
2. Unless it is divisible by 100, in which case it is not.
3. Unless it is also divisible by 400, in which case it is.

Why the exception exists

A tropical year — one full orbit measured against the seasons — runs about 365.2422 days, not 365.25. Adding a day every four years overcorrects by roughly 11 minutes a year, which accumulates to about three days every four centuries.

The Gregorian reform of 1582 removed three leap days per 400 years to absorb the error, leaving an average calendar year of 365.2425 days. The residual drift is about 27 seconds a year, or one day in roughly 3,200 years.

The Julian calendar it replaced had no century exception, which is why the two calendars have diverged and why Orthodox churches following the Julian reckoning now observe fixed dates 13 days later than the Gregorian.

Anyone born on February 29

People born on February 29 are sometimes called leaplings or leap-year babies, and there is no single legal answer to when they have a birthday in common years. Practice varies by jurisdiction:

Where a legal threshold matters — driving age, drinking age, pension eligibility — the governing rule is the one in the relevant jurisdiction, not a general convention.

Historical events on February 29

Because the date occurs roughly once in four years, its historical record is about a quarter the length of any other date’s.

1504 — Christopher Columbus, stranded in Jamaica on his fourth voyage, used a predicted total lunar eclipse to persuade the island’s inhabitants to keep provisioning his crew. Columbus attributed the prediction to the almanac of Abraham Zacuto, not to Regiomontanus as is often claimed (Wikipedia, March 1504 lunar eclipse).

1692 — Arrest warrants were issued in Salem Village for three women accused of witchcraft: Sarah Good, Sarah Osborne and Tituba, an enslaved woman. Good was executed after refusing to confess and Osborne died in prison (WatchMojo; multiple).

1704 — French forces and their Native allies attacked and destroyed Deerfield, Massachusetts during Queen Anne’s War, killing around 100 people (Simple English Wikipedia).

1712 — In Sweden, February 29 was followed by February 30, a date that has existed only once in history. Sweden was reverting to the Julian calendar after an abandoned attempt at a gradual transition to the Gregorian, and needed an extra day to realign (Simple English Wikipedia).

1940 — Hattie McDaniel won the Academy Award for Best Supporting Actress for Gone with the Wind at the 12th Academy Awards, becoming the first African American to win an Oscar. She was seated at a segregated table at the edge of the room (Simple English Wikipedia; Have Fun With History).

1960 — An earthquake destroyed Agadir, Morocco at 23:40 local time. The shock lasted under fifteen seconds and killed an estimated 12,000 to 15,000 people, roughly a third of the city’s population. It remains the deadliest earthquake in Moroccan history (USGS; Wikipedia).

At magnitude 5.8 it was a moderate event. USGS describes it as the most destructive moderate earthquake of the twentieth century — it was shallow, at around 15 kilometres, and directly beneath the city. In the Kasbah and Yachech districts around 95% of the population was killed.

Why the Agadir death toll cannot be exact

USGS is explicit that the figure will never be known. Thousands of bodies were never recovered, and once it was clear there could be no more survivors, much of the area was bulldozed on health and safety grounds (USGS).

The range that appears in the literature is 12,000 to 15,000 dead, with injury figures given as either around 12,000 or around 25,000 depending on the source. A 1962 American Iron and Steel Institute study, quoted by USGS, put it at “at least 12,000 killed and 12,000 wounded.”

Some popular listings give figures as low as 3,000. Those are not supported by any seismological source and should be disregarded.

One figure on this page that sources dispute

Gone with the Wind’s Oscar count. Some sources say eight, others ten. Both are defensible: the film won eight competitive awards plus two honorary ones. Any page stating a bare number without that distinction is giving half an answer.

One thing this page does not claim

A widely repeated story holds that the Scottish parliament passed an act in 1288 permitting women to propose marriage on leap day, with a fine for refusal. There is no contemporary documentation for it, and the earliest references are considerably later. It appears on most leap-day listicles and is omitted here for that reason.

Zodiac sign and birthstone for February 29

February 29 falls under Pisces, which runs from approximately February 19 to March 20. The date sits well inside the range.

Note that February 29 is a Pisces date while February 14 is Aquarius. The boundary sits between them, at about February 19.

What February 29 is not

February 29 is not simply “every four years.” Century years not divisible by 400 are skipped, which removes three leap days per four centuries.

It is not a federal holiday or an observance in its own right, though several organisations use it for campaigns — Rare Disease Day is marked on February 29 in leap years and February 28 otherwise.

It is not the last day of February in the way February 28 is in common years. In a leap year, February 28 is an ordinary day and February 29 closes the month.

It does not shift anyone’s legal birthday consistently. Jurisdictions differ, and the difference is real rather than trivia.

Frequently asked questions

When is the next leap day?

Tuesday, February 29, 2028. After that, February 29 falls on a Sunday in 2032 and a Friday in 2036. The weekday advances by five each occurrence rather than four, because a leap year is 52 weeks plus two days.

Why was 2000 a leap year but not 1900?

Because 2000 is divisible by 400 and 1900 is not. The Gregorian rule skips century years unless they divide by 400, which removes three leap days every four centuries. 1700, 1800 and 1900 were common years; 2000 was a leap year; 2100, 2200 and 2300 will not be.

When do people born on February 29 celebrate their birthday?

It depends on where they are. England and Wales treat March 1 as the legal birthday for age-related purposes; Scotland, New Zealand and Taiwan use February 28. Most US states have no statute, and agencies apply one convention or the other by policy. For anything with a legal threshold attached, the jurisdiction’s own rule governs.

Sources

• USGS, M 5.9 — 2 km WNW of Agadir, Morocco (impact) — https://earthquake.usgs.gov/earthquakes/eventpage/iscgem878424/impact
• Wikipedia, 1960 Agadir earthquake — https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/1960_Agadir_earthquake
• Wikipedia, March 1504 lunar eclipse — https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/March_1504_lunar_eclipse
• Simple English Wikipedia, February 29 — https://simple.wikipedia.org/wiki/February_29