10 Interesting Events in History That Occurred on a Leap Day

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2023 isn’t a leap year, so we’re not going to get that extra day in February, but that doesn’t mean we can’t take a look back and see all the different events that happened on a leap day, of which there are many. Do note that this list is only events that occurred on the 29th of February, not events that occurred during a leap year. If this were about events that happened during leap years, you would be here all day. With that said, let’s first take a stroll down Education Lane and explain why exactly we have Leap Days.

Why Do We Have Leap Days?

The simplest explanation is that it takes the earth approximately 365.2422 days to make one full revolution around the sun. In order for our calendars to make sense and stay in tune with the seasons, the easiest solution was to add an extra day every four years to our calendar— with some stipulations. 

As you can imagine, this isn’t a perfect solution. Since it’s not exactly six hours extra, we’re going to be off eventually. Every four-year cycle, we end up jumping almost forty-five minutes ahead. Over time, this begins to add up. To counteract this, every year that is divisible by 100 doesn’t have a leap year, except for years that are divisible by 400.

This math ends up getting us close to being accurate, but at any point in time, we can be anywhere from a day behind to a day ahead. Eventually, we will need to make a larger correction, but for now, this system works. Humanity might not even be around by the time we need to correct it in a few thousand years. 

Can We Get Rid of Leap Days?

We could get rid of Leap Days. There are a bunch of options, but none of them make as much sense as just having one year every four (roughly) where we add an extra day to February.

We could use a four-year calendar with 1461 total days, but we’d still need to adjust our calendar every so often to account for the fact that the Earth would complete four rotations of the sun in 1460.96 days, not exactly 1461. It wouldn’t be every four years, but is it really worth it to adjust our calendar like that only to have the same problem?

Using technology that doesn’t exist yet, we could slow the Earth down until it had a perfect 365-day orbital period around the sun. Eventually, we’d get out of alignment due to outside gravitational forces and have the same problem again. The Earth is slowing down, and every year is getting ever so slightly longer; not enough for us to notice, but it is measurable. 

We could switch to the Hanke-Henry Permanent Calendar, but even that one has a whole extra week every five or six years. The main benefit of that calendar is that every day is the same every year. January 1st will always be a Monday. Were you born on a Wednesday? Then your birthday will always be on a Wednesday. No more partying hard on the 4th of July because it’s now a Thursday every year, and we all have to get up for work on Friday. 

As you can see, there’s no good way to get rid of Leap Days. Any solution is going to have some form of a correction, whether it’s every four years or some other arbitrary amount of time. It will constantly change, too, as the earth slows down due to gravitational forces. 

Earth’s rotational period and orbital period are constantly changing. A day was only twenty-two hours long when dinosaurs were walking around; we even have to add a second to our clocks every so often. It seems we are doomed to constantly be correcting our clocks and calendars. That just means that events that happen on Leap Days are that much more exciting. Here are some of the more interesting events to have occurred on a Leap Day in history. 

1504: Christopher Columbus Tricks Jamaican Natives

You can add this to your list of reasons why you don’t think Christopher Columbus should be hailed as a hero. When he was stranded in Jamaica, he traded with the natives for months before they eventually grew tired of what he had to offer, and they stopped trading with him. Columbus relied on the natives for food, and without their trade, his men would eventually starve and die.

Columbus decided to use his knowledge of the next lunar eclipse to trick them into giving him food and fearing him. He told the leader that God was angry with them, and he would show a sign by turning the moon red.

When the moon turned red due to the eclipse, the natives believed him and began giving him provisions again, not knowing they were tricked and that it was simply a regular astronomical occurrence. 

1692: The First Salem Witch Trial Warrants Were Issued

On Leap Day in 1692, arrest warrants were issued for Tituba, Sarah Good, and Sarah Osborne. Tituba was an enslaved Native American woman who had come to be owned by Samuel Parris and was a central figure in the Salem Witch Trials. Tituba would eventually have the case dismissed against her, but Sarah Good and Sarah Osborne would both be hanged for their “crimes.”

1940: First African American to Win an Academy Award

1940 saw Hattie McDaniel become the first African American to be nominated and win an Academy Award for her performance in Gone with the Wind as Mammy. Hattie McDaniel came from a family that had been formerly enslaved; her father had even fought in the Civil War against the south. She grew up in segregated America but still had the tenacity and talent to persevere and appear in over 300 films.

1960: The Deadly Agadir Earthquake

The worst earthquake to occur in Morrocco happened on a Leap Day in 1960. This earthquake was an X on the Modified Mercalli Intensity Scale, one of the highest rankings an earthquake can receive. Approximately 15,000 people were killed, and 70% of the city was left in ruins. It’s estimated that in the Talbourdjt district, less than ten of the 5,000 residents survived the quake. It’s not the deadliest in history, but it may just be the deadliest earthquake to occur on a Leap Day. 

1972: Hank Aaron Becomes the Highest-Paid Major League Baseball Player

Hank Aaron is considered to be one of the greatest baseball players in the history of the sport, and his records show why. He beat Babe Ruth for total home runs; he holds second place for total home runs ever. He’s second for most games ever played. He has the highest amount of bases run. This doesn’t even begin to crack the surface of Hank Aaron’s records.  

With all these stats, it should be no surprise that he became the highest-paid ball player with his $200,000 salary. Remember, this was 1972; that was a lot of money back then, especially for an African-American ball player. It’s even more impressive, considering the fact that baseball had been desegregated just 25 years ago, and racism was still alive and present in the league.

1984: Pierre Trudeau Announces his Retirement

The name Pierre Trudeau should ring a bell, even if you weren’t alive between 1968 and 1984. Pierre Trudeau is the father of Justin Trudeau— the current prime minister of Canada. Pierre Trudeau announced his retirement and that he will not head the Liberal party into the next election. He was doomed to lose as the Progressive Conservative party held a massive lead against him and decided it was time to retire from politics.

1988: Archbishop Desmond Tutu is Arrested

Desmond Tutu was an anti-apartheid leader in South Africa that became a sort of shining light for the movement and human rights as a whole. He even won the Nobel Peace Prize in 1984 for his work and vision of an equal world. Desmond Tutu was arrested for protesting harsh laws passed by the South African government that sought to stifle any sort of anti-apartheid movement or black rights organizations.

2004: The President of Haiti is Ousted During a Coup

Haiti has, unfortunately, been in a state of turmoil for decades, and the recent assassination of Haitian President Jovenel Moïse has only added to it. However, before that, there was a coup d’état that saw the removal of President Jean-Bertrand Aristide by a rebel group.

Aristide claims it was orchestrated by the French and the United States, which both nations denied until 2022, when French Ambassadors said it was true. The US continues to deny it. The ex-President was forced to resign by rebels and flown out by a US plane and security team, at Aristide’s request, according to the US. Aristide would remain in exile in South Africa until 2011 when he would return to Haiti and get involved in politics again.

2012: North Korea Agrees to Suspend Their Nuclear Program for Food

North Korea saw mass hunger in 2010-2012 due to widespread famine, and the possibility of another mass famine that killed a million in the late 1990s was on the table. In order to stave off the collapse of North Korea, the new dictator Kim Jong-un agreed to suspend any nuclear testing, uranium enrichment, and missile tests in exchange for 240,000 tonnes of food aid from the United States. North Korea would launch a ballistic missile just 43 days after this agreement.

2020: The US and the Taliban Sign the Doha Agreement, Ending the War in Afghanistan

2020 saw the agreement to end the War in Afghanistan, which lasted twenty years after the events of 9/11. The US agreed to withdraw all NATO forces after a given amount of time, close military bases, ease economic sanctions, and more on the Taliban as long as they agreed to follow certain counter-terrorism commitments. The Taliban would eventually take power by force shortly after the US withdrawal and begin ruling the new Islamic Emirate of Afghanistan after the fall of Kabul on August 15th, 2021.