Question 1: Who discovered leap years?
Answer 1: Julius Caesar was behind the origin of leap year in 45 BC. The early Romans had a 355 day calendar and to keep festivals occurring around the same season each year a 22 or 23 day month was created every second year. Julius Caesar decided to simplify things and added days to different months of the year to create the 365 day calendar, the actual calculation were made by Caesar's astronomer, Sosigenes. Every fourth year following the 28th day of Februarius (February 29th) one day was to be added, making every fourth year a leap year. In 1582, Pope Gregory XIII further refined the calendar with the rule that leap day would occur in any year divisible by 4 as described above.
Website: http://inventors.about.com/cs/inventionsalphabet/a/leap_year.htm
Question 2: Why are there only 28/29 days in February?
Answer 2: It's the Romans' fault. Our modern calendar is loosely based on their old, confusing one. Though records on the Roman calendar are sparse and sketchy, legend has it that Romulus, the first king of Rome, devised a 10-month lunar calendar that began at the spring equinox in March and ended with December. It is unclear whether there were any official months between December and March, but it's likely they were left off because the wintertime wasn't important for the harvest.
Website: http://www.slate.com/articles/news_and_politics/explainer/2007/02/28_days.html
Question 3: Why are the number of the days in the months not equal?
Answer 3:
When looking at a calendar, one of the first thing that springs forth is the oddity that each month has a seemingly random amount of days. Why are the number of days in a month not equal? And why are they distributed the way they are? To answer that question, we have to look a bit at the history of the modern calendar.
Our calendar, the Gregorian calendar, is a reformed version of the Julian calendar. The Julian calendar, in turn, was a reformed version of the Roman calendar. It was during the reign of Julius Caesar that the calendar was realigned drastically, to make it function somewhat more seamlessly.
Before the Julian reform, the number of days in a month was as follows: Ianuarius was 29 days, Februarius was 28 days, Martius was 31 days, Aprilis was 29 days, Maius was 31 days, Iunius was 29 days, Quintilis was 31 days, Sextilis was 29 days, September was 29 days, October was 31 days, November was 29 days, December was 29 days, and there was an Intercalaris month which was 27 days long.
Website: http://www.wisegeek.com/why-are-the-number-of-days-in-a-month-not-equal.htm
Answer 1: Julius Caesar was behind the origin of leap year in 45 BC. The early Romans had a 355 day calendar and to keep festivals occurring around the same season each year a 22 or 23 day month was created every second year. Julius Caesar decided to simplify things and added days to different months of the year to create the 365 day calendar, the actual calculation were made by Caesar's astronomer, Sosigenes. Every fourth year following the 28th day of Februarius (February 29th) one day was to be added, making every fourth year a leap year. In 1582, Pope Gregory XIII further refined the calendar with the rule that leap day would occur in any year divisible by 4 as described above.
Website: http://inventors.about.com/cs/inventionsalphabet/a/leap_year.htm
Question 2: Why are there only 28/29 days in February?
Answer 2: It's the Romans' fault. Our modern calendar is loosely based on their old, confusing one. Though records on the Roman calendar are sparse and sketchy, legend has it that Romulus, the first king of Rome, devised a 10-month lunar calendar that began at the spring equinox in March and ended with December. It is unclear whether there were any official months between December and March, but it's likely they were left off because the wintertime wasn't important for the harvest.
Website: http://www.slate.com/articles/news_and_politics/explainer/2007/02/28_days.html
Question 3: Why are the number of the days in the months not equal?
Answer 3:
When looking at a calendar, one of the first thing that springs forth is the oddity that each month has a seemingly random amount of days. Why are the number of days in a month not equal? And why are they distributed the way they are? To answer that question, we have to look a bit at the history of the modern calendar.
Our calendar, the Gregorian calendar, is a reformed version of the Julian calendar. The Julian calendar, in turn, was a reformed version of the Roman calendar. It was during the reign of Julius Caesar that the calendar was realigned drastically, to make it function somewhat more seamlessly.
Before the Julian reform, the number of days in a month was as follows: Ianuarius was 29 days, Februarius was 28 days, Martius was 31 days, Aprilis was 29 days, Maius was 31 days, Iunius was 29 days, Quintilis was 31 days, Sextilis was 29 days, September was 29 days, October was 31 days, November was 29 days, December was 29 days, and there was an Intercalaris month which was 27 days long.
Website: http://www.wisegeek.com/why-are-the-number-of-days-in-a-month-not-equal.htm