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Yep, it’s still February. 2012 is a leap year and this year February has 29 days, but why you say, is that and how am I supposed to remember when it is a leap year or not?

To keep it simple, a leap year occurs every four years and to simplify it further the years that it happens are years that are evenly divisible by four. So if you can evenly divide the year by four it is going to be a leap year. That being said the next leap year will be 2016.

The reason we have leap years is to keep our seasons straight. The earth does not as everyone thinks take exactly 365 day to rotate around the sun. In fact it takes 365 days, 5 hours, 49 minutes and 16 seconds to complete one revolution around the sun. Or roughly a 6 hour difference. So every four years we need to add a day 24 hours to keep our seasons straight.

What has it to do with seasons you say? Well to keep it simple if we did not adjust the date accordingly, then our winters and summers would quickly begin to occur out of sync with the date. Imagine it being mid winter in New York city on July 4^th. Or 90 plus degrees on Christmas Day.

Ah, but you say we add 24 hours every four years, yet in fact we should only be adding 23 hours, 17 minutes and 4 seconds. Whew! Hope I got the math right.

This is true and this is where leap years get even more confusing. Every 100 years or so we will drop a leap year. This is done at the turn of the century. Like the year 2000. In 2000 we had a leap year and added that extra day, but in 2100, 2200 and 2300 we will not be adding that extra day. That won’t happen again until 2400.

Still confused? Sorry about that, but it could be worse. You could be what is called a ‘leapling’ or ‘leap-year-baby’ or someone who is born on February 29^th. Now that gets really confusing. When do you celebrate your birthday? Or even worse, when do you legally become of age? The National and International laws on this are really confusing.

Hope you enjoy your leap day and yes, yes tomorrow is March 1st.

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Washington crossing the Deleware

1732 – George Washington is born. Our first President, George Washington was born on this day in Westmoreland County Virginia. Washington’s military record as a lieutenant in the British Army during the French and Indian war served as a base for choosing him as choice for command of the Continental Army in 1776.

1819 – U.S. Acquirers Spanish Florida. Then Secretary of State, John Quincy Adams signed the Florida Purchase Treaty with Spain giving the U.S. the then Spanish Florida peninsula. While there was no cost involved the U.S. assumed some 5 million in claims by U.S. citizens against Spain.

1959 – Lee Petty wins first Daytona 500. In a spectacular photo finish Lee Petty defeated Johnny Beauchamp to win the first Daytona 500 at the newly opened speedway. The race was so close that for three days Beauchamp had been declared the winner until close examination of news photographs revealed Petty to be the winner.

Miracle On Ice - Sports Illustrated Cover

1980 – U.S. Hockey team makes “Miracle on Ice”. Some of you may remember watching the XIII Winter Olympic Games in Lake Placid when the U.S. Hockey team pulled off a spectacular 4-3 upset over the heavily favored Soviet team. “Do you believe in miracles?”

If you would like to see more go to this Link.

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What exactly is Presidents Day? Some of you lucky people out there have the day off. It is a Federal Holiday which means the Post Office is closed as are many other Federal Offices which include in some cases Banks, Schools and Libraries so if you were planning on a trip to the library today you may want to check before heading out.

That's not my birthday

Originally implemented in 1880 by an Act of Congress to honor our nations first president it was originally called Washington’s Birthday.

Washington’s Birthday and Lincoln’s Birthday, February 12^th were originally two separate Holidays.

In 1971 the date of this holiday was shifted to the third Monday in February by the Uniform Monday Holiday Act. Yes congress must have spent a great deal of our tax dollars debating this all important issue.

But guess what? That means the holiday falls anywhere between February 15^th and February 21^st. Did any of our esteemed congressional leaders bother to check their dates. George Washington was born on February 22^nd. Duh and double Duh.

Well someone, Richard Nixon?, must have caught on as Washington’s Birthday was renamed Presidents day. This of course after many years of congressional debates.

I have often wondered if there is an Act of Congress that states what color the bathrooms are?