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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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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?

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On January 25^th, 1898 the USS Maine, sailed into Havana harbor in Cuba to protect American interests in the Cuban revolt against Spain.

USS Maine

The Maine (ACR-1) was the second of what was termed a Pre-Dreadnaught Battleship and was a marvel of its time. A vast step up over the old Iron Clads of the Civil War. Powered by two coal burning steam engines it had a maximum speed of 16.5 knots. 324 feet in length. Its main armament consisted of four 10 inch Mark II guns that could fire a 520 pound shell a distance of 20,000 yards or about ten nautical miles.

On the evening of February 15^th the USS Maine exploded and sank in Havana Harbor killing three quarters of her crew.

The cause of the explosion was never clearly explained with multiple speculations as to the cause. One of which was that Spain was responsible and the Maine’s sinking was one of the precipitating events leading to the Spanish-American War.

It’s sinking popularized the phrase “Remember the Maine, to Hell with Spain”

Did you know that there were three other ships named the Maine?

In 1901 a new US Battleship was launched. BB-10 and was named the Maine.

The construction of a third USS Maine BB-69 was canceled in 1943.

A fourth USS Maine was launched in 1994 the SSBN-741 a ballistic class nuclear submarine is still in service.

Bob’s Gift Basket hopes you enjoyed this little piece of history.