World

What if we didn’t have leap years? And what if you’re born on one?

Published

2 years ago

February 29, 2024

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What if we didn’t have leap years? Maybe you haven’t given it much thought.

But people born on a “leap day” have given it many thoughts.

We’ve spoken to a number of them and asked about how their date of birth has affected their lives.

“I just want people to know that my birthday does exist,” one 29 February-born woman told Sky News.

We’ll get to that shortly.

First, what’s the deal with leap years anyway?

What if we didn’t have them?

A leap year means there’s an extra day in the calendar – 29 February.

They were introduced because most modern calendars worldwide have 365 days in them, but the actual solar year – the length of time it takes for the Earth to orbit the Sun – is approximately 365.25 days.

NASA explains: “To make up for the missing partial day, we add one day to our calendar approximately every four years. That is a leap year.”

If you don’t add that extra day approximately every four years, our calendars would eventually fall out of sync with the seasons.

Leap year origins

The leap year is thought to have been introduced by the Egyptians to balance the seasons in the third century BC.

They were observing a 365-day year that included a leap year every four years to correct the calendar, according to the National Geographic.

But this wasn’t quite working long-term, because a solar year still isn’t exactly 365.25 days – it’s just a tiny bit shorter at 365.2422.

It meant that even with a leap day every four years, each calendar year was about 11 minutes shorter than the seasonal calendar, meaning the calendar ended up being an entire day short every 128 years.

By the 16th century, the Romans decided to take drastic action, as they believed Christian holidays were being celebrated on the wrong days.

Pope Gregory XIII unveiled his own Gregorian calendar in 1582, and dropped 10 days from the month of October that year to sync things back up with the seasons.

The National Geographic said: “He also developed a new leap year system that used the solar year of 365.2422 days, added one leap day every four years, but dropped three leap days every 400 years to keep the calendars from drifting.”

Leap day traditions

One inadvertent tradition that comes with a leap year is full-time employees doing an extra day’s work for free.

That’s because if you’re paid a fixed annual salary, it doesn’t change based on how many days there are in the year.

If you’re paid by the hour, however, 29 February could be your lucky day, because if you’re working extra hours on the Thursday, you are entitled to claim those hours in the same way you do on any other workday.

Women proposing to men

This one’s a bit more fun.

29 February is known for being the day when women can propose to men.

You might be thinking: “But women can propose to whoever they want, whenever they want.”

But the tradition is believed to have started hundreds of years ago in an attempt to give women more power in their love lives.

Irish legend has it that St. Brigid of Kildare, a nun, complained to St. Patrick that maidens had to wait too long for potential suitors to propose.

So St. Patrick was forward-thinking enough to offer them one day every four years where women had the same proposal rights as men.

Proposal penalty

In 1208, the Scots not only adopted the proposal tradition, but also supposedly passed a law stating that any man who rejected a leap day proposal would have to pay a fine.

In other European countries, particularly in affluent areas, another penalty was that the proposal refuser would have to buy the woman he denied 12 pairs of gloves.

Bad luck?

There are certain nations where leap years and days get a bit of a bad rap.

Like in Greece, where superstition dictates that any marriage beginning during a leap year is destined for divorce, or in Italy, where Romans once believed February was a bad month that should be dedicated to the dead – therefore extending it was simply depressing.

Another Scottish superstition claims that anyone born on a leap day is doomed to have a life of suffering.

What it’s actually like to have a leap day birthday

Sky News has heard from a lot of people born on leap days, who are unofficially known as “leaplings”.

And thankfully, none of them appear to be having the sort of bad luck that Scottish superstitions prophesise.

Most 29 February babies are happy to be leaplings, Nicole Garcia tells us. Nicole, a mum of two from Michigan, is turning 11 this year, she says.

She’s given us her leap year birthday, of course, something that she often does when asked her age.

“I’d rather be younger,” she jokes.

Nicole is an admin of the Facebook group “February 29th, LEAP YEAR BABIES!”, which has almost 4,000 members who share the same birthday. And me, who asked to be let in.

If you’re a 29 Feb baby feeling a bit of leapling loneliness, it’s the place to be.

When asked their age, many members either follow Nicole’s lead and let you do the maths, or they’ll give you two numbers – their actual age and their leapling one.

Pros and cons

Most of the feedback we got from the group’s members suggested they love having such a unique birthday, but that a surprising amount of people don’t actually have any understanding of what a leap day is.

“Some people don’t even believe you when you tell them. I just want people to know that my birthday does exist,” Nicole says.

Her birthday might only come around every four years on paper, but she has found a satisfying alternative.

“I decided to take an extra day. I celebrate on the 28th and the 1st,” she says.

A lot of leaplings do this, apparently, but the law can actually dictate when leaplings’ common-year birthdays are. In the UK, for example, they legally become a year older on 1 March.

Even though important documents like birth certificates and passports can say 29 February, going with your assigned alternative birthday can become a necessity when filling out online forms, because a lot of them don’t provide 29 February as an option.

It can be an issue in the flesh, too. Geri Rafferty, another leapling from the US, remembers turning 21 – the legal age for drinking in America – in 1985 and going to the shops on 28 February to buy a bottle of wine to share with a friend.

She said the store clerk looked at her ID, which said 29 February, and refused to sell her the alcohol, insisting that her birthday was the next day, even though there was no 29 Feb that year.

Geri said: “I was so mad! My friend bought me the wine and we had a great celebration. The next day [1 March], I returned to the same package store and picked out the same bottle of wine. I slammed it down on the counter and told the clerk that now I was ‘officially’ 21 and could buy my own alcohol! The celebration continued that night as well.”

Selina Paggett, who is turning 16 – or 64 – suggests her mum must have known about the trouble a leap day birthday would cause her in the future.

She says: “After my birth early morning (2.34am, 1960), my mum pleaded with her doctor to enter Feb 28th on my birth certificate instead of Feb 29th. The doc replied: ‘NO ma’am, I will not falsify this document.'”

Canadian Claudia Femia, who’s turning 13 (52), said her mum had the opposite experience and was asked to change her birthday to another day when she was born.

Two leap day world records

Being born on a leap day is already an anomaly, but here are some seriously rare occurrences logged by Guinness World Records.

A world record was presented to the Henriksen family in Norway in 1968 for most siblings born on a leap day – and no, it wasn’t triplets.

The three children of Karin and Henry Henriksen, Heidi (b.1960), Olav (1964) and Leif-Martin (1968) were all born on leap days.

Then there’s the record for most generations born on leap day, which was awarded to the Keoghs in 1996. The Irish family had Peter Anthony (1940), his son Peter Eric (1964) and his granddaughter Bethany Wealth (1996), who were all born on 29 February.

World

‘Nervous’ British tourists in Jamaica tell of Hurricane Melissa ordeal

Published

9 hours ago

October 29, 2025

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'Nervous' British tourists in Jamaica tell of Hurricane Melissa ordeal

Up to 8,000 holidaying British citizens are in Jamaica as it is battered by one of the strongest Atlantic hurricanes in history.

People have been ordered to stay indoors as Hurricane Melissa sweeps over the Caribbean island, which is also home to 50,000 dual nationals.

And tourists are locked down in hotels as Jamaica is hit by 185 mph winds.

Follow latest updates on Hurricane Melissa

Andrew Tracey had been due to fly home to the UK on Monday, but his flight was cancelled.

Mr Tracey told Sky News that food packages were being delivered to guests at his hotel. Deck chairs have been removed from the beach, and the swimming pools have been drained, at the Negril hotel where he is staying.

“The balcony and walls do feel as though they are vibrating just due to the strength of the wind,” said Mr Tracey.

“I’m very nervous, it’s hard to comprehend what we are likely to expect.”

The US National Hurricane Centre in Miami said that Melissa was “one of the most powerful hurricane landfalls on record in the Atlantic basin” as it hit southwestern Jamaica near New Hope.

In a social media post, the centre warned that it is an “extremely dangerous and life-threatening situation” – and told those in the area not to leave their shelter as the eye of the storm passes over.

‘It is a bit scary, but we’ve got each other’

A British-Jamaican couple who are sheltering inside as the storm passes over the island spoke to Sky News about their ordeal.

Shantell Nova Rochester and her Jamaican fiance Denva Wray are due to get married on the island next month.

They spoke of broken windows and water coming in where they are staying, but the couple believe they are “as safe as they can possibly be” in St Elizabeth.

Mr Wray said: “Where we are is quite strong, sturdy, but you can hear a lot of wind. It is a bit scary, but we’ve got each other, so we are strong.”

Asked about the wedding, Ms Rochester said: “We’re just worried about getting through tomorrow, but that’s a worry in the back of our heads.

“Where we’re plan to get married is flooded at this time.”

Government action ‘too late’ – British tourist

One British man who paid £3,500 for last-minute flights so he and his family could return home before the hurricane hit the island said that he felt “completely let down” by the government’s response.

David Rowe and his family, from Hertfordshire, had spent 10 days in Jamaica before deciding to fly back to the UK on Saturday.

Mr Rowe, 47, was critical of the response of the Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Office (FCDO).

Speaking to the PA news agency, IT manager Mr Rowe said: “It’s all too late, their reaction and their response to the storm has been too late – after the fact.

“The advice should have been last week, like on the Saturday – don’t travel – because a lot of the travel companies use the FCDO guidance on travel (for) all their planning and what decisions they make as an organisation.

“There should have been something done much sooner than this. A lot of the UK nationals, and people on holiday there, they are stranded.

“This could have been prevented with with better action from the UK government.”

Mr Rowe added that he and his wife had felt “very anxious” before they flew home – and “very sad” for those left in the country.

A Foreign Office spokesperson said: “We understand how worrying developments in Jamaica are for British nationals and their families.

“Our travel advice includes information about hurricane season, which runs from June to November. Last Thursday we updated our travel advice for Jamaica to include a warning about Tropical Storm Melissa and that it was expected to intensify over the coming days.

“The safety and security of British nationals is our top priority, and that is why we are urging any British nationals in Jamaica to follow the guidance of the local authorities and register their presence with us to receive updates.”

World

Blasts reported after Benjamin Netanyahu orders Israeli military to carry out ‘powerful’ strikes in Gaza

Published

9 hours ago

October 29, 2025

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Blasts reported after Benjamin Netanyahu orders Israeli military to carry out 'powerful' strikes in Gaza

Blasts have been reported in Gaza after Israel’s prime minister Benjamin Netanyahu ordered his military to carry out “powerful” air strikes.

Witnesses said they saw explosions and heard tank fire in Gaza City and Deir al Balah.

An Associated Press reporter in Deir al Balah heard tanks firing from an area controlled by the Israeli army, and, in Gaza City, two health officials reported strikes, including near the Shifa hospital.

At least two people were killed, and four others wounded, by a strike on a neighbourhood south of Gaza City, according to Gaza’s Civil Defence.

The announcement of strikes came shortly after Israel said that Hamas had opened fire on its forces in southern Gaza on Tuesday.

Hamas has denied involvement in the attack in the city of Rafah. The militant Palestinian group also said in a statement that it remained committed to the US-backed ceasefire deal.

Mr Netanyahu had also accused Hamas of violating the three-week-old ceasefire in the territory by handing over remains that were of an Israeli hostage who was already recovered.

A statement from the prime minister’s office said: “Following the security consultations, Prime Minister Netanyahu instructed the military echelon to carry out powerful strikes in the Gaza Strip immediately.”

US Vice President JD Vance said the ceasefire, which began on 10 October, was holding, telling reporters: “That doesn’t mean there aren’t going to be little skirmishes here and there.

“We know that Hamas or somebody else within Gaza attacked an (Israeli military) soldier. We expect the Israelis are going to respond, but I think the president’s peace is going to hold despite that.”

Hamas on Tuesday said that it would postpone the planned handover of a body of a hostage it had recovered, claiming violations of the ceasefire by Israel.

In a sign of the fragility of the ceasefire, Israeli troops were shot at in Rafah, and returned fire, according to an Israeli military official.

An Israeli military official told Sky’s Middle East correspondent Adam Parsons that Hamas have “shown their true face”.

The official told him: “Hamas violated the ceasefire once again, carrying out an attack against IDF forces east to the yellow line, an area under Israeli control.

“This is yet another blatant violation of the ceasefire. This comes after Hamas has also shown their true face and the fact that are pretending to not know where the remaining hostages are.”

Hamas said on the Telegram messaging app that any Israeli escalation of attacks in Gaza would hinder search and recovery operations, and delay the return of the bodies of Israeli soldiers.

There are thought to be 13 bodies of hostages still in Gaza.

Speaking to Sky News, Israeli government spokesman David Mencer said: “The first line of this agreement is that all of our hostages should have been returned on the first day of this agreement.

“They were supposed to give back all of our hostages, and there was supposed to be a ceasefire. There are still 13 of our murdered hostages (in Gaza).

“And secondly, Hamas are firing on our troops. That is not a ceasefire.”

After the ceasefire took effect, all 20 living hostages were freed in exchange for almost 2,000 Palestinian prisoners, but the remains of the dead have been slow to be repatriated.

Hamas has said there are problems finding them due to a lack of equipment to sift through the devastation and rubble in Gaza.

The search for hostage bodies had been stepped up over the past few days after the arrival of heavy machinery from Egypt.

Bulldozers were working in Khan Younis, and further north in Nuseirat, with Hamas fighters deployed around them.

Some of the bodies are believed to be in Hamas’ network of tunnels below Gaza.

World

Eleven people killed after tourist plane crashes in Kenya

Published

9 hours ago

October 29, 2025

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Eleven people killed after tourist plane crashes in Kenya

Eleven people have been killed after a plane carrying tourists to a Kenyan safari reserve crashed.

According to officials, the aircraft burst into flames and was reduced to charred wreckage at the hilly and forested area in which it crashed.

The plane had been travelling from Diani Airport, on the coast, to the Maasai Mara National Reserve.

The dead included eight Hungarian passengers, two Germans and the Kenyan pilot. There were no survivors.

Authorities initially said the crash happened at 5:30am local time. Later, the Kenyan transport minister gave the time of the incident as 8:35am.

Kenya’s ministry of roads and transport said the aircraft was destroyed by the impact of the crash and an ensuing fire.

Investigators from the country’s aircraft accident investigation department have been deployed to the site to begin an inquiry, they said.

The department added that the Kenyan government’s “highest priority” remains aviation safety.

In a statement, John Cleave, the chairman of Mombasa Air Safari, said “our hearts and prayers” were with all those affected by the crash.

He wrote that the company had activated its emergency response team and was “fully cooperating” with the relevant authorities, who have already begun investigating.

“Our primary focus right now is on providing all possible support to the families affected,” Mr Cleave continued, adding that a family assistance team had been established to offer counselling, logistical coordination and any required assistance to the relatives of the victims.

The Maasai Mara National Reserve is a two-hour direct flight from Diani, a popular coastal town known for its sandy beaches.

The reserve attracts a large number of tourists as it features the annual wildebeest migration from the Serengeti in Tanzania.

Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orbán wrote on social media on Tuesday that his foreign ministry had been in contact with authorities in Kenya concerning the Hungarian victims of the plane crash.

He said: “What a tragedy! Our sincere condolences to families of the Hungarians who died in the plane crash in Kenya.”