|
Post by plane2catch on Feb 29, 2016 9:06:03 GMT
Wishing everyone a happy leap year day. I also thought it would be strange being born on February 29th. I guess you would have your pick of celebrating each year either on the 28th or March 1st.
|
|
|
Post by Oz-T on Feb 29, 2016 10:13:04 GMT
What I find interesting about February 29 is that we don't really get one every four years, despite what most people believe.
|
|
|
Post by chech on Feb 29, 2016 12:36:35 GMT
And given that we're all probably over the age of 30, none of us will likely see one in our lifetimes.
|
|
|
Post by plane2catch on Feb 29, 2016 15:37:55 GMT
I just heard on the news that in addition to getting a leap year every four years, once every 100 years they completely skip the leap year. DOES ANYONE KNOW WHEN THIS LAST ADJUSTMENT TOOK PLACE?? OZ
|
|
|
Post by Oz-T on Feb 29, 2016 20:17:32 GMT
Almost - it's not an adjustment, but a permanent part of the calculation. Leap years occur every four years, except if it's a centenary year (i.e. Ends with 00). There's one exception to this: if the centenary year is divisible by 400 it becomes a leap year. This means that 1896 was a leap year but not 1900. The next time we skip a leap year will be 2100. The reason for all this is the Gregorian calendar which fixed the problems with the Julian calendar that was adding three days too many each four centuries. Had they not fixed this, one day we would be celebrating Christmas at Easter. We lived through a rare event in 2000 - we failed to skip a leap day for the first time in 400 years. They do make occasional adjustments, but these are usually adding a leap second that we never notice.
|
|
Pauline
Full Member
Normandy, Brittany & the Loire Valley, WW1 Battlefields and Northern Spain in Sep 2023 with Insight
Posts: 210
|
Post by Pauline on Mar 1, 2016 11:21:51 GMT
What I find interesting about February 29 is that we don't really get one every four years, despite what most people believe. I'm in the dark. What do you mean? Or to use a Pauline Hanson quote "Please explain".
|
|
|
Post by Oz-T on Mar 1, 2016 20:11:45 GMT
Hi Pauline. Leap years are usually every four years, except they span eight years at the turn of most centuries. Year 2000 was the rare exception to this. We will have leap years each four years up to 2096 and the next leap year after that will be 2104. However, I won't be putting that in my diary.
|
|
Pauline
Full Member
Normandy, Brittany & the Loire Valley, WW1 Battlefields and Northern Spain in Sep 2023 with Insight
Posts: 210
|
Post by Pauline on Mar 2, 2016 0:30:08 GMT
Thanks for the reply. I had no idea. Still learning something new every day.
|
|
|
Post by Oz-T on Mar 2, 2016 8:17:53 GMT
Thanks for the reply. I had no idea. Still learning something new every day. The Julian calendar (named for Julius Caesar) came up with the idea of leap years because Earth takes 365 and a quarter days to orbit the sun. Working on 365.25 days, it made sense to add four quarter days to become one extra day each four years. But there was a problem with this - it was never 365.25; it's 365.256. Close enough? Not quite; that small difference adds up over centuries which is exactly what happened.
By 1582 this was too much for the Catholic church to handle so Pope Gregory XIII introduced the new rules to only add three fewer leap days each 400 years. So all was almost fixed. There was just one last dilemma - the calendar was ten days out, so they fixed that by simply losing ten days. Yes, believe it or not, Thursday 4 October 1582 was followed by Friday 15 October 1582. So don't believe anybody if they tell you that somebody was born in between!
|
|
Pauline
Full Member
Normandy, Brittany & the Loire Valley, WW1 Battlefields and Northern Spain in Sep 2023 with Insight
Posts: 210
|
Post by Pauline on Mar 5, 2016 3:01:03 GMT
Thanks for the reply. I had no idea. Still learning something new every day. The Julian calendar (named for Julius Caesar) came up with the idea of leap years because Earth takes 365 and a quarter days to orbit the sun. Working on 365.25 days, it made sense to add four quarter days to become one extra day each four years. But there was a problem with this - it was never 365.25; it's 365.256. Close enough? Not quite; that small difference adds up over centuries which is exactly what happened.
By 1582 this was too much for the Catholic church to handle so Pope Gregory XIII introduced the new rules to only add three fewer leap days each 400 years. So all was almost fixed. There was just one last dilemma - the calendar was ten days out, so they fixed that by simply losing ten days. Yes, believe it or not, Thursday 4 October 1582 was followed by Friday 15 October 1582. So don't believe anybody if they tell you that somebody was born in between!
I've just had a look at Wikipedia and it depends on what country, as to what date was missed. en.wikipedia.org/wiki/1582
|
|
|
Post by plane2catch on Mar 5, 2016 6:46:45 GMT
Strange how much power those Papal Bulls had on the ordinary person's everyday life. The Catholic Church was quite an institution with a monopoly on the schools of higher education. Years ago the great universities were places of both worship and study for only the male monk as only he was taught or allowed to read. Surprised that the Julian calendar was used as late as 1924.
|
|
|
Post by Oz-T on Mar 5, 2016 10:45:51 GMT
Adoption of the Gregorian calendar was not universal. Many years passed before the entire world finally fell into line. There's an amusing story I can tell about the British situation, involving a famous artist.
|
|
|
Post by californian on Mar 5, 2016 16:14:33 GMT
Adoption of the Gregorian calendar was not universal. Many years passed before the entire world finally fell into line. There's an amusing story I can tell about the British situation, involving a famous artist. Tell us please, Oz T, love your explanations of these little/big interesting bits. I wonder when USA adopted the Gregorian Calendar since we have discussed George Washington's birthday time and time again.
|
|
|
Post by Oz-T on Mar 6, 2016 8:36:50 GMT
This is a story that combines some highly unlikely elements: astronomy, taxes, a Roman emperor, the Catholic church, Henry VIII, and a famous English painter. They all come together to make a fascinating tale that most people have never been aware of, because this stuff isn't usually taught in schools. To begin, I need to take you back many, many centuries, to olde England. In medieval times England was mainly an agricultural economy, based on a feudal system. The church had a great deal of power then, and this influence spread far and wide. Each year was split into four quarters that were roughly equivalent to the two solstices ( longest & shortest days) and the two equinoxes (when day & night are similar duration). The first days of each quarter were: Lady Day (25 March), Midsummer Day (24 June) , Michaelmas (29 Sept) , and Christmas Day. Lady Day refers to The Annunciation, when the archangel Gabriel announced to the Virgin Mary that she was expecting a child. It was considered to be the start of the new year and had important legal implications. It was New Years Day in England and its colonies between 1155 and 1752, when January 1 was later adopted. The four 'quarter days' were important because the legal system treated them as reckoning days. Rents were due then, as were debts. It was also common to hire employees on the first day of a quarter. But tax was a huge issue even then, and it was payable upon the end of the year. So New Years Day, 25 March was incredibly important. When 1582 came along, the Pope decreed changes to the calendar, removing 10 over-counted days in the process. The predominantly Catholic countries immediately fell into line, but England was a different matter. As Henry VIII had previously split from the Catholic church, Protestant England under Queen Elizabeth I was not taking orders from Rome. So England stuck with the Julian calendar and its inaccuracies. This meant that England observed a leap year in 1700 (Europe didn't), extending the error to 11 days. Then sanity prevailed. In 1752 England decided that the calendar difference with Europe was creating more problems than the Catholic-Protestant rift warranted and they moved to aligning with the Gregorian calendar. Now, nobody wants to be robbed, and the thought that 11 days were going to be given away upset the locals. Yes, that sounds a bit ridiculous, but it did have some logic. Removing 11 days meant that the 1752 tax year was less than 365 days as it would finish earlier. Nobody wanted to pay a whole year's tax when only 354 days had elapsed, so they protested on the streets. Equally, the Crown didn't want to collect less tax revenue. The stalemate continued. If you're in London and would like to see a remnant of this debate, drop into Sir John Sloane's Museum (13 Lincoln's Inn Fields) as I did in 2007. It's full of curiosities and knick knacks, but the main exhibit is the William Hogarth satirical serious of paintings, 'Rake's Progress'. They're a potted history of 18th century London life and the curator will describe each one in detail. Another series of four paintings, 'Humours of an Election' include the work, 'An Election Entertainment' and in the lower right corner is a message that says "Give us our 11 days". Yes, this was an enormous public issue in 1752. Imagine if they had Facebook then.... Eventually, they worked out a compromise. The tax authorities simply extended the date of the tax year by eleven days to 5 April and everybody settled down, accepting the loss of 11 days from the calendar. The only glitch happened in 1800 which was another century year without an extra leap day. To avoid fresh street riots, the tax authorities decided to grant an extra day, bringing the end of the tax year to 6 April, and that's where it has stayed ever since. So the British tax year ends on 6 April which is a bit weird to Americans who use 31 December, or Australia's 30 June. And when the Brits prepare their individual tax returns each year, I sometimes wonder whether they understand that the date relates to the orbit of the earth, a pope, a Tudor king and a Roman emperor?
|
|
|
Post by californian on Mar 6, 2016 16:22:17 GMT
Beautifully explained, thank you Oz-T (pedia) Very interesting! And you made me look up a couple of things, as Michaelmas for example, always present in English literature, I had never taken the time to read about it.
|
|
|
Post by plane2catch on Mar 6, 2016 18:25:00 GMT
Quite a story. Thank you Oz for taking the time to share.
|
|
Pauline
Full Member
Normandy, Brittany & the Loire Valley, WW1 Battlefields and Northern Spain in Sep 2023 with Insight
Posts: 210
|
Post by Pauline on Mar 7, 2016 6:03:58 GMT
What a wealth of information you are Oz. I worked for a British Corporation many years ago and their Financial year ran from 1st April to 31 March. I believe the dates you quote are for personal taxes not big Corporations. Talk about confusing.
|
|
|
Post by californian on Mar 7, 2016 7:40:44 GMT
I believe most corporations' financial year is from April 1st to March 31st. And the taxes are due June 15th. (In the US)
|
|
|
Post by Oz-T on Mar 7, 2016 11:48:01 GMT
Yes, the rules I described relate to UK personal taxes. Corporations generally have a 31 March end to their tax year. I'd guess that fewer corporations took to street protests than individual taxpayers. In the USA, corporations have a lot of flexibility and can generally choose any date for the end of their tax year.
|
|