What day of the week is this date?

Saturday February 29, 2020

February 29: Day of the Week

February 29, 2020 was the 60th day of the year 2020 in the Gregorian calendar. There were 306 days remaining until the end of the year. The day of the week was Saturday.




February 2020


Zodiac & Birthstone


MyFirstName.Rocks What no one tells you about your first name’s personality. Are there magical powers hidden in your given name? Every moniker has an undeniable character and personality. Check out Carlos’ personality and get smarter today. (Sponsored links)

A person who is born on February 29 may be called a “leapling” or a “leap year baby”. In non-leap years, they typically celebrate their birthday on either February 28 or March 1.

February 29: This Day in History


Leap years


It is, however, slightly inaccurate to calculate an additional 6 hours each year. A better approximation, derived from the Alfonsine tables, is that the Earth takes a complete revolution around the sun in 365 days, 5 hours, 49 minutes, and 16 seconds. To compensate for the difference, an end-of-century year is not a leap year unless it is also exactly divisible by 400. This means that the years 1600 and 2000 were leap years, as will be 2400 and 2800, but the years 1700, 1800 and 1900 were not, nor will be 2100, 2200 and 2300.

The Gregorian calendar repeats itself every 400 years, which is exactly 20,871 weeks including 97 leap days. Over this period, February 29 falls 13 times on a Sunday, Tuesday, or Thursday; 14 times on a Friday or Saturday; and 15 times on a Monday or Wednesday.

The concepts of the leap year and leap day are distinct from the leap second, which results from changes in the Earth’s rotational speed.

The leap day was introduced as part of the Julian reform. The day following the Terminalia (February 23) was doubled, forming the “bis sextum”—literally ‘double sixth', since February 24 was 'the sixth day before the Kalends of March’using Roman inclusive counting (March 1 was the 'first day'). Although exceptions exist, the first day of the bis sextum (February 24) was usually regarded as the intercalated or “bissextile” day since the third century. February 29 came to be regarded as the leap day when the Roman system of numbering days was replaced by sequential numbering in the late Middle Ages.

An English law of 1256 decreed that in leap years, the leap day and the day before (February 25 & 24) are to be reckoned as one day for the purpose of calculating when a full year had passed. In England and Wales a person born on February 29 legally reaches the age of 18 or 21 on February 28 of the relevant year. In the European Union, February 29 officially became the leap day only in 2000.

In cases of New Zealand citizens, the NZ Parliament has decreed that if a date of birth was February 29, in non-leap years the legal birth date date shall be the preceding day, the 28th. This is affirmed in §2(2) of the Land Transport Act 1999.

In France, there is a humorous periodical called La Bougie du Sapeur (The Sapper’s Candle) published every February 29 since 1980. The name is a reference to the sapper Camember, a comic strip character born February 29, 1844 who was created by Georges Colomb in the 1890s.

February 29 Historical Event(s)

  • 1704
  • 1712
  • 1916
  • 1932
  • 1952
    The island of Heligoland is restored to German authority.
  • 1972
  • 1980
  • 1984
  • 1996
    Faucett Flight 251 crashes in the Andes, killing 123 people.
  • 2004

Who were born on February 29?

  • 1724
  • 1908
    Balthus, French-Polish painter (d. 2001)
  • 1928
    Tempest Storm, American burlesque performer
  • 1928
    Terry Lewis, Australian police commissioner
  • 1944
    Dennis Farina, American actor
  • 1952
    Bart Stupak, American congressman
  • 1952
    Raisa Smetanina, Russian cross-country skier
  • 1956
    Jonathan Coleman, Anglo-Australian entertainer
  • 1976
    Ja Rule, American rapper and actor
  • 1980
    Ruben Plaza, Spanish cyclist
