Laura Tobin Instagram – 🗓️ Why do we have a leap year? Our modern calendars contain 365 days in a year, the time it takes for the Earth to orbit the Sun but the actual time it takes for Earth to orbit its star is slightly longer—roughly 365.2421 days. 🌍 The difference might seem negligible, but over decades and centuries that missing quarter of a day per year can add up. So every 4 years (nearly) we add one day on 29th February-a leap day. 🔭 Many ancient calendars had entire leap months to keep them on track. Back in 45BC it was Julius Caesar who introduced a leap day. Caesar and the philosopher Sosigenes of Alexandria made one important modification: instead of relying on the stars, they would simply add a day to every fourth year. 🗓️ In the 16th Century, the introduction of the Gregorian Calendar marked the last change to the Western calendar as we know it today. To keep us on track, not every 4 years needs a leap day-so they eliminated centurial years not divisible by 400 (1700, 1800, and 1900 were not leap years. 🎉 People born on Leap Day are called ‘Leaplings’ There are only about 5 million people in the whole world the odds of being born on Leap Day standing at about 1-in-1,461. So if you were born in 1980, you’d be 44 years old, but this would only be your 11th birth day (29th February)! #LeapYear #LeapDay