Daily Ancestorleap year
A leap year has an extra day, February 29; the Julian calendar made every fourth year a leap year, while the Gregorian skips most century years.
In the Julian calendar every year divisible by four was a leap year. The Gregorian calendar keeps that rule but drops century years unless they divide by 400, so 1700, 1800 and 1900 were not leap years, while 1600 and 2000 were.
This is why the gap between the calendars grew. 1700 was a leap year in the Julian calendar but not the Gregorian, so the difference went from 10 days to 11 days, which is why 11 days were dropped in 1752.
As seen in a recordBirth entry in a family Bible
Born 29 Feb. 1756
Sources
How to cite this page
Daily Ancestor. "leap year." Dictionary of Old Record Words. https://dailyancestor.com/dictionary/dates-calendar/leap-year. Last checked 2026-10-01.