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Common Year Starting On Wednesday

Common year starting on Wednesday

This is the calendar for a common year starting on Wednesday (dominical letter E), e.g. 2003. (A common year is a year with 365 days — in other words, not a leap year.)
Millennium Century Year
2nd Millennium: 19th century: 1800 1806 1817 1823 1834 1845 1851 1862 1873 1879 1890
2nd Millennium: 20th century: 1902 1913 1919 1930 1941 1947 1958 1969 1975 1986 1997
3rd Millennium: 21st century: 2003 2014 2025 2031 2042 2053 2059 2070 2081 2087 2098
3rd Millennium: 22nd century: 2110 2121 2127 2138 2149 2155 2166 2177 2183 2194
Category:WednesdayCategory:Weeksko:수요일로 시작하는 평년th:ปีปกติสุรทินที่วันแรกเป็นวันพุธ

Calendar

A calendar is a system for naming periods of time, typically days. These names are known as calendar dates. The dates may be based on the perceived motion of astronomical objects. A calendar is also a physical device (often paper) that illustrates the system (for example, a desktop calendar) — this is the most common usage of the word. As a subset, 'calendar' is also used to denote a list of particular set of planned events (for example, court calendar).

Calendar systems

Calendars in use on Earth are lunar, solar, lunisolar or arbitrary. A lunar calendar is synchronized to the motion of the Moon (moon phases); an example is the Islamic calendar. A solar calendar is based on perceived seasonal changes synchronized to the apparent motion of the Sun; an example is the Persian calendar. A lunisolar calendar is synchronized both to the motion of the Moon and to the apparent motion of the Sun; an example is the Jewish calendar. An arbitrary calendar is not synchronized to either the Moon or the Sun; examples are the week and the Julian day used by astronomers. There are some calendars that appear to be synchronized to the motion of Venus, such as some of the ancient Egyptian calendars; synchronization to Venus appears to occur primarily in civilizations near the Equator.

Solar calendars

Main article: Solar calendar

Days used by solar calendars

Solar calendars assign a date to each solar day. A day may consist of the period between sunrise and sunset, with a following period of night, or it may be a period between successive events such as two sunsets. The length of the interval between two such successive events may be allowed to vary slightly during the year, or it may be averaged into a mean solar day. Other types of calendar may also use a solar day.

Future reform

There have been a number of proposals for reform of the calendar, such as the World calendar and International Fixed Calendar. The United Nations considered adopting such a reformed calendar for a while in the 1950s, but these proposals have lost most of their popularity.

Lunar calendars

Main article: Lunar calendar Not all calendars use the solar year as a unit. A lunar calendar is one in which days are numbered within each moon phase cycle. Because the length of the lunar month is not an even fraction of the length of the tropical year, a purely lunar calendar quickly drifts against the seasons. It does, however, stay constant with respect to other phenomena, notably tides. A lunisolar calendar is a lunar calendar that compensates by adding an extra month as needed to realign the months with the seasons. An example is the Jewish calendar which uses a 19 year cycle. Lunar calendars are believed to be the oldest calendars invented by mankind. Cro-Magnon people are claimed to have invented one around 32,000 BC.

Fiscal calendars

Main article: Fiscal calendar A fiscal calendar (such as a 5/4/4 calendar) fixes each month at a specific number of weeks to facilitate comparisons from month to month and year to year. January always has exactly 5 weeks (Sunday through Saturday), February has 4 weeks, March has 4 weeks, etc. Note that this calendar will normally need to add a 53rd week to every 5th or 6th year, which might be added to December or might not be, depending on how the organization uses those dates. There exists an international standard way to do this (the ISO week). The ISO week runs Monday through Sunday and Week 1 is always the week that contains January 4 Gregorian.

Calendar subdivisions

Nearly all calendar systems group consecutive days into "months" and also into "years". In a solar calendar a year approximates Earth's tropical year (that is, the time it takes for a complete cycle of seasons), traditionally used to facilitate the planning of agricultural activities. In a lunar calendar, the month approximates the cycle of the moon phase. Consecutive days may be grouped into other periods such as the week. Because the number of days in the tropical year is not a whole number, a solar calendar must have a different number of days in different years. This may be done with leap years. The same applies to months in a lunar calendar and also the number of months in a year in a lunisolar calendar. This is generally known as intercalation. Even if a calendar is solar, but not lunar, the year cannot be divided entirely into months that never vary in length. Cultures may define other units of time, such as the week, for the purpose of scheduling regular activities that do not easily coincide with months or years.

Other calendar types

Complete and incomplete calendars

Calendars may be either complete or incomplete. Complete calendars provide a way of naming each consecutive day, while incomplete calendars do not. The early Roman calendar, which had no way of designating the days of the winter months other than to lump them together as "winter", is an example of an incomplete calendar, while the Gregorian calendar is an example of a complete calendar.

Pragmatic, theoretical and mixed calendars

Calendars may be pragmatic, theoretical, or mixed. A pragmatic calendar is one that is based on observation; examples are the religious Islamic calendar and the old religious Jewish calendar in the time of the Second Temple. Such a calendar is also referred to as an observation-based or astronomical calendar. The advantage of such a calendar is that it is perfectly and perpetually accurate. The disadvantage is that working out when a particular date would occur is difficult. A theoretical calendar is one that is based on a strict set of rules; an example is the current Jewish calendar. Such a calendar is also referred to a rule-based or arithmetical calendar. The advantage of such a calendar is the ease of working out when a particular date occurs. The disadvantage is imperfect accuracy. Furthermore if the calendar is very accurate, its accuracy perishes slowly over time owing to changes in Earth's rotation. This limits the lifetime of an accurate theoretical calendar to a few thousand years. After then, the rules would need to be modified from observations made since the invention of the calendar, resulting in a mixed calendar. A mixed calendar combines the features of both pragmatic and theoretical calendars. Mixed calendars usually begin as theoretical calendars, but are adjusted pragmatically when some type of asynchrony becomes apparent; the shift from the Julian to the Gregorian calendar is such an example. The Gregorian calendar, as a final example, is complete, solar, and mixed.

Uses

The primary practical use of a calendar is to identify days: to be informed about and/or to agree on a future event and to record an event that has happened. Days may be significant for civil, religious or social reasons. For example, a calendar provides a way to determine which days are religious or civil holidays, which days mark the beginning and end of business accounting periods, and which days have legal significance, such as the day taxes are due or a contract expires. Also a calendar may, by identifying a day, provide other useful information about the day such as its season. Calendars are also used as part of a complete timekeeping system: date and time of day together specify a moment in time. In the modern world, written calendars are no longer an essential part of such systems, as the advent of accurate clocks has made it possible to record time independently of astronomical events.

Currently used calendars

Calendars in widespread use today include the Gregorian calendar, which is the de facto international standard, and is used almost everywhere in the world for civil purposes, including in China and India (along with the Indian national calendar). The Hebrew calendar is the official calendar of Israel's government, but the Gregorian calendar is much more widely used in Israel's business and day-to-day affairs. The Persian calendar is used in Iran and Afghanistan. The Islamic calendar is used by Muslims the world over. The Chinese, Hebrew, Hindu, and Julian calendars are widely used for religious and/or social purposes. Even where there is a commonly used calendar such as the Gregorian calendar, alternate calendars may also be used, such as a fiscal calendar.

See also


- List of calendars
- liturgical year
- calendar of saints
- Christian calendar
- Eastern Orthodox Church calendar
- Calculating the day of the week
- Cycles
- Runic calendar
- French Republican Calendar
- Wall calendar
- Wikipedia:WikiProject Calendars
- Zoroastrian calendar
- iCalendar
- hCalendar

Sources


- Calendrical Calculations; Nachum Dershowitz and Edward M. Reingold; Cambridge University Press, 1997; ISBN 0-521-56474-3; [http://emr.cs.iit.edu/home/reingold/calendar-book/second-edition/ Book Info]; [http://emr.cs.iit.edu/home/reingold/calendar-book/Calendrica.html Online Calculator]
- Mapping Time, the calendar and its history; E G Richards; Oxford University Press, 1998; ISBN 0-19-850413-6
- A comparative Calendar of the Iranian, Muslim Lunar,and Christian Eras for Three Thousand Years; Ahmad Birashk; Mazda Publishers, 1993; ISBN 0-939214-95-4
- The Comprehensive Hebrew Calendar; Arthur Spier; Feldheim Publishers, 1986; ISBN 0-87306-398-8
- High Days and Holidays in Iceland; Árni Björnsson; Mál og menning, 1995; ISBN 9979-3-0802-8
- Explanatory Supplement to the Astronomical Almanac; P. Kenneth Seidelmann, ed.; University Science Books, 1992; ISBN 0-935702-68-7; [http://astro.nmsu.edu/~lhuber/leaphist.html Chapter 12: Calendars by L. E. Doggett]
- Sun, Moon, and Sothis; Lynn E. Rose; Kronos Press, 1999; ISBN 0-917994-15-9
- Untersuchungen zur Geschichte der Tibetischen Kalenderrechnung; Dieter Schuh; Franz Steiner Verlag GMBH, 1973

External links


- [http://www.tondering.dk/claus/calendar.html Frequently Asked Questions about Calendars]
- [http://88.1911encyclopedia.org/C/CA/CALENDAR.htm 1911 Encyclopaedia Britannica entry]
- [http://www.abcalendar.com Event Calendar] based on Wikipedia Content
- [http://kalender-365.de/calendar.php Perpetual Calendar 1800 - 2400]
- [http://www5a.biglobe.ne.jp/~accent/calendar/index.htm Perpetual Calendar]
- [http://www.timeanddate.com/calendar/ Current calendar].
- [http://www.datedex.com/results.asp DateDex: Selected events on selected dates]
- ja:暦th:ปฏิทิน

Dominical letter

The days of the year are sometimes designated letters A, B, C, D, E, F and G in a cycle of 7 as an aid for finding the day of week of a given calendar date and in calculatingEaster. These letters are known as dominical letters. A common year has a dominical letter, which is simply the dominical letter of its first Sunday. For example 2003 has 5 January as its first Sunday so has Dominical letter E. In leap years, the leap day has no dominical letter. This ensures that each date has the same dominical letter every year, but causes the days of the weeks of the dominical letters to change within a leap year. Hence leap years have two dominical letters: the first for January and February and the second for March to December. The second dominical letter is the dominical letter of the first Sunday of October (which is the same as for January in a common year). The year 2004 has Dominical letters DC. Examples include:
- 1996 GF
- 1997 E
- 1998 D
- 1999 C
- 2000 BA
- 2001 G
- 2002 F
- 2003 E
- 2004 DC
- 2005 B
- 2006 A
- 2007 G
- 2008 FE The dominical letter of a year determines the days of week in its calendar:
- A common year starting on Sunday
- B common year starting on Saturday
- C common year starting on Friday
- D common year starting on Thursday
- E common year starting on Wednesday
- F common year starting on Tuesday
- G common year starting on Monday
- AG leap year starting on Sunday
- BA leap year starting on Saturday
- CB leap year starting on Friday
- DC leap year starting on Thursday
- ED leap year starting on Wednesday
- FE leap year starting on Tuesday
- GF leap year starting on Monday

History

A device adopted from the Romans by the old chronologers to aid them in finding the day of the week corresponding to any given date, and indirectly to facilitate the adjustment of the "Proprium de Tempore" to the "Proprium Sanctorum" when constructing the ecclesiastical calendar for any year. The Church, on account of her complicated system of movable and immovable feasts (see Christian calendar), has from an early period taken upon herself as a special charge to regulate the measurement of time. To secure uniformity in the observance of feasts and fasts, she began, even in the patristic age, to supply a computus, or system of reckoning, by which the relation of the solar and lunar years might be accommodated and the celebration of Easter determined. Naturally she adopted the astronomical methods then available, and these methods and the methodology belonging to them, having become traditional, are perpetuated in a measure to this day, even the reform of the calendar, in the prolegomena to the Breviary and Missal. The Romans were accustomed to divide the year into nundinæ, periods of eight days; and in their marble fasti, or calendars, of which numerous specimens remain, they used the first eight letters of the alphabet to mark the days of which each period was composed. When the Oriental seven-day period, or week, was introduced in the time of Cæsar Augustus, the first seven letters of the alphabet were employed in the same way to indicate the days of this new division of time. In fact, fragmentary calendars on marble still survive in which both a cycle of eight letters — A to H — indicating nundinæ, and a cycle of seven letters — A to G — indicating weeks, are used side by side (see "Corpus Inscriptionum Latinarum", 2nd ed., I, 220; the same peculiarity occurs in the Philocalian Calendar of A.D. 356, ibid., p. 256). This device was imitated by the Christians, and in their calendars the days of the year from 1 January to 31 December were marked with a continuous recurring cycle of seven letters: A, B, C, D, E, F, G. A was always set against 1 January, B against 2 January, C against 3 January, and so on. Thus F fell to 6 January, G to 7 January; A again recurred on 8 January, and also, consequently, on 15 January, 22 January, and 29 January. Continuing in this way, 30 January was marked with a B, 31 January with a C, and 1 February with a D. Supposing this to be carried on through all the days of an ordinary year (i. e. not a leap year), it will be found that a D corresponds to 1 March, G to 1 April, B to 1 May, E to 1 June, G to 1 July, C to 1 August, F to 1 September, A to 1 October, D to 1 November, and F to 1 December — a result which Durandus recalled by the following distich: :Alta Domat Dominus, Gratis Beat Equa Gerentes :Contemnit Fictos, Augebit Dona Fideli. Now, as a moment's reflection shows, if 1 January is a Sunday, all the days marked by A will also be Sundays; If 1 January is a Saturday, Sunday will fall on 2 January which is a B, and all the other days marked B will be Sundays; if 1 January is a Monday, then Sunday will not come until 7 January, a G, and all the days marked G will be Sundays. This being explained, the Dominical Letter of any year is defined to be that letter of the cycle A, B, C, D, E, F, G, which corresponds to the day upon which the first Sunday (and every subsequent Sunday) falls. It is plain, however, that when a leap year occurs, a complication is introduced. February has then twenty-nine days. Traditionally, the Anglican and civil calendars added this extra day to the end of the month, while the Catholic ecclesiastical calendar counted 24 February twice. But in either case, 1 March is then one day later in the week than 1 February, or, in other words, for the rest of the year the Sundays come a day earlier than they would in a common year. This is expressed by saying that a leap year has two Dominical Letters, the second being the letter which precedes that with which the year started. For example, 1 January1907, was a Tuesday; the first Sunday fell on 6 January, or an F. F was, therefore, the Dominical Letter for 1907. The first of January, 1908, was a Wednesday, the first Sunday fell on 5 January, and E was the Dominical Letter, but as 1908 was a leap year, its Sundays after February came a day sooner than in a normal year and were Ds. The year 1908, therefore, had a double Dominical Letter, ED. In 1909, 1 January was a Friday and the Dominical Letter was C. In 1910 and 1911, 1 January fell respectively on Saturday and Sunday and the Dominical Letters are B and A.

Calculation

This, of course, is all very simple, but the advantage of tile device lies, like that of an algebraical expression, in its being a mere symbol adaptable to any year. By constructing a table of letters and days of the year, A always being set against 1 January, we can at once see the relation between the days of the week and the day of any month, if only we know the Dominical Letter. This may always be found by the following rule of De Morgan's, which gives the Dominical Letter for any year, or the second Dominical Letter if it be leap year: #Add 1 to the given year. #Take the quotient found by dividing the given year by 4 (neglecting the remainder). #Take 16 from the centurial figures of the given year if that can be done. #Take the quotient of III divided by 4 (neglecting the remainder). #From the sum of I, II and IV, subtract III. #Find the remainder of V divided by 7: this is the number of the Dominical Letter, supposing A, B, C, D, E, F, G to be equivalent respectively to 6, 5, 4, 3, 2, 1, 0. For example, to find the Dominical Letter of the year 1913: :(Steps 1, 2, & 4) 1914 + 478 + 0 = 2392 :(3) 19 - 16 = 3 :(5) 2392 - 3 = 2389 :(6) 2389 / 7 = 341, remainder 2. Therefore, the Dominical Letter is E.

Practical use for the clergy

But the Dominical Letter had another very practical use in the days before the Ordo divini officii recitandi was printed annually, and when, consequently, a priest had often to determine the Ordo for himself. As can be seen in the article Epact, Easter Sunday may be as early as 22 March or as late as 25 April, and there are consequently thirty-five possible days on which it may fall. It is also evident that each Dominical Letter allows five possible dates for Easter Sunday. Thus, in a year whose Dominical Letter is A (i. e. when 1 January is a Sunday), Easter must be either on 26 March, 2 April, 9 April, 16 April, or 23 April, for these are all the Sundays within the defined limits. But according as Easter falls on one or another of these Sundays we shall get a different calendar, and hence there are five, and only five, possible calendars for years whose Dominical Letter is A. Similarly, there are five possible calendars for years whose Dominical Letter is B, five for C, and so on, thirty-five possible combinations in all. Now, advantage was taken of this principle in the arrangement of the old Pye or directorium which preceded the present "Ordo". The thirty-five possible calendars were all included therein and numbered, respectively, primum A, secundum A, tertium A, etc.; primum B, secundum B, etc. Hence for anyone wishing to use the Pye the first thing to determine was the Dominical Letter of the year, and then by means of the Golden Number or the Epact, and by the aid of a simple table, to find which of the five possible calendars assigned to that Dominical Letter belonged to the year in question. Such a table as that just referred to, but adapted to the reformed calendar and in more convenient shape, will be found at the beginning of every Breviary and Missal under the heading, "Tabula Paschalis nova reformata". The Dominical Letter does not seem to have been familiar to Bede in his "De Temporum Ratione," but in its place he adopts a similar device of seven numbers which he calls concurrentes (De Temp. Rat., cap. liii), of Greek origin. The Concurrents are numbers denoting the days of the week on which 24 March falls in the successive years of the solar cycle, 1 standing for Sunday, 2 (feria secunda) for Monday, 3 for Tuesday, and so on. It is sufficient here to state that the relation between the Concurrents and the Dominical Letter is the following: :Concurrents 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 :Concurrent 1 = F (Dominical Letter) :Concurrent 2 = E :Concurrent 3 = D :Concurrent 4 = C :Concurrent 5 = B :Concurrent 6 = A :Concurrent 7 = G

Use for mental calculation

There exist patterns in the dominical letters, which are very useful for mental calculation. Patterns for years: To use these patterns, choose and remember a year to use as a starting point, such as 2000=BA. Note that because of the complicated Gregorian leap-year rules, these patterns break near some century changes. Note the reverse alphabetical order. 1992 3 4 5 96 7 8 9 2000 1 2 3 04 5 6 7 2008 ED C B A GF E D C BA G F E DC B A G FE and (note the reversed order of the years as well as of the letters) 2040 2030 2020 2010 2000 1990 1980 1970 1960 1950 AG F ED C BA G FE D CB A | | | | | | | | | | G FE D CB A GF E DC B AG 2046 2036 2026 2016 2006 1996 1986 1976 1966 1956 Patterns for days of the month: The dominical letters for the first day of each month form the nonsense mnemonic phrase "Add G, beg C, fad F". The following dates, given in month/day form, all have dominical letter C: 4/4, 6/6, 8/8, 10/10, 12/12, 5/9, 9/5, 7/11, 11/7. This was stolen from the Doomsday algorithm.

References


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-

External links


- [http://www.newadvent.org/cathen/05109a.htm Catholic Encyclopedia article on Dominical letter] Category:Weeks

2003

2003 (MMIII) is a common year starting on Wednesday of the Gregorian calendar. It was designated the:
- International Year of Freshwater
- European Disability Year
- Blog Year See also Wikipedia's almanac of events for this year.

Events

January


- January 1 - Luíz Inácio Lula Da Silva becomes the 37th President of Brazil.
- January 1 - Pascal Couchepin becomes President of the Confederation in Switzerland.
- January 8 - US Airways flight 5481 crashes at Charlotte-Douglas International Airport in Charlotte, North Carolina killing all 21 people aboard.
- January 15 - The United States Supreme Court hands down its decision in Eldred v. Ashcroft allowing the extension of copyright terms in the U.S.
- January 24 - The new United States Department of Homeland Security officially begins operation.
- January 25 - Central Line train crashes into the tunnel wall at Chancery Lane station in London, injuring 34 people.
- January 25 - An international group of volunteers left London and headed for Baghdad to act as voluntary human shields, hoping to avert a U.S. invasion.
- January 30 - Iraq disarmament crisis: The leaders of Britain, Spain, Italy, Portugal, Hungary, Poland, Denmark, and the Czech Republic release a statement, the letter of the eight, demonstrating support for the United States' plans for an invasion of Iraq.

February

February
- February 1 - The Space Shuttle Columbia disintegrates over Texas upon reentry, killing all seven astronauts onboard.
- February 1 - In Northern Ireland, The ProtestantUDA Belfast leader John Gregg is killed by a loyalist faction.
- February 3 - The worldwide movie premiere of Shanghai Knights was held at the El Capitan Theatre in Hollywood.
- February 5 - Iraq disarmament crisis: U.S. Secretary of State Colin Powell addresses the UN Security Council on Iraq.
- February 9 - Cricket World Cup begins in South Africa.
- February 15 - Global protests against Iraq war - more than ten million people protest in over 600 cities worldwide, the largest war protest to take place before the war occurred.
- February 17 - Antwerp Diamond Center in Belgium opens its vaults after weekend and discovers that unknown burglars had stolen diamonds worth $100 million - largest diamond theft so far.
- February 26 - An American businessman is admitted to the Vietnam France Hospital in Hanoi, Vietnam. WHO doctor Carlo Urbani reports the unusual highly contagious disease to WHO. Both the businessman and Carlo Urbani die of SARS in March.

March


- March 1 - Iraq disarmament crisis: The United Arab Emirates calls for Iraqi president Saddam Hussein to step down to avoid war. The sentiment is later echoed by Bahrain and Kuwait
- March 1 - The Turkish parliment vetos the access of the U.S troops to airbases in Turkey in order to attack Iraq from the north. The Bush administration starts working on the B Plan, namely attacking Iraq from the south, through the Persian Gulf.
- March 1 - The Federal Law Enforcement Training Center, the United States Customs Service, and the United States Secret Service moves to the United States Department of Homeland Security
- March 1 - Boxer Roy Jones Jr. beats John Ruiz to become WBA champion
- March 1 - War on Terrorism: Authorities in Pakistan capture Khalid Shaikh Mohammed, the suspected mastermind of the September 11, 2001 Terrorist Attacks along with money man Mustafa Ahmed al-Hawsawi.
- March 1 - Ohio celebrates its bicentennial statehood.
- March 5 - The Supreme Court of the United States by a 5-4 margin upholds California's "three strikes and you're out" law.
- March 11 - Iraq disarmament crisis: Iraqi fighters threaten two U.S. U-2 surveillance planes, flying missions for U.N. weapons inspectors, forcing them to abort their mission and return to base.
- March 12 - Serbian Prime Minister Zoran Đinđić assassinated in Belgrade
- March 12 - WHO issues a global alert on SARS.
- March 12 - Iraq disarmament crisis: British prime minister Tony Blair proposes an amendment to the possible 18th U.N. resolution, which would call for Iraq to meet certain benchmarks to prove that it was disarming. The amendment is immediately rejected by France, who promises to veto any new resolution.
- March 13 - Human evolution: The journal Nature reports that 350,000-year-old upright-walking human footprints had been found in Italy
- March 15 - Hu Jintao becomes president of the People's Republic of China, replacing Jiang Zemin.
- March 16 - Iraq disarmament crisis: The leaders of the United States, Britain, Portugal, and Spain meet at a summit in the Azores Islands. U.S. President Bush calls Monday, March 17th, the "moment of Truth", meaning that the "coalition of the willing" would make its final effort to extract a resolution from the U.N. Security Council that would give Iraq an ultimatum to disarm immediately or to be disarmed by force.
- March 17 - Iraq disarmament crisis: U.S. President George W. Bush gives an ultimatum: Iraqi leader Saddam Hussein and his sons must either leave Iraq, or face military action at a time of the U.S.'s choosing
- March 19 - First American bombs dropped on Baghdad, Iraq. President Saddam Hussein and his sons do not comply with President Bush's 48 hour mandate demanding their exit from Iraq.
- March 20 - 2003 Iraq war: Land troops from United States, United Kingdom, Australia and Poland invade Iraq.
- March 22 - The United States and the United Kingdom begin their shock and awe campaign with a massive air strike on military targets in Baghdad.
- March 23 - Cricket World Cup ends as Australia wins over India in Centurion, South Africa.
- March 29 - WHO doctor Carlo Urbani, who first identified SARS, dies of the disease.
- March 30 - The Undertaker defeated the Big Show and A-Train in a handicap match, boosting his Wrestlemania record to 11-0.

April

April.]]
- April 3 - Passenger bus hits remote-controlled land mine in the Chechen capital, killing at least 8.
- April 9 - U.S. forces seize control of Baghdad, apparently ending the regime of Saddam Hussein.
- April 14 - Human Genome Project successfully completed with 99% of the human genome sequenced to 99.99% accuracy.
- April 17 - The Stevens Report concludes that members of the RUC and British Army cooperated with the UDA in the killings of Catholics in Northern Ireland
- April 21 - Retired U.S. Army General Jay Garner becomes Interim Civil Administrator of Iraq.
- April 30 - The last American owned vehicle frame manufacturer, [http://web.archive.org/web/20010623093543/www.immsp.com/index.htm Midland Steel Products] goes [http://www.newsnet5.com/news/2166844/detail.html out of business] after almost 110 years in business, laying off almost 250 people.

May


- May 1 - George W. Bush landed on the aircraft carrier USS Abraham Lincoln, in a LockheedS-3 Viking, where he gave a speech announcing end of major combat in the Iraq war.
- May 2 - Monkeyman superhero hoax begins in Tunbridge Wells, Kent, UK
- May 3 - Old Man of the Mountain, rock formation in New Hampshire, crumbles after heavy rain
- May 4-10 - A major severe weather outbreak spawned more tornadoes than any week in U.S. history. 393 tornadoes were reported in 19 states.
- May 11 - Benvenuto Cellini's Saliera is stolen from the Kunsthistorisches Museum in Vienna.
- May 12 - Suicide truck-bomb attack kills at least 60 at a government compound in northern Chechnya.
- May 12 - In Riyadh, Saudi Arabia, 26 people are killed in the Riyadh Compound Bombings.
- May 14 - Female suicide bomber blows up explosives strapped to her waist in crowd of thousands of Muslimpilgrims, killing at least 18 people in Chechnya.
- May 16 - In Casablanca, Morocco, 33 civilians are killed and more than 100 people are injured in the Casablanca terrorist attacks.
- May 19 - Pen Hadow becomes the first man to walk alone, without any outside help, from Canada to the North Pole
- May 23 - The birth of Dewey, the first cloneddeer by scientists at Texas A&M University
- May 26 - A draft of the proposed European constitution is unveiled.
- May 28 - The birth of Prometea, the first clonedhorse by Italian scientists.
- May 31 - Eric Rudolph, the suspected person to have carried out the Centennial Olympic Park bombing is captured in North Carolina behind a Save-A-Lot store.

June


- June 1 - The People's Republic of China begins filling the reservoir behind the massive Three Gorges Dam, raising the water level near the dam over 100 metres.
- June 4 - Martha Stewart and her broker are indicted for using privileged investment information and then obstructing a federal investigation. Stewart also resigned as chairperson and chief executive officer of Martha Stewart Living.
- June 5 - Female suicide bomber detonates bomb near a bus carrying soldiers and civilians to a military airfield in Mozdok, a major staging point for Russian troops in Chechnya, killing at least 16 people.
- June 15 - 2003 NBA Finals end. The San Antonio Spurs defeat the New Jersey Nets, 4 games to 2.
- June 22 - The largest hailstone ever recorded falls in Aurora, Nebraska, USA.
- June 23 - U.S. Supreme Court upholds affirmative action in university admissions in Grutter v. Bollinger
- June 26 - U.S. Supreme Court rules sodomy laws unconstitutional in Lawrence v. Texas

July


- July 1 - 500,000 Hong Kong people march to protest Hong Kong Basic Law Article 23, which redefined treason controversially.
- July 2 - International Olympic Committee session in Prague. Vancouver ,Canada is declared the Host City for the XXI Olympic Winter Games in 2010.
- July 5 - SARS is declared to be contained by WHO.
- July 5 - Double suicide bombing at a Moscowrock concert kills the female attackers and 15 other people.
- July 6 - Residents of Corsica reject a referendum for increased autonomy for the region from France by a very narrow margin.
- July 7 - Canon Jeffrey John, first would-be gay bishop in the Church of England, withdraws his acceptance of the post of The Bishop of Reading after discussions with the church leaders
- July 10 - Russian security agent dies in Moscow while trying to defuse a bomb a woman had tried to carry into a cafe on central Moscow'smain street.
- July 14 - U.S. columnist Robert Novak publishes the name of Valerie Plame, blowing her cover as a CIA operative. CIA leak scandal begins.
- July 18 - Convention on the Future of Europe finishes its work and proposes the first European constitution
- July 18 - The body of Dr. David Kelly, a scientist at the Ministry of Defence, is found a few miles from his home, leading to the Hutton inquiry
- July 23 - Operation Warrior Sweep is the first major military deployment of the Afghan National Army
- July 24 - The Regional Assistance Mission to the Solomon Islands, Operation Helpem Fren, led by Australia, begins in the Solomon Islands
- July 30 - The last old-style Volkswagen Beetle rolls off its production line in Puebla, Puebla, Mexico.

August


- August 1 - Suicide bomber rams truck filled with explosives into a military hospital near Chechnya, killing 50 people, including Russian troops wounded in Chechnya.
- August 2 - The United Nations authorizes an international peacekeeping force for Liberia.
- August 10 - The highest temperature ever recorded in the UK - 38.1°C (100.6°F) at Gravesend in Kent and Kew Botanic Gardens, London. It is the first time the UK has recorded a temperature over 100 degrees Fahrenheit.
- August 11 - NATO takes over command of the peacekeeping force in Afghanistan, marking its first major operation outside Europe in its 54-year-history.
- August 11 - Jemaah Islamiah leader Riduan Isamuddin, better known as Hambali, is arrested in Bangkok, Thailand.
- August 14 - Widespread power outage affects northeast United States and Canada.
- August 14 - 6.4 Richter scaleearthquake near the Greek Ionian island of Lefkada - 24 injured
- August 22 - 21 killed at the Brazilian rocket complex in Alcântara due to a premature ignition of a solid rocket booster.
- August 25 - 52 killed in two bomb blasts in Mumbai, India.
- August 27 - Perigee of Mars

September


- September 5 - Roller coaster accident at Disneyland injures 10 and kills one.
- September 10 - Swedish foreign minister Anna Lindh is stabbed in a Stockholm department store and dies the next day.
- September 14 - Sweden rejects adopting the Euro in a referendum. (Results.)
- September 14 - Estonia approves joining the European Union in a referendum.
- September 15 - ELN kidnaps 8 foreign tourists in the Ciudad Perdida - they demand a human rights investigation and release last of the hostages three months later
- September 16 - Two suicide bombers drive a truck laden with explosives into a government security services building near Chechnya, killing three people and injuring 25.
- September 27 - Smart 1 is launched.
- September 27 - The Uniterran Church was founded in Victor, NY
- September 28 - a power failure affected all of Italy except Sardinia, cutting service to more than 56 million people.
- September 29 - Hurricane Juan makes landfall at Halifax, Nova Scotia, Canada as a category 2 storm. Two were killed directly and 5 indirectly.

October

October
- October 7 - 2003 California recall: Voters recall Governor Gray Davis from office and elect Arnold Schwarzenegger to succeed him.
- October 10 - Facing an investigation surrounding allegations of illegal drug use, AmericanRight Wing radio host Rush Limbaugh publically admits that he is addicted to prescription pain killers and will seek treatment.
- October 14 - The Florida Marlins defeat the Chicago Cubs in Game 6 of Major League Baseball's National League Championship Series; the game is remembered for Cubs fan Steve Bartman interfering with a foul ball which could have helped Chicago win the game and the series.
- October 15 - China launches Shenzhou 5, their first manned space mission.
- October 16 - The Boston Red Sox lose to their hated rivals, the New York Yankees in Game 7 of Major League Baseball's American League Championship Series, blowing a three-run, eighth-inning lead.
- October 23 - Luis A. Ferre, the third Democratically Elected Governor of Puerto Rico, dies at age 99.
- October 24 - Concorde makes its last commercial flight, bringing the era of airliner supersonic travel to a close, at least for the time being.
- October 25 - The Florida Marlins defeat the New York Yankees 4 games to 2 to win the 2003 World Series, behind a complete-game shutout by ace pitcher, Josh Beckett.
- October 25 - Cedar Fire begins in San Diego County burning 280,000 acres (1,100 km²), 2,232 homes and killing 14
- October 31 - Mahathir Mohamad resigns as Prime Minister of Malaysia after 22 years in power.

November


- November 5 - Gary Ridgway, The "Green River Killer", confesses murders of 48 women
- November 9 - Lunar eclipse (the Americas, Europe, Africa, Central Asia)
- November 12 - Occupation of Iraq: In Nasiriya, Iraq, at least 23 people, among them the first Italian casualties of the 2003 Iraq war are killed in a suicide bomb attack on an Italian police base.
- November 15 - Two car bombs explode simultaneously in Istanbul, Turkey targeting two synagogues, killing at least 25 people and wounding more than 300; Al-Qaida claims responsibility.
- November 18 - US President George W. Bush makes a state visit to London in the midst of massive protests.
- November 18 - Goodridge v. Department of Public Health rules anti-same-sex marriage laws unconstitutional in Massachusetts
- November 20 - Several bombs explode in Istanbul, Turkey destroying the Turkish head office of HSBC Holdings and the British consulate.
- November 20 - Michael Jackson is arrested by police on charges of child molestation, a charge that can carry an 8 year jail term.
- November 22 - England wins the Rugby Union World Cup defeating Australia 20-17 after extra time.
- November 23 - Georgian Rose Revolution ends with overwhelming victory - president Eduard Shevardnadze resigns following weeks of mass protests over fraudulent elections.
- November 23 - Total solar eclipse (Antarctica)
- November 24 - The High Court in Glasgow imposes a minimum sentence of 27 years for Al Ali Mohmed Al Megrahi, the Libyan convicted of bombing Pan Am Flight 103 over Lockerbie, Scotland.

December

December
- December 1 - The use of hand-held mobile phones while driving is made illegal in the United Kingdom.
- December 1 - Boeingchairman and CEOPhil Condit resigns unexpectedly. He is replaced by Lewis Platt as non-executive chairman and Harry Stonecipher as president and CEO.
- December 5 - Suicide bombing on commuter train in southern Russia kills 44 people. President Vladimir Putin condemns attack as bid to destabilize the country two days before parliamentary elections.
- December 7 - Parliamentary election in Russia.
- December 9 - Female suicide bomber blows herself up outside Moscow's National Hotel, across from the Kremlin and Red Square, killing five bystanders.
- December 12 - Paul Martin becomes the 21st Prime Minister of Canada
- December 12 - Olympic Airlines, Greece's new flag carrier is launched.
- December 13 - Saddam Hussein, former President of Iraq, is captured in Tikrit by the U.S. 4th Infantry Division.
- December 16 - The United Kingdom announces plans to build a new runway at Stansted Airport in Essex and a short-haul runway at Heathrow Airport sparking anger from environmental groups.
- December 17 - The film The Lord of the Rings: The Return of the King released, effectively completing the Lord of the Rings Trilogy directed by Peter Jackson.
- December 18 - The Soham Murder Trial ends at the Old Bailey in London with Ian Huntley found guilty of two counts of murder. His girlfriend, Maxine Carr is found guilty of perverting the course of justice.
- December 20 - Libya admits that it was building a nuclear bomb.
- December 22 - An earthquake shakes up California, killing two people.
- December 22 - Parmalat is first accused of falsifying accounts to the tune of USD $5 billion, later admitted by founder Calisto Tanzi; observers call it "Europe's Enron".
- December 24 - A BSE outbreak in Washington State is announced. Several countries including Brazil, Australia and Taiwan place a ban on the import of beef from the United States of America.
- December 24 - At the request of the US Embassy in Paris, the French Government orders Air France to cancel several flights between France and the US in response to terrorist concerns.
- December 24 - The Spanish police thwarts an attempt by ETA to detonate 50 kg of explosives at 3:55 PM on Christmas Eve inside Madrid's busy Chamartín Station.
- December 25 - Queen Elizabeth II broadcasts a Christmas message to the British Commonwealth paying tribute to British troops in Iraq. Pope John Paul II's Christmas message calls for peace in the Middle East.
- December 25 - Beagle 2 is scheduled to land on Mars, but nothing is heard from the lander.
- December 25 - The President Pervez Musharraf of Pakistan, escapes the second assassination attempt in two weeks.
- December 26 - A massive earthquake devastates southeastern Iran. Over 40,000 people are reported to have been killed in the city of Bam.
- December 31 - The world's largest Hogmanay party in the Scottish capital Edinburgh is cancelled twenty minutes before midnight due to bad weather.

Births


- April 29 - Maud Angelica Behn, daughter of Ari Behn and Princess Märtha Louise of Norway
- August 24 - Alexandre Coste, son of Albert II, Prince of Monaco
- November 8 - Lady Louise Windsor, daughter of Earl and Countess of Wessex
- December 7 - Princess Catharina-Amalia of the Netherlands, daughter of Prince Willem-Alexander of the Netherlands

Deaths

For more deaths, see: Deaths in 2003

January


- January 3 - Sid Gillman, American football coach (b. 1911)
- January 4 - Conrad Hall, Tahitian-born cinematographer (b. 1926)
- January 4 - Yfrah Neaman, Lebanese-born violinist (b. 1923)
- January 8 - Ron Goodwin, English composer and conductor (b. 1925)
- January 11 - Maurice Pialat, French actor and director (b. 1925)
- January 11 - Richard Simmons, American actor (b. 1913)
- January 12 - Leopoldo Galtieri, Argentine dictator (b. 1926)
- January 12 - Maurice Gibb, Australian musician (Bee Gees) (b. 1949)
- January 15 - Doris Fisher, American singer and songwriter (b. 1915)
- January 17 - Richard Crenna, American actor (b. 1926)
- January 20 - Al Hirschfeld, American cartoonist (b. 1903)
- January 23 - Nell Carter, American singer and actress (b. 1948)
- January 24 - Gianni Agnelli, Italian auto executive (b. 1921)
- January 26 - Valeriy Brumel, Russian athlete (b. 1942)
- January 26 - Hugh Trevor-Roper, Baron Dacre of Glanton, English historian (b. 1917)
- January 29 - Frank Moss, U.S. Senator from Utah (b. 1911)

February


- February 1 - Crew of the Space Shuttle Columbia
  - Michael P. Anderson (b. 1959)
  - David M. Brown (b. 1956)
  - Kalpana Chawla (b. 1961)
  - Laurel Clark (b. 1961)
  - Rick Husband (b. 1957)
  - William McCool (b. 1961)
  - Ilan Ramon (b. 1954)
- February 2 - Lou Harrison, American composer (b. 1917)
- February 10 - Edgar de Evia, American photographer (b. 1910)
- February 10 - Ron Ziegler, Richard Nixon's White House Press Secretary (b. 1939)
- February 19 - Johnny PayCheck, American singer (b. 1938)
- February 20 - Maurice Blanchot, French philosopher and writer (b. 1907)
- February 20 - Orville Freeman, American politician (b. 1918)
- February 27 - Fred Rogers, American television host (b. 1928)
- February 28 - Fidel Sánchez Hernández, President of El Salvador (heart attack) (b. 1917)

March


- March 2 - Hank Ballard, American musician (b. 1927)
- March 9 - Bernard Dowiyogo, President of Nauru (diabetes) (b. 1946)
- March 12 - Zoran Đinđić, Prime Minister of Serbia (assassinated) (b. 1952)
- March 12 - Lynne Thigpen, American actress (b.1948)
- March 26 - Daniel Patrick Moynihan, U.S. Senator from New York (b. 1926)
- March 29 - Carlo Urbani, Italian physician (SARS) (b. 1956)

April


- April 1 - Leslie Cheung, Hong Kong singer and actor (b.1961)
- April 7 - Cecile de Brunhoff, French storyteller (b. 1903)
- April 11 - Cecil Howard Green, British-born geophysicist and businessman (b. 1900)
- April 17 - Robert Atkins, American nutritionist (b. 1930)
- April 17 - Paul Getty, American-born philanthropist (b. 1932)
- April 17 - Earl King, American musician (b. 1934)
- April 20 - Ruth Hale, American playwright and actress (b. 1908)
- April 20 - Bernard Katz, German-born biophysicist, recipient of the Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine (b. 1911)
- April 21 - Nina Simone, American singer (b. 1933)
- April 23 - Fernand Fonssagrives, French photographer (b. 1910)
- April 26 - Peter Stone, American writer (b. 1930)
- April 30 - Wim van Est, Dutch cyclist (b. 1923)

May


- May 3 - Suzy Parker, American actress (b. 1932)
- May 9 - Russell B. Long, U.S. Senator from Louisiana (b. 1933)
- May 12 - Sadruddhin Aga Khan, French UN High Commissioner for Refugees (b. 1933)
- May 14 - Wendy Hiller, English actress (b. 1912)
- May 14 - Robert Stack, American actor (b. 1919)
- May 15 - June Carter Cash, American singer (b. 1929)
- May 15 - Rik Van Steenbergen, Belgian cyclist (b. 1924)
- May 26 - Kathleen Winsor, American writer (b. 1919)
- May 27 - Luciano Berio, Italian composer (b. 1925)
- May 28 - Ilya Prigogine, Russian-born physicist and chemist, recipient of the Nobel Prize in Chemistry (b. 1917)
- May 28 - Martha Scott, American actress (b. 1912)

June


- June 2 - Burke Marshall, American lawyer and politician (b. 1922)
- June 10 - Donald Regan, U.S. Treasury Secretary (b. 1918)
- June 10 - Bernard Williams, English philosopher (b. 1929)
- June 11 - David Brinkley, American television reporter (b. 1920)
- June 12 - Gregory Peck, American actor (b. 1916)
- June 15 - Hume Cronyn, Canadian act

Leap year

A leap year (or intercalary year) is a year containing an extra day or month in order to keep the calendar year in sync with an astronomical or seasonal year. Seasons and astronomical events do not repeat at an exact number of days, so a calendar which had the same number of days in each year would over time drift with respect to the event it was supposed to track. By occasionally inserting (or intercalating) an additional day or month into the year, the drift can be corrected. Leap years (which keep the calendar in sync with the year) should not be confused with leap seconds (which keep clock time in sync with the day).

Gregorian calendar

The Gregorian calendar, the current standard calendar in most of the world, adds a 29th day to February in all years evenly divisible by 4, except for century years (those ending in -00), which receive the extra day only if they are evenly divisible by 400. Thus 1996 was a leap year whereas 1999 was not, and 1600, 2000 and 2400 are leap years but 1700, 1800, 1900 and 2100 are not. The reasoning behind this rule is as follows:
- The Gregorian calendar is designed to keep the vernal equinox on or close to March 21, so that the date of Easter (celebrated on the Sunday after the 14th day of the Moon that falls on or after 21 March) remains correct with respect to the vernal equinox.
- The vernal equinox year is currently about 365.242375 days long.
- The Gregorian leap year rule gives an average year length of 365.2425 days. This difference of a little over 0.0001 days means that in around 8,000 years, the calendar will be about one day behind where it should be. But in 8,000 years' time the length of the vernal equinox year will have changed by an amount we can't accurately predict (see below). So the Gregorian leap year rule does a good enough job. Image:Gregoriancalendarleap.png

Which day is the leap day?

The Gregorian calendar is a modification of the Julian calendar first used by the Romans. The Roman calendar originated as a lunar calendar (though from the 5th century BC it no longer followed the real moon) and named its days after three of the phases of the moon: the new moon (calends, hence "calendar"), the first quarter (nones) and the full moon (ides). Days were counted down (inclusively) to the next named day, so 24 February was ante diem sextum calendas martii ("the sixth day before the calends of March"). Since 45 BC, February in a leap year had two days called "the sixth day before the calends of March". The extra day was originally the second of these, but since the third century it was the first. Hence the term bissextile day for 24 February in a bissextile year. Where this custom is followed, anniversaries after the inserted day are moved in leap years. For example, the former feast day of Saint Matthias, 24 February in ordinary years, would be 25 February in leap years. This historical nicety is, however, in the process of being discarded: The European Union declared that, starting in 2000, 29 February rather than 24 February would be leap day, and the Roman Catholic Church also now uses 29 February as leap day. The only tangible difference is felt in countries that celebrate feast days.

Julian calendar

The Julian calendar adds an extra day to February in years divisible by 4. This rule gives an average year length of 365.25 days. The excess of about 0.0076 days with respect to the vernal equinox year means that the vernal equinox moves a day earlier in the calendar every 130 years or so.

Revised Julian Calendar

The Revised Julian calendar adds an extra day to February in years divisible by 4, except for years divisible by 100 that do not leave a remainder of 200 or 600 when divided by 900. This rule agrees with the rule for the Gregorian calendar until 2799. The first year that dates in the Revised Julian calendar will not agree with the those in the Gregorian calendar will be 2800, because it will be a leap year in the Gregorian calendar but not in the Revised Julian calendar. This rule gives an average year length of 365.242222… days. This is a very good approximation to the meantropical year, but because the vernal equinox tropical year is slightly longer, the Revised Julian calendar does not do as good a job as the Gregorian calendar of keeping the vernal equinox on or close to 21 March.

Chinese calendar

The Chinese calendar is lunisolar, so a leap year has an extra month, often called an embolismic month after the Greek word for it. In the Chinese calendar the leap month is added according to a complicated rule, which ensures that month 11 is always the month that contains the northern winter solstice. The intercalary month takes the same number as the preceding month; for example, if it follows the second month then it is simply called "leap second month".

Hebrew calendar

The Hebrew calendar is also lunisolar with an embolistic month. In the Hebrew calendar the extra month is called Adar Alef (first Adar) and is added before Adar, which then becomes Adar Sheni (second Adar). According to the Metonic cycle, this is done seven times every nineteen years, specifically, in years, 3, 6, 8, 11, 14, 17, and 19. In addition, the Hebrew calendar has postponement rules that postpone the start of the year by one or two days. The year before the postponement gets one or two extra days, and the year whose start is postponed loses one or two days. These postponement rules reduce the number of different combinations of year length and starting day of the week from 28 to 14, and regulate the location of certain religious holidays in relation to the Sabbath.

Hindu Calendar

In the Hindu calendar, which is a lunisolar calendar, the embolismic month is called adhika maas (extra month). It is the month in which the sun is in the same sign of the stellar zodiac on two consecutive dark moons.

Iranian calendar

The Iranian calendar also has a single intercalated day once in every four years, but every 33 years or so the leap years will be five years apart instead of four years apart. The system used is more accurate and more complicated, and is based on the time of the March equinox as observed from Teheran. The 33-year period is not completely regular; every so often the 33-year cycle will be broken by a cycle of 29 or 37 years.

Long term leap year rules

The accumulated difference between the Gregorian calendar and the vernal equinoctial year amounts to 1 day in about 8,000 years. This suggests that the calendar needs to be improved by another refinement to the leap year rule: perhaps by avoiding leap years in years divisible by 8,000. (The most common such proposal is to avoid leap years in years divisible by 4,000 [http://www.google.com/search?q=%22gregorian+calendar%22+error+%22leap+year%22+4000]. This is based on the difference between the Gregorian calendar and the mean tropical year. Others claim, erroneously, that the Gregorian calendar itself already contains a refinement of this kind [http://www.straightdope.com/mailbag/mleapyr.html].) However, there is little point in planning a calendar so far ahead because over a timescale of tens of thousands of years the number of days in a year will change for a number of reasons, most notably: #Precession of the equinoxes moves the position of the vernal equinox with respect to perihelion and so changes the length of the vernal equinoctial year. #Tidal acceleration from the sun and moon slows the rotation of the earth, making the day longer. In particular, the second component of change depends on such things as post-glacial rebound and sea level rise due to climate change. We can't predict these changes accurately enough to be able to make a calendar that will be accurate to a day in tens of thousands of years.

Marriage proposal

There is a tradition, said to go back to Saint Patrick and Saint Bridget in 5th centuryIreland, whereby women may only make marriage proposals in leap years.

Saint Patrick and the leap year

:Saint Patrick, having driven the frogs out of the bogs was walking along the shores of Lough Neagh, when he was accosted by Saint Bridget in tears, and was told that a mutiny had broken out in the nunnery over which she presided, the ladies claiming the right of popping the question. :Saint Patrick said he would concede them the right every seventh year, when Saint Bridget threw her arms round his neck, and exclaimed, "Arrah, Pathrick, jewel, I daurn't go back to the girls wid such a proposal. Make it one year in four." Saint Patrick replied, "Bridget, acushla, squeeze me that way again, an' I'll give ye leap-year, the longest of the lot." Saint Bridget, upon this, popped the question to St Patrick himself, who, of course, could not marry: so he patched up the difficulty as best he could with a kiss and a silk gown. (Source: Evans, Ivor H, Brewer's Dictionary of Phrase and Fable, Cassell, London, 1988) According to a 1288 law in Scotland, fines were levied if the proposal was refused by the man; compensation ranged from a kiss to a silk gown to soften the blow. Because men felt that put them at too great a risk, the tradition was in some places tightened to restricting female proposals to 29 February.

Birthdays

A person who was born on 29 February may be called a "leapling". In non-leap years they usually celebrate their birthday on 28 February or 1 March. There are many instances in children's literature where a person's claim to be only a quarter of their actual age turns out be based on counting their leap-year birthdays. A similar device is used in the plot of the Gilbert and SullivanoperettaThe Pirates of Penzance. Category:CalendarsCategory:Units of timeals:Schaltjahrko:윤년ja:閏年simple:Leap yearth:ปีอธิกสุรทิน

Common year starting on Tuesday

This is the calendar for a common year starting on Tuesday (dominical letter F), e.g.2013, 2002, 1991, 1985, 1974, 1963... (A common year is a year with 365 days -- in other words, not a leap year.)
Previous year (common) Next year (common) Previous year (leap) Next year (leap) For other years, just shift the headers appropriately.
Millennium Century Year
2nd Millennium: 19th century: 1805 1811 1822 1833 1839 1850 1861 1867 1878 1889 1895
2nd Millennium: 20th century: 1901 1907 1918 1929 1935 1946 1957 1963 1974 1985 1991
3rd Millennium: 21st century: 2002 2013 2019 2030 2041 2047 2058 2069 2075 2086 2097
3rd Millennium: 22nd century: 2109 2115 2126 2137 2143 2154 2165 2171 2182 2193 2199
Category:Tuesday Category:Weeks ko:화요일로 시작하는 평년 th:ปีปกติสุรทินที่วันแรกเป็นวันอังคาร

Leap year starting on Monday

This is the calendar for any leap year starting on Monday (dominical letter GF). Previous year | Next year
Millennium Century Year
2nd Millennium: 19th century: 1816 1844 1872
2nd Millennium: 20th century: 1912 1940 1968 1996
3rd Millennium: 21st century: 2024 2052 2080
3rd Millennium: 22nd century: 2120 2148 2176
Category:MondayCategory:Weeksko:월요일로 시작하는 윤년