Famous people born on Leap Day: How many people have Feb. 29th as a birthday?
Leap Day babies. Leapers. Leaplings.
People born on Feb. 29, known as Leap Day, are officially celebrating their birthdays on the actual date of their birth today– an opportunity that comes around every four years.
Leap years are when an extra day is added to the end of February, giving 2024 366 days instead of the typical 365. The last leap year was in 2020.
READ MORE: Why do we have leap year? Why do we have a Feb. 29 this year? When is next leap year?
The extra day solves the issue related to the time difference between the solar year and that of the Gregorian calendar. The Earth’s orbit around the sun takes approximately 365.25 days. Every four years, those quarter days are combined and added to the calendar to synchronize the Earth’s orbit and the passing of the seasons.
When do people born on Leap Days celebrate their birthdays?
People born on Leap Day tend to celebrate their birthdays on Feb. 28 or March 1, although they sometimes run into problems when filling out basic forms or handling questions about identity, reports the New York Times.
According to the Associated Press, there are about 5 million people worldwide who share the Leap Day birthday out of about 8 billion people on the planet. It’s the rarest birth date on the planet with only a 1 in roughly 1,460 chance of being born on this date.
Famous people born on Leap Day
Who are the most famous Leap Day babies? The most famous Leapling is actually a fictional character – Superman.
Several celebrities have Leap Day birthdays, including rapper Ja Rule, singer Dinah Shore, and hockey player Cam Ward. Other famous Leap Day babies include motivational speaker Tony Robbins, Mark Foster of “Foster the People,” late Law & Order actor Dennis Farina, big band leader Jimmy Dorsey, football coach Monte Kiffin (also known as Lane Kiffin’s dad) and NASA astronaut Jack Lousma.