National Geographic News, Reporting Your World Daily

Tuesday, November 10, 2009

Photo: Leap Year: How the World Makes Up for Lost Time


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A woman holds a calendar, its page turned to leap day, next to a bust of Julius Caesar in a museum in Mainz, Germany.

Julius instituted the so-called Julian calendar, which reorganized Rome's 12 months into a 365-day year with a leap year every four years. That system became the predecessor to the Gregorian Calendar, which is now used throughout the Western world.

Photograph by Heribert Proepper/AP