ITinfo: 1900 Wasn't, But 2000 Is?

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2000 Will Be

But 1900 wasn't?

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1900 Wasn't, But 2000 Is?

by Dave Murphy
ISSN 1535-3613

In keeping with the spirit of the coming new year, riddle me this:

1600 was, as could have been 1200 before it.
But 1900 wasn't, nor will 2100 be.
Ah, but 2000 will.
What am I?

Most years ending in "00" are not leap years, but those divisible by 400 (including the year 2000) are.

The Julian calendar, authorized by Julius Caesar in 46 B.C., assumed that the year had 365 1/4 days, with a 366-day leap year added every fourth year.

In A.D. 730, an Anglo-Saxon monk, the Venerable Bede, calculated that the Julian year was 11 minutes and 14 seconds too long, an error of about one day every 128 years. But nothing was done about it for 800 years. In 1582, the accumulated error was estimated at 10 days, and Pope Gregory XIII decreed that the day following Oct. 4 would be Oct. 15.

To make future adjustments for the error (about three days every 400 years), it was decided that years ending in "00" would be common years rather than leap years -- except those divisible by 400.

So 1600 was a leap year and 2000 also will be, but 1700, 1800 and 1900 were not, nor will 2100, 2200, and 2300 be.

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http://itrain.org/itinfo/1998/it981229.html
updated December 29, 1998