Moraji Desai Birth Anniversary

Morarji Desai, born on 29 February 1896, was the Prime Minister of India (1977–79), and the first leader of sovereign India not to represent the long-ruling Indian National Congress party. 

The son of a village teacher, Desai was educated at the University of Bombay (now the University of Mumbai) and in 1918 joined the provincial civil service of Bombay as a minor functionary. In 1930 he resigned to join Mohandas Gandhi's civil disobedience movement and spent almost 10 years in British jails during the struggle for independence. During the 1930s and ’40s he alternated prison service with ministerial posts in the government of Bombay, rising to the chief ministerial post in 1952. He gained a reputation for administrative skill as well as for harshness.

In 1956 Desai was named commerce and industry minister in the Indian government, for which he worked in high capacities until 1963, when he resigned. He became deputy prime minister in 1967. In 1969 he again resigned to become chairman of the opposition to Indira Gandhi and the Congress Party. He was arrested in 1975 for his political activities and detained in solitary confinement until 1977, whereupon he became active in the Janata Party, a coalition of four smaller parties. That same year, Prime Minister Indira Gandhi unexpectedly held elections after a 19-month suspension of political processes, and Janata achieved a surprising and overwhelming victory. Desai was chosen to be prime minister as a compromise candidate among Janata’s leaders. After two years of political tension, the Janata coalition began to unravel. Desai announced his resignation on July 15, 1979, after numerous defections from the coalition in Parliament, to avoid a vote of no confidence.

Rukmini Devi Arundale Birth Anniversary

Rukmini Devi Arundale, born on 29 February 1904, was an Indian theosophist, dancer and choreographer of the Indian classical dance form of Bharatnatyam, and an activist for animal welfare. She was the first woman in Indian history to be nominated as a member of the Rajya Sabha, the upper house of the Parliament of India.

 

Leap Day 2024

For adherents of the Gregorian calendar, Monday, February 29, 2024, is Leap Day. A leap day occurs in a leap year, which is a year with an inserted period of time. Leap days are necessary because an astronomical year—the time it takes for Earth to complete its orbit around the Sun—is about 365.25 days, while a calendar year is 365 days. Thus, just about every four years (that’s right, not every four years…see the next paragraph to learn why), a leap day is added to account for four extra 0.25 days. In the Gregorian calendar, this is done by giving the month of February—usually only 28 days—an extra day, the 29th. Other calendars also utilize the concept of a leap year.

The idea of adding time to a calendar via a leap day has been around for millennia—Ptolemy III Euergetes tried, but failed, to implement such a scheme in the 3rd century BCE—and has been refined over time. In 46 BCE the Julian calendar introduced a leap day every four years, but a problem with the measurement that was used led to a mounting discrepancy over the course of several centuries. The Gregorian calendar reformed the concept in 1582 by eliminating leap years in century years that weren’t exactly divisible by 400. This is why the years 1600 and 2000 were leap years but 1700, 1800, and 1900 were not and why 2400 will be a leap year but 2100, 2200, and 2300 will not.

There are customs and traditions associated with leap years and days. In Greece, some believe it is bad luck to get married in a leap year or on a leap day. Another tradition that dates back many centuries holds that during a leap year or on a leap day, a woman is allowed to propose marriage to a man instead of waiting for a man to offer a proposal.