Leap Year is when we add an extra day to the calendar to make up for the fact that it takes 364.25 days to travel around the sun. It happens every four years, and means that we also have the summer Olympics and a US presidential election. I had always heard that February 29th is the day that women can actually propose marriage to men, which is a joke on how rare that outrageous act should be. But it turns out that traditionally, women can propose to men any time during a Leap Year. Until recently, that was still seen as a strange twist on the the usual custom of a man proposing to a woman. Sometimes it made the papers, and sometimes it backfired.
In 1932, Alf Shepherd, the manager of the Ashington Ballroom in England, launched a promotion in which he offered a free wedding reception, including the venue, orchestra, and a cake to a woman who proposed to her gentleman while in the ballroom. With no takers by the February 11 deadline, the business extended the promotion to February 29 and encouraged women to propose by valentine, but some women misunderstood the update notice. Shepherd received at least three valentines from women who asked for his hand in marriage, sight unseen!
Read about this and other newsworthy Leap Year proposals through the years at Fishwrap. -via Strange Company