question_text: who votes for speaker of the house of representatives

text: Selection[edit]

text: The House of Representatives elects the Speaker of the House on the first day of every new Congress and in the event of the death, resignation or removal from the Chair of an incumbent Speaker.[8] The Clerk of the House of Representatives requests nominations: there are normally two, one from each major party (each party having previously met to decide on its nominee). The Clerk then calls the roll of the Representatives, each Representative indicating the surname of the candidate the Representative is supporting. Representatives are not restricted to voting for one of the nominated candidates and may vote for any person, even for someone who is not a member of the House at all. They may also abstain by voting "present".[9]

text: Although no rule exists, based on tradition and practice from the earliest days of the nation, to be elected speaker a candidate must receive an absolute majority of all votes cast for individuals, i.e. excluding those who abstain. If no candidate wins such a majority, then the roll call is repeated until a speaker is elected. The last time repeated votes were required was in 1923, when the Speaker was elected on the ninth ballot.[9]

text: The new Speaker is then sworn in by the Dean of the United States House of Representatives, the chamber's longest-serving member.

text: In modern practice, the Speaker is chosen by the majority party from among its senior leaders either when a vacancy in the office arrives or when the majority party changes. Previous Speakers have been minority leaders (when the majority party changes, as they are already the House party leader, and as the minority leader are usually their party's nominee for Speaker), or majority leaders (upon departure of the current Speaker in the majority party), assuming that the party leadership hierarchy is followed. In the past, other candidates have included chairpersons of influential standing committees.

text: So far, the Democrats have always elevated their minority leader to the speakership upon reclaiming majority control of the House. However, Republicans have not always followed this leadership succession pattern. In 1919, Republicans bypassed James Robert Mann, R-IL, who had been Minority Leader for eight years, and elected a backbencher representative, Frederick H. Gillett, R-MA, to be Speaker. Mann had "angered many Republicans by objecting to their private bills on the floor," and was also a protégé of autocratic Speaker Joseph Gurney Cannon (R-IL18) who had been Speaker from 1903 to 1911, and was still in the House.  Many members "suspected that he [Mann] would try to re-centralize power in his hands if elected Speaker."[10] More recently, although Robert H. Michel was Minority Leader in 1994 when the Republicans regained control of the House in the 1994 midterm elections, he had already announced his retirement and had little or no involvement in the campaign, including the "Contract with America", which was unveiled six weeks before Election Day. Michel opted not to seek re-election because he had been isolated in the caucus by Minority Whip Newt Gingrich and other younger and more aggressive Representatives.

text: It is expected that members of the House vote for their party's candidate. If they do not, they usually vote for someone else in their party or vote "present". Those who vote for the other party's candidate often face serious consequences, up to and including the loss of seniority. The last instance where a representative voted for the other party's candidate was in 2000, when Democrat Jim Traficant of Ohio voted for Republican Dennis Hastert. In response, the Democrats stripped him of his seniority and he lost all of his committee posts.

text: If the Speaker's party loses control of the House in an election, and if the Speaker and Majority Leader both remain in the leadership hierarchy, they would become the Minority Leader and Minority Whip, respectively. As the minority party has historically had one less leadership position after losing the Speaker's chair, there may be a contest for the remaining leadership positions; upon losing control of the House after the 2010 election, the Democrats created the position of Assistant Democratic Leader in order to prevent such a contest. Most Speakers whose party has lost control of the House have not returned to the party leadership (Tom Foley lost his seat, Dennis Hastert returned to the backbenches and resigned from the House in late 2007). However, Speakers Joseph William Martin, Jr. and Sam Rayburn did seek the post of Minority Leader in the late 1940s and early 1950s. Nancy Pelosi is the most recent example of an outgoing Speaker who was elected Minority Leader, after the Democrats lost control of the House in the 2010 elections.

text: History[edit]

text: The first Speaker was Frederick Muhlenberg:  he was elected as a Pro-Administration candidate to the 1st Congress, an Anti-Administration candidate to the 2nd and 3rd Congresses, and a Republican candidate to the 4th Congress,[11] according to the Biographical Directory of Congress, though Oswald Seidensticker wrote that he was elected as a Federalist for the first four Congresses.[12]

text: The position of Speaker started to gain its partisan role and its power in legislative development under Henry Clay (1811–1814, 1815–1820, and 1823–1825).[13] In contrast to many of his predecessors, Clay participated in several debates, and used his influence to procure the passage of measures he supported—for instance, the declaration of the War of 1812, and various laws relating to Clay's "American System" economic plan. Furthermore, when no candidate received an Electoral College majority in the 1824 presidential election causing the President to be elected by the House, Speaker Clay threw his support to John Quincy Adams instead of Andrew Jackson, thereby ensuring Adams' victory. Following Clay's retirement in 1825, the power of the speakership once again began to decline, despite speakership elections becoming increasingly bitter. As the Civil War approached, several sectional factions nominated their own candidates, often making it difficult for any candidate to attain a majority. In 1855 and again in 1859, for example, the contest for Speaker lasted for two months before the House achieved a result. During this time, Speakers tended to have very short tenures. For example, from 1839 to 1863 there were eleven Speakers, only one of whom served for more than one term. To date, James K. Polk is the only Speaker of the House later elected President of the United States.

text: Towards the end of the 19th century, the office of Speaker began to develop into a very powerful one. At the time, one of the most important sources of the Speaker's power was his position as Chairman of the Committee on Rules, which, after the reorganization of the committee system in 1880, became one of the most powerful standing committees of the House. Furthermore, several Speakers became leading figures in their political parties; examples include Democrats Samuel J. Randall, John Griffin Carlisle, and Charles F. Crisp, and Republicans James G. Blaine, Thomas Brackett Reed, and Joseph Gurney Cannon.

text: The power of the Speaker was greatly augmented during the tenure of the Republican Thomas Brackett Reed (1889–1891, 1895–1899). "Czar Reed", as he was called by his opponents,[14] sought to end the obstruction of bills by the minority, in particular by countering the tactic known as the "disappearing quorum".[15] By refusing to vote on a motion, the minority could ensure that a quorum would not be achieved, and that the result would be invalid. Reed, however, declared that members who were in the chamber but refused to vote would still count for the purposes of determining a quorum. Through these and other rulings, Reed ensured that the Democrats could not block the Republican agenda.

text: The speakership reached its apogee during the term of Republican Joseph Gurney Cannon (1903–1911). Cannon exercised extraordinary control over the legislative process. He determined the agenda of the House, appointed the members of all committees, chose committee chairmen, headed the Rules Committee, and determined which committee heard each bill. He vigorously used his powers to ensure that Republican proposals were passed by the House. In 1910, however, Democrats and several dissatisfied Republicans joined together to strip Cannon of many of his powers, including the ability to name committee members and his chairmanship of the Rules Committee.[16] Fifteen years later, Speaker Nicholas Longworth restored much, but not all, of the lost influence of the position.

text: One of the most influential Speakers in history was Democrat Sam Rayburn.[17] Rayburn was the longest-serving Speaker in history, holding office from 1940 to 1947, 1949 to 1953, and 1955 to 1961. He helped shape many bills, working quietly in the background with House committees. He also helped ensure the passage of several domestic measures and foreign assistance programs advocated by Presidents Franklin D. Roosevelt and Harry Truman. Rayburn's successor, Democrat John W. McCormack (served 1962–1971), was a somewhat less influential speaker, particularly because of dissent from younger members of the Democratic Party. During the mid-1970s, the power of the speakership once again grew under Democrat Carl Albert. The Committee on Rules ceased to be a semi-independent panel, as it had been since 1910. Instead, it once again became an arm of the party leadership. Moreover, in 1975, the Speaker was granted the authority to appoint a majority of the members of the Rules Committee. Meanwhile, the power of committee chairmen was curtailed, further increasing the relative influence of the Speaker.

text: Albert's successor, Democrat Tip O'Neill, was a prominent Speaker because of his public opposition to the policies of President Ronald Reagan. O'Neill is the longest continually serving Speaker, from 1977 through 1987. He challenged Reagan on domestic programs and on defense expenditures. Republicans made O'Neill the target of their election campaigns in 1980 and 1982 but Democrats managed to retain their majorities in both years.

text: The roles of the parties reversed in 1994 when, after spending forty years in the minority, the Republicans regained control of the House with the "Contract with America", an idea spearheaded by Minority Whip Newt Gingrich. Speaker Gingrich would regularly clash with Democratic President Bill Clinton, leading to the United States federal government shutdown of 1995 and 1996, in which Clinton was largely seen to have prevailed. Gingrich's hold on the leadership was weakened significantly by that and several other controversies, and he faced a caucus revolt in 1997. After the Republicans lost House seats in 1998 (although retaining a majority) he did not stand for a third term as Speaker. His successor, Dennis Hastert, had been chosen as a compromise candidate, since the other Republicans in the leadership were more controversial. Hastert played a much less prominent role than other contemporary Speakers, being overshadowed by House Majority Leader Tom DeLay and President George W. Bush. The Republicans came out of the 2000 elections with a further reduced majority but made small gains in 2002 and 2004. The periods of 2001–2002 and 2003–2007 were the first times since 1953–1955 that there was single-party Republican leadership in Washington, interrupted from 2001–2003 as Senator Jim Jeffords of Vermont left the Republican Party to become independent and caucused with Senate Democrats to give them a 51-49 majority.

text: In the 2006 midterm elections, the Democrats won a majority in the House. Nancy Pelosi became Speaker when the 110th Congress convened on January 4, 2007, making her the first female to hold the office. With the election of Barack Obama as President and Democratic gains in both houses of Congress, Pelosi became the first Speaker since Tom Foley to hold the office during single-party Democratic leadership in Washington.[18] During the 111th Congress, Pelosi was the driving force behind several of Obama's major initiatives that proved controversial, and the Republicans campaigned against the Democrats' legislation by staging a "Fire Pelosi" bus tour[19] and regained control of the House in the 2010 midterm elections. House Minority Leader John Boehner was elected as Speaker.[20]

text: Notable elections[edit]

text:
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text: Historically, there have been several controversial elections to the speakership, such as the contest of 1839. In that case, even though the 26th United States Congress convened on December 2, the House could not begin the speakership election until December 14 because of an election dispute in New Jersey known as the "Broad Seal War". Two rival delegations, one Whig and the other Democrat, had been certified as elected by different branches of the New Jersey government. The problem was compounded by the fact that the result of the dispute would determine whether the Whigs or the Democrats held the majority. Neither party agreed to permit a speakership election with the opposite party's delegation participating. Finally, it was agreed to exclude both delegations from the election and a Speaker was finally chosen on December 17.

text: Another, more prolonged fight occurred in 1855 in the 34th United States Congress. The old Whig Party had collapsed but no single party had emerged to replace it. Candidates opposing the Democrats had run under a bewildering variety of labels, including Whig, Republican, American (Know Nothing), and simply "Opposition". By the time Congress actually met in December 1855, most of the northerners were concentrated together as Republicans, while most of the southerners and a few northerners used the American or Know Nothing label. Opponents of the Democrats held a majority in House, with the party makeup of the 234 Representatives being 83 Democrats, 108 Republicans, and 43 Know Nothings (primarily southern oppositionists). The Democratic minority nominated William Alexander Richardson of Illinois as Speaker, but because of sectional distrust, the various oppositionists were unable to agree on a single candidate for Speaker. The Republicans supported Nathaniel Prentiss Banks of Massachusetts, who had been elected as a Know Nothing but was now largely identified with the Republicans. The southern Know Nothings supported first Humphrey Marshall of Kentucky, and then Henry M. Fuller of Pennsylvania. The voting went on for almost two months with no candidate able to secure a majority, until it was finally agreed to elect the Speaker by plurality vote, and Banks was elected.[22] The House found itself in a similar dilemma when the 36th Congress met in December 1859. Although the Republicans held a plurality, the Republican candidate, John Sherman, was unacceptable to southern oppositionists due to his anti-slavery views, and once again the House was unable to elect a Speaker for several months. After Democrats allied with southern oppositionists to nearly elect the North Carolina oppositionist William N. H. Smith, Sherman finally withdrew in favor of compromise candidate William Pennington of New Jersey, a former Whig of unclear partisan loyalties, who was finally elected Speaker at the end of January 1860.[23]

text: The last speakership elections in which the House had to vote more than once occurred in the 65th and 72nd United States Congress. In 1917, neither the Republican nor the Democratic candidate could attain a majority because three members of the Progressive Party and other individual members of other parties voted for their own party. The Republicans had a plurality in the House but James "Champ" Clark remained Speaker of the House because of the support of the Progressive Party members. In 1931, both the Republicans and the Democrats had 217 members with the Minnesota Farmer-Labor Party having one member who served as the deciding vote. The Farmer-Labor Party eventually voted for the Democrats' candidate for Speaker, John Nance Garner, who later became Vice President under Franklin Roosevelt.

text: In 1997, several Republican congressional leaders tried to force Speaker Newt Gingrich to resign. However, Gingrich refused since that would have required a new election for Speaker, which could have led to Democrats along with dissenting Republicans voting for Democrat Dick Gephardt (then Minority Leader) as Speaker. After the 1998 midterm elections where the Republicans lost seats, Gingrich did not stand for re-election. The next two figures in the House Republican leadership hierarchy, Majority Leader Richard Armey and Majority Whip Tom DeLay, chose not to run for the office. The chairman of the House Appropriations Committee, Bob Livingston, declared his bid for the speakership, which was unopposed, making him Speaker-designate. It was then revealed, by Livingston himself, who had been publicly critical of President Bill Clinton's perjury during his sexual harassment trial, that he had engaged in an extramarital affair. He opted to resign from the House, despite being urged to stay on by House Democratic leader Gephardt. Subsequently, chief deputy whip Dennis Hastert was selected as Speaker. The Republicans retained their majorities in the 2000, 2002, and 2004 elections.

text: The Democrats won a majority of seats in the 2006 midterm elections. On November 16, 2006, Nancy Pelosi, who was then Minority Leader, was selected as Speaker-designate by House Democrats.[24] When the 110th Congress convened on January 4, 2007, she was elected as the 52nd Speaker by a vote of 233-202, becoming the first woman elected Speaker of the House.[25] Pelosi remained Speaker through the 111th Congress. For the 112th Congress, Republican John Boehner was unanimously designated Speaker-designate by House Republicans and was elected the 53rd Speaker of the House. As a show of dissent, nineteen Democratic representatives voted for Democrats other than Pelosi, who had been chosen as House Minority Leader and the Democrats' candidate for Speaker.

text: Partisan role[edit]

text: The Constitution does not spell out the political role of the Speaker. As the office has developed historically, however, it has taken on a clearly partisan cast, very different from the speakership of most Westminster-style legislatures, such as the Speaker of the British House of Commons, which is meant to be scrupulously non-partisan. The Speaker in the United States, by tradition, is the head of the majority party in the House of Representatives, outranking the Majority Leader. However, despite having the right to vote, the Speaker usually does not participate in debate and rarely votes.

text: The Speaker is responsible for ensuring that the House passes legislation supported by the majority party. In pursuing this goal, the Speaker may use their power to determine when each bill reaches the floor. They also chair the majority party's steering committee in the House. While the Speaker is the functioning head of the House majority party, the same is not true of the President pro tempore of the Senate, whose office is primarily ceremonial and honorary.

text: When the Speaker and the President belong to the same party, the Speaker tends to play the role in a more ceremonial light, as seen when Dennis Hastert played a very low-key role during the presidency of fellow Republican George W. Bush. Nevertheless, when the Speaker and the President belong to the same party, there are also times that the Speaker plays a much larger role, and the Speaker is tasked, e.g., with pushing through the agenda of the majority party, often at the expense of the minority opposition. This can be seen, most of all, in the speakership of Democratic-Republican Henry Clay, who personally ensured the presidential victory of fellow Democratic-Republican John Quincy Adams. Democrat Sam Rayburn was a key player in the passing of New Deal legislation under the presidency of fellow Democrat Franklin Delano Roosevelt. Republican Joseph Gurney Cannon (under Theodore Roosevelt) was particularly infamous for his marginalization of the minority Democrats and centralizing of authority to the speakership. In more recent times, Speaker Nancy Pelosi played a role in continuing the push for health care reform during the presidency of fellow Democrat Barack Obama.[26] The Republicans campaigned against Pelosi and the Democrats' legislation with their "Fire Pelosi" bus tour.[19]

text: On the other hand, when the Speaker and the President belong to opposite parties, the public role and influence of the Speaker tend to increase. As the highest-ranking member of the opposition party (and de facto Leader of the Opposition), the Speaker is normally the chief public opponent of the President's agenda. In this scenario, the Speaker is known for undercutting the President's agenda by blocking measures by the minority party or rejecting bills by the Senate. One famous instance came in the form of Thomas Brackett Reed (under Grover Cleveland), a Speaker notorious for his successful attempt to force the Democrats to vote on measures where the Republicans had clear majorities, which ensured that Cleveland's Democrats were in no position to challenge the Republicans in the House. Joseph Cannon was particularly unique in that he led the conservative "Old Guard" wing of the Republican Party, while his President – Theodore Roosevelt – was of the more progressive clique, and more than just marginalizing the Democrats, Cannon used his power to punish the dissidents in his party and obstruct the progressive wing of the Republican Party.

text: More modern examples include Tip O'Neill, who was a vocal opponent of President Ronald Reagan's economic and defense policies; Newt Gingrich, who fought a bitter battle with President Bill Clinton for control of domestic policy; Nancy Pelosi, who argued with President George W. Bush over the Iraq War;[20] and John Boehner, who clashed with President Barack Obama over budget issues and health care.[27]

text: Presiding officer[edit]

text: As presiding officer of the House of Representatives, the Speaker holds a variety of powers over the House and is ceremonially the highest-ranking legislative official in the US government.[28] The Speaker may delegate his powers to a member of the House to act as Speaker pro tempore and preside over the House in the Speaker's absence; when this has occurred the delegation has always been to a member of the same party.[29] During important debates, the Speaker pro tempore is ordinarily a senior member of the majority party who may be chosen for his skill in presiding. At other times, more junior members may be assigned to preside to give them experience with the rules and procedures of the House. The Speaker may also designate, with approval of the House, a Speaker pro tempore for special purposes, such as designating a Representative whose district is near Washington, D.C. to sign enrolled bills during long recesses.

text: Under the Rules of the House, the Speaker, "as soon as practicable after the election of the Speaker and whenever appropriate thereafter," must deliver to the Clerk of the House a confidential list of Members who are designated to act as Speaker in the case of a vacancy or physical inability of the Speaker to perform their duties.[30]

text: On the floor of the House, the presiding officer is always addressed as "Mister Speaker" or "Madam Speaker," even if it is a Speaker pro tempore, and not the Speaker themselves. When the House resolves itself into a Committee of the Whole, the Speaker designates a member to preside over the Committee as the Chairman, who is addressed as "Mister Chairman" or "Madam Chairwoman." To speak, members must seek the presiding officer's recognition. The presiding officer also rules on all points of order but such rulings may be appealed to the whole House. The Speaker is responsible for maintaining decorum in the House and may order the Sergeant-at-Arms to enforce House rules.

text: The Speaker's powers and duties extend beyond presiding in the chamber. In particular, the Speaker has great influence over the committee process. The Speaker selects nine of the thirteen members of the powerful Committee on Rules, subject to the approval of the entire majority party. The leadership of the minority party chooses the remaining four members. Furthermore, the Speaker appoints all members of select committees and conference committees. Moreover, when a bill is introduced, the Speaker determines which committee will consider it. As a member of the House, the Speaker is entitled to participate in debate and to vote but, by custom, only does so in exceptional circumstances. Ordinarily, the Speaker votes only when the Speaker's vote would be decisive or on matters of great importance, such as constitutional amendments or major legislation.[31]

text: Other functions[edit]

text: Because joint sessions and joint meetings of Congress are held in the House chamber, the Speaker presides over joint sessions to hear addresses by the President, and joint meetings to hear addresses from foreign leaders or other invited guests. However, the Twelfth Amendment and 3 U.S.C. § 15 require that the President of the Senate preside over joint sessions of Congress assembled to count electoral votes and to certify the results of a presidential election.

text: The Speaker is also responsible for overseeing the officers of the House: the Clerk, the Sergeant-at-Arms, the Chief Administrative Officer, and the Chaplain. The Speaker can dismiss any of these officers. The Speaker appoints the House Historian and the General Counsel and, jointly with the Majority and Minority Leaders, appoints the House Inspector General.

text: The Speaker is second in the presidential line of succession, immediately after the Vice President, under the Presidential Succession Act of 1947. The Speaker is followed in the line of succession by the President pro tempore of the Senate and by the heads of federal executive departments.

text: To date, the implementation of the Presidential Succession Act has never been necessary and no Speaker has ever acted as President. Implementation of the law almost became necessary in 1973 after the resignation of Vice President Spiro Agnew. At the time, many believed that President Richard Nixon would resign because of the Watergate scandal, allowing Speaker Carl Albert to succeed to the Presidency. However, before he resigned, Nixon appointed Gerald Ford as Vice President in accordance with the Twenty-fifth Amendment. Nevertheless, the United States government takes the Speaker's place in the line of succession seriously enough that, for example, following the terrorist attacks of September 11, 2001, Speakers used military jets to fly back and forth to their districts and for other travel until Speaker Boehner discontinued the practice in 2011. The Speaker of the House is one of the officers to whom declarations of presidential inability or ability to resume the Presidency must be addressed under the Twenty-fifth Amendment.

text: Most recent election for speaker (2017)[edit]

text:
Candidate

Votes

%

✓ Paul Ryan (R)

239

55.2%

Nancy Pelosi (D)

189

43.6%

Tim Ryan (D)

2

0.5%

Jim Cooper (D)

1

0.2%

John Lewis (D)

1

0.2%

Dan Webster (R)

1

0.2%

Total

433

Not voting

2

Vacant

0

text: To be elected as Speaker, a candidate must receive an absolute majority of all votes cast for individuals, excluding those who abstain.[32] The most recent election for the post of Speaker of the United States House of Representatives took place on January 3, 2017, during the opening day of the 115th United States Congress. The incumbent speaker, Paul Ryan, was re-elected.


document_title: Tropical year

question_text: when was the length of a year discovered

root

text: Tropical year

text: History

text: Origin

text: The word "tropical" comes from the Greek tropikos meaning "turn" (tropic 1992). Thus, the tropics of Cancer and Capricorn mark the extreme north and south latitudes where the Sun can appear directly overhead, and where it appears to "turn" in its annual seasonal motion. Because of this connection between the tropics and the seasonal cycle of the apparent position of the Sun, the word "tropical" also lent its name to the "tropical year". The early Chinese, Hindus, Greeks, and others made approximate measures of the tropical year.

tag: p

text: Early value, precession discovery

text: In the 2nd century BC Hipparchus measured the time required for the Sun to travel from an equinox to the same equinox again. He reckoned the length of the year to be 1/300 of a day less than 365.25 days (365 days, 5 hours, 55 minutes, 12 seconds, or 365.24667 days). Hipparchus used this method because he was better able to detect the time of the equinoxes, compared to that of the solstices (Meeus & Savoie 1992, p. 40).

text: Hipparchus also discovered that the equinoctial points moved along the ecliptic (plane of the Earth's orbit, or what Hipparchus would have thought of as the plane of the Sun's orbit about the Earth) in a direction opposite that of the movement of the Sun, a phenomenon that came to be named "precession of the equinoxes". He reckoned the value as 1° per century, a value that was not improved upon until about 1000 years later, by Islamic astronomers. Since this discovery a distinction has been made between the tropical year and the sidereal year (Meeus & Savoie 1992, p. 40).

text: Middle Ages and the Renaissance

text: During the Middle Ages and Renaissance a number of progressively better tables were published that allowed computation of the positions of the Sun, Moon and planets relative to the fixed stars. An important application of these tables was the reform of the calendar.

text: The Alfonsine Tables, published in 1252, were based on the theories of Ptolemy and were revised and updated after the original publication; the most recent update in 1978 was by the French National Centre for Scientific Research. The length of the tropical year was given as 365 solar days 5 hours 49 minutes 16 seconds (≈ 365.24255 days). This length was used in devising the Gregorian calendar of 1582 (Meeus & Savoie 1992, p. 41).

text: In the 16th century Copernicus put forward a heliocentric cosmology. Erasmus Reinhold used Copernicus' theory to compute the Prutenic Tables in 1551, and gave a tropical year length of 365 solar days, 5 hours, 55 minutes, 58 seconds (365.24720 days), based on the length of a sidereal year and the presumed rate of precession. This was actually less accurate than the earlier value of the Alfonsine Tables.

text: Major advances in the 17th century were made by Johannes Kepler and Isaac Newton. In 1609 and 1619 Kepler published his three laws of planetary motion (McCarthy & Seidelmann 2009, p. 26). In 1627, Kepler used the observations of Tycho Brahe and Waltherus to produce the most accurate tables up to that time, the Rudolphine Tables. He evaluated the mean tropical year as 365 solar days, 5 hours, 48 minutes, 45 seconds (365.24219 days; Meeus & Savoie 1992, p. 41).

text: Newton's three laws of dynamics and theory of gravity were published in his Philosophiæ Naturalis Principia Mathematica in 1687. Newton's theoretical and mathematical advances influenced tables by Edmund Halley published in 1693 and 1749 (McCarthy & Seidelmann 2009, pp. 26-28) and provided the underpinnings of all solar system models until Albert Einstein's theory of General relativity in the 20th century.

text: 18th and 19th century

text: From the time of Hipparchus and Ptolemy, the year was based on two equinoxes (or two solstices) a number of years apart, to average out both observational errors and the effects of nutation (periodic motions of the axis of rotation of the earth, the main cycle being 18.6 years) and the movement of the Sun caused by the gravitational pull of the planets. These effects did not begin to be understood until Newton's time. To model short-term variations of the time between equinoxes (and prevent them from confounding efforts to measure long-term variations) requires either precise observations or an elaborate theory of the apparent motion of the Sun. The necessary theories and mathematical tools came together in the 18th century due to the work of Pierre-Simon de Laplace, Joseph Louis Lagrange, and other specialists in celestial mechanics. They were able to express the mean longitude of the Sun as

text: where T is the time in Julian centuries. The inverse of the derivative of L0, dT/dL0 gives the length of the tropical year as a linear function of T. When this is computed, an expression giving the length of the tropical year as a function of T results.

text: Two equations are given in the table. Both equations estimate that the tropical year gets roughly a half second shorter each century.

text:
Tropical year coefficients

Name
Equation
Date on which T = 0

Leverrier (Meeus & Savoie 1992, p. 42)
Y = 365.24219647 − 6.24×10−6 T
January 0.5, 1900, Ephemeris Time

Newcomb (1898)
Y = 365.24219879 − 6.14×10−6 T
January 0, 1900, mean time

tag: table

text: Newcomb's tables were successful enough that they were used by the joint American-British Astronomical Almanac for the Sun, Mercury, Venus, and Mars through 1983 (Seidelmann 1992, p. 317).

text: 20th and 21st centuries

text: The length of the mean tropical year is derived from a model of the solar system, so any advance that improves the solar system model potentially improves the accuracy of the mean tropical year. Many new observing instruments became available, including

text:
artificial satellites
tracking of deep space probes such as Pioneer 4 beginning in 1959 (Jet Propulsion Laboratory 2005)
radars able to measure other planets beginning in 1961 (Butrica 1996)
lunar laser ranging since the 1969 Apollo 11 left the first of a series of retroreflectors which allow greater accuracy than reflectorless measurements
artificial satellites such as LAGEOS (1976) and the Global Positioning System (initial operation in 1993)
Very Long Baseline Interferometry which finds precise directions to quasars in distant galaxies, and allows determination of the Earth's orientation with respect to these objects whose distance is so great they can be considered to show minimal space motion (McCarthy & Seidelmann 2009, p. 265).

tag: ul

text: The complexity of the model used for the solar system must be limited to the available computation facilities. In the 1920s punched card equipment came into use by L. J. Comrie in Britain. At the American Ephemeris an electromagnetic computer, the IBM Selective Sequence Electronic Calculator was used since 1948. When modern computers became available, it was possible to compute ephemerides using numerical integration rather than general theories; numerical integration came into use in 1984 for the joint US-UK almanacs (McCarthy & Seidelmann 2009, p. 32).

text: Einstein's General Theory of Relativity provided a more accurate theory, but the accuracy of theories and observations did not require the refinement provided by this theory (except for the advance of the perihelion of Mercury) until 1984. Time scales incorporated general relativity beginning in the 1970s (McCarthy & Seidelmann 2009, p. 37).

text: A key development in understanding the tropical year over long periods of time is the discovery that the rate of rotation of the earth, or equivalently, the length of the mean solar day, is not constant. William Ferrel in 1864 and Charles-Eugène Delaunay in 1865 indicated the rotation of the Earth was being retarded by tides. In 1921 William H Shortt invented the Shortt-Synchronome clock, the most accurate commercially produced pendulum clock; it was the first clock capable of measuring variations in the Earth's rotation. The next major time-keeping advance was the quartz clock, first built by Warren Marrison and J. W. Horton in 1927; in the late 1930s quartz clocks began to replace pendulum clocks as time standards (McCarthy & Seidelmann 2009, ch. 9).

text: A series of experiments beginning in the late 1930s led to the development of the first atomic clock by Louis Essen and J. V. L. Parry in 1955. Their clock was based on a transition in the cesium atom (McCarthy & Seidelmann 2009, pp. 157-9). Due to the accuracy the General Conference on Weights and Measures in 1960 redefined the second in terms of the cesium transition.[1] The atomic second, often called the SI second, was intended to agree with the ephemeris second based on Newcomb's work, which in turn makes it agree with the mean solar second of the mid-19th century (McCarthy & Seidelmann 2009, pp. 81-2, 191-7).

text: Time scales

text: As mentioned in History, advances in time-keeping have resulted in various time scales. One useful time scale is Universal Time (especially the UT1 variant), which is the mean solar time at 0 degrees longitude (the Greenwich meridian). One second of UT is 1/86,400 of a mean solar day. This time scale is known to be somewhat variable. Since all civil calendars count actual solar days, they must ultimately be based on UT (but the actual timing of official midnight is based on UTC).

text: The other time scale has two parts. Ephemeris time (ET) is the independent variable in the equations of motion of the solar system, in particular, the equations in use from 1960 to 1984 (McCarthy & Seidelmann 2009, p. 378). That is, the length of the second used in the solar system calculations could be adjusted until the length that gives the best agreement with observations is found. With the introduction of atomic clocks in the 1950s, it was found that ET could be better realized as atomic time. This also means that ET is a uniform time scale, as is atomic time. ET was given a new name, Terrestrial Time (TT), and for most purposes ET = TT = International Atomic Time + 32.184 SI seconds. As of January 2017,[update] TT is ahead of UT1 by 69.184 seconds (International Earth Rotation Service 2017; McCarthy & Seidelmann 2009, pp. 86-7).

text: As explained below, long-term estimates of the length of the tropical year were used in connection with the reform of the Julian calendar, which resulted in the Gregorian calendar. Participants in that reform were only partially aware of the non-uniform rotation of the Earth, but now this can be taken into account to some degree. The amount that TT is ahead of UT1 is known as ΔT, or Delta T. The table below gives Morrison and Stephenson's (S & M) 2004 estimates and standard errors (σ) for dates significant in the process of developing the Gregorian calendar.

text:
Event
Year
Nearest S & M Year
ΔT
σ

Julian calendar begins
−44
0
2h56m20s
4m20s

First Council of Nicaea
325
300
2h8m
2m

Gregorian calendar begins
1582
1600
2m
20s

low-precision extrapolation
4000

4h13m

low-precision extrapolation
10,000

2d11h

text: The low-precision extrapolations are computed with an expression provided by Morrison & Stephenson (2004)

text: where t is measured in Julian centuries from 1820. The extrapolation is provided only to show ΔT is not negligible when evaluating the calendar for long periods; Borkowski (1991, p. 126) cautions that "many researchers have attempted to fit a parabola to the measured ΔT values in order to determine the magnitude of the deceleration of the Earth's rotation. The results, when taken together, are rather discouraging."

text: Length of tropical year

text: An oversimplified definition of the tropical year would be the time required for the Sun, beginning at a chosen ecliptic longitude, to make one complete cycle of the seasons and return to the same ecliptic longitude. Before considering an example, the equinox must be examined. There are two important planes in solar system calculations, the plane of the ecliptic (the Earth's orbit around the Sun), and the plane of the celestial equator (the Earth's equator projected into space). These two planes intersect in a line. This direction is given the symbol ♈ (the symbol looks like the horns of a ram because it used to be toward the constellation Aries. The opposite direction is given the symbol ♎ (because it used to be toward Libra). Because of the precession of the equinoxes and nutation these directions change, compared to the direction of distant stars and galaxies, whose directions have no measurable motion due to their great distance (see International Celestial Reference Frame).

text: The ecliptic longitude of the Sun is the angle between ♈ and the Sun, measured eastward along the ecliptic. This creates a complicated measurement, because as the Sun is moving, the direction the angle is measured from is also moving. It is convenient to have a fixed (with respect to distant stars) direction to measure from; the direction of ♈ at noon January 1, 2000 fills this role and is given the symbol ♈0.

text: Using the oversimplified definition, there was an equinox on March 20, 2009, 11:44:43.6 TT. The 2010 March equinox was March 20, 17:33:18.1 TT, which gives a duration of 365 days 5 hours 48 minutes 34.5 seconds (Astronomical Applications Dept., 2009). While the Sun moves, ♈ moves in the opposite direction . When the Sun and ♈ met at the 2010 March equinox, the Sun had moved east 359°59'09" while ♈ had moved west 51" for a total of 360° (all with respect to ♈0; Seidelmann 1992, p. 104, expression for pA).

text: If a different starting longitude for the Sun is chosen, the duration for the Sun to return to the same longitude will be different. This is because although ♈ changes at a nearly steady rate[2] there is considerable variation in the angular speed of the Sun. Thus, the 50 or so arcseconds that the Sun does not have to move to complete the tropical year "saves" varying amounts of time depending on the position in the orbit.

text: Mean time interval between equinoxes

text: As already mentioned, there is some choice in the length of the tropical year depending on the point of reference that one selects. But during the period when return of the Sun to a chosen longitude was the method in use by astronomers, one of the equinoxes was usually chosen because it was easier to detect when it occurred. When tropical year measurements from several successive years are compared, variations are found which are due to nutation, and to the planetary perturbations acting on the Sun. Meeus & Savoie (1992, p. 41) provided the following examples of intervals between northward equinoxes:

text:
days
hours
min
s

1985–1986
365
5
48
58

1986–1987
365
5
49
15

1987–1988
365
5
46
38

1988–1989
365
5
49
42

1989–1990
365
5
51
06

text: Until the beginning of the 19th century, the length of the tropical year was found by comparing equinox dates that were separated by many years; this approach yielded the mean tropical year (Meeus & Savoie 1992, p. 42).

text: Values of mean time intervals between equinoxes and solstices were provided by Meeus & Savoie (1992, p. 42) for the years 0 and 2000.

text:
Year 0
Year 2000

Between two Northward equinoxes
365.242137 days
365.242374 days

Between two Northern solstices
365.241726
365.241626

Between two Southward equinoxes
365.242496
365.242018

Between two Southern solstices
365.242883
365.242740

Mean tropical year
(Laskar's expression)
365.242310
365.242189

text: Mean tropical year current value

text: The mean tropical year on January 1, 2000 was 365.2421897 or 365 ephemeris days, 5 hours, 48 minutes, 45.19 seconds. This changes slowly; an expression suitable for calculating the length of a tropical year in ephemeris days, between 8000 BC and 12000 AD is

text: where T is in Julian centuries of 36,525 days of 86,400 SI seconds measured from noon January 1, 2000 TT (in negative numbers for dates in the past; McCarthy & Seidelmann 2009, p. 18, calculated from planetary model of Laskar 1986).

text: Modern astronomers define the tropical year as time for the Sun's mean longitude to increase by 360°. The process for finding an expression for the length of the tropical year is to first find an expression for the Sun's mean longitude (with respect to ♈), such as Newcomb's expression given above, or Laskar's expression (1986, p. 64). When viewed over a one-year period, the mean longitude is very nearly a linear function of Terrestrial Time. To find the length of the tropical year, the mean longitude is differentiated, to give the angular speed of the Sun as a function of Terrestrial Time, and this angular speed is used to compute how long it would take for the Sun to move 360° (Meeus & Savoie 1992, p. 42; Astronomical Almanac for the year 2011, L8).

text: Note that the above formulae give the length of the tropical year in ephemeris days (equal to 86,400 SI seconds), not solar days. It is the number of solar days in a tropical year that is important for keeping the calendar in synch with the seasons (see below).

text: Calendar year

text: The Gregorian calendar, as used for civil and scientific purposes, is an international standard. It is a solar calendar that is designed to maintain synchrony with the mean tropical year (Dobrzycki 1983, p. 123). It has a cycle of 400 years (146,097 days). Each cycle repeats the months, dates, and weekdays. The average year length is 146,097/400 =  365 97⁄400 = 365.2425 days per year, a close approximation to the mean tropical year (Seidelmann 1992, pp. 576-81).

text: The Gregorian calendar is a reformed version of the Julian calendar. By the time of the reform in 1582, the date of the vernal equinox had shifted about 10 days, from about March 21 at the time of the First Council of Nicaea in 325, to about March 11. According to North (1983), the real motivation for reform was not primarily a matter of getting agricultural cycles back to where they had once been in the seasonal cycle; the primary concern of Christians was the correct observance of Easter. The rules used to compute the date of Easter used a conventional date for the vernal equinox (March 21), and it was considered important to keep March 21 close to the actual equinox (North 1983, pp. 75-76).

text: If society in the future still attaches importance to the synchronization between the civil calendar and the seasons, another reform of the calendar will eventually be necessary. According to Blackburn and Holford-Strevens (who used Newcomb's value for the tropical year) if the tropical year remained at its 1900 value of 365.24219878125 days the Gregorian calendar would be 3 days, 17 min, 33 s behind the Sun after 10,000 years. Aggravating this error, the length of the tropical year (measured in Terrestrial Time) is decreasing at a rate of approximately 0.53 s per century. Also, the mean solar day is getting longer at a rate of about 1.5 ms per century. These effects will cause the calendar to be nearly a day behind in 3200. The number of solar days in a "tropical millennium" is decreasing by about 0.06 per millennium (neglecting the oscillatory changes in the real length of the tropical year).[3] This means there should be fewer and fewer leap days as time goes on. A possible reform would be to omit the leap day in 3200, keep 3600 and 4000 as leap years, and thereafter make all centennial years common except 4500, 5000, 5500, 6000, etc. But the quantity ΔT is not sufficiently predictable to form more precise proposals (Blackburn & Holford-Strevens 2003, p. 692).


document_title: February 29

question_text: when do leap year babies celebrate their birthdays

text: February 29

text: Leap years[edit]

text: Although most modern calendar years have 365 days, a complete revolution around the Sun (one solar year) takes approximately 365 days and 6 hours. An extra 24 hours thus accumulates every four years, requiring that an extra calendar day be added to align the calendar with the Sun's apparent position. Without the added day, in future years the seasons would occur later in the calendar, eventually leading to confusion about when to undertake activities dependent on weather, ecology, or hours of daylight.

text: A solar year is actually slightly shorter than 365 days and 6 hours (365.25 days). As early as the 13th century it was recognized that the year is shorter than the 365.25 days assumed by the Julian calendar: the Earth's orbital period around the Sun was derived from the medieval Alfonsine tables as 365 days, 5 hours, 49 minutes, and 16 seconds (365.2425 days). The currently accepted modern figure is 365 days, 5 hours, 48 minutes, 45 seconds. Adding a calendar day every four years, therefore, results in an excess of around 44 minutes for those four years, or about 3 days every 400 years. To compensate for this, three days are removed every 400 years. The Gregorian calendar reform implements this adjustment by making an exception to the general rule that there is a leap year every four years. Instead, a year divisible by 100 is not a leap year unless that year is also divisible by 400. This means that the years 1600, 2000, and 2400 are leap years, while the years 1700, 1800, 1900, 2100, 2200, 2300, and 2500 are common years.

text: Modern (Gregorian) calendar[edit]

text: The Gregorian calendar repeats itself every 400 years, which is exactly 20,871 weeks including 97 leap days. Over this period, February 29 falls on Sunday, Tuesday, and Thursday 13 times each; 14 times each on Friday and Saturday; and 15 times each on Monday and Wednesday. Excepting when a century mark that is not a multiple of 400 intervenes, consecutive leaps days fall in order Thursday, Tuesday, Sunday, Friday, Wednesday, Monday, and Saturday; then repeating with Thursday again.

text: Early Roman calendar[edit]

text: The calendar of the Roman king Numa Pompilius had only 355 days (even though it was not a lunar calendar) which meant that it would quickly become unsynchronized with the solar year. An earlier Roman solution to this problem was to lengthen the calendar periodically by adding extra days to February, the last month of the year. February consisted of two parts, each with an odd number of days. The first part ended with the Terminalia on the 23rd, which was considered the end of the religious year, and the five remaining days formed the second part. To keep the calendar year roughly aligned with the solar year, a leap month, called Mensis Intercalaris ("intercalary month"), was added from time to time between these two parts of February. The (usual) second part of February was incorporated in the intercalary month as its last five days, with no change either in their dates or the festivals observed on them. This followed naturally, because the days after the Ides (13th) of February (in an ordinary year) or the Ides of Intercalaris (in an intercalary year) both counted down to the Kalends of March (i.e. they were known as "the nth day before the Kalends of March"). The Nones (5th) and Ides of Intercalaris occupied their normal positions.

text: The third-century writer Censorinus says:

text: When it was thought necessary to add (every two years) an intercalary month of 22 or 23 days, so that the civil year should correspond to the natural (solar) year, this intercalation was in preference made in February, between Terminalia [23rd] and Regifugium [24th].[3]

text: Julian reform[edit]

text: The set leap day was introduced in Rome as a part of the Julian reform in the 1st century BC. As before, the intercalation was made after February 23. The day following the Terminalia (February 23) was doubled, forming the "bis sextum"—literally 'twice sixth', since February 24 was 'the sixth day before the Kalends of March' using Roman inclusive counting (March 1 was the Kalends of March and was also the first day of the calendar year). Inclusive counting initially caused the Roman priests to add the extra day every three years instead of four; Augustus was compelled to omit leap years for a few decades to return the calendar to its proper position. Although there were exceptions, the first day of the bis sextum (February 24) was usually regarded as the intercalated or "bissextile" day since the 3rd century AD.[4] February 29 came to be regarded as the leap day when the Roman system of numbering days was replaced by sequential numbering in the late Middle Ages,[citation needed] although this has only been formally enacted in Sweden and Finland. In Britain, the extra day added to leap years remains notionally the 24th, although the 29th remains more visible on the calendar.[5]

text: Born on February 29[edit]

text: A person born on February 29 may be called a "leapling", a "leaper", or a "leap-year baby".[6] In non-leap years, some leaplings celebrate their birthday on either February 28 or March 1, while others only observe birthdays on the authentic intercalary date, February 29.

text: Legal status[edit]

text: The effective legal date of a leapling's birthday in non-leap years varies between jurisdictions.

text: In the United Kingdom and Hong Kong, when a person born on February 29 turns 18, they are considered to have their birthday on March 1 in the relevant year.[7][8]

text: In New Zealand, a person born on February 29 is deemed to have their birthday on February 28 in non-leap years, for the purposes of Driver Licensing under §2(2) of the Land Transport (Driver Licensing) Rule 1999.[9] The net result is that for drivers aged 75, or over 80, their driver licence expires at the end of the last day of February, even though their birthday would otherwise fall on the first day in March in non-leap years. Otherwise, New Zealand legislation is silent on when a person born on 29 February has their birthday, although case law[10] would suggest that age is computed based on the number of years elapsed, from the day after the date of birth, and that the person's birth day then occurs on the last day of the year period. This differs from English common law where a birthday is considered to be the start of the next year, the preceding year ending at midnight on the day preceding the birthday. While a person attains the same age on the same day, it also means that, in New Zealand, if something must be done by the time a person attains a certain age, that thing can be done on the birthday that they attain that age and still be lawful.

text: In Taiwan (Republic of China), the legal birthday of a leapling is February 28 in common years:

text: Thus, in England and Wales or in Hong Kong, a person born on February 29 will have legally reached 18 years old on March 1. If they were born in Taiwan they legally become 18 on February 28, a day earlier. In the United States, according to John Reitz, a professor of law at the University of Iowa, there is no "... statute or general rule that has anything to do with leap day."[12] Reitz speculates that "March 1 would likely be considered the legal birthday in non-leap years of someone born on leap day,"[12] using the same reasoning as described for the United Kingdom and Hong Kong.

text: In fiction[edit]

text: There are many instances in children's literature where a person's claim to be only a quarter of their actual age turns out to be based on counting their leap-year birthdays.

text: A similar device is used in the plot of Gilbert and Sullivan's 1879 comic opera The Pirates of Penzance. As a child, Frederic was apprenticed to a band of pirates until his 21st birthday. Having passed his 21st year, he leaves the pirate band and falls in love. However, since he was born on February 29, his 21st birthday will not arrive until he is eighty-four, so he must leave his fiancée and return to the pirates.[13]

text: Events[edit]

text:
1504 – Christopher Columbus uses his knowledge of a lunar eclipse that night to convince Native Americans to provide him with supplies.
1644 – Abel Tasman's second Pacific voyage began.
1704 – Queen Anne's War: French forces and Native Americans stage a raid on Deerfield, Massachusetts Bay Colony, killing 56 villagers and taking more than 100 captive.
1712 – February 29 is followed by February 30 in Sweden, in a move to abolish the Swedish calendar for a return to the Julian calendar.
1720 – Ulrika Eleonora, Queen of Sweden abdicates in favour of her husband, who becomes King Frederick I on 24 March.
1752 – King Alaungpaya founds Konbaung Dynasty, the last dynasty of Burmese monarchy.
1768 – Polish nobles formed Bar Confederation.
1796 – The Jay Treaty between the United States and Great Britain comes into force, facilitating ten years of peaceful trade between the two nations.
1864 – American Civil War: Kilpatrick–Dahlgren Raid fails: Plans to free 15,000 Union soldiers being held near Richmond, Virginia are thwarted.
1892 – St. Petersburg, Florida is incorporated.
1912 – The Piedra Movediza (Moving Stone) of Tandil falls and breaks.
1916 – Tokelau is annexed by the United Kingdom.
1916 – Child labor: In South Carolina, the minimum working age for factory, mill, and mine workers is raised from twelve to fourteen years old.
1920 – Czechoslovak National assembly adopted the Constitution.
1936 – February 26 Incident in Tokyo ends.
1940 – For her performance as "Mammy" in Gone with the Wind, Hattie McDaniel becomes the first African American to win an Academy Award.
1940 – Finland initiates Winter War peace negotiations.
1940 – In a ceremony held in Berkeley, California, because of the war, physicist Ernest Lawrence receives the 1939 Nobel Prize in Physics from Sweden's Consul General in San Francisco.
1944 – World War II: The Admiralty Islands are invaded in Operation Brewer led by American General Douglas MacArthur.
1952 – The island of Heligoland is restored to West German authority.
1960 – The 5.7 Mw Agadir earthquake shakes coastal Morocco with a maximum perceived intensity of X (Extreme), destroying Agadir, and leaving 12,000 dead and another 12,000 injured.
1964 – In Sydney, Australian swimmer Dawn Fraser sets a new world record in the 100-meter freestyle swimming competition (58.9 seconds).
1972 – Vietnam War: Vietnamization: South Korea withdraws 11,000 of its 48,000 troops from Vietnam.
1980 – Gordie Howe of the then Hartford Whalers makes NHL history as he scores his 800th goal.
1988 – South African archbishop Desmond Tutu is arrested along with 100 clergymen during a five-day anti-apartheid demonstration in Cape Town.
1988 – Svend Robinson becomes the first member of the Canadian House of Commons to come out as gay.
1992 – First day of Bosnia and Herzegovina independence referendum.
1996 – Faucett Flight 251 crashes in the Andes, all 123 passengers and crew died.
1996 – Siege of Sarajevo officially ends.
2000 – Second Chechen War: Eighty-four Russian paratroopers are killed in a rebel attack on a guard post near Ulus Kert.
2004 – Jean-Bertrand Aristide is removed as President of Haiti following a coup.
2008 – The United Kingdom's Ministry of Defence decides to withdraw Prince Harry from a tour of Afghanistan "immediately" after a leak led to his deployment being reported by foreign media.
2008 – Misha Defonseca admits to fabricating her memoir, Misha: A Mémoire of the Holocaust Years, in which she claimed to have lived with a pack of wolves in the woods during the Holocaust.
2012 – Tokyo Skytree construction completed. It is, as of 2017, the tallest tower in the world, 634 meters high, and second tallest (man-made) structure on Earth, next to Burj Khalifa.

text: Births[edit]

text:
1468 – Pope Paul III (d. 1549)
1528 – Albert V, Duke of Bavaria (d. 1579)
1528 – Domingo Báñez, Spanish theologian (d. 1604)
1572 – Edward Cecil, 1st Viscount Wimbledon (d. 1638)
1576 – Antonio Neri, Florentine priest and glassmaker (d. 1614)
1640 – Benjamin Keach, Particular Baptist preacher and author whose name was given to Keach's Catechism (d. 1704)
1692 – John Byrom, English poet and educator (d. 1763)
1724 – Eva Marie Veigel, Austrian-English dancer (d. 1822)
1736 – Ann Lee, English-American religious leader, founded the Shakers (d. 1784)
1792 – Gioachino Rossini, Italian pianist and composer (d. 1868)
1812 – James Milne Wilson, Scottish-Australian soldier and politician, 8th Premier of Tasmania (d. 1880)
1828 – Emmeline B. Wells, American journalist, poet, and activist (d. 1921)
1836 – Dickey Pearce, American baseball player and manager (d. 1908)
1852 – Frank Gavan Duffy, Irish-Australian lawyer and judge, 4th Chief Justice of Australia (d. 1936)
1860 – Herman Hollerith, American statistician and businessman, co-founded the Computing-Tabulating-Recording Company (d. 1929)
1884 – Richard S. Aldrich, American lawyer and politician (d. 1941)
1892 – Augusta Savage, American sculptor (d. 1962)
1896 – Morarji Desai, Indian civil servant and politician, 4th Prime Minister of India (d. 1995)
1896 – William A. Wellman, American actor, director, producer, and screenwriter (d. 1975)
1904 – Rukmini Devi Arundale, Indian dancer and choreographer (d. 1986)
1904 – Jimmy Dorsey, American saxophonist, composer, and bandleader (d. 1957)
1904 – Pepper Martin, American baseball player and manager (d. 1965)
1908 – Balthus, French-Swiss painter and illustrator (d. 2001)
1908 – Dee Brown, American historian and author (d. 2002)
1908 – Alf Gover, English cricketer and coach (d. 2001)
1908 – Louie Myfanwy Thomas, Welsh writer (d. 1968)
1916 – Dinah Shore, American singer and actress (d. 1994)
1916 – James B. Donovan, American lawyer (d. 1970)
1916 – Leonard Shoen, founder of U-Haul Corp. (d. 1999)
1920 – Fyodor Abramov, Russian author and critic (d. 1983)
1920 – Arthur Franz, American actor (d. 2006)
1920 – James Mitchell, American actor and dancer (d. 2010)
1920 – Michèle Morgan, French-American actress and singer (d. 2016)
1920 – Howard Nemerov, American poet and academic (d. 1991)
1920 – Rolland W. Redlin, American lawyer and politician (d. 2011)
1924 – David Beattie, New Zealand judge and politician, 14th Governor-General of New Zealand (d. 2001)
1924 – Carlos Humberto Romero, Salvadoran politician, President of El Salvador (d. 2017)
1924 – Al Rosen, American baseball player and manager (d. 2015)
1928 – Joss Ackland, English actor
1928 – Vance Haynes, American archaeologist, geologist, and author
1928 – Seymour Papert, South African mathematician and computer scientist, co-created the Logo programming language (d. 2016)
1932 – Gene H. Golub, American mathematician and academic (d. 2007)
1932 – Masten Gregory, American race car driver (d. 1985)
1932 – Reri Grist, American soprano and actress
1932 – Jaguar, Brazilian cartoonist
1932 – Gavin Stevens, Australian cricketer
1936 – Jack R. Lousma, American colonel, astronaut, and politician
1936 – Henri Richard, Canadian ice hockey player
1936 – Alex Rocco, American actor (d. 2015)
1940 – Bartholomew I of Constantinople
1940 – William H. Turner, Jr. American horse trainer
1944 – Ene Ergma, Estonian physicist and politician
1944 – Dennis Farina, American police officer and actor (d. 2013)
1944 – Nicholas Frayling, English priest and academic
1944 – Phyllis Frelich, American actress (d. 2014)
1944 – Steve Mingori, American baseball player (d. 2008)
1944 – Paolo Eleuteri Serpieri, Italian author and illustrator
1948 – Hermione Lee, English author, critic, and academic
1948 – Patricia A. McKillip, American author
1948 – Henry Small, American-born Canadian singer
1952 – Sharon Dahlonega Raiford Bush, American journalist and producer
1952 – Tim Powers, American author and educator
1952 – Raisa Smetanina, Russian cross-country skier
1952 – Bart Stupak, American police officer and politician
1956 – Jonathan Coleman, English-Australian radio and television host
1956 – Bob Speller, Canadian businessman and politician, 30th Canadian Minister of Agriculture
1956 – Aileen Wuornos, American serial killer (d. 2002)
1960 – Lucian Grainge, English businessman
1960 – Khaled, Algerian singer-songwriter
1960 – Richard Ramirez, American serial killer (d. 2013)
1960 – Tony Robbins, American motivational speaker and author
1964 – Dave Brailsford, English cyclist and coach
1964 – Lyndon Byers, Canadian ice hockey player and radio host
1964 – Mervyn Warren, American tenor, composer, and producer
1968 – Suanne Braun, South African-English actress
1968 – Chucky Brown, American basketball player and coach
1968 – Pete Fenson, American curler and sportscaster
1968 – Naoko Iijima, Japanese actress and model
1968 – Bryce Paup, American football player and coach
1968 – Howard Tayler, American author and illustrator
1968 – Eugene Volokh, Ukrainian-American lawyer and educator
1968 – Frank Woodley, Australian actor, producer, and screenwriter
1972 – Mike Pollitt, English footballer and coach
1972 – Antonio Sabàto, Jr., Italian-American model and actor
1972 – Pedro Sánchez, Spanish politician
1972 – Dave Williams, American singer (d. 2002)
1972 – Saul Williams, American singer-songwriter
1972 – Pedro Zamora, Cuban-American activist and educator (d. 1994)
1976 – Zoë Baker, English-New Zealand swimmer and coach
1976 – Terrence Long, American baseball player
1976 – Ja Rule, American rapper and actor
1980 – Çağdaş Atan, Turkish footballer
1980 – Chris Conley, American singer-songwriter and guitarist
1980 – Patrick Côté, Canadian mixed martial artist
1980 – Simon Gagné, Canadian ice hockey player
1980 – Rubén Plaza, Spanish cyclist
1980 – Clinton Toopi, New Zealand rugby league player
1980 – Taylor Twellman, American soccer player and sportscaster
1984 – Darren Ambrose, English footballer
1984 – Megan Bernard, Australian audio artist
1984 – Mark Foster, American musician (Foster the People)
1984 – Rica Imai, Japanese model and actress
1984 – Cullen Jones, American swimmer
1984 – Nuria Martínez, Spanish basketball player
1984 – Adam Sinclair, Indian field hockey player
1984 – Rakhee Thakrar, English actress
1984 – Dennis Walger, German rugby player
1984 – Cam Ward, Canadian ice hockey player
1988 – Lena Gercke, German model and television host
1988 – Scott Golbourne, English footballer
1988 – Benedikt Höwedes, German footballer
1988 – Brent Macaffer, Australian Rules footballer
1988 – Bobby Sanguinetti, American ice hockey player
1992 – Sean Abbott, Australian cricketer
1992 – Ben Hampton, Australian rugby league player
1992 – Perry Kitchen, American soccer player
1992 – Caitlin EJ Meyer, American actress
1992 – Saphir Taïder, French-Algerian footballer
1996 – Nelson Asofa-Solomona, New Zealand rugby league player
1996 – Claudia Williams, New Zealand tennis player

text: Deaths[edit]

text:
468 – Pope Hilarius
992 – Oswald of Worcester, French archbishop and saint (b. 925)
1212 – Hōnen, Japanese monk, founded Jōdo-shū (b. 1133)
1460 – Albert III, Duke of Bavaria-Munich (b. 1401)
1528 – Patrick Hamilton, Scottish martyr and reformer (b. 1504)
1592 – Alessandro Striggio, Italian composer and diplomat (b. 1540)
1600 – Caspar Hennenberger, German pastor, historian, and cartographer (b. 1529)
1604 – John Whitgift, English archbishop and academic (b. 1530)
1740 – Pietro Ottoboni, Italian cardinal (b. 1667)
1744 – John Theophilus Desaguliers, French-English physicist and philosopher (b. 1683)
1792 – Johann Andreas Stein, German piano builder (b. 1728)
1820 – Johann Joachim Eschenburg, German historian and critic (b. 1743)
1848 – Louis-François Lejeune, French general, painter, and lithographer (b. 1775)
1852 – Matsudaira Katataka, Japanese daimyo (b. 1806)
1868 – Ludwig I of Bavaria (b. 1786)
1880 – James Milne Wilson, Scottish-Australian soldier and politician, 8th Premier of Tasmania (b. 1812)
1908 – Pat Garrett, American sheriff (b. 1850)
1908 – John Hope, 1st Marquess of Linlithgow, Scottish-Australian politician, 1st Governor-General of Australia (b. 1860)
1920 – Ernie Courtney, American baseball player (b. 1875)
1928 – Adolphe Appia, Swiss architect and theorist (b. 1862)
1928 – Ina Coolbrith, American poet and librarian (b. 1841)
1940 – E. F. Benson, English archaeologist and author (b. 1867)
1944 – Pehr Evind Svinhufvud, Finnish lawyer, judge, and politician, 3rd President of Finland (b. 1861)
1948 – Robert Barrington-Ward, English lawyer and journalist (b. 1891)
1948 – Rebel Oakes, American baseball player and manager (b. 1883)
1952 – Quo Tai-chi, Chinese politician and diplomat, Permanent Representative of China to the United Nations (b. 1888)
1956 – Elpidio Quirino, Filipino lawyer and politician, 6th President of the Philippines (b. 1890)
1960 – Melvin Purvis, American police officer and FBI agent (b. 1903)
1960 – Walter Yust, American journalist and author (b. 1894)
1964 – Frank Albertson, American actor and singer (b. 1909)
1968 – Lena Blackburne, American baseball player, coach, and manager (b. 1886)
1968 – Tore Ørjasæter, Norwegian poet and educator (b. 1886)
1972 – Tom Davies, American football player and coach (b. 1896)
1976 – Florence P. Dwyer, American politician (b. 1902)
1980 – Yigal Allon, Israeli general and politician, Prime Minister of Israel (b. 1918)
1980 – Gil Elvgren, American painter and illustrator (b. 1914)
1984 – Ludwik Starski, Polish screenwriter and songwriter (b. 1903)
1988 – Sidney Harmon, American screenwriter and producer (b. 1907)
1992 – Ruth Pitter, English poet and author (b. 1897)
1996 – Wes Farrell, American singer-songwriter and producer (b. 1939)
1996 – Ralph Rowe, American baseball player, coach, and manager (b. 1924)
2000 – Dennis Danell, American guitarist (b. 1961)
2004 – Kagamisato Kiyoji, Japanese sumo wrestler, the 42nd Yokozuna (b. 1923)
2004 – Jerome Lawrence, American playwright and author (b. 1915)
2004 – Harold Bernard St. John, Barbadian lawyer and politician, 3rd Prime Minister of Barbados (b. 1931)
2004 – Lorrie Wilmot, South African cricketer (b. 1943)
2008 – Janet Kagan, American author (b. 1946)
2008 – Erik Ortvad, Danish painter and illustrator (b. 1917)
2008 – Akira Yamada, Japanese scholar and philosopher (b. 1922)
2012 – Roland Bautista, American guitarist (b. 1951)
2012 – Davy Jones, English singer, guitarist, and actor (b. 1945)
2012 – Sheldon Moldoff, American illustrator (b. 1920)
2012 – P. K. Narayana Panicker, Indian social leader (b. 1930)
2016 – Wenn V. Deramas, Filipino director and screenwriter (b. 1968)
2016 – Gil Hill, American police officer, actor, and politician (b. 1931)
2016 – Josefin Nilsson, Swedish singer (b. 1969)
2016 – Louise Rennison, English author (b. 1951)

text: Holidays and observances[edit]

text:
Christian feast day:

Auguste Chapdelaine (one of Martyr Saints of China)
Oswald of Worcester (in leap year only)
February 29 (Eastern Orthodox liturgics)
Saint John Cassian

The fourth day of Ayyám-i-Há (Bahá'í Faith) (Please note that this observance is only locked into this date the Gregorian calendar on this date if Bahá'í Naw-Rúz takes place on March 21, which it doesn't in all years)
Rare Disease Day (in leap years, otherwise is February 28th)
Bachelor's Day (Ireland, United Kingdom)
In Discordianism, February 29 is coterminus with St. Tibs' day in the Discordian calendar

text: Folk traditions[edit]

text: There is a popular tradition known as Bachelor's Day in some countries allowing a woman to propose marriage to a man on February 29.[14] If the man refuses, he then is obliged to give the woman money[15] or buy her a dress. In upper-class societies in Europe, if the man refuses marriage, he then must purchase 12 pairs of gloves for the woman, suggesting that the gloves are to hide the woman's embarrassment of not having an engagement ring. In Ireland, the tradition is supposed to originate from a deal that Saint Bridget struck with Saint Patrick.[16][17]

text: In the town of Aurora, Illinois, single women are deputized and may arrest single men, subject to a four-dollar fine, every February 29.[18][19]

text: In Greece, it is considered unlucky to marry on a leap day.[20]


document_title: The Girl on the Train (2016 film)

question_text: who plays anna in girl on the train

question_tokens: who plays anna in girl on the train

text: The Girl on the Train (2016 film)

text: Plot[edit]

text: Rachel Watson is an alcoholic who rides a train aimlessly since losing her job. From the train, she fixates on the lives of her former husband, Tom Watson, and his current wife, Anna, and their neighbors, Scott and Megan Hipwell, whom she idealizes. Megan worked for the Watsons as a nanny, but recently quit.

text: During her marriage, Rachel became depressed about her infertility and developed a drinking problem that has resulted in continual blackouts and destructive behavior. At a BBQ held by Tom's boss, she drunkenly made a scene and is blamed when Tom is fired.

text: From the train, Rachel spots Megan kissing a stranger and becomes infuriated at her ruining her marriage. She leaves to confront Megan, but hours later she wakes up in her bed, covered in blood.

text: Megan disappears and Rachel is questioned by Detective Riley because she was seen in the vicinity that day. Rachel contacts Scott, pretending to be a friend, to tell him about the affair. Scott pulls up a picture of Megan's psychiatrist Dr. Kamal Abdic, and Rachel identifies him as the man she saw. It is alluded to that Megan and Dr. Abdic were involved sexually.

text: Dr. Abdic told the police Scott was abusive and suspicion shifts to him. Believing Dr. Abdic is involved in Megan's disappearance, Rachel schedules an appointment with him, but discusses her own issues.

text: Megan is found dead and tests show she was pregnant, but that neither Scott nor Dr. Abdic were the father. Scott confronts Rachel for lying to him about knowing Megan and angrily grabs her. Rachel goes to report the assault, believing Scott murdered Megan, but the detective says he has been ruled out as a suspect.

text: On the train, Rachel sees Tom's former boss's wife Martha, and apologizes for her behavior, but Martha says she did nothing wrong. Tom had actually been fired for having sex with coworkers. Rachel realizes that Tom planted false memories in her head during her drinking binges.

text: Anna suspects Tom of cheating and finds a secret phone with text messages on it to another woman, who is revealed to be Megan when Anna calls and hears the voicemail. Rachel goes back to the tunnel and in a flash back remembers that she caught Tom meeting Megan that day, and that Tom attacked her, injuring her.

text: Rachel goes to warn Anna, and tells her Tom is dangerous and he killed Megan. Anna knows about the affair and when Tom arrives home, both women confront him with details of the affair with Megan. Tom knocks Rachel unconscious and in a flashback, it is revealed that Tom beat Megan to death when she announced her pregnancy and refused to get an abortion.

text: When Rachel awakens he tries to strangle her, but she gets away. Tom chases her and she stabs him in the neck with a corkscrew, and Anna twists it deeper into Tom's neck, killing him.

text: Rachel and Anna are interviewed by Detective Riley, and tell identical stories about killing Tom in self-defense, after he admitted to being Megan's killer. Later, a now sober Rachel sits on the opposite side of the train looking forward to the future.

text: Cast[edit]

text:
Emily Blunt as Rachel Watson, a lonely alcoholic and Tom's ex-wife
Rebecca Ferguson as Anna Watson, a real estate agent and Tom's current wife
Haley Bennett as Megan Hipwell, Scott's wife
Justin Theroux as Tom Watson, Rachel's ex-husband and Anna's current husband
Luke Evans as Scott Hipwell, Megan's husband
Allison Janney as DS. Riley, a detective
Édgar Ramírez as Dr. Kamal Abdic, Megan's psychiatrist
Lisa Kudrow as Martha, the wife of Tom's former boss
Laura Prepon as Cathy, Rachel's college friend, roommate and landlord
Darren Goldstein as Man in the Suit, a stranger who witnesses Rachel's behavior

text: Production[edit]

text: DreamWorks Pictures acquired the film rights to Hawkins' novel and the film was planned for production by Marc E. Platt (through Marc Platt Productions) in March 2014.[6] In early 2015, Erin Cressida Wilson was hired to write the script[7] and Tate Taylor was hired to direct the film.[8] Hawkins told The Sunday Times that the film's setting would be moved from London to Westchester, New York.[9]

text: Casting[edit]

text: In June 2015, Emily Blunt was offered for the title role, the lonely and alcoholic divorcee Rachel.[10] The studio had eyed Kate Mara for another of the three lead roles.[10] In August, Rebecca Ferguson was confirmed to play Anna and Haley Bennett was added to the cast to play the third female lead role, Megan.[11][12]

text: Jared Leto and Chris Evans were in talks to join the film, where Evans would play Tom, Rachel's ex-husband, and Leto would play the neighbor's husband.[13] However, Justin Theroux replaced Evans and Luke Evans replaced Leto, who both left the film due to scheduling issues.[14][15] In October, Édgar Ramírez joined the film to play Dr. Kamal Abdic, who is in an affair with the married Megan, and becomes a suspect in her disappearance.[16] Allison Janney also joined the cast to play a police detective.[17] The next month, Lisa Kudrow was cast as Martha, the wife of Tom's former boss.[18] Laura Prepon joined the cast as Cathy, the landlord, roommate, and college friend of Rachel Watson.[19]

text: Filming[edit]

text: Principal photography on the film began on November 4, 2015, in New York City.[20][21] In late November 2015, filming also took place in White Plains,[22] as well as in Hastings-on-Hudson and Irvington, New York.[23] Filming wrapped up on January 30, 2016.[24]

text: Post-production[edit]

text: During post-production on the film, a cameo appearance by Paula Hawkins was cut from the film.[25]

text: Release[edit]

text: In November 2015, Walt Disney Studios Motion Pictures scheduled the film for an October 7, 2016, release through their Touchstone Pictures banner.[26][27][28]

text: The film was part of DreamWorks' distribution deal with Walt Disney Studios, which began in 2009. However, DreamWorks and Disney did not renew their distribution deal, and in December 2015, Universal Pictures acquired the film's distribution rights, as part of their new distribution deal with DreamWorks' parent company, Amblin Partners.[29]

text: Universal retained Disney's original release date.[5] Universal also distributed overseas, except in Europe, the Middle East and Africa, where distribution was handled by Mister Smith Entertainment through other film companies.[27] Entertainment One released the film in the United Kingdom on October 5, 2016.[1]

text: Reception[edit]

text: Box office[edit]

text: The Girl on the Train grossed $75.4 million in the United States and Canada and $97.8 million in other countries for a worldwide total of $173.2 million, against a production budget of $45 million.[3]

text: In the United States and Canada, the film was projected to gross around $25–30 million in its opening weekend, with some having it opening to as low as $18 million.

text: The film was expected to play like the similarly-themed Gone Girl, which opened to $37.5 million in October 2014, although that film had more star power to carry it.[30][31]

text: It went on to gross $24.5 million in its opening weekend, finishing first at the box office.[32] In its second weekend it grossed $12 million, finishing third at the box office.[33]

text: Critical response[edit]

text: The Girl on the Train received mixed reviews from critics. On review aggregator Rotten Tomatoes the film has an approval rating of 45% based on 267 reviews, with an average rating of 5.4/10. The website's critical consensus reads, "Emily Blunt's outstanding performance isn't enough to keep The Girl on the Train from sliding sluggishly into exploitative melodrama."[34] On Metacritic, the film has a weighted average score of 48 out of 100, based on 49 critics, indicating "mixed or average reviews".[35]

text: Audiences polled by CinemaScore gave the film an grade of "B−" on an A+ to F scale.[36]

text: IGN critic Terri Schwartz gave the film a score of 5.5/10, writing: "The Girl on the Train has a talented cast, but ultimately squanders it for the sake of a hollow, ponderous plot. Alternately overly convoluted and predictable, the film relies too heavily on its twists while offering little in the way of character development, leaving its three central women as unrelatable and unlikable stereotypes."[37]

text: Chicago Sun-Times' Richard Roeper gave 2 stars out 4, and said that the film is "shiny trash that begins with promise but quickly gets tripped up by its own screenplay and grows increasingly ludicrous and melodramatic, to the point where I was barely able to suppress a chuckle at some of the final scenes".[38]

text: Christy Lemire of RogerEbert.com gave 1½ stars out of 4, and described the film as, "a flat and suspense-free tale of pretty people in peril".[39]

text: Rolling Stone's Peter Travers gave the film a positive review, commenting that: "[T]he movie gives away the game faster than the novel, but Emily Blunt digs so deep into the role of a blackout drunk and maybe murderer that she raises Girl to the level of spellbinder."[40]

text: Accolades[edit]

text:
Award
Date of ceremony
Category
Recipient(s) and nominee(s)
Result
Ref.

British Academy Film Awards
February 12, 2017
Best Actress in a Leading Role
Emily Blunt
Nominated
[41]

Hollywood Film Awards
November 6, 2016
Hollywood Producer Award
Marc Platt (also for Billy Lynn's Long Halftime Walk and La La Land)
Won
[42]

Location Managers Guild Awards
April 8, 2017
Outstanding Film Commission Award
New York State Governor's Office of Motion Picture Development
Nominated
[43]

Make-Up Artists and Hair Stylists Guild
February 19, 2017
Feature-Length Motion Picture – Contemporary Hair Styling
Alan D'Angerio
Nominated
[44]

People's Choice Awards
January 18, 2017
Favorite Thriller Movie
The Girl on the Train
Won
[45]

Saturn Awards
June 28, 2017
Best Thriller Film
The Girl on the Train
Nominated
[46]

Best Actress
Emily Blunt
Nominated

Screen Actors Guild Awards
January 29, 2017
Outstanding Performance by a Female Actor in a Leading Role
Emily Blunt
Nominated
[47]