As a leap year, 2008 has 366 days instead of the usual 365. Feb. 29 is the extra day added to the year. It's called an intercalary day or a leap day.
Leap years are added to the calendar to keep it working properly. The 365 days of the annual calendar are meant to make it match up with the solar year. Most years that can be divided evenly by four are leap years. The exceptions are century years. They are not leap years unless they can be divided evenly by 400.
These famous people were born on Feb. 29 of leap years:
Gioacchino Antonio Rossini, opera composer, born Feb. 29, 1792
Herman Hollerith, founder of the Tabulating Machine Company, which evolved into IBM, born Feb. 29, 1860
Jimmy Dorsey, band leader, born Feb. 29, 1904
Antonio Sabato Jr., Italian-American actor and model, born Feb. 29, 1972
SOURCE: FACTMONSTER.COM
