Gioachino Rossini gets a Google Doodle for his 220th birthday. Or is it his 53rd? - 02-29-2012 -

Gioachino Rossini — the famed Italian composer behind The Barber of Seville — turns 220 today. Sort of. Depending how you're counting, he might be a comparably sprightly 53.

It is, of course, February 29: Leap Day.

It takes the Earth about 365 days, 5 hours, 49 minutes and 16 seconds to obit around the sun, so (almost) every four years a day is added to the year to keep the calendar in sync with the seasons. Occasionally, the calendar will leap the leap year to adjust for the fact that the extra time isn't exactly six hours per year. (And lets not even get into leap seconds.)

The uneven numbers create an interesting situation for people born on Feb. 29 — leapers. For legal purposes, their birthdays will be on either Feb. 28 or March 1 in non-leap years — which depends on the country they're in.