The next leap year will arrive in two years, specifically in 2024. Leap years take place every four years, in a deliberate decision by scientists to keep the calendar aligned with the seasons. This results from the fact that it takes the Earth 365 and one-fourth days to make one full orbit around the Sun. Those quarter days add up every four years, which stands as the reason why in most years, February has only 28 days. However, on leap years, February gets the extra day, it has 29 days instead. Between the 20th and 21st centuries, the world has has 31 leap years. Read all about the highlights of those years with this list of leap years.
1900
Although the year seems part of the 20th century, 1900 actually makes up the last year of the 19th century and the 1890s both. Highlights of the year include the launch of the world’s first electric bus, as well as the USA’s adoption of the Open Door Policy over China. The USA also sees its first-ever epidemic of the bubonic plague in San Francisco, with the epidemic only ending in 1904. President William McKinley also won his reelection bid in 1900, defeating Democratic challenger William Jennings Bryan.
Elsewhere around the world, the Second Boer War rages on in South Africa, along with the Boxer Rebellion in China. The Philippine-American War also rages on in Southeast Asia. In Europe, one of Germany’s most successful football teams, FC Bayern, also dates its founding back to 1900. Germany also saw a zeppelin successfully complete a flight for the first time, over Lake Constance in 1900. The German physicist Max Planck also conceptualizes light quanta, and with his discovery of black-body radiation, develops the field of quantum physics.
1904
This year saw the beginning of two wars, first the Herero-German Wars in the German colony of Southwest Africa. Meanwhile, in the Far East, a surprise Japanese attack on Port Arthur marks the beginning of the Russo-Japanese War. Britain also narrowly avoids getting dragged into the Russo-Japanese War, after Russian warships accidentally open fire on British fishing boats in the North Sea. The stage also gets set for WWI, when Britain and France formed the Entente Cordiale against Germany.
On a more peaceful note, 1904 also saw the founding of FIFA in Paris, France. Meanwhile, in the Americas, the USA finally begins work on the Panama Canal. The Third Olympic Games also takes place in the USA in 1904, in St. Louis, Missouri. The year 1904 also saw President Teddy Roosevelt win reelection against the Democratic challenger, Alton B. Parker.
1908
The year starts ominously, with the assassination of King Carlos I of Portugal in Lisbon. Similarly, the USA blocked immigration from Japan this year. Ironically, Korean nationalists also assassinated an American diplomat, Durham Stevens, in 1908 over American support for the Japanese colonization of Korea.
The year 1908 also saw the mysterious Tunguska Explosion in Siberia, with most scientists theorizing its cause as a meteor exploding in the lower atmosphere. On a more peaceful note, French aviation pioneer Henri Farman makes the first-ever flight with a passenger, Leon Delagrange. Delagrange later flies with the first female plane passenger, Therese Peltier.
Oil is discovered in the Middle East, in Southwestern Persia, with the British beginning exploitation later in the year. Britain also hosts the 1908 Olympics, originally meant to take place in 1906 in Rome, only to get postponed by an eruption of Mount Vesuvius. In the USA, Henry Ford introduces modern industrial mass production with the world’s first-ever affordable automobile, the Ford Model T.
1908 also sees Republican candidate William Howard Taft defeat incumbent US President William Jennings Bryan. China also saw the ascension of its last Emperor, Puyi of the Qing Dynasty.
1912
This year saw the fall of the ancient Chinese Empire, with the formation of the Republic of China. Activists in South Africa also form the African National Congress (ANC), which campaigns for rights and reforms on behalf of non-whites in the country.
It also saw the Italo-Turkish War raging on, as the Italians fight to drive the Turks from Libya to claim it as their colony. The First Balkan War also erupts in 1912, with Montenegro attacking the Ottomans to drive them from the region.
By far, however, 1912’s most infamous highlight is the Titanic, one of the world’s biggest trans-oceanic passenger liners. Despite claims of being unsinkable, the Titanic strikes an iceberg in the North Atlantic and sinks with over 1,500 of its passengers. Only 705 passengers and crew survive.
The year also saw the 20th century’s biggest volcanic eruption; the eruption of the Novarupta Volcano in Alaska. It also saw the death of Japan’s Emperor Meiji and his succession by Emperor Taisho. In the USA, the Democratic candidate Woodrow Wilson successfully defeats the incumbent President William Howard Taft.
