ANSWERS

1. Julius Caesar

2. 2100

1900 was not a leap year, but 2000 was, because it is divisible by 400.

3. 1 in 1,461

There are 1,461 days in a four-year cycle, and one of them is 29 February. Births are not spread perfectly evenly, so this is approximate.

4. 30 February

Sweden had tried to move to the Gregorian calendar gradually by dropping leap days from 1700, but then failed to drop them in 1704 and 1708. In 1712 it gave up and went back to the Julian calendar by adding two leap days.

5. The Pirates of Penzance

6. St Bridget (St Brigid)

This is legend, not history. A popular claim that Queen Margaret of Scotland passed a law about it in 1288 is also a myth; she would have been five years old.

7. Gone with the Wind (for playing Mammy)

8. Morocco

9. Jamaica

10. Salem (Massachusetts)

11. The Gotthard Tunnel; Switzerland

The chief engineer, Louis Favre, died of a heart attack inside the tunnel in 1879, months before the breakthrough. The tunnel opened in 1882.

12. Sarajevo

13. Gioachino Rossini; William Tell

14. IBM

15. John Philip Holland

16. The Council of Trent

17. The Summer Olympic Games

The Tokyo 2020 Games were postponed to 2021 because of the pandemic, breaking the pattern for the first time (the Games cancelled in wartime aside).

18. Bissextile

19. Ireland

20. Twelve

Traditions vary: in other versions the forfeit is a silk gown, money or a kiss. Treat this as folklore.