2
POPSFeb. 29, 45 B.C.: Julius Caesar Takes the 'Leap' Julius Caesar proclaimed July be named after him, August is named for Augustus Caesar Though the Julian Calendar was more accurate than what preceded it, it wasn't really as accurate as it needed to be. That's because an Earth year is about 11 minutes short of 365¼ days: It's 365 days, 5 hours, 48 minutes, 46 seconds. This was known, more or less, since the second century A.D., but by 1582, the calendar was 10 days out of whack, and Easter was falling too late in the real spring. So Pope Gregory XIII tweaked the Julian Calendar by subtracting three leap years in every 400 (years ending in 00, unless they are divisible by 400).