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Brian Lehrer: It's The Brian Lehrer Show on WNYC. Good morning, again, everyone. Every day during this winter membership drive, we're breaking things up a little bit with a 10-question quiz right here around 11 o'clock. Get two in a row right, and you win a Brian Lehrer Show baseball cap. Who wants to play? 212-433-WNYC, 212-433-9692. Today, in honor of this leap year and Leap Day, February 29th, it's a 10-question quiz about time. Who wants to play? Call in at 212-433-WNYC, 212-433-9692.

We've got some true or false questions on things that may or may not have happened on a Leap Day in the past. We've also got some facts about leap years, our modern day calendars, and time zones in this 10-question quiz. 212-433-WNYC if you want to play, 212-433-9692. Once again, get two in a row right, and you will win yourself a Brian Lehrer Show baseball cap. Peter in Syosset is parked there on line one. Hi, Peter, you're the first one up. Ready to play?

Peter: Yes.

Brian Lehrer: All right. A leap year generally occurs every four years, true or false?

Peter: True.

Brian Lehrer: That was just to see if you're awake. Absolutely true. True or false? A leap year is every four years, no matter what.

Peter: Also, yes.

Brian Lehrer: That is actually false. Sorry, Peter. The first hard question in the quiz. There's a leap year every year that's divisible by four, except century years, those that end in 100 must also be divisible by 400. That's how precisely they calculate how they're trying to adjust time so that it's consistent with the sun. The year 2000 was a leap year because it's divisible by 400, but the years 1700, and 1800, and 1900, were exceptions. There was no leap year in those years, so who knew? I learned that this morning as I got these quiz questions. Francesca in the Bronx, you ready to play?

Francesca: Yes. Good morning.

Brian Lehrer: Good morning. Question three. Did this event actually take place on Leap Day? On Leap Day in 1692, the first Salem witch trial arrests were issued.

Francesca: That is true.

Brian Lehrer: That is true, the 17th century witchcraft hysteria that gripped colonial America began on a Leap Day with the issuance of arrest warrants for three women whose names were Sarah Good, Sarah Osborne, and Tituba, according to a history published on northjersey.com. All right, question number four. True or false? On February 29th, 1972, Jackie Robinson signed a contract to become the highest-paid baseball player in Major League history at that time, Leap Day in 1972. True or false?

Francesca: I don't know that. I'm going to say false.

Brian Lehrer: False is right. Cue the orchestra.

[Orchestra sound]

Francesca: [laughs]

Brian Lehrer: You win a Brian Lehrer Show baseball cap.

Francesca: I want that cap so bad.

Brian Lehrer: Oh, good. Well, I'm glad you won. Hang on, we're going to take your address off the air so we can send it to you. The clue even though for those of you who aren't baseball fans, was the year, 1972, because Jackie Robinson was long out of baseball by then. He had broken the color barrier in the major leagues in the ‘40s. It was on February 29th, 1972 that the Atlanta Braves slugger, Hank Aaron home run champ of all time became the highest-paid player in Major League Baseball history to that point. Hank Aaron signed a three-year deal worth $600,000 according to what we read in the Economic Times. All right, Elizabeth in Brooklyn, you're next up, you are ready to play?

Elizabeth: Okay, I guess so.

Brian Lehrer: You sound kind of uncertain, but that's okay. We'll go forward. Overconfidence can be a fault. Question number five in our 10-question quiz. According to history.com, about 4.1 million people around the world have been born on February 29th, and the chances of having a leap birthday are 1 in 1,461. What are people who are born on Leap Day called? There are two versions of the word that are commonly used. Anybody who's born on the day knows it.

Elizabeth: My son's math teacher turned 16 while he had her. She was a leap baby, and that's what I'll say, leap baby.

Brian Lehrer: Nice try Elizabeth, but it's Leaplings or Leapers, and so that's that one. All right. Emma, in Flatbush, you're up next, ready to play? Hi, Emma.

Emma: Hi, morning.

Brian Lehrer: All right. Question number six. Did you say you're winning? Was that a bold prediction, or you said you are ready?

Emma: Oh, no, I said good morning.

Brian Lehrer: Oh, you said good morning.

Emma: Yes.

Brian Lehrer: Okay. Well, hope you are winning. Question number six. This is a bit more of a tradition across the pond in the UK, but maybe you've heard of it. According to tradition, it's okay for a woman to do what on February 29th that is unconventional at all other times?

Emma: Oh, gosh. I have no idea.

Brian Lehrer: I'll give you a clue. They also say this about Sadie Hawkins Day if you ever heard of that.

Emma: Oh, ask out a gentleman.

Brian Lehrer: Keep going. Go beyond.

Emma: Propose?

Brian Lehrer: Yes. Propose marriage to a man.

Emma: Thank you.

Brian Lehrer: There are a few legends surrounding this. According to the BBC, one legend claims that St. Bridget was said to have complained to St. Patrick that women had to wait too long for their suitors to propose to them. St. Patrick then supposedly gave women a single day in a leap year to pop the question the last day of the shortest month. Okay, so that's question number six.

Question seven. Julius Caesar introduced the first leap year around 46 BC, but his Julian calendar had only one rule; any year, evenly divisible by four would be a leap year. That created too many leap years and it was eventually tweaked 1,500 years later to the thing we were describing before. Who made that change to the Julian calendar? I'll give you a clue. It's the name of the calendar we use now. Either the person's name or the name of the calendar are correct, basically the same name.

Emma: Okay, the name, it's the Gregorian calendar, I think.

Brian Lehrer: That is correct. You in fact could have predicted your victory because you did win a Brian Lehrer Show baseball cap.

Emma: No, [unintelligible 00:08:28].

[Orchestra sound]

Brian Lehrer: Yes, Pope Gregory XIII introduced his Gregorian calendar in the year 1582. That is awesome. Okay. Mary Alice in Port Washington, you're up next. Mary Alice, ready to play?

Mary Alice: Yes, I am.

Brian Lehrer: All right. Question number seven. Until the 1800s, every city and village in the US lived in its own time zone, but they all synchronized their clocks the same way. What did they synchronize their clocks to?

Mary Alice: I think it was the train schedule, right?

Brian Lehrer: Ooh, well, that was the next question. Maybe I should give you this because yes, in 1883-- Okay, I'm going to give you that as a right answer. The real right answer was clocks were synchronized to the local solar noon, so when the sun was the most overhead. But in 1883, one American industry, this was going to be the next question, forced the national adoption of standardized time zones, and the question was, can you name that industry? That is right, the railroad industry because they relied heavily on sticking to a schedule. All right.

Mary Alice: Yes, okay.

Brian Lehrer: Now, according to Business Insider, question number eight, prior- -to the railroad, the US government followed thousands of local time zones in the way we described before. However, once the railroad was completed, railroad companies were instrumental in lobbying the government to develop four time zones so the trains could stick to an accurate schedule. That just further describes what we were establishing before. Now, daylight saving time doesn't begin until next Sunday, March 10th, but true or false, daylight saving time was created to benefit American farmers, the agriculture industry.

Mary Alice: I think that's the common wisdom, but I think that's actually not true.

Brain Lehrer: You have got it exactly right. That is false. You win a Brian Lehrer Show baseball cap. Contrary--

[Orchestra sound]

Mary Alice: March 10th is my birthday, so yay.

Brain Lehrer: Well, happy daylight saving time in advance. Contrary to popular belief, American farmers never supported daylight saving time. According to Business Insider, it's been America's urban population, specifically retailers and corporations who have lobbied to continue it in order to take advantage of summer daylight. All right, Brian in Battery Park City, you're up next and potentially last with question number nine. You ready, Brian?

Brian: I would have missed almost everything so far.

Brain Lehrer: Very, very humble of you to admit that. Question nine, maybe you'll get it. There are two states that don't follow daylight saving time. One of them mostly doesn't. Can you name those two states?

Brian: Alaska and Hawaii?

Brain Lehrer: You got one of them right. Hawaii was correct, but the other one is Arizona. Arizona, except for the daylight saving doughnut, as they call it, a circle of residents in the Navajo Nation does embrace the time change, according to Condé Nast Traveler. Daniel in San Francisco, you're going to be our last caller. Since we only have one question left in the quiz, if you get this one right, but it's a hard one, you'll win a Brian Lehrer Show baseball cap. Hi, Daniel, are you ready?

Daniel: Pressure's on. Yes, I'm ready, Brian.

Brain Lehrer: The question is which country has the most time zones? A hint is that it's not a big country, so don't think Russia or something like that that goes hugely east to west. It's not a big country, and it just happens to have a lot of territories around the world. Which country [crosstalk] has the most time zones?

Daniel: Ah, territories around the world. I will say, Great Britain, UK.

Brain Lehrer: That's a good try with territories as a clue, but the answer is actually France. According to Forbes, France has 12 time zones because of territories around the world. Russia and the US have 11 each. Interestingly, China, as big as it is, has chosen to have only one single time zone. That's our 10-question quiz on time for this Leap Day 2024. Thanks everybody for playing. Glad we were able to give away some Brian Lehrer Show baseball caps. We'll keep doing a 10-question quiz every day during our winter membership drive. Brian Lehrer on WNYC, much more other stuff yet to come.

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