--- title: Leap Year and Leap Day: Pictures of People Leaping About, in Honor of February 29 description: In honor of Leap Day 2012, LIFE offers a gallery of pictures celebrating the simple act of leaping around, and the sense of boundless possibilities that one extra day on the calendar can sometimes ignite. canonical: https://time.com/3871096/happy-leap-day/ author: Ben Cosgrove article:opinion: false article:content_tier: free article:published_time: 2012-02-02T03:16:24.000Z article:modified_time: 2026-05-11T04:47:35.635Z og:title: Leap Year and Leap Day: Pictures of People Leaping About, in Honor of February 29 og:description: In honor of Leap Day 2012, LIFE offers a gallery of pictures celebrating the simple act of leaping around, and the sense of boundless possibilities that one extra day on the calendar can sometimes ignite. og:url: https://time.com/3871096/happy-leap-day/ og:site_name: TIME og:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/bltc2518bc73609b4a2/6988464806f2c155743390b1/12_00796360.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 og:image:width: 1500 og:image:height: 844 og:image:alt: Walter Davis and women dancers jumping, 1952 og:type: article twitter:card: summary_large_image twitter:title: Leap Year and Leap Day: Pictures of People Leaping About, in Honor of February 29 twitter:description: In honor of Leap Day 2012, LIFE offers a gallery of pictures celebrating the simple act of leaping around, and the sense of boundless possibilities that one extra day on the calendar can sometimes ignite. twitter:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/bltc2518bc73609b4a2/6988464806f2c155743390b1/12_00796360.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 ---  # Happy Leap Day! > Sponsored content. 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Worth Your Time is TIME's culture newsletter, published Tuesdays and Saturdays to 40,000 subscribers as of August 2026. #### Who writes TIME's culture recommendations? Culture editor Eliza Berman writes Worth Your Time, drawing on TIME's critics and culture desk. #### Is Worth Your Time free? Yes. It is a free newsletter available at time.com/newsletters. by [Ben Cosgrove](https://time.com/author/ben-cosgrove/) ## Ben Cosgrove Feb 2, 2012 3:16 AM UTC  Dance class, 1952. Dance class, 1952. John Dominis—Time & Life Pictures/Getty Images by [Ben Cosgrove](https://time.com/author/ben-cosgrove/) ## Ben Cosgrove Feb 2, 2012 3:16 AM UTC **Leap** leep _verb_; to spring through the air from one point or position to another (from Old English, “hleapan,” akin to Old High German, “hlouffan,” meaning “to run”). February 29 is one of those dates, like November 11, or Friday the 13th, or the summer solstice, that seems more freighted with possibilities, both good and bad, than other days of the year. And because the 29th day of the second month only comes around every four years — an attempt by humans to make up for the fact that a year is not, strictly speaking, comprised of 365 days, but 365 _and a quarter_ days (it’s math, look it up) — Leap Day can sometimes feel like a gift. An extra day added to the calendar. A full 24 hours that we didn’t have last year and that we won’t have next year, in which we might do … anything. Here, then, in celebration of Leap Year, and of Leap Day, and of the wonderful act of simply leaping about, LIFE.com respectfully offers a gallery of pictures that feel full of possibilities: images that, for the most part, try to approximate what Wordsworth might have been driving at when he wrote, more than 200 years ago, “My heart leaps up when I behold / A rainbow in the sky.” Or, as House of Pain put it — more succinctly, if less poetically — in 1992: Jump around! Happy Leap Day, everybody. _Liz Ronk, who edited this gallery, is the Photo Editor for LIFE.com. Follow her on Twitter_ [_@lizabethronk_](https://twitter.com/LizabethRonk)_._  Fred Astaire executes a seemingly effortless leap in the 1946 film, Blue Skies. Bob Landry—Time & Life Pictures/Getty Images  Presidential candidate John F. Kennedy leaps from his car in 1960. Paul Schutzer—Time & Life Pictures/Getty Images  Artist Jane Eakin sits on the shoulders of rope-skipping champion Gordon Hathaway in 1947. Gjon Mili—Time & Life Pictures/Getty Images  Movie starlet June Prisser jumps into a swimming pool in 1940. Peter Stackpole—Time & Life Pictures/Getty Images  Hugh O'Brian, in the role of Wyatt Earp, leaps from his office in 1956. Allan Grant—Time & Life Pictures/Getty Images  Crewmen simulating escape from a plane jump, in their flight suits, into a swimming pool during training at McClellan Air Force base in California in 1954. George Silk—Time & Life Pictures/Getty Images  Acrobat and actor Russ Tamblyn does a flip on the sidewalk while walking with Venetia Stevenson in 1955. Allan Grant—Time & Life Pictures/Getty Images  Actress Christine Norden and an excitable dog in 1948. Nat Farbman—Time & Life Pictures/Getty Images  A horse and rider sail gracefully toward a water tank in Atlantic City in 1953. Peter Stackpole—Time & Life Pictures/Getty Images  A multiple exposure shot of a gymnast jumping on a trampoline in 1960. J.R. Eyerman—Time & Life Pictures/Getty Images  Alice Marble, No. 1 American women's tennis player, leaps over the net in 1939. Gjon Mili—Time & Life Pictures/Getty Images  Dance class, 1952. John Dominis—Time & Life Pictures/Getty Images  Architect and designer Frank Gehry jumps on a desk — part of his line of cardboard furniture — in 1972. Ralph Morse—Time & Life Pictures/Getty Images  Rudy the Dachshund shows off his bed-jumping form in 1946. Frank Scherschel—Time & Life Pictures/Getty Images  A man jumps on a trampoline in California in 1960. Ralph Crane—Time & Life Pictures/Getty Images  An SMU cheerleader takes to the air at a University of Texas football game in 1950. Loomis Dean—Time & Life Pictures/Getty Images  Leon James and Willa Mae Ricker demonstrate how the Lindy Hop is meant to be danced in 1943 Gjon Mili—Time & Life Pictures/Getty Images  Tamara Toumanova executes a grand jeté for actor, singer, dancer and comedian Danny Kaye in 1945. 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