h2g2 The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy: Earth Edition

I heard a story of why February is so short.
Apperently the Cæsar Augustus got envious of Julius who had got a month named after himself.
He desided to take one of the harvest- months and name it August. To make sure that 'his' month wasn't shorter that old Juliuse's
he had to take a day from one of the other months and the little month between Janus' and Mars' month was the only one he dared to nick from. Unfortunately this was what Julius had done before him so now February only had 28 days left.

Something like that.
-B-

Because its too blooming COLD!!! Why cant we have the extra day in June - my fave month cos it's nice and warm and all the kids are still at school so the streets, parks and beaches are all empty. Hurrah for June!

In the Roman Calendar, there were 13 months of 28 days each, plus an extra day at midwinter to keep the calendar in sync with the solstices. However, some scholar at some point decided that it would be nicer to have 12 months in a year, and so the 13th month was removed and its days divided up among the others. Poor February ddn't get any.