February 29, also known as a leap day in the Gregorian calendar, is a date that occurs in most years that are evenly divisible by 4, such as 2004, 2008, 2012 and 2016. Years that are evenly divisible by 100, but not by 400, do not contain a leap day; thus 1900 did not contain a leap day while 2000 did. Years containing a leap day are called leap years. February 29 is the 60th day of the Gregorian calendar in such a year, with 306 days remaining until the end of the year.

Leap years[link]

Although most years of the modern calendar have 365 days, a complete revolution around the sun takes approximately 365 days and 6 hours. Every four years, during which an extra 24 hours have accumulated, one extra day is added to keep the count coordinated with the sun's apparent position.

It is, however, slightly inaccurate to calculate an additional 6 hours each year. A better approximation, derived from the Alfonsine tables, is that the Earth makes a complete revolution around the sun in 365 days, 5 hours, 49 minutes, and 16 seconds. As required by the Gregorian calendar, to compensate for the difference, an end-of-century year is not a leap year unless it is also exactly divisible by 400. This means that the years 1600 and 2000 were leap years, as will be 2400 and 2800, but the years 1700, 1800, and 1900 were not, nor will 2100, 2200, and 2300.

The Gregorian calendar repeats itself every 400 years, which is exactly 20,871 weeks including 97 leap days. Over this period, February 29 falls on Sunday, Tuesday, and Thursday 13 times each; 14 times each on Friday and Saturday; and 15 times each on Monday and Wednesday.

The concepts of the leap year and leap day are distinct from the leap second, which results from changes in the Earth's rotational speed.

Adding a leap day (after 23 February) shifts the commemorations in the 1962 Roman Missal.

The leap day was introduced as part of the Julian reform. The day following the Terminalia (February 23) was doubled, forming the "bis sextum"—literally 'double sixth', since February 24 was 'the sixth day before the Kalends of March' using Roman inclusive counting (March 1 was the 'first day'). Although exceptions exist, the first day of the bis sextum (February 24) was usually regarded as the intercalated or "bissextile" day since the third century.^[1] February 29 came to be regarded as the leap day when the Roman system of numbering days was replaced by sequential numbering in the late Middle Ages.

Events[link]

• 1504 – Christopher Columbus uses his knowledge of a lunar eclipse that night to convince Native Americans to provide him with supplies.
• 1644 – Abel Tasman's second Pacific voyage began.
• 1704 – Queen Anne's War: French forces and Native Americans stage a raid on Deerfield, Massachusetts, killing 56 villagers and taking more than 100 captive.
• 1712 – February 29 is followed by February 30 in Sweden, in a move to abolish the Swedish calendar for a return to the Old style.
• 1720 – Queen Ulrika Eleonora of Sweden abdicates in favour of her husband, who becomes King Frederick I.
• 1752 – King Alaungpaya founds Konbaung Dynasty, the last dynasty of Burmese monarchy
• 1768 – Polish nobles formed Bar Confederation.
• 1796 – The Jay Treaty between the United States and Great Britain comes into force, facilitating ten years of peaceful trade between the two nations.
• 1864 – American Civil War: Kilpatrick-Dahlgren Raid fails – plans to free 15,000 Union soldiers being held near Richmond, Virginia are thwarted.
• 1892 – St. Petersburg, Florida is incorporated.
• 1916 – Child labor: In South Carolina, the minimum working age for factory, mill, and mine workers is raised from twelve to fourteen years old.
• 1920 – Czechoslovak National assembly adopted the Constitution.
• 1936 – Baby Snooks, played by Fanny Brice, debuts on the radio program The Ziegfeld Follies of the Air.
• 1936 – February 26 Incident in Tokyo ends.
• 1940 – For her role as Mammy in Gone with the Wind, Hattie McDaniel becomes the first African American to win an Academy Award.
• 1940 – Finland initiates Winter War peace negotiations
• 1940 – In a ceremony held in Berkeley, California, because of the war, physicist Ernest Lawrence receives the 1939 Nobel Prize in Physics from Sweden's Consul General in San Francisco.
• 1944 – World War II: The Admiralty Islands are invaded in Operation Brewer led by American General Douglas MacArthur.
• 1952 – The island of Heligoland is restored to German authority.
• 1960 – An earthquake in Morocco kills over 3,000 people and nearly destroys Agadir in the southern part of the country.
• 1964 – In Sydney, Australian swimmer Dawn Fraser sets a new world record in the 100-meter freestyle swimming competition (58.9 seconds).
• 1972 – Vietnam War: Vietnamization – South Korea withdraws 11,000 of its 48,000 troops from Vietnam.
• 1980 – Gordie Howe of the then Hartford Whalers makes NHL history as he scores his 800th goal.
• 1988 – South African archbishop Desmond Tutu is arrested along with 100 clergymen during a five-day anti-apartheid demonstration in Cape Town.
• 1988 – Svend Robinson becomes the first member of the Canadian House of Commons to come out as gay.
• 1992 – First day of Bosnia and Herzegovina independence referendum.
• 1996 – Faucett Flight 251 crashes in the Andes, all 123 passengers and crew died.
• 2004 – Jean-Bertrand Aristide is removed as President of Haiti following a coup.
• 2012 – Tokyo Skytree construction completed. Now it is the tallest tower in the world, 634 meters high, and second tallest (man-made) structure on Earth, next to Burj Khalifa.

Births[link]

A person who is born on February 29 may be called a "leapling" or a "leap year baby". In non-leap years, some leaplings celebrate their birthday on either February 28 or March 1, while others only observe birthdays on the authentic intercalary dates.

In the United Kingdom and Hong Kong, a person born on February 29 legally attains the age of 18 on March 1 in the relevant year.^[2][3]

In cases of New Zealand citizens, the Parliament has decreed that if a date of birth was February 29, in non-leap years the legal birth date date shall be the preceding day, February 28. This is affirmed in §2(2) of the Land Transport Act 1999.^[4]

In the United States, a person legally attains a given age on the day before his corresponding birthday, i.e., the anniversary of his birth corresponding to that age. Accordingly, anyone born on a Leap Day legally turns 21 on February 28th, twenty-one years later.^[5]

In Taiwan (Republic of China) and in New Zealand, the legal birthday of a leapling is February 28 in common years:

"If a period fixed by weeks, months, and years does not commence from the beginning of a week, month, or year, it ends with the ending of the day which proceeds the day of the last week, month, or year which corresponds to that on which it began to commence. But if there is no corresponding day in the last month, the period ends with the ending of the last day of the last month.^[6]"

Thus, in England and Wales or in Hong Kong, a person born on February 29, 1996, will have legally reached 18 years old on March 1, 2014. If he or she was born in the United States, Taiwan or New Zealand, he or she legally becomes 18 on February 28, 2014, a day earlier.

There are many instances in children's literature where a person's claim to be only a quarter of their actual age turns out to be based on counting their leap-year birthdays. A similar device is used in the plot of Gilbert and Sullivan's 1879 comic opera The Pirates of Penzance: As a child, Frederic was apprenticed to a band of pirates until his 21st birthday. Now, having passed his 21st year, he leaves the pirate band and falls in love. However, since he was born on February 29, that day will not arrive until he is in his eighties. As such, he must leave his fiancée and return to the pirates. It may be worked out from the opera's dialogue^[7] that Frederic's birthday is February 29, 1852 thus making the opera set in 1873. (This assumes that Frederic is aware that 1900 will not be a leap year. If not, the dates would be later by four years.) This plot point was also used in a Sherlock Holmes story based on the Basil Rathbone era, where a friend of Dr. Watson's is a baronet who is due to receive his inheritance on the New Year's Day of the year where his twenty-first birthday will be celebrated, only for the law to deprive him of the money as he was born on February 29; with the 84-year-old Baronet distraught at the news that 1900 is not a leap year, Holmes helps the Baronet fake his death long enough for his grandson- who is the appropriate age to receive the inheritance- to establish his claim and receive the money himself.

Other notable persons born on February 29:

• 1468 – Pope Paul III (d. 1549)
• 1568 – Juan Bautista Comes, Spanish composer (d. 1643)
• 1692 – John Byrom, English poet (d. 1763)
• 1724 – Eva Marie Veigel, ballet dancer and wife of actor David Garrick (d. 1822)
• 1736 – Ann Lee, American founder of Shakers (d. 1784)
• 1792 – Gioachino Rossini, Italian composer (d. 1868)
• 1812 – Sir James Wilson, Premier of Tasmania (d. 1880)
• 1828 – Emmeline B. Wells, American women's rights advocate (d. 1921)
• 1836 – Dickey Pearce, American baseball player and manager (d. 1908)
• 1840 – John Philip Holland, Irish inventor (d. 1914)
• 1848 – Arthur Giry, French historian (d. 1899)
• 1852 – Frank Gavan Duffy, Australian judge (d. 1936)
• 1852 – George Maximilianovich, 6th Duke of Leuchtenberg, Russian nobleman (d. 1912)
• 1860 – Herman Hollerith, American statistician (d. 1929)
• 1892 – Ed Appleton, American baseball player (d. 1932)
• 1892 – Augusta Savage, African-American sculptor (d. 1962)
• 1896 – Morarji Desai, Prime Minister of India (d. 1995)
• 1896 – Roy Parker, baseball player (d. 1954)
• 1896 – William A. Wellman, American film director (d. 1975)
• 1904 – Jimmy Dorsey, American bandleader (d. 1957)
• 1904 – Pepper Martin, baseball player (d. 1965)
• 1904 – Rukmini Devi Arundale, Indian dancer (d. 1986)
• 1908 – Balthus, French-Polish painter (d. 2001)
• 1908 – Dee Brown, American writer (d. 2002)
• 1908 – Alf Gover, English cricketer (d. 2001)
• 1916 – Dinah Shore, American singer and actress (d. 1994)
• 1920 – Arthur Franz, American actor (d. 2006)
• 1920 – James Mitchell, American actor (d. 2010)
• 1920 – Michèle Morgan, French actress
• 1920 – Howard Nemerov, American poet (d. 1991)
• 1920 – Ivan Ivanovich Petrov, Russian operatic bass (d. 2003)
• 1920 – Rolland W. Redlin, American politician (d. 2011)
• 1920 – Fyodor Abramov, Russian novelist (d. 1983)
• 1924 – Al Rosen, American baseball player
• 1924 – David Beattie, New Zealand Governor-General (d. 2001)
• 1924 – Carlos Humberto Romero, President of El Salvador
• 1928 – Joss Ackland, English actor
• 1928 – Vance Haynes, American archaeologist
• 1928 – Terry Lewis, Australian police commissioner
• 1928 – Seymour Papert, South African mathematician
• 1928 – Tempest Storm, American burlesque performer
• 1932 – Paul Giel, American baseball player (d. 2002)
• 1932 – Gene Golub, American mathematician (d. 2007)
• 1932 – Masten Gregory, American F1 Driver (d. 1985)
• 1932 – Reri Grist, African-American coloratura soprano
• 1932 – Jaguar, Brazilian cartoonist
• 1936 – Jack Lousma, American astronaut
• 1936 – Henri Richard, Canadian ice hockey player
• 1936 – Alex Rocco, American actor
• 1940 – Ecumenical Patriarch Bartholomew I of Constantinople
• 1940 – Gopichand Hinduja, President, Hinduja Group of Companies
• 1940 – William H. Turner, Jr. American horse trainer
• 1944 – Ene Ergma, Estonian politician
• 1944 – Dennis Farina, American actor
• 1944 – Nicholas Frayling, Dean of Chichester Cathedral
• 1944 – Phyllis Frelich, American actress
• 1944 – Steve Mingori, American baseball player (d. 2008)
• 1944 – Paolo Eleuteri Serpieri, Italian illustrator
• 1948 – Jirō Akagawa, Japanese novelist
• 1948 – Gérard Darmon, French movie actor and singer
• 1948 – Ken Foree, American actor
• 1948 – Hermione Lee, President of Wolfson College, Oxford
• 1952 – Al Autry, American baseball player
• 1952 – Sharon Dahlonega Raiford Bush, American TV personality
• 1952 – Tim Powers, American writer
• 1952 – Raisa Smetanina, Russian cross-country skier
• 1952 – Bart Stupak, American congressman
• 1956 – Jonathan Coleman, Anglo-Australian entertainer
• 1956 – Jerry Fry, American baseball player
• 1956 – Bob Speller, Canadian politician
• 1956 – J. Randy Taraborrelli, American celebrity journalist
• 1956 – Aileen Wuornos, American serial killer (d. 2002)
• 1960 – Khaled, Algerian raï musician
• 1960 – Bill Long, American baseball player
• 1960 – Richard Ramirez, American serial killer
• 1960 – Tony Robbins, American motivational speaker
• 1964 – Lyndon Byers, Canadian hockey player and radio personality
• 1964 – Mervyn Warren, American film & TV composer and musician (Take 6)
• 1968 – Suanne Braun, South African actress
• 1968 – Chucky Brown, American basketball player
• 1968 – Pete Fenson, American curler
• 1968 – Naoko Iijima, Japanese actress
• 1968 – Gonzalo Lira, Chilean-American novelist
• 1968 – Howard Tayler, American cartoonist & author
• 1968 – Bryce Paup, American football player
• 1968 – Wendi Peters, British actress
• 1968 – Eugene Volokh, American law professor
• 1968 – Frank Woodley, Australian comedian
• 1972 – Antonio Sabàto, Jr., Italian-born actor
• 1972 – Dave Williams, American singer (Drowning Pool) (d. 2002)
• 1972 – Saul Williams, American rapper, poet, and actor
• 1972 – Mike Pollitt, English footballer
• 1972 – Pedro Zamora, Cuban-born American activist (d. 1994)
• 1972 – Iván García, Cuban athlete
• 1976 – Katalin Kovács, Hungarian sprint canoer
• 1976 – Ja Rule, American rapper and actor
• 1976 – Terrence Long, American baseball player
• 1976 – Zoë Baker, New Zealand swimmer
• 1980 – Simon Gagné, Canadian ice hockey player
• 1980 – Patrick Côté, Canadian mixed martial artist
• 1980 – Taylor Twellman, American soccer player
• 1980 – Clinton Toopi, New Zealand rugby league footballer
• 1980 – Chris Conley, American musician (Saves the Day and Two Tongues)
• 1980 – Rubén Plaza, Spanish cyclist
• 1980 – Michail Mouroutsos, Greek Olympic taekwondo gold medalist
• 1984 – Darren Ambrose, English footballer
• 1984 – Cullen Jones, American swimmer
• 1984 – Nuria Martinez, Spanish basketball player
• 1984 – Adam Sinclair, Indian field hockey player
• 1984 – Dennis Walger, German rugby player
• 1984 – Cam Ward, Canadian ice hockey player
• 1984 – Mark Foster, American musician (Foster the People)
• 1988 – Scott Golbourne, English footballer
• 1988 – Benedikt Höwedes, German footballer
• 1988 – Bobby Sanguinetti, American ice hockey player
• 1992 – Perry Kitchen, American soccer player
• 1992 – Sean Abbott, Australian cricketer
• 1992 – Caitlin EJ Meyer, American actress

Deaths[link]

• 992 – Oswald of Worcester, archbishop of York (b. c.925)
• 1212 – Hōnen, Japanese religious reformer (b. 1133)
• 1528 – Patrick Hamilton, Scottish religious reformer (b. 1504)
• 1592 – Alessandro Striggio, Italian composer (b. 1540)
• 1600 – Caspar Hennenberger, German Lutheran pastor, historian and cartographer (b. 1529)
• 1604 – John Whitgift, Archbishop of Canterbury (b. 1530)
• 1740 – Pietro Ottoboni, Italian cardinal (b. 1667)
• 1744 – John Theophilus Desaguliers, French philosopher (b. 1683)
• 1792 – Johann Andreas Stein, German piano builder (b. 1728)
• 1820 – Johann Joachim Eschenburg, German literary critic (b. 1743)
• 1848 – Louis-François, Baron Lejeune, French general and painter (b. 1775)
• 1868 – Ludwig I of Bavaria (b. 1786)
• 1880 – Sir James Wilson, Premier of Tasmania (b. 1812, also on February 29)
• 1908 – Pat Garrett, American gunslinger (b. 1850)
• 1908 – John Hope, 1st Marquess of Linlithgow, first Governor-General of Australia (b. 1860)
• 1920 – Ernie Courtney, American baseball player (b. 1875)
• 1928 – Ina Coolbrith, first poet laureate of California (b. 1841)
• 1928 – Adolphe Appia, Swiss stage designer (b. 1862)
• 1940 – Edward Frederic Benson, English writer (b. 1867)
• 1944 – Pehr Evind Svinhufvud, President of Finland (b. 1861)
• 1948 – Rebel Oakes, American baseball player and manager (b. 1883)
• 1952 – Quo Tai-chi, Chinese diplomat (b. 1888)
• 1956 – Elpidio Quirino, President of the Philippines (b. 1890)
• 1960 – Walter Yust, American journalist and writer (b. 1894)
• 1960 – Melvin Purvis, American law enforcement official and Federal Bureau of Investigation agent (b. 1903)
• 1964 – Frank Albertson, American actor (b. 1909)
• 1968 – Lena Blackburne, American baseball player and manager (b. 1886)
• 1968 – Tore Ørjasæter, Norwegian poet (b. 1886)
• 1972 – Tom Davies, American footballer (b. 1896)
• 1976 – Florence Dwyer, American politician (b. 1902)
• 1980 – Gil Elvgren, American artist (b. 1914)
• 1980 – Yigal Allon, Israeli politician and soldier (b. 1918)
• 1984 – Ludwik Starski, Polish lyricist (b. 1903)
• 1988 – Sidney Harmon, American film producer (b. 1907)
• 1992 – Ruth Pitter, English poet (b. 1897)
• 1992 – Earl Scheib, American car repainter (b. 1908)
• 1992– La Lupe, Cuban-American singer (b. 1939)
• 1996 – Wes Farrell, American songwriter and musician (b. 1939)
• 1996 – Shams Pahlavi, Persian princess (b. 1917)
• 1996 – Ralph Rowe, American baseball player and manager (b. 1924)
• 2000 – Dennis Danell, American guitarist (Social Distortion) (b. 1961)
• 2004 – Jerome Lawrence, American playwright (b. 1915)
• 2004 – Lorrie Wilmot, South African cricketer (b. 1943)
• 2004 – Kagamisato Kiyoji, Japanese sumo wrestler, the 42nd Yokozuna (b. 1923)
• 2004 – Toni Onley, Canadian landscape painter (b. 1928)
• 2004 – Harold Bernard St. John, Barbadian politician, (b. 1931)
• 2008 – Janet Kagan, American author (b. 1946)
• 2008 – Erik Ortvad, Danish artist (b. 1917)
• 2012 – Davy Jones, English singer, songwriter and actor (The Monkees) (b. 1945)
• 2012 – Sheldon Moldoff, Golden Age and Silver Age comic book artist (b. 1920)

Holidays and observances[link]

• Christian Feast Day:
  • Oswald of Worcester (in leap year only)
  • February 29 (Eastern Orthodox liturgics): Saint John Cassian
• The fourth day of Ayyám-i-Há (Bahá'í Faith)
• Rare Disease Day (in leap years)

Folk traditions[link]

There is a popular tradition in some countries that a woman may propose marriage to a man on February 29. If the man refuses, he then is obligated to give the woman money or buy her a dress. In upper-class societies in Europe, if the man refuses marriage, he then must purchase 12 pairs of gloves for the woman, suggesting that the gloves are to hide the woman's embarrassment of not having an engagement ring. In Ireland, the tradition is supposed to originate from a deal that Saint Bridget struck with Saint Patrick.^[8][9]

In Greece it is considered unlucky to marry on Leap Day.^[10]

Rare Leap Day milestones[link]

The only notable person known to have both been born and died on February 29 was Sir James Wilson (1812–1880), Premier of Tasmania.^[11]

In 2012, one of the rarest feats in the annals of family planning had occurred. A Utah woman gave birth on a third consecutive Leap Day, tying a record set in the 1960s. The only other known case of triple Leap Day babies is a family in Norway, which logged Feb. 29 births in 1960, 1964 and 1968, according to the Guinness World Records press office.^[12]

References[link]

External links[link]

Wikimedia Commons has media related to: February 29

• BBC: On This Day
• The New York Times: On This Day
• On This Day in Canada

Ron Paul
Member of the U.S. House of Representatives from Texas's 14th district
Incumbent
Assumed office January 3, 1997
Preceded by	Greg Laughlin
Member of the U.S. House of Representatives from Texas's 22nd district
In office January 3, 1979 – January 3, 1985
Preceded by	Robert Gammage
Succeeded by	Tom DeLay
In office April 3, 1976 – January 3, 1977
Preceded by	Robert Casey
Succeeded by	Robert Gammage
Personal details
Born	Ronald Ernest Paul (1935-08-20) August 20, 1935 (age 76) Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, U.S.
Political party	Republican Party (1976–1988, 1988–present)
Other political affiliations	Libertarian Party (1988 election)
Spouse(s)	Carol Wells
Children	Ronnie Lori Rand Robert Joy
Alma mater	Gettysburg College (B.S.) Duke University (M.D.)
Religion	Southern Baptist
Signature
Website	Congressional website Campaign website
Military service
Service/branch	United States Air Force Texas Air National Guard
Years of service	1963–1965 1965–1968
Rank	Captain[1]
This article is part of a series about Ron Paul 2012 presidential campaign 2008 presidential campaign 1988 presidential campaign Political positions · Electoral history List of legislation sponsored by Ron Paul Ron Paul newsletters Ron Paul bibliography

Ronald Ernest "Ron" Paul (born August 20, 1935) is an American politician who has been the U.S. Representative for Texas's 14th congressional district, which includes Galveston, since 1997, and a three-time candidate for President of the United States, as a Libertarian in 1988 and as a Republican in 2008 and currently 2012. He is an outspoken critic of American foreign and monetary policies, including the Military–industrial complex and the Federal Reserve, and is known for his libertarian-leaning views, often differing from his own party on certain issues.

A native of Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, Paul is a graduate of Gettysburg College and Duke University School of Medicine, where he earned his medical degree. He served as a medical officer in the United States Air Force from 1963 until 1968. He worked as an obstetrician-gynecologist from the 1960s to the 1980s, delivering more than 4,000 babies. He became the first Representative in history to serve concurrently with a child in the Senate when his son Rand Paul was elected to the United States Senate for Kentucky in 2010.^[2]

Ron Paul has been an active writer and publisher since the late 1970s, when he created the first of several newsletters bearing his name. He has published many books, beginning with The Case for Gold (1982) and including Liberty Defined: 50 Essential Issues That Affect Our Freedom (2011), End The Fed (2009), The Revolution: A Manifesto (2008), Pillars of Prosperity (2008), and A Foreign Policy of Freedom: Peace, Commerce, and Honest Friendship (2007). Paul has been characterized as the "intellectual godfather" of the Tea Party movement.^[3][4]

On July 12, 2011, Paul announced that he would forego seeking another term in Congress in order to focus on his presidential bid.^[5] On May 14, 2012, Paul announced that he would not be competing in any other Presidential primaries, though he is still competing for delegates in states where the primary election have already been held.^[6]

Early life, education, and medical career[link]

Ronald Ernest Paul was born on August 20, 1935, in Pittsburgh,^[7] the son of Howard Caspar Paul, who ran a small dairy company, and Margaret (née Dumont) Paul. His paternal great-grandparents emigrated from Germany, and his mother was of German and Irish ancestry.^[8][9]

As a junior at suburban Dormont High School, he was the 220-yard dash state champion.^[10] He graduated from Gettysburg College with a B.S. degree in Biology in 1957.^[10]

Paul earned a Doctor of Medicine degree from Duke University's School of Medicine in 1961, and completed his medical internship at the Henry Ford Hospital in Detroit and his residency in obstetrics and gynecology at Magee-Womens Hospital in Pittsburgh.^[11] Paul served as a flight surgeon in the United States Air Force from 1963 to 1965 and then in the United States Air National Guard from 1965 to 1968.^[12]

Paul and his wife then relocated to Texas, where he began a private practice in obstetrics and gynecology.^[13] He refused to accept Medicaid or Medicare payments, but routinely lowered fees for patients who could not afford to pay.^[14][15]

Early congressional career (1976–1985)[link]

While still a medical resident in the 1960s, Paul was influenced by Friedrich Hayek's The Road to Serfdom, which caused him to read many publications by Ludwig von Mises and Ayn Rand. He came to know economists Hans Sennholz and Murray Rothbard well, and credits to them his interest in the study of economics.^[16]

When President Richard Nixon "closed the gold window" by ending American participation in the Bretton Woods System, thus ending U.S. dollar's loose association with gold^[16] on August 15, 1971, Paul decided to enter politics^[17] and became a Republican candidate for the United States Congress.^[18]

Elections[link]

In 1974, incumbent Robert R. Casey defeated him for the 22nd district. President Gerald Ford later appointed Casey to direct the Federal Maritime Commission, and Paul won an April 1976 special election to the vacant office.^[19] Paul lost the next regular election to Democrat Robert Gammage by fewer than 300 votes (0.2%), but defeated Gammage in a 1978 rematch, and was reelected in 1980 and 1982.^[20] Gammage underestimated Paul's popularity among local mothers: "I had real difficulty down in Brazoria County, where he practiced, because he'd delivered half the babies in the county. There were only two obstetricians in the county, and the other one was his partner."^[21]

Tenure[link]

Paul has served in Congress three different periods: first from 1976 to 1977, after he won a special election, then from 1979 to 1985, and finally since 1997.

In his early years, Paul served on the House Banking Committee, where he blamed the Federal Reserve for inflation and spoke against the banking mismanagement that resulted in the savings and loan crisis.^[22][8] Paul argued for a return to the gold standard maintained by the US from 1873-1933, and with Senator Jesse Helms convinced the Congress to study the issue.^[16] He spoke against the reinstatement of registration for the military draft in 1980, in opposition to President Jimmy Carter and the majority of his fellow Republican members of Congress.^[23]

During his first term, Paul founded the Foundation for Rational Economics and Education (FREE), a non-profit "think tank" dedicated to promoting principles of limited government and free-market economics.^[24]

Paul proposed term-limit legislation multiple times, while himself serving four terms in the House of Representatives.^[23] In 1984, he decided to retire from the House in order to run for the U.S. Senate, complaining in his House farewell address that "Special interests have replaced the concern that the Founders had for general welfare.... It's difficult for one who loves true liberty and utterly detests the power of the state to come to Washington for a period of time and not leave a true cynic."^[25][26] (On Paul's departure from the House, his congressional seat was assumed by former state representative Tom DeLay, who would eventually become Speaker of the House.)^[27]

Committee assignments[link]

• House Banking Committee

1984 U.S. Senate election[link]

In 1984, Paul campaigned for the U.S. Senate, but lost the Republican primary to Phil Gramm, who had switched parties the previous year from Democrat to Republican.^[28] Another candidate of the senatorial primary was Henry Grover, a conservative former state legislator who had lost the 1972 gubernatorial general election to the Democrat Dolph Briscoe, Jr.

Inter-congressional years[link]

1985–1997[link]

Following the loss of the 1984 senate race, Paul returned to his obstetrics practice and took part in a number of other business ventures.^[8][29] Along with his former congressional chief of staff, Lew Rockwell, Paul founded a for-profit enterprise, Ron Paul & Associates, Inc. (RP&A) in 1984, with Paul serving as president, Rockwell as vice president, Paul's wife Carol as secretary, and daughter Lori Pyeatt as treasurer.^[30] The company published a variety of political and investment-oriented newsletters including Ron Paul Freedom Report and Ron Paul Survival Report, and by 1993 was generating revenues in excess of $900,000.^[31][32]

Paul also co-owned a mail-order coin dealership, Ron Paul Coins, for twelve years with Burt Blumert, who continued to operate the dealership after Paul resumed office in 1996.^[33][34] Paul spoke multiple times at the American Numismatic Association's 1988 convention.^[33] He worked with his Foundation for Rational Economics and Education on such projects as establishing the National Endowment for Liberty, producing the At Issue public policy series that was broadcast on the Discovery Channel and CNBC,^[24] and continuing publication of newsletters.

1988 presidential campaign[link]

Paul resigned from the Republican Party in 1987 and launched a bid for the presidency running on the Libertarian Party ticket. At the 1987 Libertarian National Convention, the party was split between a Conservative and Liberal wing. Paul represented the conservative wing, which was successful in fundraising, while the liberal wing claimed to have received ten times more (and more favorable) press coverage.^{[citation needed]} Paul argued, "Pro-life libertarians have a vital task to perform: to persuade the many abortion-supporting libertarians of the contradiction between abortion and individual liberty; and to sever the mistaken connection in many minds between individual freedom and the 'right' to extinguish individual life."^[35][36]

In the 1988 presidential election, Paul was on the ballot in 46 States,^[37] scoring third in the popular vote with 432,179 votes (0.5%).^[38] Paul was kept off the ballot in Missouri, and received votes there only when written in, due to what the St. Louis Post-Dispatch termed a "technicality".^[39]

According to Paul, his presidential campaign was about more than obtaining office; he sought to promote his libertarian ideas, often to school and university groups regardless of vote eligibility. He said, "We're just as interested in the future generation as this election. These kids will vote eventually, and maybe, just maybe, they'll go home and talk to their parents."^[37]

Paul considered campaigning for President during 1992,^[40] but instead chose to endorse Pat Buchanan that year, and served as an adviser to Buchanan's Republican presidential primary campaign against incumbent President George H. W. Bush.^[41]

Later congressional career (1997–present)[link]

An earlier congressional portrait of Paul

Elections[link]

1996 campaign

During 1996, Paul was re-elected to Congress after a difficult campaign. The Republican National Committee endorsed incumbent Greg Laughlin in the primary; Paul won with assistance from baseball pitcher, constituent, and friend Nolan Ryan, tax activist and publisher Steve Forbes^[8] and conservative commentator Pat Buchanan (both of whom had had presidential campaigns that year). Paul narrowly defeated Democratic attorney Charles "Lefty" Morris in the fall election, despite Morris' criticism over controversial statements in several newsletters that Ron Paul published.

1998–present

In 1998 and 2000, Paul defeated Loy Sneary, a Democratic Bay City, Texas, rice farmer and former Matagorda County judge.^[17] In the 2008 Republican primary,^[42] he defeated Friendswood city councilman Chris Peden,^[43] with over 70 percent of the vote^[44] and ran unopposed in the general election.^[45] In the 2010 Republican primary, Paul defeated three opponents with 80 percent of the vote.^[46]

On July 12, 2011, Paul announced that he would not seek re-election to the House in order to pursue the 2012 presidential election.^[47][48]

Tenure[link]

Legislation

Of the 620 bills that Paul had sponsored through December 2011, over a period of more than 22 years in Congress, only one had been signed into law – a lifetime success rate of less than 0.3%.^[49] The sole measure authored by Paul that was ultimately enacted allowed for a federal customhouse to be sold to a local historic preservation society (H.R. 2121 in 2009).^[49]

By amending other legislation, he has helped prohibit funding for national identification numbers, funding for federal teacher certification,^[17] International Criminal Court jurisdiction over the U.S. military, American participation with any U.N. global tax, and surveillance of peaceful First Amendment activities by citizens.^[50]

Affiliations

Paul was honorary chairman of, and is a member of the Republican Liberty Caucus, a political action committee that describes its goal as electing "liberty-minded, limited-government individuals".^[51] He is an initiating member of the Congressional Rural Caucus, which deals with agricultural and rural issues, and the 140-member Congressional Wildlife Refuge Caucus.^[52]

Committee assignments[link]

Rep. Paul serves on the following committee and subcommittees.^[53]

• Committee on Financial Services
  • Subcommittee on Domestic Monetary Policy and Technology (Chairman)
  • Subcommittee on International Monetary Policy and Trade
• Committee on Foreign Affairs
  • Subcommittee on Oversight and Investigations

With the election of the 112th Congress, and a resulting GOP majority in the House, Paul became the chairman of the Subcommittee on Domestic Monetary Policy and Technology starting in January 2011.^[54]

2008 presidential campaign[link]

Ron Paul being interviewed the day of the New Hampshire primary in Manchester