February 2024: Leap Month, Grammys and a Moon Landing
February 2024 was the year's spare part: 29 days, the first leap February since 2016. It opened on a Thursday and closed on one too, with five Thursdays on the grid. At the Grammys on Sunday, February 4, Taylor Swift won Album of the Year for Midnights, a record fourth time. No artist had taken four before, and she announced The Tortured Poets Department from the stage. Eighteen days later a private spacecraft landed on the moon.
A 29-day grid
February 2024 opened on Thursday, February 1 and closed on Thursday, February 29. That leap day was the first since 2016; the next waits until 2028. The month held five Thursdays and four of every other weekday, for 21 business days and eight weekend days across weeks 5 to 9.
Leap days exist because a year runs about a quarter-day longer than the 365 days we print, and February absorbs the correction. The moon ran last quarter on Friday, February 2, new on Friday, February 9 and first quarter on Friday, February 16. The full Snow Moon rose on Saturday, February 24. A leap month that opens and closes on the same weekday has earned its extra day.
From the Grammy stage to the moon
At the 66th Grammy Awards, Taylor Swift's Album of the Year win for Midnights was her fourth, the first artist to manage it. From the stage she announced The Tortured Poets Department. Miley Cyrus collected Record of the Year for Flowers.
On February 22, Intuitive Machines' Odysseus touched down near the Malapert crater, close to the lunar south pole. It was the first United States soft landing since Apollo 17 in 1972, and the first ever by a private spacecraft. The lander tipped onto its side and kept working anyway.
Headsets, chips and screens
Apple's Vision Pro went on sale February 2 at $3,499, the company's first new product category since the Apple Watch in 2015. On February 15, OpenAI showed Sora, a text-to-video model that turns a written prompt into a minute of footage.
Bitcoin crossed $50,000 on February 12 for the first time since late 2021. It touched $60,000 on February 28. Nvidia became the first chipmaker worth $2 trillion on February 23. The day before, it had reported quarterly revenue of $22.1 billion, up 265 percent, on AI chip demand.
In Las Vegas on February 11, Kansas City beat San Francisco 25-22 in overtime, the first back-to-back Super Bowl champions since the 2003-04 Patriots. An average of 123.4 million viewers watched, the biggest US telecast on record. On quieter screens, FX's Shogun debuted February 27 and drew 9 million views in six days.
The month held harder news as well. Buckingham Palace announced on February 5 that King Charles III had been diagnosed with cancer and had begun treatment.
A leap month that opens and closes on Thursdays returns everything neatly. It even landed a spacecraft on the way through.