eli5: Why does July & August have 31 days but February has only 28 ?

Question

eli5: Why does July & August have 31 days but February has only 28 ?

In: 123

Answer 1

January and February were originally at the end of the year, and replaced what was originally just an open period of “winter.” Since it just kind of got whatever was left over at the end, February wound up with the fewest amount of days. It kept this short stature when it was moved to before March, and when the Julian calendar was introduced it stayed the shortest month but was standardized as 28/29 days.