6 Scary Things that Happened on Leap Year Day

6- Flooding (2000, 2008)

Both in the Mozambique countryside and Buenos Aries, Argentina (respectively), rising flood waters expelled tens of thousands of people from their homes in a major natural disaster that caused epic humanitarian crises. Calls went out around the world for helicopters, financial aid, food and potable water, medicine, supplies for shelter, medical staff, trained personnel, etc. People in Mozambique continue to rebuild their lives but those in Argentina are still waiting to see how bad the destruction will be. Hopefully come tomorrow things will begin to subside once today washes out.

5- Queen Anne's War Massacre (1704)

If there's one thing you can depend on, it's the French always making trouble somewhere. What with the 32 revolutions they've had, it makes sense that they'd be involved in skirmishes during the development of the US as well. In 1704, 100 men, women and children in Deerfield, Massachusetts were massacred by French and Native American forces in Queen Anne's War. Sure it was due to their hatred of the British, but come on, what did these ex-pats-across-the-pond ever do to them? So yeah, massacre on Leap Year. Before it was even invented. Fun times.

4- Serial Killers Born (1956, 1960)

So Aileen Wuornos is the woman portrayed by Charlize Theron in the movie "Monster." You know the one, where she makes herself all ugly and crazy. The perfomance is mesmerizing and she definitely earned that Academy Award unlike, oh I don't know, Halle Barry. Aileen Wuornos was the sympathy-inducing (arguably) woman who lived a hard life involving abuse (sexual, physical and mental), abandonment and alcoholism (the trifecta of Awful A's). She was eventually put to death by the state of Florida (only second in the highest number of state-funded killings to Texas!), for the murder of seven men who raped her.

Richard Ramirez, better known as "The Night Stalker," terrorized the state of California by claiming 14 victims in a little over a year as well as committing 11 counts of sexual assault (at least that's how many he was convicted of, there could probably be more). His trial wound up being one of the longest criminal trials in US history (he even tops OJ) with over 100 witnesses. Ramirez garnered a lot of fame from these proceedings and eventually proposed to and married a freelance editor (no, not any of us at omglists.com) who said she will kill herself when Ramirez is put to death. His latest request for a retrial was denied in 2006. Perhaps he'll be put to death on a leap year?

3- Six Year-Old Murders Other Six Year-Old (2000)

Dedrick Owens brought a .32 calliber handgun to his elementary school and shot Kayla Rolland in front of 22 students and teachers between classes. While she was shot in the arm the bullet's path wound up traveling through several vital organs. Kayla later died at the hospital as a result of her injuries making her the youngest victim of a school shooting. On a somewhat related note, there was a scare at a high school in Pasadena, CA today where a gunman was thought to be on campus. Also, a student who accidentally shot himself in Aberdeen, South Dakota drove himself to his high school for help on his snowmobile. Coincidences? I think not.

2- Plane Crash (1996)

A Faucett Airlines Boeing 737 crashed a few miles from the airport in Arequipa Peru. The flight crashed while on approach from Lima in the middle of the night, killing all 123 people on board. Not only was it a flight into rough terrain, but there was heavy fog AND they were overloaded with weight AND they were issued a faulty altimeter setting which meant they were flying 1,000 feet lower than they thought. So many things going wrong, that flight was doomed to meet it's fate especially when the Bermuda Triangle of all days was thrown into the mix.

1- Earthquake Kills 15,000 (1960)

The 5.7 magnitude trembler struck at the heart of Agadir, a large tourist destination in southwest Morocco. 35,000 people were immediately displaced due to the rampant destruction and the city was so devastated that it had to be completely evacuated for fear of diseases spreading. The city was eventually rebuilt nearby. Let's hope the earth decides to stay relatively still on this particular Leap Year Day.