WORCESTER, Mass. - The City of Worcester is celebrating its 176th birthday Thursday.

The town of Worcester was incorporated as a city on Feb. 29, 1848, and the proclamation was put up to a vote, according to the Worcester Historical Museum.

“Worcester is a leap year baby," said Bill Wallace, executive director of the Worcester Historical Museum. "It's interesting that they chose February 29th to recognize that date when in fact, it doesn't become official in the eyes of the people of Worcester until March 18th, because they had on March 18th, they could have rejected that proclamation of the Commonwealth."

According to records published by the Worcester Society of Antiquity, the state passed a resolution on Feb. 29 saying Worcester can become a city and Worcester’s legal voters were asked to choose to accept the motion.

Needing 757 votes to pass, 1,016 people voted in favor with 487 opposed, making Worcester officially a city at the hands of its residents in 1848. Most recently, the city celebrated its 300th anniversary since being incorporated as a town in 1722.

“Worcester has an amazing history and we're all part of it," Wallace said. "Whether it's something as momentous as Worcester becoming a city or someone's grandfather having a shop on Chandler Street or Main Street or someone breaking a world record, it's all the shared history of this great city that together we populate and we create.”

Thursday being the city's 176th birthday means Worcester is only 43 if you only counting leap years, due to the fact that there was no leap year in 1900.