diff -r c99c527f1186 Lib/_strptime.py
--- a/Lib/_strptime.py	Mon May 14 18:23:44 2012 +0200
+++ b/Lib/_strptime.py	Mon May 14 19:32:59 2012 +0200
@@ -444,8 +444,10 @@
                     else:
                         tz = value
                         break
+    leap_year_fix = False
     if year is None and month == 2 and day == 29:
         year = 1904  # 1904 is first leap year of 20th century
+        leap_year_fix = True
     elif year is None:
         year = 1900
     # If we know the week of the year and what day of that week, we can figure
@@ -476,6 +478,12 @@
     else:
         gmtoff = None
 
+    if leap_year_fix:
+        # the caller didn't supply a year but asked for Feb 29th. We couldn't
+        # use the default of 1900 for computations. We set it back to ensure
+        # that February 29th is smaller than March 1st.
+        year = 1900
+
     return (year, month, day,
             hour, minute, second,
             weekday, julian, tz, gmtoff, tzname), fraction
diff -r c99c527f1186 Lib/test/test_strptime.py
--- a/Lib/test/test_strptime.py	Mon May 14 18:23:44 2012 +0200
+++ b/Lib/test/test_strptime.py	Mon May 14 19:32:59 2012 +0200
@@ -381,6 +381,11 @@
     def test_feb29_on_leap_year_without_year(self):
         time.strptime("Feb 29", "%b %d")
 
+    def test_mar1_comes_after_feb29_even_when_omitting_the_year(self):
+        self.assertLess(
+                time.strptime("Feb 29", "%b %d"),
+                time.strptime("Mar 1", "%b %d"))
+
 class Strptime12AMPMTests(unittest.TestCase):
     """Test a _strptime regression in '%I %p' at 12 noon (12 PM)"""