In English Common Law, you couldn't be tried for a homicide if the person died more than a year and a day after you injured him. A reasonable general rule at the time. The idea has continued on to the present, but in the last few decades, states have repealed or overturned that, because we can keep people alive in vegetative state much longer.
In Welsh mythology, Pwyll trades places with Arawn, Lord of the Underworld, for a year and a day. That may go back well before 1000 AD. (Yes, you Lloyd Alexander fans will be recognising many of the names in that.)
In Chaucer's "Wife of Bath's Tale" the knight is given a year and a day to complete a quest. 14th C.
The Dunmow Flitch was a side of bacon that any couple could claim if they could swear they had not argued for a year and a day. Over 7 centuries, about a half-dozen accomplished this. 1100 AD.
There may be older uses. You will notice that the formula prevents people from being too approximate, thinking they have got "about a year" to serve, or be punished, or married. It makes the longish period of time nonetheless definite.
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