April Fools' Day or All Fools' Day although not a holiday in its own right, is a notable day celebrated in many countries on April 1. Lists of holidays The words holiday or vacation have related meanings in different English-speaking countries and continents but will usually refer to one of Events 527 - Byzantine Emperor Justin I names his nephew Justinian I as co-ruler and successor to the throne The day is marked by the commission of hoaxes and other practical jokes of varying sophistication on friends, enemies and neighbors, or sending them on fools' errands, the aim of which is to embarrass the gullible. A hoax is a deliberate attempt to Dupe, Deceive or trick an audience into believing or accepting that something is real when in fact it is not or that A practical joke or prank is a stunt or trick to purposely make someone feel foolish or victimized usually for humor Traditionally, in some countries, the jokes only last until noon. Noon (also midday) is the hour of 1200 in an observer's local time zone or more loosely a time near the middle of the day when workers in many countries take a meal break If you play a trick on someone after this time you are the April Fool. ^[1] Elsewhere, for example in France, the jokes may last all day.

Contents 1 Origins 2 Well-known pranks 2.1 By radio stations 2.2 By television stations 2.3 By magazines, newspapers, and books 2.4 By game shows 2.5 By websites 3 Lists of April Fool hoaxes 4 Real news on April Fools' Day 5 Other prank days in the world 6 April Fools' Day in media 7 Quotes about April Fools' Day 8 See also 9 References 10 Notes 11 External links

Origins

The origin of April Fool's Day is obscure. Some say it was first celebrated soon after the adoption of the Gregorian Calendar, and referred to someone still adhering to the Julian Calendar which it replaced. The Gregorian calendar is the most widely used Calendar in the world today The Julian calendar, a reform of the Roman calendar, was introduced by Julius Caesar in 46 BC and came into force in 45 BC (709 Ab urbe condita In many pre-Christian cultures May Day (May 1) was celebrated as the first day of summer, and signalled the start of the spring planting season. May Day occurs on May 1 and refers to any of several Public holidays In many countries May Day is synonymous with International Workers' Day, or Labour An April Fool was someone who did this prematurely.

Well-known pranks

• Alabama Changes the Value of Pi: The April 1998 newsletter of New Mexicans for Science and Reason contained an article written by physicist Mark Boslough claiming that the Alabama Legislature had voted to change the value of the mathematical constant pi to the "Biblical value" of 3. New Mexico ( is a state located in the southwestern region of the United States of America. Science (from the Latin scientia, meaning " Knowledge " or "knowing" is the effort to discover, and increase human understanding Reason involves the ability to think understand and draw Conclusions in an Abstract way as in Human thinking Mark Boslough is a physicist most famous for his April Fools' Day joke involving Pi. The Alabama Legislature is the legislative branch of the state government of Alabama. IMPORTANT NOTICE Please note that Wikipedia is not a database to store the millions of digits of π please refrain from adding those to Wikipedia as it could cause technical problems Etymology According to the Online Etymology Dictionary, the word bible is from Latin biblia, traced from the same word through Medieval Latin and Late Latin 0. This claim originally appeared as a news story in the 1961 science fiction novel Stranger in a Strange Land by Robert A. Heinlein. Stranger in a Strange Land is a best-selling 1961 Hugo Award -winning Science fiction Novel by Robert A Robert Anson Heinlein (July 7 1907 – May 8 1988 was an American Novelist and Science fiction Writer. ^[2]
• Spaghetti trees: The BBC television programme Panorama ran a famous hoax in 1957, showing the Swiss harvesting spaghetti from trees. The Spaghetti tree is a fictitious Tree and the subject of a 3-minute spoof report on the Swiss spaghetti harvest beside Lake Lugano broadcast by the BBC Panorama is the longest-running current affairs documentary series in the world Switzerland (English pronunciation; Schweiz Swiss German: Schwyz or Schwiiz Suisse Svizzera Svizra officially the Swiss Confederation Spaghetti is a long thin cylindrical Pasta of Italian origin A variety of pasta dishes are based on it from spaghetti with cheese and pepper or garlic and They had claimed that the despised pest, the spaghetti weevil, had been eradicated. A large number of people contacted the BBC wanting to know how to cultivate their own spaghetti trees. It was in fact filmed in St Albans. St Albans is the main urban area of the City and District of St Albans in southern Hertfordshire, England, around north of central London. ^[3]
• Left Handed Whoppers: In 1998, Burger King ran an ad in USA Today, saying that people could get a Whopper for left-handed people whose condiments were designed to drip out of the right side. Burger King ( often abbreviated to USA TODAY is a national American daily Newspaper published by the Gannett Company. ^[4] Not only did customers order the new burgers, but some specifically requested the "old", right-handed burger. ^[5]
• Taco Liberty Bell: In 1996, Taco Bell took out a full-page advertisement in The New York Times announcing that they had purchased the Liberty Bell to "reduce the country's debt" and renamed it the "Taco Liberty Bell. The Taco Liberty Bell was an April Fool's Day joke played by fast food Restaurant chain Taco Bell. Taco Bell Corp, a subsidiary of Yum! Brands Inc, is a restaurant chain based in Irvine California specializing in Tex-Mex -inspired The Liberty Bell, in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, is a bell that has served as one of the most prominent symbols of the American Revolutionary " When asked about the sale, White House press secretary Mike McCurry replied tongue-in-cheek that the Lincoln Memorial had also been sold and would henceforth be known as the Lincoln Mercury Memorial. Mike McCurry (born 27 October 1954) is best known as the former Press secretary for Bill Clinton 's administration The Lincoln Memorial is a United States Presidential memorial built to honor the 16th President of the United States, Abraham Lincoln. ^[6]
• San Serriffe: The Guardian printed a supplement in 1977 praising this fictional resort, its two main islands (Upper Caisse and Lower Caisse), its capital (Bodoni), and its leader (General Pica). San Serriffe is a Fictional Island nation created for April Fools' Day, 1977, by staff members of Britain's Guardian The Guardian (until 1959 The Manchester Guardian) is a British Newspaper owned by the Guardian Media Group. Capital letters or majuscules pronunciation /məˈdʒʌskyuls ˈmædʒəˌskyuls/ in the Roman alphabet A, B, C, D, Lower case (also lower-case or lowercase) minuscule, or small letters are the smaller form of letters as opposed to upper Bodoni is the name given to a series of serif typefaces first designed by Giambattista Bodoni (1740–1813 in 1798 This page is for the unit of measure For the eating disorder see Pica (disorder. Intrigued readers were later disappointed to learn that San Serriffe (sans serif) did not exist except as references to typeface terminology. San Serriffe is a Fictional Island nation created for April Fools' Day, 1977, by staff members of Britain's Guardian History Ancient usages Sans-serif letter forms can be found in Latin Etruscan, and Greek inscriptions for as early as 5th century BC (This comes from a Jorge Luis Borges story. )^[7]
• Metric time: Repeated several times in various countries, this hoax involves claiming that the time system will be changed to one in which units of time are based on powers of 10. Metric time is the measure of time interval using the Metric system, which defines the Second as the base unit of time and multiple and submultiple units formed with ^[8]
• Smell-o-vision: In 1965, the BBC purported to conduct a trial of a new technology allowing the transmission of odor over the airwaves to all viewers. Smell-O-Vision was a system that released Odors during the projection of a Film so that the viewer could " smell " what was happening in the movie Many viewers reportedly contacted the BBC to report the trial's success. This hoax was also conducted by the Seven Network in Australia in 2005. The Seven Network is an Australian television network, owned by the Seven Media Group. For a topic outline on this subject see List of basic Australia topics. ^[9] In 2007, the BBC website repeated an online version of the hoax. ^[10]
• Movie Guru's Gotcha: Starting in 1992, movie companies began to hold back all movies that came out on April Fool's day. Due to the fact that April Fool's is not always on Tuesday, this has only occurred twice.
• Tower of Pisa: The Dutch television news reported once in the 1950s that the Tower of Pisa had fallen over. The Leaning Tower of Pisa (Torre pendente di Pisa or simply The Tower of Pisa (it La Torre di Pisa is the Campanile, or freestanding bell tower of the The Netherlands ( Dutch:, ˈnedərlɑnt is the European part of the Kingdom of the Netherlands, which consists of the Netherlands the Netherlands Television ( TV) is a widely used Telecommunication medium for sending ( Broadcasting) and receiving moving Images, either monochromatic Many shocked people contacted the station. ^[11]
• Write Only Memory: Signetics advertised Write Only Memory IC databooks in 1972 through the late 1970s. Write-only memory is the Antithesis of Read-only memory Signetics, once a major player in semiconductor manufacturing made a variety of devices which included Integrated circuits bipolar and MOS, the Dolby Microchipsjpg|right|thumb|200px|Microchips ( EPROM memory with a transparent window showing the integrated circuit inside ^[12]
• The Canadian news site bourque.org announced in 2002 that Finance Minister Paul Martin had resigned "in order to breed prize Charolais cattle and handsome Fawn Runner ducks. Bourque Newswatch is a Canadian news aggregator Website, run by journalist Pierre Bourque. The Minister of Finance (Ministre des Finances is the Minister of the Crown in the Canadian Cabinet who is responsible each year for presenting the federal government's Paul Edgar Philippe Martin. PC, MP (also known as Paul Martin Jr "^[13]
• Annual BMW Innovations see a new "cutting-edge invention" by BMW advertised across British newspapers every year, examples including:
  • Warning against counterfeit BMWs: the blue and white parts of the logo were reversed
  • The "Toot and Calm Horn" (after Tutankhamun), which calms rather than aggravates other drivers, so reducing the risk of road rage,
  • MINI cars being used in upcoming space missions to Mars,
  • IDS ("Insect Deflector Screen") Technology - using elastic solutions to bounce insects off the windscreen as you drive,
  • SHEF ("Satellite Hypersensitive Electromagnetic Foodration") Technology, which sees the car's GPS systems synchronise with home appliances to perfectly cook a meal for the instant you return home,
  • Marque-Wiper - mini-wipers for each exterior "BMW" logo coming as standard on all future models,
  • "Uninventing the wheel" to counter the "EU ban" on right-hand drive cars,
  • Zoom Impression Pixels ("ZIP") to counter new "Slow Cameras" and,
  • "BMW Instant Messaging" - using Reactive User Sound Electronic (RUSE) particles to display the driver's words to the car in front on the windscreen. ( BMW) (Bavarian Motor Works is an independent German automobile manufacturer founded in 1916 The United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland, commonly known as the United Kingdom, the UK or Britain,is a Sovereign state located Mini (styled as MINI) is a British automotive brand owned by the German BMW Group that has produced a redesign of the traditional Mini The European Union ( EU) is a political and economic union of twenty-seven member states, located primarily in
  • A compact disc available to all BMW owners, which when played over the audio system performed minor service and diagnostic checks; when flipped over it played soothing classical music (Australia).
  • Canine Repellent Alloy Protection (CRAP)- a means of discouraging dogs from urinating on car wheels. The dog ( Canis lupus familiaris) is a domesticated Subspecies of the gray wolf, a Mammal of the Canidae family of the order Urination, also known as micturition, voiding, and more rarely emiction, is the process of disposing Urine from the Urinary bladder (2008)
• Sheng Long: In 1992 Electronic Gaming Monthly claimed that Sheng Long could be unlocked as a secret character in Street Fighter II. Sheng Long is a character Hoax related to the Street Fighter series created by Electronic Gaming Monthly as an April Fool's Electronic Gaming Monthly (often abbreviated to EGM) is an American Video game magazine. Sheng Long is a character Hoax related to the Street Fighter series created by Electronic Gaming Monthly as an April Fool's A secret character (not to be confused with an Unseen character) is usually a playable character, although sometimes a Non-player character, in a Video is a 1991 competitive fighting game by Capcom. It is widely credited with launching the fighting game genre into the mainstream and extending the life of the worldwide arcade EGM repeated the Sheng Long hoax again with "Street Fighter III. is a Fighting game released for the arcades. Produced for the CD-ROM -based CPS III hardware which allowed for more elaborate 2D graphics than " There have been several other EGM pranks. Electronic Gaming Monthly magazine is famous for its April Fools' Day jokes
• Legend of Zelda Movie: In 2008, IGN released a trailer for an upcoming Legend of Zelda movie. IGN (abbreviated and formerly known as I magine G ames N etwork is a multimedia news and reviews Website that focuses heavily on Video The trailer looked very realistic and was revealed to be an April fools joke the next day.
• Visual Sounds: In 2008, NCSoft announced a new feature for their popular MMO games City of Heroes and City of Villains, "Visual Sounds", which replaced the regular sound effects with onomatopoeia-style visuals. ncSoft Limited was a software development organisation which developed one of the first suite of web-based financial applications City of Heroes (CoH is a massively multiplayer online role-playing game based on the Superhero Comic book Genre, developed by City of Villains is a massively multiplayer online role-playing game based on the Superhero Comic book Genre, developed by Cryptic Onomatopoeia (also spelled onomatopœia, from Greek: ονοματοποιΐα is a Word or a grouping of words that imitates the sound it is describing The announcement also proposed the future possibility of removing the sound effects all together to save disk space.
• Casablanca Re-Make: On Movies.com, it was announced that Tom Cruise and Katie Holmes would be starring in a remake of the original Casablanca with Tom Cruise as Humphrey Bogart and the main actress being Madonna. Moviescom is a Website in the Fandango family operated by Comcast. Thomas Cruise Mapother IV ( born July 3 1962 better known by his screen name Tom Cruise, is an American Actor and Film producer Kate "Katie" Noelle Holmes (born December 18 1978 is an American actress who first achieved fame for her role as Joey Potter on The WB television Casablanca ( is an American Romantic drama film directed by Michael Curtiz, starring Humphrey Bogart, Ingrid Bergman and Madonna Louise Ciccone Ritchie (born August 16 1958 known as Madonna, is an American

By radio stations

• In 1982, Dutch radio broadcaster TROS seemed to experience problems during its TROS Top 50 apparent signal interference from a new, English language satellite radio station from Switzerland. TROS (originally an acronym for Televisie Radio Omroep Stichting) is a Dutch television and radio organisation part of the Netherlands Public Broadcasting. Hundreds of people called in, only to learn later that it was all a hoax to introduce a new DJ, Kas van Iersel.
• BBC Radio 2 (2004): The Jeremy Vine Show reported that Germany had dropped the Euro but, as the German Mark was no longer in existence, they were in negotiations to adopt the British pound. Jeremy Vine (born May 17, 1965, Epsom, Surrey) is a British current affairs Presenter for Radio Please update other articles as well to avoid contradiction within Wikipedia e Outraged listeners called by the hundreds to say that such a move would be an assault on British sovereignty.
• BBC Radio 4 (2005): The Today Programme announced in the news that the long-running serial The Archers had changed their theme tune to an upbeat disco style. Today, sometimes referred to as the Today programme to avoid ambiguity is BBC Radio 4 's long-running early morning news and current affairs The Archers is a British radio Soap opera broadcast on the BBC 's main spoken-word channel, Radio 4. ^[14]
• Kiss FM: In the early 1990s the London radio station announced the moon would come crashing to earth. Kiss 100 is a radio station broadcasting to London on 1000 MHz FM specialising in hip hop, R&B, urban and Dance music Various experts refuted this along with many callers.
• In 2000 in Chicago, Mancow Muller, the host of Alternative Rock station Q101's Morning Show switched his transmitter with that of Urban station WGCI as a prank on his friend Crazy Howard McGee, the host of WGCI's show, causing McGee to unknowingly broadcast on Q101's frequency while Mancow introduced himself as the "White Czar" and taunted McGee on his own station, causing a barrage of calls from gullible listeners in McGee's defense. WKQX 1011 FM is an Alternative rock Radio station serving the Chicago metropolitan area WGCI-FM (1075 FM is a Clear Channel -owned Urban contemporary radio station that has a City of license of Chicago. McGee was confused as he took many of the calls, but did not realize for over an hour that he was the butt of a joke. After realizing the prank, he played along for the remainder of the segment.
• CBC Radio 1 (2001): The Sunday Edition's Michael Enright conducted a telephone interview with Jimmy Carter on the topic of the United States-Canada softwood lumber dispute. Michael Enright may refer to Michael Enright (broadcaster (born 1943 Canadian radio broadcaster Michael Enright (politician (died James Earl "Jimmy" Carter Jr (born October 1 1924 was the thirty-ninth President of the United States, serving from 1977 to 1981 and the recipient of the 2002 The United States – Canada softwood lumber dispute is one of the most significant and enduring Trade disputes in modern history At one point Enright asked Carter (who was actually being played by a Canadian actor), "How did a washed up peanut farmer from Hicksville such as yourself get involved in such a sophisticated bilateral trade argument?" The interview went downhill from there and ended with "Carter" terminating the interview and hanging up.
• Death of a mayor: In 1998, local WAAF shock jocks Opie and Anthony reported that Boston mayor Thomas Menino had been killed in a car accident. WAAF (1073 FM, simulcast on WKAF 977 FM is a Boston Massachusetts, area commercial Album Oriented Rock / Active rock Radio Shock Jock was an Australian television comedy series broadcast on TV1. Opie ( Gregg Hughes, born May 23, 1963) Anthony ( Anthony Cumia, born April 26, 1961) and Jim Thomas Michael Menino (born December 27, 1942) is the mayor of Boston Massachusetts, United States and the city's first Menino happened to be on a flight at the time, lending credence to the prank as he could not be reached. The rumor spread quickly across the city, eventually causing news stations to issue alerts denying the hoax. The pair were fired shortly thereafter. ^[15]
• Free concert: Radio station 98. 1 KISS in Chattanooga, Tennessee falsely announced in 2003 that rapper Eminem would be doing a free show in a discount store parking lot. Marshall Bruce Mathers III (born October 17 1972 known as Slim Shady and his primary Stage name Eminem, is an Academy Award -winning Several police were needed to deal with traffic gridlock and enraged listeners who threatened to harm the DJs responsible. Both DJs were later jailed for creating a public nuisance. For the law of Tort, see Nuisance In the English Criminal law, public nuisance is a class of Common law offence Also, radio station WAAF 107. 3 in Boston announced that Pearl Jam was having a free concert in a fictitious city in New Hampshire. Pearl Jam is an American rock band that formed in Seattle, Washington in 1990 New Hampshire ( is a state in the New England region of the northeastern United States of America. A gas station in New Hampshire reported that several streams of car drivers stopped in asking for directions to the fictional town.
• New format: Radio station KFOG in San Francisco, claiming new corporate ownership, switched to a new format - the best 15 seconds of every song. The City and County of San Francisco is the fourth most populous city All morning they mixed in false calls from perky listeners calling with compliments. This hoax can also be considered a parody of late 1990s media consolidations. A parody (ˈpɛɹədiː US, [ˈpaɹədiː] UK) in contemporary usage is a work created to mock comment on or poke fun at an original work its subject Concentration of media ownership (also known as media consolidation) is a commonly used term that refers to the majority of the media outlets being owned by a small number of
• Phone call: In 1998, UK presenter Nic Tuff of West Midlands radio station Kix 96 pretended to be the British Prime Minister Tony Blair when he called the then South African President Nelson Mandela for a chat. Nic Tuff is a British radio DJ with a career spanning two decades The West Midlands is an official Region of England, covering the western half of the area traditionally known as the Midlands. 962 Touch Radio is a radio station broadcasting to Coventry in the United Kingdom. Anthony Charles Lynton "Tony" Blair (born 6 May 1953 is a British Politician who was Prime Minister of the United Kingdom from 2 May 1997 to Nelson Rolihlahla Mandela (xolíɬaɬa mandéːla born 18 July 1918 is a former President of South Africa, the first to be elected in fully representative It was only at the end of the call when Nic asked Nelson what he was doing for April Fool's Day that the line went dead. ^[16]

• New format: in 1998, radio station KITS in San Francisco played gay-themed songs and changed its call letters to "KGAY" for an hour. KITS-FM ("Live 105" is a San Francisco California, USA-based Radio station broadcasting at 105
• Sydney Olympics (1): Australian radio station Triple J breakfast show co-host Adam Spencer announced in 1999 that he had a journalist on the line at the site of a secret IOC meeting and that Sydney had lost the 2000 Summer Olympics. For a topic outline on this subject see List of basic Australia topics. Triple J is a nationally-networked government-funded Australian radio station (a division of the Australian Broadcasting Corporation) mainly aimed Adam Barrington Spencer (born in 1970 in Gladesville New South Wales) is an Australian radio DJ and media personality "I am proud and happy to proclaim that you have presented to the world the best Olympic Games ever New South Wales Premier Bob Carr was also in on the joke. A premier is a title for the Head of government in some countries Robert John Carr (born 28 September 1947 Australian politician was Premier of New South Wales from 25 March 1995 to 3 August 2005 Mainstream media (including Channel 9's Today Show) picked up the story. The Nine Network, or Channel Nine, is an Australian television network based in Willoughby, a suburb on the North Shore of Sydney
• Sydney Olympics (2): Australian radio station Triple M breakfast show The Cage announced in 2002 that Athens had lost the 2004 Summer Olympics because they couldn't be ready in time and that Sydney would have to host it again. For a topic outline on this subject see List of basic Australia topics. Triple M is a network of radio stations owned by the Austereo Radio Network. The Cage is the name of two different breakfast shows on Australian Radio network Triple M, broadcasting in Brisbane and Melbourne The 2004 Summer Olympic Games, officially known as the Games of the XXVIII Olympiad, was an International Multi-sport event which was celebrated Sydney (ˈsɪdniː is the most populous city in Australia, with a Metropolitan area population of approximately 4
• Jovian-Plutonian gravitational effect: In 1976, British astronomer Sir Patrick Moore told listeners of BBC Radio 2 that unique alignment of two planets would result in an upward gravitational pull making people lighter at precisely 9:47 a. The Jovian-Plutonian gravitational effect, a hoax phenomenon stated to cause a noticeable short-term reduction in gravity on Earth, was an invention for Sir Alfred Patrick Caldwell-Moore, CBE, HonFRS, FRAS (born 4 March 1923 in Pinner) known as Patrick Moore, is m. that day. He invited his audience to jump in the air and experience "a strange floating sensation. " Dozens of listeners phoned in to say the experiment had worked.
• Shuttle landing: In 1993, a San Diego radio station fooled many listeners into believing that the space shuttle had been diverted from Edwards Air Force Base and was about to make an emergency landing at a small local airport. Edwards Air Force Base is a United States Air Force base located on the border of Kern County and Los Angeles County California in the Antelope
• Cancellation of the Howard Stern Show: The April 1st, 2004 show started off with an announcement by the station manager stating that due to increased pressure from the FCC, Viacom had cancelled The Howard Stern Show. Viacom ( ( short for " Vi deo & A udio Com munications" is an American Media conglomerate with various worldwide interests The Howard Stern Show is an American radio show hosted by Howard Stern on Howard 100, one of two channels on the subscription-based The station played pop songs until 7:00 am, when Stern came back on.
• Change of drinking age: On the Gold Coast, Australia's biggest tourist destination (particularly amongst schoolies), radio station Sea FM announced the drinking age would be changed from 18 to 21. This article is about the Australian city Gold Coast For other uses see Gold Coast. Schoolies or Schoolies week (known as Leavers' or Leavers' week in Western Australia) refers to the Australian tradition of high-school This left a huge number of under-21s angry and frustrated, and incited protests. It was later announced at the Sea FM dance party that it was a hoax.
• Second Audio Program (SAP): In 2005, Micky Dolenz told listeners WCBS-FM was broadcasting in foreign languages, and they could make use of the SAP Language control. George Michael Dolenz Jr (born March 8, 1945) is an American Actor, Musician, Television director and theatre Callers to the radio station were told that if you didn't have an SAP button, then twist the antenna a bit.
• Tsunami warning and intense storm: In 2005, Estonian Radio's station, Vikerraadio, perpetrated a hoax during a broadcast of their morning program Vikerhommik, right after the 9 o'clock news. Station said that Finland had been put under a tsunami warning and that the waves were expected to be more than 5 meters high. They also said that Estonia was expecting heavy storms and that Finland might be subjected to hurricane force winds. Hosts also said that they were looking at real satellite imagery, and that it showed intense cyclones in Northern Europe. It was immediately proven to be hoax after a quick look at the weather maps.
• Theft of a Locomotive: In 2006, a Cheyenne, Wyoming radio station reported to listeners that during the previous night, a Union Pacific 4-8-8-4 "Big Boy" steam locomotive was stolen from Holliday Park. Cheyenne ( /ʃaɪˈæn/ or /ʃaɪˈɛn/) is the capital of the U The State of Wyoming ( is a sparsely populated state in the western region of the United States. Big Boy was the name given to the Union Pacific Railroad 's twenty-five 4000 class 4-8-8-4 Mallet articulated Steam locomotives Although the locomotive weighed more than 550 tons (500 tonnes) and had no tracks connecting it to any nearby railroad, thus making its theft near-impossible, several listeners fell for the joke and went to investigate. The short ton ( S/T) is a unit of mass equal to 2000 lb (around 907 This article is about the tonne or metric ton For other tons see Ton. The road that overlooks the park was jammed for hours as people realized that it was a hoax, and the locomotive was still on display in the park.
• "The Great Iceberg" On April 1, 1978 a barge appeared in Sydney Harbour towing a giant iceberg. Dick Smith, a local adventurer and millionaire businessman, had been loudly promoting his scheme to tow an iceberg from Antarctica for quite some time. Dick Smith, AO (born Richard Harold Smith on) is an Australian Entrepreneur, businessman and Aviator. Now he had apparently succeeded. He said that he was going to carve the berg into small ice cubes, which he would sell to the public for ten cents each. These well-traveled cubes, fresh from the pure waters of Antarctica, were promised to improve the flavor of any drink they cooled. Slowly the iceberg made its way into the harbor. Local radio stations provided excited blow-by-blow coverage of the scene. Only when the berg was well into the harbor was its secret revealed. It started to rain, and the firefighting foam and shaving cream that the berg was really made of washed away, uncovering the white plastic sheets beneath.
• "National Public Radio" Every year National Public Radio in the United States does an extensive news story on April 1st. These usually start off more or less reasonably, and get more and more unusual. A recent example is the story on the "iBod" a portable body control device. It also runs false sponsor mentions, such as "Support for NPR comes from the Soylent Corporation, manufacturing protein-rich food products in a variety of colors. Soylent Green is People. Soylent Green " in popular culture the section "Cultural impact" was created as a "catch-all" of the cultural references to ”
• "Michael Jackson moves to Birmingham" In 2007, West Midlands radio station 100.7 Heart FM reported that newspapers were claiming that Michael Jackson had moved to the region. Michael Joseph Jackson (born August 29 1958 is an American musician entertainer and businessman Birmingham ( ˈbɜːmɪŋəm Ber -ming-um The West Midlands is an official Region of England, covering the western half of the area traditionally known as the Midlands. A station employee posed as a caller into the radio station, claiming he'd seen Jackson walking through Birmingham, and filmed it. Presenters Ed James and Hellon Wheels directed listeners to the website to watch the video, only for it to show James doing a caricature-like impersonation of the singer. Ed James (born Edward Stirk on 23 March 1976) is a radio DJ for 100 Hellon Wheels also known as Helen Kennedy (born Helen Meacham on 29 October 1973) is currently the co-host of the Breakfast show on Worcester Meanwhile, angry listeners telephoned the station to register their disapproval of such a controversial figure moving to the Midlands.
• 95. 5 WBRU FM Becomes "Buddy FM": On March 31, 2006, WBRU claimed to be sold for two million dollars to Initech (a reference to the 1999 film Office Space) and changed the format of the station from alternative rock to "Buddy FM" - mainstream popular music. WBRU is a commercial radio station in Providence Rhode Island that broadcasts on 95 Office Space is an American Comedy film, released in 1999, that was written and directed by Mike Judge. Office Space is an American Comedy film, released in 1999, that was written and directed by Mike Judge. Alternative rock (also called alternative music, alt-rock or simply alternative; known primarily in the UK as indie) is a genre of Popular music is Music belonging to any of a number of musical styles that are accessible to the general public and are disseminated by one or more It was later found out to be an April fools joke, and, as of noon on April 1, 2006, WBRU had "regained" control of their radio station and began playing their normal playlist once again. Events 527 - Byzantine Emperor Justin I names his nephew Justinian I as co-ruler and successor to the throne Year 2006 ( MMVI) was a Common year starting on Sunday of the Gregorian calendar. Later that day, they confirmed that they were back to being WBRU, and that Buddy FM was no longer functioning.
• "97. 3FM" in Brisbane, Australia reported the polluted Brisbane River to be a shining blue on April 1st, 2005. Brisbane ( is the state capital of Queensland. Brisbane is the third most populous city in Australia and the most populous city of Queensland For a topic outline on this subject see List of basic Australia topics. This was said to have been caused by a rare movement of the moon, causing high tides and the sea water to run upstream to the river to give it clean blue water. Multiple personalities were in on the joke and interviewed through the morning, and calls were screened so that those living by the river didn't ruin the joke. Some listeners even called in reporting how beautiful it was to see the river unpolluted and clear.
• "The Edge" New Zealand, a popular youth radio network hosts reported in 2006 that the Government were to ban cellphones to under 16s. New Zealand is an Island country in the south-western Pacific Ocean comprising two main landmasses (the North Island and the South Island This of course stirred many frustrated naive callers to have talkback sessions with the hosts until the Prime Minister Helen Clark was interviewed and announced that it was a hoax. Helen Elizabeth Clark (born 26 February 1950 is the 37th and current Prime Minister of New Zealand.
• "Nova 106. 9FM" in Brisbane, Australia and "Hot Tomato" on the Gold Coast, Australia shared an April Fools joke in 2008 when identical twins Ashley and Luke Bradnam swapped morning show hosting roles. Brisbane ( is the state capital of Queensland. Brisbane is the third most populous city in Australia and the most populous city of Queensland For a topic outline on this subject see List of basic Australia topics. For a topic outline on this subject see List of basic Australia topics. Ashley Bradnam is a personality on the Nova 106. 9 morning show and filled in for Luke Bradnam at Hot Tomato. Luke Bradnam is a personality on the Hot Tomato morning show and filled in for Ashley Bradnam on Nova 106. 9. Listeners were not fooled for long and called both stations to guess at the switch.
• In 2008, Chicago-based Urban station Power 92 morning host Trey the Choklit Jock announced that presidential candidate Barack Obama had dropped out of the race due to racial tensions, prompting a massive amount of calls from angry listeners.

By television stations

• After 50 years, the 1957 BBC report of the purported bumper annual spaghetti harvest (see Spaghetti trees above) remains one of the most successful TV hoaxes of all time. The Spaghetti tree is a fictitious Tree and the subject of a 3-minute spoof report on the Swiss spaghetti harvest beside Lake Lugano broadcast by the BBC
• In April 2006, the "Best Damn Sports Show Period" staged a fight between Tom Arnold and Michael Strahan. The Best Damn Sports Show Period is a sports Talk show on Fox Sports Net and Comcast SportsNet. Thomas Duane "Tom" Arnold (born March 6, 1959) is an American Actor and Comedian. Michael Anthony Strahan (STRAY-han (born November 21, 1971 in Houston Texas) is a former American football Defensive end who played On Friday March 31st the show went off the air as Tom Arnold was wrestling NY Giant's defensive end Michael Strahan to the ground over comments Tom made in a tell-all book. Strahan pretended to be very hurt by screaming and clutching his shoulder as the cameras cut to black. It fooled cast members Rodney Peete and Rob Dibble enough to have them intervene in the fight. Rodney Peete (born March 16, 1966 in Mesa, Arizona) is a former American football Quarterback from the University Robert Keith Dibble (born January 24, 1964 in Bridgeport Connecticut) is a former Major League Baseball Pitcher. Rodney Peete went so far as to give Tom rabbit punches while he broke up what he thought was a real fight. Rodney Peete (born March 16, 1966 in Mesa, Arizona) is a former American football Quarterback from the University A rabbit punch is a punch to the Neck or to the base of the Skull. It also worked enough to fool the popular internet site "deadspin. com" into reporting it as a real event.
• In 2005, TV 3 Estonia broadcast a news story, in which the station claimed that, thanks to new technology, they knew exactly how much they were being viewed at the moment. Estonia, officially the Republic of Estonia ( Eesti or Eesti Vabariik) is a Country in Northern Europe in the Baltic region They also asked viewers to put a coin against their TV screens if they liked the running broadcast.
• Swiss network TSR (Télévision Suisse Romande), broadcast a hoax report every year, usually at the end of the 19. Télévision Suisse Romande is a TV network with 2 channels TSR 1 and TSR 2. 30 news. For example, in 2005, they reported that instead of being helicoptered out when a person is injured while skiing, they are parachuted down the mountain. In 2006, it was that the town of Fribourg was planning to make people release their handbrakes in designated areas, so that if parking spaces were too tight, all people would have to do was to call for the police and they would push the car. Fribourg ( French) (Freiburg or de Freiburg im [[Üechtland]], often Fribourg) is the capital of the Swiss canton of
• The night-time channel Adult Swim has had several pranks over the years. Adult Swim, (usually stylized swim with its signature square Brackets, is an adult-oriented Television network sharing channel space with Cartoon
  • There was no prank in 2005 because it fell on a Friday, but in 2004, mustaches were drawn on characters during the shows. For the Swedish heavy metal band see Mustasch. A moustache (or mustache) is Facial hair grown on the upper Lip.
  • In 2006, the channel significantly changed its programming. InuYasha was replaced by the 1980s cartoon Karate Kommandos starring Chuck Norris, while Neon Genesis Evangelion was replaced by Boo Boo Runs Wild and Cowboy Bebop was replaced by Mister T. full title ( romanized as INUYASHA Chuck Norris Karate Kommandos is an American Animated television series from the 1980s Carlos Ray "Chuck" Norris (born March 10 1940 is an American martial artist, action star and Television and Film commonly referred to as NGE, Eva, or Evangelion, is a commercially and critically successful influential and controversial Japanese Anime that "Boo Boo Runs Wild" is a Parody Yogi Bear Cartoon. It was made by Ren and Stimpy creator John Kricfalusi and his company is a Japanese animated television series. Directed by Shinichirō Watanabe and written by Keiko Nobumoto, Cowboy Bebop was produced by Mister T was an animated series that aired on NBC from 1983 to 1986, with the last season consisting solely of reruns Full Metal Alchemist and Ghost in the Shell: S.A.C. 2nd GIG had their episodes edited so characters farted throughout the show, although they showed an unedited version of the Ghost in the Shell episode later in the night. commonly abbreviated as FMA or Hagaren, is an ongoing Japanese Manga series written and illustrated by Hiromu Arakawa. is the second season of the Japanese Anime series Ghost in the Shell Stand Alone Complex, based on Masamune Shirow 's ''Ghost in the Shell'' Fart is an English language Vulgarism most commonly used in reference to Flatulence.
  • In 2007, which also fell on a Sunday, Adult Swim once again had a revised schedule. The station played only Perfect Hair Forever starting at midnight. Perfect Hair Forever is an American comedy Animated television series which is and is a parody of Anime. The first episode shown was actually the premiere of the show's second season. After that, season 1 was rebroadcast in modified form, made to resemble old VHS fansubs,in one episode the subs oddly turned into a script from Aqua Teen Hunger Force. A fansub (short for fan-subtitled) is a version of a Foreign film or Foreign Television program which has been translated by fans Throughout the night the station also had short clips entitled "Fan Service Moments" in which they showed short shots of scantily clad anime girls. Adult Swim also ran commercials saying that Aqua Teen Hunger Force Colon Movie Film for Theaters would air 10 PM on April 1st, almost two weeks before its scheduled theatrical release date. Aqua Teen Hunger Force Colon Movie Film for Theaters is an Animated film based on the Adult Swim animated series Aqua Teen Hunger Force They actually did, in fact, play the movie, however it was in a box in the bottom-left corner of the screen during the channel's regular programming. The box the movie was played in was too small to be viewed and the sound was that of the regular show. However, the channel did play the opening scene of the movie on the full screen with sound.
  • In 2008, viewers expecting to see an encore of Sunday evening's Aqua Teen Hunger Force Colon Movie Film for Theaters were instead treated to unscheduled sneak previews of the upcoming shows A Young Person's Guide to History, Delocated, Superjail and Fat Guy Stuck in Internet, along with new episodes of The Venture Bros., Metalocalypse, Robot Chicken, and Moral Orel (which otherwise will not air until the months of May, June, and August). Aqua Teen Hunger Force Colon Movie Film for Theaters is an Animated film based on the Adult Swim animated series Aqua Teen Hunger Force Fat Guy Stuck in Internet is a short live-action sci-fi comedy series that is part of the Adult Swim schedule on Cartoon Network. The Venture Bros (alternatively The Venture Brothers) is an American Animated television series airing as part of Adult Swim Metalocalypse is an American Animated television series on Adult Swim created by Brendon Small and Tommy Blacha. Robot Chicken is an Emmy -Award Winning American Stop motion animated television series created by Seth Green and Matthew Moral Orel is an American stop-motion animated television show currently airing on Adult Swim. The movie aired later with title cards inserted between all commercial breaks depicting real people wearing body costumes of Aqua Teen characters Master Shake, Frylock, and Meatwad accompanied with text reading "You Missed The April Fools Stunt. Enjoy The Movie. "
• On April Fools' Day, 1997, Cartoon Network ran the 1944 Screwy Squirrel cartoon Happy-Go-Nutty repeatedly from 6 AM to 6 PM, suggesting that the cartoon character had taken over the network. Screwball "Screwy" Squirrel is a Cartoon character, an Anthropomorphic Squirrel created by Tex Avery for Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer
• In 2002, Toonami showed 4 episodes of Batman: The Animated Series featuring The Joker, suggesting that the villain had taken over the block by using his Joker virus to infect the computer system on board the Absolution. Toonami (a Portmanteau of the words Cartoon and Tsunami suggesting a "tidal wave" of Animated cartoons is a registered Batman The Animated Series (often shortened Batman TAS or BTAS) is an American, two time Emmy Award winning The Joker is a fictional character appearing in Comic books published by DC Comics.
• In 1989, Seattle area TV program Almost Live! set up a phony broadcast room and dressed up actors as TV anchors to pull an April Fools' joke explaining that the Space Needle had collapsed in a windstorm. Television ( TV) is a widely used Telecommunication medium for sending ( Broadcasting) and receiving moving Images, either monochromatic Almost Live! is a local Sketch comedy television show in Seattle Washington, USA produced and broadcast by NBC affiliate KING-TV In the broadest sense a fraud is a Deception made for personal gain or to damage another individual The Space Needle (often called just "the Needle" by locals is a Tower in Seattle Washington, and is a major landmark of the Pacific Northwest A storm is any disturbed state of an astronomical body's atmosphere, especially affecting its surface and strongly implying Severe weather.
• The BBC's Saturday lunchtime show Football Focus broadcast a piece centred on the upcoming change of the size of goals. Football Focus is a BBC Television show broadcast on BBC One on Saturday lunchtimes covering football, presented by Manish Using West Ham United manager, Harry Redknapp, the report claimed that the size of the goals would increase by two feet in height and four feet in length. } West Ham United Football Club is an English football club based in Upton Park, London Borough of Newham, East London, who have played Henry James "Harry" Redknapp (born 2 March 1947 is an English former footballer who has had a long career in football management and is the current Redknapp was being 'interviewed' on the training ground where his goalkeepers were getting to grips with bigger goals. They told the truth on the following week's show, where outtakes of Redknapp messing up his lines were also shown. The BBC's Grandstand sports magazine programme once featured a dispute between two production staff that turned into a fight, while the presenter continued oblivious to the scuffle behind him. Grandstand was a British Television Sport programme and was one of the BBC 's longest running sports shows alongside BBC
• In 1998, the Channel 4 morning show The Big Breakfast got into trouble with various authorities for pulling an April Fools stunt showing video footage of the Millennium Dome on fire. Channel 4 is a public-service Television and Radio broadcaster in the United Kingdom centred around a television channel of the same name which began This article is about the British television show For the Canadian television show of the same name see The Big Breakfast (Canada. The Millennium Dome, often referred to simply as The Dome, is the original name of a large Dome -shaped building originally used to house
• In 2004, MTV's Total Request Live reported that the band Simple Plan was breaking up. MTV ( Music Television) is an American Cable television network based in New York City. Simple Plan is a French Canadian Pop punk band based in Montreal, Quebec. Lead Singer Pierre Bouvier even called in and claimed that constant fighting had led to the break-up. Pierre Charles Bouvier (born 9 May 1979) is a French Canadian musician who is best known as the lead singer for Pop punk band Simple "Things have been said and lines have been crossed. It's hard to forget things. For the moment now I just really can't stand being around those guys. I just need some time to relax," he told viewers. Throughout the show, VJs Damien Fahey and Quddus took calls from distraught fans about the band's break-up. Damien Richard Fahey (born June 1, 1980) is an MTV VJ, Television host, and drummer However, at the end of the show, Bouvier called back to confess that it was all just an elaborate April Fool's Day prank. "So you're not breaking up?" asked Fahey. "Are you kidding me? No, man. How the hell could we break up? We couldn't do that. I love those guys," Bouvier replied. TRL carried out a similar prank on April Fool's Day of 2002 when Kevin Richardson of the Backstreet Boys was a guest host. See also 2002 (disambiguation Year 2002 ( MMII) was a Common year starting on Tuesday of the Gregorian calendar. Kevin Richardson is the name of Kevin Richardson (musician, former member of the Backstreet Boys Kevin Richardson (footballer, English Backstreet Boys are a Grammy -nominated American pop group They were the first group launched by fallen Boy band mogul Lou Pearlman. He opened the show by saying that the group had decided to go their separate ways, at which point many of the girls in the audience began to cry. "Before we get started, though, I want to take a minute to clear up some things. There's been a lot of rumors going around about Backstreet and our future and what's going on. Since I'm hosting today, the rest of the guys thought it would be a good idea while I was on here that I cleared up all those rumours and allegations. Uhm, as of today, the fellas and I will no longer be performing together," Richardson said. "I'm joining a punk rock band and Nick's doing a solo album and, uh, we'll get into that a bit later," he went on to say before revealing it was just an April Fool's joke.
• The 1977 British documentary Alternative 3 was originally intended as an April Fools' Day hoax and the date of April 1, 1977 is specifically given in the program's credits. Alternative 3 is a television programme broadcast once only in the United Kingdom in 1977 and later broadcast in New Zealand, as a Fictional This documentary detailed the discovery of a major cover-up involving the American and Soviet Space Agencies, who had been collaborating on plans to make the moon and Mars habitable in the event of a terminal environmental catastrophe on Earth. The program gave birth to a large number of conspiracy theories.
• In 1979 the BBC programme That's Life!, which often featured talented pets, fooled many viewers with its story about an Old English sheepdog that could drive a car. That's Life! was a magazine-style Television series on BBC between 1973 and 1994, presented by Esther Rantzen The
• In 1962, one of the most famous April fools jokes in Sweden was performed. "Sverige" redirects here For other uses see Sweden (disambiguation and Sverige (disambiguation. A well-known person on SVT claimed that one could get color images from a black-and-white TV set by covering it with a nylon stocking. Thousands of people tried it.
• In 1991, during the time block of the student comedy show Coo-Coo, the Bulgarian National Television aired breaking news that “. The Bulgarian National Television (Българска национална телевизия or BNT (БНТ is the public broadcaster of Bulgaria. . . the situation in the nuclear power plant of Kolzoduj is fully under control. ” This brought back memories of the communist censorship during the reporting of the Chernobyl disaster half a decade earlier. Chernobyl (as transliterated from the Чернобыль) or Chornobyl (as transliterated from Чорнобиль tʃɔrˈnɔbɪlʲ was a city in northern 90% of the viewers became convinced that reactor No. 4 in Kozloduj had exploded. The authors of the comedy show were later accused of manipulating the public in order to destabilize the Bulgarian government. The state of Bulgaria (България transliterated bg-Latn ''Balgaria'' The country preserves the traditions (in ethnic name language and alphabet of the First Bulgarian
• NESN, a New England sports network, announced that Tom Brady, the quarterback for the New England Patriots, had resigned, and that he would become a pitcher for the Boston Red Sox. Thomas Edward Brady Jr (born August 3 1977 is an American football Quarterback for the New England Patriots of the National Football League The New England Patriots, commonly called the " Pats " by sports writers and fans are a professional American football team based in the Greater Boston The Boston Red Sox are a Professional baseball team based in Boston Massachusetts, and are the reigning (2007 World Series Champions.
• South Park: April 1st, 1998 was advertised as being the premiere of the show's second season — and also the resolution of a cliffhanger where Eric Cartman was about to discover the identity of his father. South Park is an animated American television comedy series created and written by Trey Parker and Matt Stone for Comedy Central Eric Theodore Cartman,commonly referred to by his Family name, Cartman, is one of the four main Fictional characters in the animated series Fans spent weeks speculating on the father's identity, but when they tuned in to watch it they were instead treated to Terrance and Phillip in Not Without My Anus, a half-hour of Terrance and Phillip fart jokes. " Terrance and Phillip in Not Without My Anus " also known as the April Fool's episode is the 14th episode of Comedy Central 's animated series South The true resolution to the cliffhanger aired several weeks later. The show's creators, Trey Parker and Matt Stone claim during the DVD introduction to this episode that they received death threats over pulling the prank.
• The Trouble with Tracy: In 2003, The Comedy Network in Canada announced that it would produce and air a remake of the 1970s Canadian sitcom The Trouble with Tracy. The Trouble with Tracy was a Canadian Television series produced by CTV for the 1970&ndash1971 television season with intended distribution The Comedy Network (TCN is a Canadian English language Cable television Specialty channel owned by CTV Television Inc Country to "Dominion of Canada" or "Canadian Federation" or anything else please read the Talk Page The original series is widely considered to be one of the worst sitcoms ever produced. Several media outlets fell for the hoax. ^[17]
• When the movie Volcano, starring Tommy Lee Jones, came out, a TV station prepared scenes from the movie to run as if they were an actual news broadcast. Plate tectonics and hotspots Divergent plate boundaries At the At the end of the report stating that a volcano had erupted in the middle of Los Angeles and that the city was completely engulfed in flames, the announcer added that it was all an April Fools' prank.
• Going Live!: In the 90's, Phillip Schofield did a section on a new type of music player that had every top 40 single loaded into it, that could play a song just by speaking the name of the song into it. Going Live! was a Saturday morning magazine show broadcast on BBC1 between 1987 and 1993 He said it would be available to buy soon. He invited viewers to ring in and request a song, Then he would ask the machine to play it. The studio was of course inundated with calls, and Phillip revealed later that it was a prank and the machine didn't exist.
• In 2008, the BBC reported on a newly discovered colony of flying penguins. Penguins ( order Sphenisciformes, family Spheniscidae) are a group of aquatic, flightless Birds living almost An elaborate video segment was even produced, featuring Terry Jones (of Monty Python fame) walking with the penguins in Antarctica, and following their flight to the Amazon rainforest. For other uses see Terry Jones (disambiguation. Terence Graham Parry Jones (born 1 February 1942) is a Welsh Monty Python (sometimes known as The Pythons) is the collective name of the six creators of Monty Python's Flying Circus, a British Television ^[18]
• In 2008, The BBC released a short Doctor Who spoof using mostly pre-existing footage and advertised it as the first episode of Season 4 of the new series.
• In 1993, after the end of the final match of the Swedish Ice Hockey championships, the commentator said that the match had to be cancelled and be played once again. "Sverige" redirects here For other uses see Sweden (disambiguation and Sverige (disambiguation. Ice hockey, often referred to simply as hockey, is a team Sport played on Ice. This match would start immediately. He was standing with the spectators going back into the arena behind him. Unfortunately television could not send this match, he said. However, all this was a joke, recorded before the match.

By magazines, newspapers, and books

• George Plimpton wrote a 1985 article in Sports Illustrated about a New York Mets prospect named Sidd Finch, who could throw a 168 mph (270 km/h) fastball with pinpoint accuracy. George Ames Plimpton ( March 18, 1927 &ndash September 25, 2003) was an American Journalist, Writer, Sports Illustrated is an American Sports Magazine owned by media conglomerate Time Warner. "Mets" redirects here For the medical term see Metastasis. Sidd Finch was a fictional baseball player the subject of the notorious article and April Fools' Day hoax "The Curious Case of Sidd Finch" written by George Plimpton For the American band of the same name see Fastball (band. For the game also known as fast-pitch softball see Softball. This kid, known as "Barefoot" Sidd[hartha] Finch, reportedly learned to pitch in a Buddhist monastery. Buddhism is a family of beliefs and practices The first letter of each word in the article subhead spelled out the fact of its being an April Fool joke. ^[19]
• In April 1990, the British magazine Classic CD announced the discovery of the first recording ever made : Frederic Chopin himself interpreting his minute waltz. Year 1990 ( MCMXC) was a Common year starting on Monday (link displays the 1990 Gregorian calendar) This event followed the discovery of 3 glass cylinders and a letter discovered buried in a garden next to Chopin’s house in Montfort l’Amaury (France). In that letter, an inventor wrote he had built a recording device in the year 1849 (several years before the phonograph was invented). The sound was inscribed into tracks by a stylus and a vibrating membrane on a lamp-blackened glass cylinder. He asked his neighbour Frederic Chopin to record some music for him. But since he could not play back the sound, he buried it in his garden and died anonymously. The magazine Classic CD offered a CD on which one could hear a dim and muffled music, dominated by a repeating grinding noise that sounded like Chopin playing. The next month the readers learned that the music was played in a room next to the recorder. The tempo was modified so that it would last just one minute, and the hypnotic grinding noise was made by scratching the microphone with a fingernail.
• In 2005, the Maryville Daily Forum newspaper in Maryville, Mo. , published an entirely fake front page on April 1. Stories detailed a plan to drain a local lake to find the city manager's lucky golf ball; the city's efforts to annex the entire town from Missouri into Iowa; and the arrest of the newspaper's publisher for smoking a cigar in a restaurant (only a few months after a city-wide no-smoking ban was put into effect). Page 2 of that day's newspaper proclaimed "APRIL FOOLS!" across the top of the page, followed by that day's real news stories. The newspaper received hundreds of phone calls that day from readers who thought the stories were real, and Maryville City Hall also received dozens of phone calls from citizens outraged that the city would drain a lake or annex into Iowa.
• Lies to Get You Out of the House: In 1985, the L.A. Weekly printed an entire page of fake things to do on April Fools day, by which hundreds of people were fooled. LA Weekly is a free weekly Tabloid -sized Newspaper (a so-called " Alternative weekly " in Los Angeles California ^[20]
• Comic strip switcheroo: Cartoonists of popularly syndicated comic strips draw each others' strips. The Comic strip switcheroo (also known as the Great Comics Switcheroonie or the Great April Fools Day Comics Switcheroonie) was a series of jokes played out between A cartoonist is a person who specializes in drawing Cartoons Traditionally much of this work was and still is humorous and is intended primarily for entertainment purposes In some cases, the artist draws characters in the other strip's milieu, while in others, the artist draws in characters from other visiting characters from his own. Cartoonists have done this sort of "switcheroo" for several years. The 1997 switch was particularly widespread. ^[21]
• Coldplay to back the Tories - On April 1 2006 the UK Guardian journalist "Olaf Priol" claimed that Chris Martin of rock band Coldplay had decided to publicly support the UK Conservative Party leader David Cameron due to his disillusionment with previous Labour Party prime minister Tony Blair,^[22] even going so far as to produce a fake song, "Talk to David", that could be downloaded via the Guardian website. The Guardian (until 1959 The Manchester Guardian) is a British Newspaper owned by the Guardian Media Group. Christopher Anthony John Martin (born 2 March 1977 is the English lead Singer-songwriter, Pianist, and occasional rhythm Guitarist of the Rock music is a genre of Popular music often though not necessarily employing Electric guitar, Bass guitar, and Drums. A musical ensemble is a group of two or more Musicians who perform instrumental or vocal Music. Coldplay TalkColdplay#Is_or_Are_dispute_again The Conservative Party (officially the Conservative and Unionist Party) is a Political party in the United Kingdom. David William Donald Cameron (born 9 October 1966 is a British Politician and the current leader of the Conservative Party and Leader of Her Majesty's The Labour Party is a Political party in the United Kingdom. Founded at the start of the 20th century it has been since the 1920s the principal party of the This article is about the government position For other uses see Prime Minister (disambiguation. Anthony Charles Lynton "Tony" Blair (born 6 May 1953 is a British Politician who was Prime Minister of the United Kingdom from 2 May 1997 to ^[23] Despite being an obvious hoax, the Labour Party's Media Monitoring Unit were concerned enough to circulate the story throughout "most of the government". ^[24]
• Discover Magazine frequently runs one fake article in their April edition as an April Fool's joke. Discover is a Science magazine that publishes articles about Science for a general audience The articles are often so outrageous that they are hard to miss, yet the next month's issue frequently has angry letters from readers who feel misled or quote bad science. Examples have included the discovery of the "Bigon"[4] (a subatomic particle the size of a bowling ball) and of the "Hotheaded Naked Ice Borer" (an Antarctic predator resembling a Naked Mole Rat that burrows through ice). The Hotheaded Naked Ice Borer is a fictional animal invented by Discover magazine as an April Fool's Day joke The naked mole rat ( Heterocephalus glaber) also known as the sand puppy, or desert mole rat is a burrowing Rodent native to parts
• Road & Track Magazine also runs an atypical article in their April edition, testing a unique form of transportation instead of a normal car. Road & Track is an Automobile enthusiast Magazine in the United States, founded by two friends in 1947 In 2008, this article focused on the Mach 5 from the Speed Racer movie, and mentioned at the end that they had tested it via simulation from Polyphony Digital. 2008 ( MMVIII) is the current year in accordance with the Gregorian calendar, a Leap year that started on Tuesday of the Common For the song by The Presidents of the United States of America see Mach 5 (song. Speed Racer is a 2008 Live action Film adaptation of the 1960s Japanese Anime series of the same name. Polyphony Digital Inc is an internal Video game developing company of Sony Computer Entertainment and is part of the newly formed Sony World Studios

By game shows

• As part of an April Fools' joke on April 1, 1997, Alex Trebek and Pat Sajak switched hosting duties. George Alexander "Alex" Trebek (born July 22 1940 is an Emmy Award -winning Canadian - American Pat Sajak (born Patrick Leonard Sajdak on October 26, 1946) is a Television personality, former weatherman and a former Talk Pat hosted Jeopardy! that day and Alex hosted Wheel of Fortune where Sajak and Vanna White played as contestants. Vanna White (born February 18 1957 is an American Television personality best known as puzzle-board presenter and co-host on the long-running Game show Jeopardy! announcer Johnny Gilbert did double duties that day. Johnny Gilbert (born July 13, 1924 in Newport News Virginia) is an American Television Game show personality ^[25]
• On April 1, 2008, Jeopardy! played another joke by having Alex Trebek appear with a false mustache, a reference to the minor controversy that followed when he shaved his off in 2001. The fake was gone by the Double Jeopardy round.
• A common The Price Is Right gag is an April Fools' day themed showcase featuring assortments of gag prizes (such as trips to made up locations) or by staging the entire showcase to fall apart. The Price Is Right is an five time Emmy Award-winning American Game show centering on contestants guessing the retail prices of featured prizes However, once the deception was revealed, the real showcase the contestant was to bid on usually consisted of extravagant prizes, such as two cars, or a premium car (Cadillac or Corvette). The practice is best known from the 1980s, but was revived in the Drew Carey era in 2008. Drew Allison Carey (born May 23 1958 is an American Comedian, Actor and Game show host. ^[26]
• In 2003, Hollywood Squares producers played an April Fools joke on host Tom Bergeron and the stars by booking two of the most difficult contestants ever. The Hollywood Squares was an American Television comedy and Game show in which two contestants play Tic-tac-toe to win money The contestants were in fact actors. [1]
• In a famous edition of the British version of The Weakest Link transmitted on April Fools' Day 2006 Anne Robinson surprised the contestants by being initially very pleasant to them. The Weakest Link is a television Game show which first appeared in the United Kingdom on BBC Two on 14 August, 2000 Anne Josephine Robinson (born September 26 1944 is an English Television presenter and former Journalist, known for her assertive views and style However, after a period she reverted to her usual haranguing self stating that "I can't be bothered with this anymore".

By websites

• 2600: The Hacker Quarterly changed their biannual conference (H.O.P.E.) website to look identical to Presidential candidate Barack Obama's campaign site but "hacked'. 2600 The Hacker Quarterly is a quarterly American publication that specializes in publishing technical information on a variety of subjects including telephone HOPE (abbreviation Hackers on Planet Earth or the first two letters in Hotel Pennsylvania is a conference series sponsored by the hacker magazine
• ActBlue 2008 ActBlue, the Democratic fundraising hub, announces on its blog that it will begin collecting funds for US candidates in Euros, due to the decline of the dollar.
• Polar Bear Conservancy 2008 Grist reports a Seattle-based nonprofit is preparing to relocate polar bears to Antarctica to protect them from climate change.
• StreetPrices 2008 released its entire product guide on paper, delivered every half hour.
• Kremvax: In 1984, in one of the earliest on-line hoaxes, a message was circulated that Usenet had been opened to users in the Soviet Union. Kremvax was originally a fictitious Usenet site at the Kremlin, named like the then large number of Usenet VAXen with names of the form Foovax Usenet, a Portmanteau of "user" and "network" is a world-wide distributed Internet discussion system The Union of Soviet Socialist Republics (USSR was a constitutionally Socialist state that existed in Eurasia from 1922 to 1991 ^[27]
• April Fools' Day RFC
• Google's hoaxes
• Dead fairy hoax: In 2007, an illusion designer for magicians posted on his website some images illustrating the corpse of an unknown eight-inch creation, which was claimed to be the mummified remains of a fairy. Almost every April Fools' Day ( 1 April) since 1989 the Internet Engineering Task Force has published one or more humorous RFC documents following in the Google has a tradition of perpetrating April Fools' Day Hoaxes. The Dead fairy hoax was an April Fools' Day prank in 2007 The Prankster a magicians' prop maker managed to sell his creation the fake corpse of a fairy on an internet A designer is a person who designs something Perhaps the broadest definition is that provided by Herbert Simon: ‘Everyone designs who devises courses of action aimed at changing A mummy is a Corpse whose Skin and Flesh have been preserved by either intentional or Incidental exposure to Chemicals extreme A fairy (also fay, fey, fae, faerie; collectively wee folk, good folk, people of peace, fair He later sold the fairy on eBay for £280. eBay Inc is an American Internet company that manages eBaycom an Online auction and shopping Website in which people and businesses buy and ^[28]
• RISKS Digest publishes a special April 1st issue. The RISKS Digest or Forum On Risks to the Public in Computers and Related Systems is an online Periodical published since 1985 by the Committee on Computers
• Slashdot unveiled a new pink "OMG PONIES" theme in 2006. Slashdot, often abbreviated as /, is a technology-related news Website owned by SourceForge Inc [2]
• NationStates runs an annual hoax on April 1st. Jennifer Government NationStates is a multiplayer nation simulation Browser game. In 2004, the hoax was that there was a population bug and all nations' populations would be reset to 5 million people. In 2005, there was a message (supposedly from the Department of Homeworld Security) that NationStates was illegal by US law. In 2006, 'NationDates' was created. It used a quiz similar to the one taken at the sign-up page, and matched that nation with a random country in the same region. In 2007, many users received "Regional moderator" icons with the promise that they would be able to "wield their awesome power" over other users. For April Fools' Day 2008, NationStates has created a new "World Assembly" in the place of the United Nations, which "has spectacularly imploded in a colossal fireball of extra-dimensional inanity". ^[29] This was later revealed to be a non-hoax, and that the inspiration to use it as an April Fools joke came from the assumption it was too unbelievable ^[30]
• Neopets has performed numerous April Fools' jokes, including releasing 50 new pets, abolishing Neopoints completely, and charging Neopoints to use the site. Neopets (originally NeoPets) is a virtual pet Website launched by Adam Powell and Donna Williams on 15 November 1999
• Water on Mars: In 2005 a news story was posted on the official NASA website purporting to have pictures of water on Mars. The National Aeronautics and Space Administration ( NASA, ˈnæsə is an agency of the United States government, responsible for the nation's public space program The picture actually was just a picture of a glass of water on a Mars Candy Bar. ^[31]
• Homestar Runner creators, The Brothers Chaps, now regularly put up April Fools' jokes, such as the most recent one in which the entire site was flipped upside-down. Homestar Runner is a Flash animated Internet cartoon. It mixes Surreal humor with references to 1970s '80s and '90s pop culture The Brothers Chaps are Michael (Mike and Matthew (Matt Chapman, creators of the Homestar Runner series of Animated cartoons.
• Microsoft Research Reclaims Value of Pi: In 2008, an executive with the Microsoft Institute for Advanced Technology in Governments posted on his personal blog an updated spoof of the 1998 Aprils Fool hoax claiming Alabama's state legislature had rounded the value of pi to the "Biblical value of 3. Microsoft Research (MSR is a division of Microsoft created in 1991 for researching various Computer science topics and issues Microsoft Corporation is an American multinational Computer technology Corporation, which rose to dominate the Home computer " The 2008 hoax claimed that Microsoft Research had determined the true-up value of pi to be a definitive 3. 141999, or as expressed in company literature, “Three easy payments of 1. 047333. ”^[32]
• Assassination of Bill Gates: In 2003, many Chinese and South Korean websites claimed that CNN reported Bill Gates, the founder of Microsoft, was assassinated, resulting in a 1. AssassiNation is the sixth album by Krisiun, released in 2006 on Century Media. If you would like to experiment with Wikipedia please copy China ( Wade-Giles ( Mandarin) Chung¹kuo² is a cultural region, an ancient Civilization, and depending on perspective a National South Korea, officially the Republic of Korea and often referred to as Korea ( Korean: 대한민국 tɛː Cable News Network, usually referred to by its Initialism CNN, is a major English language Television network founded in 1980 by Ted Turner Microsoft Corporation is an American multinational Computer technology Corporation, which rose to dominate the Home computer 5% drop in the Korean stock market. ^[33]
• Throughout production of the 2005 remake of King Kong, director Peter Jackson produced behind-the-scenes featurettes for the Internet providing updates on the project. King Kong is a 2005 Remake of the 1933 film of the same name about a fictional giant ape called Kong. Peter Robert Jackson, CNZM (born 31 October 1961 is a three-time Academy Award -winning New Zealand director producer and writer best known for directing On April 1, 2005, Jackson (aided by cast members, crew members, and even a studio representative) announced that King Kong would be followed by a sequel, Son of Kong, which would see Kong's offspring battling Nazis after being equipped with shoulder mounted machine guns. Jackson went so far as to have faux production drawings and computer animation test footage created for the film. The joke report was later included on the Peter Jackson's Production Diaries DVD set but was not identified as an April Fools' joke; it is incumbent upon the viewer to notice the date of the installment.
• Rock band Tool publishes an April Fools' joke every year on their website [3]. A broader definition of a tool is an entity used to interface between two or more domains that facilitates more effective action of one domain upon the other For example, in 2005 Tool announced that their singer Maynard James Keenan had found religion and quit the music business. Also in 1997, a serious tour bus crash was reported to have taken place.
• Andrew Carlssin was a hoax created by the Weekly World News about a time-traveling man, that was later printed on Yahoo News as an April Fools' Joke. Andrew Carlssin is a fictional person from a news story hoax A story on Yahoo reported that a man named Andrew Carlssin had been arrested for SEC violations for The Weekly World News ( WWN) (wwwweeklyworldnewscom is a news source that has inspired musicals ("Bat Boy The Musical" books ("Bat Boy
• Maddox once pulled an infamous April Fools' Day joke on April 1, 2004, on his site, The Best Page In The Universe. George Ouzounian, better known The Best Page in the Universe is a personal satirical Humor Website created by George Ouzounian, better known as Maddox from The site had a completely different design, including imagery that represents everything he usually is against, and also misspelling several words and using chat-based acronyms such as "LOL" all throughout. However, each page's address featured an 'af' in it somewhere, indicating it was an April Fools' joke. Despite this small but obvious clue, several fans fell for the joke, some even claiming they will never visit the site again. Four days later on April 5, Maddox posted an article titled "How do you dumbasses manage to breathe?" The original April Fools' page can be seen here. The rebuttal article can be viewed here.

• SARS Infects Hong Kong: In 2003 during the time when Hong Kong was seriously hit by SARS, it was rumored that many people in Hong Kong had become infected with SARS and become uncontrolled, that all immigration ports would be closed to quarantine the region, and that Tung Chee Hwa, the Chief Executive of Hong Kong at that time, had resigned. Hong Kong ( officially the Hong Kong Special Administrative Region, is a territory located on China 's south coast on the Pearl River Delta, and borders Tung Chee Hwa, GBM (born 7 July 1937 Chinese calendar --> in Shanghai, China) was the first elected The Chief Executive of Hong Kong ( is the head of Hong Kong Government and the principal representative of the Hong Kong. Hong Kong supermarkets were immediately overwhelmed by panicked shoppers. The Hong Kong government held a press conference to deny the rumor. The rumor, which was intended as an April Fools' prank, was started by a student by imitating the design of Ming Pao newspaper website. Ming Pao ( is a Chinese language Newspaper published by Ming Pao Group in Hong Kong. He was charged for this incident. ^[34]
• Online Retailer ThinkGeek usually replace their main page with a page containing "Featured Items" that are a joke. ThinkGeek is an Electronic commerce company based in Fairfax Virginia and a subsidiary of SourceForge Inc The page looks, feels and functions just like their real one, however the items featured are hoax and do not exist. A hoax is a deliberate attempt to Dupe, Deceive or trick an audience into believing or accepting that something is real when in fact it is not or that Such items have included "Inhalable Caffeine Sticks", a USB pregnancy test kit, and an alarm clock which wirelessly connects to your PC to log into your internet banking, and send funds to a charity. An alarm (French À l'arme - "To the arms" gives an audible or visual Warning of a problem or condition Circadian Locomotor Output Cycles Kaput, or Clock is a gene which encodes proteins regulating Circadian rhythm. The definition of charitable organization, and of charity varies according to the country and in some instances the region of the country in which the charitable organization operates Adding any of these items to your shopping cart takes you to a page stating that the item is a hoax. A hoax is a deliberate attempt to Dupe, Deceive or trick an audience into believing or accepting that something is real when in fact it is not or that However, due to extremely high demand for one of their latest hoaxes, they decided to develop and market the Personal Soundtrack T-Shirt that they announced for April Fools 2008.
• Facebook and the News-Feed: On April 1, 2007, Facebook posted fake updates on the News-feed page reading [4]:
  • "Introducing LivePoke! Facebook will dispatch a real live person today to poke a friend of your choice. Facebook is a social networking Website launched on February 4 2004 (offer good for only the first 100 pokers in each network)"
  • "Harry and Voldemort have set their relationship status to 'Mortal Enemies. Lord Voldemort (ˈvoʊldəmɔrt or ˈvoʊldəmɔr is a Fictional character and the main antagonist in the Harry Potter novel series written '"
  • "You are on Facebook, reading your News Feed. YOU' ' is a South African magazine which is the English version of the Afrikaans family magazine Huisgenoot. "
  • "Meredith and McDreamy have changed their relationship status to 'It's Complicated' . Meredith Grey is a Fictional character and the series Protagonist on the ABC television series Grey's Anatomy. Derek Christopher Shepherd is a Fictional character on the ABC television series Grey's Anatomy. . . oh wait . . . 'In a Relationship' . . . oh wait . . . 'It's Complicated' again. "
  • "Two of your oxen drowned when you tried to ford the river."
  • "Bracket Buster: Ohio State and Florida have mutually agreed on a tie and will not play the championship game. The Oregon Trail is an Educational Computer game developed by Don Rawitsch Bill Heinemann and Paul Dillenberger in 1971 and produced by MECC Bracket buster as a generic phrase refers to an American College basketball team usually from a so-called Mid-major school which upsets a highly-ranked The Ohio State University ( OSU) is a Coeducational public Research university in the state of Ohio. The University of Florida ( Florida or UF) is a public land-grant, sea-grant, space-grant major Research "
  • Changing the copyrights from "a Mark Zuckerberg production" to a random Facebook employees' name or the user's own. Mark Elliot Zuckerberg, (born May 14, 1984) is an American computer programmer and entrepreneur
• In 2007, wordpress.com set up their main page so that when logged in, your latest post would appear as 'Blog Of The Minute'. WordPress is an Open source blog publishing application. WordPress is the official successor of b2\cafelog, developed by Michel Valdrighi This raised several questions on their support forums.
• www.howstuffworks.com does an annual bogus article. In 2006, it was "How Animated Tattoos Work"; in 2007 "How Phone Cell Implants Work"; in 2008 "How the Air Force One Hybrid Works". . ^[35]
• Motoshi Sakriboto: In 2007, the Square Enix fansite Square Haven reported that game music composers Motoi Sakuraba and Hitoshi Sakimoto had announced a merger. is a Japanese video game and publishing company best known for its Console role-playing game franchises which include the Final Fantasy series the Dragon Motoi Sakuraba (桜庭 統 Sakuraba Motoi, born August 5, 1965) has composed music for various Japanese Video games Anime is a Video game music composer He was born in 1969 and worked freelance beginning in 1990. The resulting amalgamated life form was named Motoshi Sakriboto. The hoax played off the fact that when rival role-playing game developers Square and Enix merged on April 1, 2003, many believed the news to be an April Fools' joke. ^[36]
• Club Penguin's April Fool's Day parties have always changed almost all of Club Penguin. Club Penguin is an Online game developed by New Horizon Interactive In the 2008 one, the iceberg looked like a cup of ice water, and the dock was changed to a super fast ice rink, as well as the forest going completely upside down and the cove having various effects. Also, several buildings' graphics looked as if they had been drawn with crayons, pencils, or as if they had been rapidly made with Microsoft paint. Paint (formerly Paintbrush for Windows) is a simple graphics painting program that has been included with almost all versions of Microsoft Windows since
• In 2008, YouTube pranked unsuspecting viewers by hyperlinking all featured videos to a Rickroll posted by the username YTRickRollsYou. 2008 ( MMVIII) is the current year in accordance with the Gregorian calendar, a Leap year that started on Tuesday of the Common YouTube is a video sharing website where users can upload view and share Video clips YouTube was created in February 2005 by three former PayPal employees In computing a hyperlink is a Reference or Navigation element in a Document to another Section of the same document or to another ThinkGeek added a double measure when his front page feature all prank items that could not be purchased, as well as when a user clicked on the Beta Max to HD-dvd converter, the video instruction rick-rolled its viewers after fourteen seconds of play.
• Popular online webcomics xkcd, Questionable Content, and qwantz exchanged their URLs, meaning that http://www.xkcd.com/ led to QC, http://www.questionablecontent.net/ led to qwantz, and http://qwantz.com/ led to xkcd. xkcd is a Webcomic created by Randall Munroe, a former contractor for NASA. Questionable Content (abbreviated QC) is a slice-of-life Webcomic written and drawn by Jeph Jacques. Dinosaur Comics is a constrained Webcomic by Canadian writer Ryan North. XKCD's alternate URL, http://cu.nniling.us/, also led to QC.
• In 2008, Australian video gaming website company MyMedia, released information and previews on MyMedia: The Movie, the supposed upcoming movie was to be animated and produced by the Australian Film Commission, it was confirmed fake a few days after. The Australian Film Commission was an Australian government agency with a mandate to promote the creation and distribution of films in Australia as well as to preserve the country's ^[37]
• ScoringSessions. com announced that composer John Williams was replaced by Danny Elfman on the upcoming Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull - and provided photos from the scoring sessions. John Towner Williams (born February 8 1932) is an American Composer, conductor and Pianist. Daniel Robert Elfman (born May 29, 1953) is an American Musician, who is famous for composing scores and songs for Tim Burton ^[38]
• In 2008, Boeing announced that the Boeing 787 Dreamliner project was being cancelled because of difficulties with foreign suppliers. The Boeing Company is a major Aerospace and defense corporation originally founded by William E WikipediaWikiProject Aircraft. Please see WikipediaWikiProject Aircraft/page content for recommended layout An alternate was given, a new Boeing 767 dubbed the 'Miserliner. WikipediaWikiProject Aircraft. Please see WikipediaWikiProject Aircraft/page content for recommended layout ' An in-depth explanation was given, citing multiple reasons why it would be wise to cancel the 787, even though a prototype had already been built months ago.

Lists of April Fool hoaxes

• April 1, 1999
• April 1, 2000
• April 1, 2002
• April 1, 2003
• April 1, 2004
• April 1, 2005
• April 1, 2006
• April 1, 2007
• April 1, 2008

Real news on April Fools' Day

The frequency of April Fools' hoaxes sometimes makes people doubt real news stories released on 1 April. April 1, 2000 was an April Fool's Day falling on a Saturday Hoaxes for this year included Google described how to "search April 1, 2002 was an April Fool's Day falling on a Monday Hoaxes for this year included The Register: reported AOL 2004: January - February - March - April - May - June - July - August - September April 1, 2006 was an April Fools' Day falling on a Saturday On television April 1, 2007 was an April Fools' Day falling on a Sunday April 1, 2008 was an April Fools' Day falling on a Tuesday Events 527 - Byzantine Emperor Justin I names his nephew Justinian I as co-ruler and successor to the throne

• The 1 April 1946 Aleutian Island earthquake tsunami that killed 165 people in Hawaii and Alaska resulted in the creation of a tsunami warning system (specifically the Pacific Tsunami Warning Centre), established in 1949 for Pacific Ocean countries. Events 527 - Byzantine Emperor Justin I names his nephew Justinian I as co-ruler and successor to the throne Year 1946 ( MCMXLVI) was a Common year starting on Tuesday (link will display full 1946 calendar of the Gregorian calendar. The 1946 Aleutian Islands earthquake was an Earthquake near the Aleutian Islands on April 1, 1946. A tsunami ((tsuːˈnɑːmi is a series of waves created when The State of Hawaii ( or həˈwaɪʔiː Hawaiian: Mokuāina o Hawaii) is a state in the United States located on an Archipelago in the Alaska ( Аляска Alyaska) is a state in the United States of America, in the northwest of the North American continent A tsunami warning system is a system to detect Tsunamis and issue warnings to prevent loss of life and property The Pacific Tsunami Warning Center (PTWC operated by NOAA in Ewa Beach Hawaii, USA, is one of two tsunami warning centers in the United States The Pacific Ocean is the largest of the Earth 's Oceanic divisions The tsunami in question is known in Hawaii as the "April Fools' Day Tsunami" due to people drowning because of the assumptions that the warnings were an April Fools' prank.

• The death of King George II of Greece on 1 April 1947. Early life first period of kingship and exile George was born at the royal villa at Tatoi, near Athens, the eldest son of Constantine I King of the Hellenes Greece (Ελλάδα transliterated: Elláda, historically, Ellás,) officially the Hellenic Republic (Ελληνική Δημοκρατία Events 527 - Byzantine Emperor Justin I names his nephew Justinian I as co-ruler and successor to the throne Year 1947 ( MCMXLVII) was a Common year starting on Wednesday (link will display full 1947 calendar of the Gregorian calendar.

• The AMC Gremlin was first introduced on April 1, 1970. The AMC Gremlin is a Subcompact car that was made by the American Motors Corporation (AMC for nine model years ^[39]

• On April 1, 1993, NASCAR Winston Cup Series Champion Alan Kulwicki was killed in a plane crash involving Hooters of America executives in Blountville, Tennessee near the Tri-Cities Airport. Alan Dennis Kulwicki (December 14 1954 &ndash April 1 1993 nicknamed "Special K" and the "Polish Prince" was an American NASCAR Winston Cup Blountville is a Census-designated place (CDP in Sullivan County, Tennessee, United States. The party was traveling to the Food City 500 qualifying scheduled for the next day. The Food City 500 is a 500 lap race NASCAR Sprint Cup race held on the track at Bristol Motor Speedway in Bristol Tennessee.

• The 2005 death of comedian Mitch Hedberg was originally dismissed as an April Fools' joke. Mitchell Lee Hedberg (February 24 1968 – March 29 2005 Hedberg's comedy and on-stage persona gained him a Cult following, with audience members sometimes shouting out the The comedian's March 29, 2005 death was announced on March 31, but many newspapers didn't carry the story until April 1, 2005. Events 1461 - Wars of the Roses: Battle of Towton - Edward of York defeats Queen Margaret to become King Year 2005 ( MMV) was a Common year starting on Saturday (link displays full calendar of the Gregorian calendar. Events 527 - Byzantine Emperor Justin I names his nephew Justinian I as co-ruler and successor to the throne Year 2005 ( MMV) was a Common year starting on Saturday (link displays full calendar of the Gregorian calendar.

• Gmail's April 2004 launch was widely believed to be a prank, as Google traditionally perpetrates April Fool's Day hoaxes each April 1 (see Google's hoaxes. Gmail, officially Google Mail in Germany and the United Kingdom is a free POP3 and IMAP Events 527 - Byzantine Emperor Justin I names his nephew Justinian I as co-ruler and successor to the throne Google has a tradition of perpetrating April Fools' Day Hoaxes. ) Another Google-related event that turned out not to be a hoax occurred on April 1, 2007, when employees at Google's New York City office were alerted that a ball python kept in an engineer's cubicle had escaped and was on the loose. Events 527 - Byzantine Emperor Justin I names his nephew Justinian I as co-ruler and successor to the throne Common names royal python ball python Python regius is a non-venomous python Species found in Africa An internal e-mail acknowledged that "the timing…could not be more awkward" but that the snake's escape was in fact an actual occurrence and not a prank. ^[40]

• The merger of Square and its rival company, Enix, took place on April 1, 2003, and was originally thought to be a joke. Events 527 - Byzantine Emperor Justin I names his nephew Justinian I as co-ruler and successor to the throne Year 2003 ( MMIII) was a Common year starting on Wednesday of the Gregorian calendar.

• The announcement of the anime version of the Powerpuff Girls, Demashita! Powerpuff Girls Z, was on April Fools Day causing many to think it was a joke. (anime in Japanese, The Powerpuff Girls is an Emmy award-winning The show has come under criticism for its rather excessive violence (including images of characters gushing blood is the name for a Japanese television Anime based upon the American animated television series The Powerpuff Girls.

• The game Mario & Sonic at the Olympic Games was announced only a couple days before April Fools Day. is a Sports video game developed by Sega. It was published by Nintendo for Japan and by Sega for North America Europe and any remaining region Forums were flooded because so many thought that the two rivals since the 90's, Mario and Sonic the Hedgehog, appearing together in a video game as an official 2008 Olympics game was a joke. is a Fictional character created by game designer Shigeru Miyamoto. trademarked Sonic The Hedgehog, is a Video game character and the Protagonist of the video game series released by Sega, as well as in numerous

• British sprinter Dwain Chambers joined English rugby league team Castleford Tigers shortly before 1st April 2008. The United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland, commonly known as the United Kingdom, the UK or Britain,is a Sovereign state located Dwain Anthony Chambers (born 5 April 1978 is an English sprinter of Afro-Caribbean descent History See also History of rugby league The grass roots of rugby league can be traced to early football history, through the playing of ball games Castleford Tigers are a Rugby league club based in Castleford in West Yorkshire, England. The athlete was attempting a return to top flight athletics at the time following a high profile drugs ban, and his apparent unfamiliarity with rugby led many people to assume this was an April Fools' Day prank.

• UEFA requires the Swedish hamburger chain Max to close their restaurant near the arena in Borås during the European Under-21 Football Championship. The Union of European Football Associations (Union des associations européennes de football is the administrative and controlling body for European football. Max Hamburgerrestauranger AB (Max Hamburger Restaurants Incorporated is a Fast food corporation which was founded by Curt Bergfors in Gällivare, The European Under-21 Football Championship is a football competition organised by the sport's European governing body UEFA The reason is a requirement from the main sponsor McDonalds. This was published on April 1st 2008, but was a real requirement, not a joke. There is an agreement between UEFA and the city with a clause saying that the sponsors shall have monopoly around the arena.

• On April 1, 1984, singer Marvin Gaye was shot and killed by his father. Marvin Pentz Gay Jr, known as Marvin Gaye ( April 2, 1939 – April 1, 1984) was an American Singer-songwriter Originally, people assumed that it was a fake news story, especially considering the bizarre aspect of the father being the murderer.

Other prank days in the world

In Iran, people play jokes on each other on the 13th day of the Persian calendar new year (Norouz), which falls on April 1 or April 2. For a topic outline on this subject see List of basic Iran topics. The Iranian calendar or Solar Hejri (تقویم هجری شمسی؛ سالنمای هجری خورشیدی Taqwim Hejri Shamsi Salanmay Hejri Khurshidi) is an astronomical Nowrūz ( /noruz/ ↔, (English New Day various local pronunciations and spellings) is the traditional Iranian New year Holiday celebrated Events 527 - Byzantine Emperor Justin I names his nephew Justinian I as co-ruler and successor to the throne Events 68 - Galba, Governor of Hispania, names himself legatus senatus populique Romani, breaking the line of This day is called Sizdah Bedar and is considered to be the oldest prank-tradition in the world still alive today, which has led many to believe that the origins of the April Fools Day goes back to this tradition which is believed to have been celebrated by Persians as far back as 536 BC. Sīzdah-be-dar or Sēzdah-ba-dar ( Persian سیزده بدر) is the Persian Festival of "Joy and Solidarity" celebrated on the 13th day (sizdah layout and formatting it should ensure no clashes with the top of the infobox

The April 1 tradition in France and French-speaking Canada includes poisson d'avril (literally "April's fish"), attempting to attach a paper fish to the victim's back without being noticed. Events 527 - Byzantine Emperor Justin I names his nephew Justinian I as co-ruler and successor to the throne This article is about the country For a topic outline on this subject see List of basic France topics. This article is about the informal holiday For other uses see April Fool. This is also widespread in other nations, such as Italy (where the term pesce d'aprile (literally "April's fish") is also used to refer to any jokes done during the day). Italy (Italia officially the Italian Republic, (Repubblica Italiana is located on the Italian Peninsula in Southern Europe, and on the two largest

In Spanish-speaking countries, similar pranks are practiced on December 28, the Day of the Holy Innocents. Events 1065 - Westminster Abbey is Consecrated. 1308 - The reign of Emperor Hanazono, Emperor of For the painting by Peter Paul Rubens see " Massacre of the Innocents (Rubens " This custom also exists in certain areas of Belgium, including the province of Antwerp. The Kingdom of Belgium is a Country in northwest Europe. It is a founding member of the European Union and hosts its headquarters as well as those ||-||-||-||} Antwerp ( Dutch:, French: Anvers) is a City and Municipality in Belgium and the capital of the The Flemish tradition is for children to lock out their parents or teachers, only letting them in if they promise to bring treats the same evening or the next day. Flanders (Vlaanderen Flandre Flandern is a geographical region located in parts of present day Belgium, France, and the Netherlands.

In Poland, "prima aprilis" ("April 1" in Latin) is a day full of jokes - various hoaxes are prepared by people, media (which sometimes cooperate to make the 'information' more credible) and even public institutions. Poland (Polska officially the Republic of Poland This article is about the informal holiday For other uses see April Fool. Events 527 - Byzantine Emperor Justin I names his nephew Justinian I as co-ruler and successor to the throne Latin ( lingua Latīna, laˈtiːna is an Italic language, historically spoken in Latium and Ancient Rome. Serious activities are usually avoided. This conviction is so strong that the anti-Turkish alliance with Leopold I signed on April 1, 1683, was backdated to March 31. Early life He was a younger brother of Ferdinand IV of Hungary and Mariana of Austria.

In some countries, including the United Kingdom, Ireland, Australia, Zimbabwe and New Zealand, the April 1 tradition requires jokes to be played before midday: if somebody pulls an April Fools' Trick after midday, then the person pulling the trick is actually considered the fool. The United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland, commonly known as the United Kingdom, the UK or Britain,is a Sovereign state located Ireland (pronounced /ˈaɾlənd/ Éire) is the third largest island in Europe, and the twentieth-largest island in the world For a topic outline on this subject see List of basic Australia topics. See also Great Zimbabwe National Monument. For information about the March and June 2008 presidential elections see Zimbabwean presidential election New Zealand is an Island country in the south-western Pacific Ocean comprising two main landmasses (the North Island and the South Island Events 527 - Byzantine Emperor Justin I names his nephew Justinian I as co-ruler and successor to the throne The following rhymes may be chanted:

April Fool's has come and gone.
Who's the fool that carried on?

or

April Fool's has been and passed,
And you're the biggest fool at last.

In Scotland April Fool's Day is traditionally called Hunt-the-Gowk Day ("gowk" is Scots for a cuckoo or a foolish person), although this name has fallen into disuse. Scotland ( Gaelic: Alba) is a Country in northwest Europethat occupies the northern third of the island of Great Britain. Scots ( The Scots leid) refers to Anglic varieties derived from early northern Middle English spoken in parts of Scotland and Northern The traditional prank is to ask someone to deliver a sealed message requesting help of some sort. In fact, the message reads "Dinna laugh, dinna smile. Hunt the gowk another mile". The recipient, upon reading it, will explain he can only help if he first contacts another person, and sends the victim to this person with an identical message, with the same result.

In Denmark the 1st of May is known as "Maj-kat", meaning quite simply "May-cat", and is identical to April Fools' day, though Danes also celebrate April Fools' day ("aprilsnar"). The Kingdom of Denmark ( ˈd̥ænmɑɡ̊ (archaic ˈd̥anmɑːɡ̊ commonly known as Denmark, is a country in the Scandinavian region of northern Europe

Some Jewish communities have a traditional event called a Purim spiel, which is similar in many ways to April Fools' Day. See also Purim A Purim Spiel, or Purimshpil, meaning a Purim play — shpil means 'game' or '(stage play' in Fake newspaper articles are common.

April Fools' Day in media

• The 1986 horror film April Fool's Day is themed around the holiday (akin to Halloween). April Fool's Day is a 1986 horror / Comedy film released by Paramount Pictures. Halloween is a 1978 American independent Horror film set in the fictional midwestern town of Haddonfield,
• In the film The French Connection, the opening scenes take place on April 1 and show children in Marseille running around pinning poissons d'Avril (April fish) on each other. For other uses see The French Connection. The French Connection is a 1971 Hollywood Crime film directed Marseille, ( English alt Marseilles mɑrˈseɪ — French: maʁsɛj locally — Provençal Occitan: Marselha maʀˈsijɔ
• The birthday of the mischievous twins, Fred and George Weasley from the Harry Potter series is April 1st. The Weasley family are a Fictional family of wizards who figure prominently in the plot of J Harry Potter is a series of seven Fantasy novels written by British author J
• O. Stock, C. Strapparava & A. Nijholt (eds. ) The April Fools' Day Workshop on Computational Humour. Computational humor is a branch of Computational linguistics and Artificial intelligence which uses Computers in Humor research Proc. Twente Workshop on Language Technology 20 (TWLT20), ISSN 0929-0672, ITC-IRST, Trento, Italy, April 2002, 146 pp

Quotes about April Fools' Day

“	April 1st: This is the day upon which we are reminded of what we are on the other three-hundred and sixty-four.	”
	— Mark Twain

See also

• April Fool is the codename for a spy and double agent who allegedly played a key role in the downfall of the Iraqi President Saddam Hussein. Samuel Langhorne Clemens (November 30 1835 – April 21 1910 better known by the Pen name Mark Twain, was an American Humorist, satirist April Fool is the codename for the Spy and Double agent who allegedly played a key role in the downfall of the Iraqi dictator Saddam Hussein A split album featuring performances by bands The KGB and Alien Spy that was produced in 1997 Saddam Hussein Abd al-Majid al-Tikriti ( Arabic: ar صدام حسين عبد المجيد التكريتي --> April 28 1937 &ndash December 30
• Feast of the Holy Innocents (Spanish: Día de los Santos Inocentes) celebrated in Spain and Latin American countries on 28 December
• Pigasus Award, a tongue-in-cheek honor presented on April 1, given in the field of "Paranormal fraud". For the painting by Peter Paul Rubens see " Massacre of the Innocents (Rubens " Spain () or the Kingdom of Spain (Reino de España is a country located mostly in southwestern Europe on the Iberian Peninsula. Events 1065 - Westminster Abbey is Consecrated. 1308 - The reign of Emperor Hanazono, Emperor of The Pigasus Award is the name of an annual Tongue-in-cheek honor recognized by noted skeptic James Randi. Tongue-in-cheek is a term used to refer to humor in which a statement or an entire fictional work is not meant to be taken seriously but its lack of seriousness is subtle
• Sizdah Bedar, the last day of two-week springtime celebrations for the Persian New Year is a day of pranks, just like April Fools' Day. Sīzdah-be-dar or Sēzdah-ba-dar ( Persian سیزده بدر) is the Persian Festival of "Joy and Solidarity" celebrated on the 13th day (sizdah
• April 1

References

Notes

• This article incorporates text from the Encyclopædia Britannica Eleventh Edition, a publication now in the public domain. The Encyclopædia Britannica Eleventh Edition (1910–1911 is a 29-volume reference work that marked the beginning of the Encyclopædia Britannica The public domain is a range of abstract materials &ndash commonly referred to as Intellectual property &ndash which are not owned or controlled by anyone

External links

• Museum of Hoaxes: Top 100 April Fool's Day hoaxes of all time
• April Fools' Day On The Web: A long list of supposed April Fools from 2004 until the present

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