According to History.com, a number of historians believe that the first April Fool’s Day occurred in 1582 when France made the big switch from the Julian calendar to the Gregorian calendar. The Julian calendar would start the New Year on or around April 1^st tied with the spring equinox. Some people failed to get the memo that the New Year had switched to January 1^st and so those people became known as “April fools.” To make things worse, these fools were often tagged with a paper fish which symbolized what was known as an “April fish” – a fish that was easily caught.

Others speculate that the holiday began in ancient Rome during Hilaria festivals (a Latin term for joyful) where people would dress up in disguises and mock their fellow citizens. Some people also say that the holiday began during the first day of spring in the Northern Hemisphere when the weather should have been spring-like but instead became unpredictable. By the 18^th century, folks in Scotland began “hunting the gowk (cuckoo bird)” sending various people on phony errands. They also celebrated what was known as Tailie Day when people would literally pin “kick me” signs on other people’s backs.

Some April Fool’s Day pranks are harmless while others have been large examples of bad taste. Here are just of the more memorable ones:

Catching the Train
The top photo taken in 2001 shows how Copenhagen Metro in Denmark created an elaborate prank using a retired subway car and placing it in front of the town hall making it look as if it had surfaced to street level. (Image: Wikimedia)

Nixon ‘92
In 1992, National Public Radio’s Talk of the Nation show had some fun creating a story where former President Richard Nixon announcing that his was running for president again. His slogan? “I didn’t do anything wrong, and I won’t do it again.” Many were fooled because the voice, provided by Rich Little, sounded just like Nixon.

The Odd Couple
While John Lennon and Yoko Ono may have made for one odd couple, the two certainly liked to have fun. Right after their honeymoon in 1969, they told reporters at Heathrow Airport that they were “willing to be the world’s clowns” in order to spread peace. In 1970, the pair announced that they would be getting dual sex change operations. Then in 1973, they stated that they had created a new country called Nutopia where there were “no land, no boundaries, no passports, only people”, its flag was a white tissue and its national anthem was silence. Just imagine.

Free Color TV
In 1962, a rather elaborate five-minute special was broadcast on Swedish TV telling people how they could receive color transmission on their old black-and-white televisions by placing a nylon stocking in front of the screen. Apparently, thousands of viewers tried it out.

Smelly Reception
In 1965, the BBC conducted a trial of a new “smell-o-vision” technology that would allow viewers to smell what they saw on TV. A demonstration was made with a man chopping onions and later brewing a cup of coffee. Oddly, a number of viewers called in to state that the test had indeed worked.

Tax Fraud
Public broadcaster NTS in the Netherlands had some fun in 1969 when they announced that inspectors with remote scanners had been disbursed to detect and find people who had not paid their radio/TV tax. However, they also stated that they only way to prevent this detection was to wrap up their TVs and radio with aluminum foil. The next day it was reported that grocery stores had sold out their aluminum foil and that there were a surge of TV/radio taxes being paid.

Movie Magic
Redbox has created various new uses and products over the years including Petbox (a dog-sized video distribution kiosk offering animal-themed movies for pets), MoodMatch (where the red box would change colors depending on one’s mood) and Lunch Meat (where the box would offer DVD-shaped snack foods).

Scuttled Shuttle
In 1993, a radio station in San Diego, California announced that the Space Shuttle Discovery had been diverted and would land at Montgomery Field, a small, local airport. Despite the fact that the Space Shuttle wasn’t even scheduled to fly on that day, over 1,000 people made their way to see the landing of the space craft which inadvertently tied up traffic for hours. Not only was the airport manager was mad, the police department was mad as well billing the radio station for the cost of having a number of officers help to redirect traffic.

They Blew It
One prank that didn’t go over so well happed in 1980 when Boston TV station WNAC aired a fake news bulletin stating that the Great Blue Hill in Milton, Massachusetts was erupting using stock footage. The prank caused some residents to flee their homes in fear and an executive producer being fired.

Music Change
In Monroe, North Carolina, the country and gospel music station known as WIXE had already been known for creating April Fool’s Day pranks every year but in 2009, the joke was on them. Bob Rogers, the mid-day host had announced that the station was changing its format to heavy metal. While they expected to receive a number of complaints, about half of the callers were actually calling in to request a song!

Haden Siddhartha Finch
Sports Illustrated once ran a lengthy story about Haden Siddhartha Finch, a New York Mets pitching prospect. Written by George Plimpton, the story in great detail gave an expose’ on Finch who had a talent for pitching balls at 168 miles per hour with one bare foot and the other donning a hiking boot.

Fairly Fake
Perhaps it was because the story was brought to light days before April 1^st in 2007 that led many people to believe in Dan Baines’ “discovery” of a dead fairy. The illusion designer for magicians posted photos of the mummified remains of a fairy which reportedly was found by a dog walker at Firestone Hill in Duffield, Derbyshire. The “corpse” was said to have been examined by anthropologists who confirmed that it was real. Baine’s website received over 20,000 hits that day. The model was later sold on eBay.

Google This
Since 2000, Google has been known as being a real trickster during April Fool’s Day featuring new products like “telepathic search” or enhancements like the ability to play Pace Man on Google Maps. One of the funniest pranks occurred in 2008 when all of the featured videos on all of the international homepages of Google-owned YouTube linked to Rick Astley’s song “Never Gonna Give You Up.” The company however did not pull any pranks in 2020 as the year was hard enough on everyone as it was.