April Fool's Day: Origins and Memorable Hoaxes

Spaghetti HarvestPhoto byPublic Use

The annual day of hoaxes, pranks, and silliness has shrouded origins. Some say it started with the French, who, with the new Gregorian Calendar, changed New Years Day from the solstice to January 1st, thus labelling those who still celebrated the new year in April as April Fools.

The BBC is credited with the first television hoax in 1957, a story called Italian spaghetti harvest, about spaghetti grown on trees, done tongue in cheek, it had people actually trying to by pasta bushes.

A friend years ago flummoxed our boss by programming a macro to change the typing on the computer word processor from horizontal to vertical when the right key was hit. It drove the boss nuts because it seemed random.

In the 90's a Taco Bell ad said it had bought the Liberty Bell and renamed it to the Taco Liberty Bell.

The Best story I've seen is about the Jupiter effect, A BBC prank which said Pluto would move Behind Jupiter and cause Earth's gravity to lessen briefly. If you jumped in the air at that exact moment, you would feel a floating sensation.

At 9:47, The BBC announcer, Moore, declared, "Jump now!" A minute passed, and then the BBC switchboard lit up with dozens of people calling in to report that the experiment had worked!

One woman reported that she and her friends had risen from their chairs and floated around the room.

LevitationPhoto byPiotr WilkonUnsplash

Now that really is the power of suggestion!