April Fool’s Day is celebrated around the world on April 1st, but it’s origin is still murky. Nobody knows exactly why, when, or where the celebration began. It is believed that in the late Middle Ages references to ‘All Fool’s Day’ began to appear but no exact date is known.

Playing pranks on someone or the other is the way to celebrate this day. Please do not think that I am also playing a prank on you, rather I am giving you an account of 11 top hoaxes of all time.

And, if you think that I have fooled you somewhere then do comment on it... let’s see how fine reader you are!

World to End Tomorrow

Panic gripped the world... on March 31, 1940, asserted a press release by Franklin Institute stating that the world would end the next day. This created a chaos among people and authorities were flooded with frantic phone calls. The panic subsided when Franklin Institute convinced people for not publishing such prediction. William Castellini, the press agent of this Institute was held responsible behind this hoax. Shortly William Castellini had to wash is hands from the Institute.

Stocking To Convert B&W TV into Colored

In 1962, Kjell Stensson, a station’s technical expert appeared on the news, of only TV channel in Sweden, to announce that thanks to a newly developed technology, all viewers could now quickly and easily convert their existing TV sets to display color reception. All they had to do was to pull a nylon stocking over their TV screen in order to see their favorite shows in color. Moreover, he demonstrated this on TV. No specific color of stocking was mentioned and innumerable people fell into this Fool’s Day hoax.

The Sydney Iceberg Cubes, to increase flavor of drinks

After coloring TV in Sweden, there was another hoax ready in Sydney Harbor on April 1, 1978. Dick Smith, a local adventurer and millionaire businessperson had been stridently promoting his plan to tow an iceberg from Antarctica for quite some time. He announced that he was successful in doing so and was going to whittle the berg into small ice cubes, which he would sell to the public for ten cents each. These cubes from pure waters of Antarctica were promised to improve the flavor of any drink they cooled. Local radio stations aired the scene while ship was approaching dockyard. Unfortunately, it started to rain and firefighting foam and shaving cream of which the berg was made, washed away uncovering the white plastic sheets underneath.

Sidd Finch

In 1985, Sports Illustrated magazine published a story that a rookie baseball pitcher who could reportedly throw a ball at 270 kilometers per hour (168 miles per hour) was set to join the New York Mets who’s name was Sidd Finch. Finch was said to have mastered his skill, pitching significantly faster than anyone else has ever managed in a Tibetan monastery. Mets fans’ celebrations were short-lived.
The sub-heading of the article read: “He’s a pitcher, part yogi and part recluse. Impressively liberated from our opulent life-style, Sidd’s deciding about yoga -and his future in baseball.” The first letter of each of these words, taken together, spells “H-a-p-p-y A-p-r-i-l F-o-o-l-s D-a-y.”

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.” When asked about the sale, White House press secretary Mike McCurry replied with tongue-in-cheek that the Lincoln Memorial had also been sold and would henceforth be known as the Ford Lincoln Mercury Memorial.

Internet Spring Cleaning

You have heard seasonal cleaning of house but have you ever heard of ‘Internet Spring Cleaning?’ Yep! people who lived in 1997 heard of it. An email message spread throughout the world announcing that the internet would be shut down for cleaning for 24 hrs from March 31 until April 2.

This cleaning was said to be necessary to clear out the “electronic flotsam and jetsam” that had accumulated in the network. Dead email and inactive ftp, www, and gopher sites would be purged. The cleaning would be done by “five very powerful Japanese-built multi-lingual Internet-crawling robots (Toshiba ML-2274) situated around the world.” During this period, users were warned to disconnect all devices from the internet.

Doesn’t it sound funny and I am astonished that how can anyone believe it!

Releasing Prisoners

Sometimes hoaxes can be funny and at times these jokes can be disheartening. In April 2000 in the Opinia newspaper, it was published that those held in a squalid Romanian prison for years were finally going to be released. Around sixty people went outside the Baia Mare prison to receive their relatives but there was no one to come out from prison. The Opinia later published an apology. This was a worst hoax for me.

The Iraqi Ambassador’s Final Joke

Poor Iraqi ambassador to Russia, Abbas Khalaf Kunfuth would never have thought that his April Fooling would collapse Iraqi government. Actually, on April 1, 2003, Kunfuth had held a press conference in Moscow regarding American-led coalition troops who stormed across Iraq. I don’t know what came into his mind that he held a piece of paper in his hand which he identified as a news flash from Reuters and he read aloud from it; “The Americans have accidentally fired a nuclear missile into British forces, killing seven.” Instantaneously the room full of reporters became silent and Kunfuth smirked and shouted ‘April Fools!’

Google Earth Showed Some Aliens in Area51

Last year someone found April Fools joke on Google Earth, which showed that Area 51 had some visitors. See here more images from Google Earth. More funny was that these intruders were seen preparing hampburgers or hot dogs, even I don’t know, on Barbecue.

Google Romance

Google has a tradition of carrying out April Fool’s Day Hoaxes on internet. On 1st April 2006 it launched it’s dating site called ‘Google Romance.’ Through this site, they mocked upon online dating sites. The site says, ‘Pin All Your Romantic Hopes on Google’ and when you take a ‘Tour’ to submit your profile to search your soulmate, an error occurs which explains that it was an April Fool’s joke and also includes links to previous April Fool’s Jokes for wistfulness.

Well after reading all these hoaxes... I hope you are not planning to play any prank on your friends! If you do then share them with us.

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