April the 1.(wikipedia)

Origin

The origin of this custom has been much disputed. Many theories have been suggested.

What seems certain is that it is in some way or other a relic of those once universal festivities held at the vernal equinox, which, beginning on old New Year's Day, the 25th of March, ended on the 2nd of April.

It has been suggested that Europe derived its April-fooling from the French.[2] France was one of the first nations to make January 1 officially New Year's Day (which was already celebrated by many), by decree of Charles IX. This was either in 1564 or in 1582 when Gregorian calendar was established (See Julian start of the year). Thus the New Year's gifts and visits of felicitation which had been the feature of the 1st of April became associated with the first day of January, and those who disliked or did not hear about the change were fair game for those wits who amused themselves by sending mock presents and paying calls of pretended ceremony on the 1st of April. French and Dutch references from 1508 and 1539 respectively describe April Fools' Day jokes and the custom of making them on the first of April.

Though the 1st of April appears to have been anciently observed in Great Britain as a general festival, it was apparently not until the beginning of the 18th century that the making of April-fools was a common custom.

In Scotland the custom was known as "hunting the gowk," i.e. the cuckoo, and April-fools were "April-gowks," the cuckoo being there, as it is in many countries, a term of contempt.

In France the person fooled is known as poisson d'avril. This has been explained from the association of ideas arising from the fact that in April the sun quits the zodiacal sign of the fish. A far more natural explanation would seem to be that the April fish would be a young fish and therefore easily caught. The French traditionally celebrated this holiday by placing dead fish on the backs of friends. Today the fish has been replaced with paper cut-out.

The Dutch celebrate the 1st of April for other reasons. In 1572, the Netherlands were ruled by Spain's King Philip II. Roaming the region were Dutch rebels who called themselves Geuzen, after the French "gueux", meaning beggars. On 1 April 1572, the Geuzen seized the small coastal town of Den Briel. This event was also the start of the general civil rising against the Spanish in other cities in the Netherlands. The Duke of Alba, commander of the Spanish army could not prevent the uprising. Bril is the Dutch word for glasses, so on 1 April, 1572, "Alba lost his glasses". Dutch people find this joke so hilarious they still commemorate the first of April.

Chaucer's story, the Nun's Priest's Tale, written c.1400, takes place on 32 March; that is, 1 April; it is Chanticleer and the Fox, a story of two fools.

Hoaxes

Many media organizations have either unwittingly or deliberately propagated hoaxes on April Fools' Day. Even normally serious news media consider April Fools' Day hoaxes fair game and spotting them has become an annual pastime. A number of serious journals would publish hoax articles in their April volumes. The advent of the Internet as a worldwide communications medium has also assisted the pranksters in their work.

Hoaxes can be child-friendly as well. Some fun ideas include decorating the house with "Happy New Year" signs or putting your clothes on backwards. More child-friendly hoaxes can be found in the children's magazine, Highlights for Children, reprinted with permission at HighBeam Research

Lirpa Loof

April Fool hoax reports sometimes include "Lirpa Loof" (formed by reversing each word), explained as a supposed man's name, or a supposed substance, or various things. But:-

* A lirpa is a weapon in Star Trek.
* The word "loof" is Dutch for "leaf".[3]

Well-known hoaxes

* Alabama Changes the Value of Pi: The April 1998 newsletter of New Mexicans for Science and Reason contained an article claiming that the Alabama Legislature had voted to change the value of the mathematical constant pi to the "Biblical value" of 3.0. This claim originally appeared as a news story in the 1961 sci-fi classic "Stranger in a Strange Land" by Robert A. Heinlein.[4]
* Spaghetti trees: The BBC television programme Panorama ran a famous hoax in 1957, showing the Swiss harvesting spaghetti from trees. 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.[5]
* 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.[6]
* 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 tongue-in-cheek that the Lincoln Memorial had also been sold and would henceforth be known as the Ford Lincoln Mercury Memorial.[7]
* 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). Intrigued readers were later disappointed to learn that San Serriffe (sans serif) did not exist except as references to typeface terminology. (This comes from a Jorge Luis Borges story).[8]
* 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.[9]
* 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. 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.[10] In 2007, the BBC website[2]] repeated an online version of the hoax.
* Tower of Pisa: The Dutch television news reported once in the 1950s that the Tower of Pisa had fallen. Many shocked people contacted the station.[11]
* Write Only Memory: Signetics advertised Write Only Memory IC databooks in 1972 through the late 1970s.[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."[13]
* Annual BMW Innovations see a new "cutting-edge invention" by BMW advertised across British newspapers every year, examples including:
o Warning against counterfeit BMWs: the blue and white parts of the logo were reversed
o The "Toot and Calm Horn" (after Tutankhamun), which calms rather than aggravates other drivers, so reducing the risk of road rage,
o MINI cars being used in upcoming space missions to Mars,
o IDS ("Insect Deflector Screen") Technology - using elastic solutions to bounce insects off the windscreen as you drive,
o 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,
o Marque-Wiper - mini-wipers for each exterior "BMW" logo coming as standard on all future models,
o "Uninventing the wheel" to counter the "EU ban" on right-hand drive cars, and
o Zoom Impression Pixels ("ZIP") to counter new "Slow Cameras".
* Sheng Long - Electronic Gaming Monthly's infamous hoax of a secret character in Street Fighter II.
o There have been several other EGM pranks that readers have fallen into. Among them: claiming that some Street Fighter II characters possessed unlisted special moves, including Chun-Li hurling her bracelets at an opponent, Sega mascots Sonic and Tails appearing as playable characters in Super Smash Bros. Melee, and the release of a graphically-remade The Legend of Zelda: The Wind Waker as a preorder bonus. All such pranks have been met with praise and equal hatred from its readers, as can be seen in the "April Fools" letters section in the May issue.
o EGM tried the Sheng Long hoax again with Street Fighter III and once again got some people to believe it.

By radio stations

* 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.
* 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. 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, after which they became famous when their show became syndicated.
* 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. 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. Also, radio station WAAF 107.3 in Boston announced that Pearl Jam was having a free concert in a fictional city in New Hampshire. 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. 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.
* New format: in 1998, radio station KITS in San Francisco played gay-themed songs and changed its call letters to "KGAY" for an hour.
* 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. New South Wales Premier Bob Carr was also in on the joke. Mainstream media (including Channel 9's Today Show) picked up the story.
* 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.
* Defying gravity: 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.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.
* 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. 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 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. Callers to the radio station were told that if you didn't have an SAP button, then twist the antenna a bit.
* End of the Lockout: In 2005, on Vancouver's 99.3 the fox, they announced at around 7:30 in the morning that the NHL lockout was over and a new Collective Bargaining Agreement had been reached. Half an hour later they admitted the joke and then proceeded to play numerous phonecalls from disgruntled listeners for another hour.
* Tsunami warning and intense storm: In 2005, Estonian Radio's station Vikerraadio broadcasted right after 9 o'clock news a hoax in their morning program Vikerhommik. Station said that Finland had been put under a tsunami warning and wave was expected to be more than 5 meters high. They also said that Estonia was expecting heavy storm and that hurricane force winds were possible in Finland. Hosts also said that they were looking at the satellite image and it really showed very intense cyclone 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 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. Although the locomotive weighed more than 1.2 million lbs 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 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 Harbor towing a giant iceberg. Sydneysiders were expecting it. Dick Smith, a local adventurer and millionaire businessman (owner of Dick Smith Foods), had been loudly promoting his scheme to tow an iceberg from Antarctica for quite some time. 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.

By television stations

* In April 2006, the "Best Damn Sports Show Period" staged a fight between Tom Arnold and Michael Strahan. 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 interject in the fight. Rodney Peete went so far as to give Tom rabbit punches while he broke up what he thought was a real fight. It also worked enough to fool the popular internet site "deadspin.com" into reporting it as a real event.
* In 2005, TV 3 Estonia broadcasted a news story, where station claimed that thanks to a new technology, they know exactly how much are they being viewed at the moment. They also asked viewers to put a coin against TV screen if they liked the running broadcast.
* Swiss network TSR (Télévision Suisse Romande), broadcast a totally ridiculous report every year, usually at the end of the 19.30 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 to 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.
* The night-time channel Adult Swim has had several pranks over the years.
o There was no prank in 2005 because it fell on a Friday, but in 2004, mustaches were drawn on characters during the shows.
o 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 the Mr. T animated series. 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.
o 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. 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. 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 the Aqua Teen Hunger Force movie would air 10 PM on April 1st, almost two weeks before its scheduled theatrical release date.
* 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.
* 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.
* 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 BBC's Saturday lunchtime show Football Focus broadcast a piece centred on the upcoming change of the size of goals. 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. 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.
* 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.
* 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 programme's credits. 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 programme led 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.
* In 1991, during the time block of the student comedy show Coo-Coo, the Bulgarian National Television airs breaking news that “...the situation in the nuclear power plant of Kolzoduj is fully under control.” This brings back memories of the communist censorship during the reporting of the Chernobyl disaster half a decade earlier. 90% of the viewers are convinced that reactor No.4 in Kozloduj has exploded. The authors of the comedy show are later accused of manipulating the public in order to destabilize the Bulgarian government.
* 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.
* South Park: April 1st 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. 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. 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, although there were not any police reports to prove this.
* 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 original series is widely considered to be one of the worst sitcoms ever produced. Several media outlets fell for the hoax.[14]

By magazines and newspapers

* George Plimpton wrote a 1985 article in Sports Illustrated about a New York Mets prospect named Sidd Finch, who could throw a 168 mph fastball with pinpoint accuracy. This kid, known as "Barefoot" Sidd[hartha] Finch, reportedly learned to pitch in a Buddhist monastery. The first letter of each line in the opening paragraph spelled out the fact of its being an April Fool joke.[15]
* In April 1990 the British magazine « Classic CD » announced the discovery of the first recording ever made : Frederic Chopin himself interpreting his « minute waltz ». 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 build 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 : Chopin playing ! And what a virtuosity ! 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.
* In 2005, a BBC News lookalike website ran a story outlining a recent Zombie outbreak in Cambodia.[16]
* 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.[17]
* Comic strip switcheroo: Cartoonists of popularly syndicated comic strips draw each others' strips. 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.[18]
* 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 current New Labour prime minister Tony Blair [19], even going so far as to produce a fake song, "Talk to David", that could be downloaded via the Guardian website. [20] Despite being an obvious hoax, the Labour Party's Media Monitoring Unit were concerned enough to circulate the story throughout "most of the government" [21].

By game shows

* As part of an April Fools' joke on April 1, 1997, Alex Trebek and Pat Sajak switched hosting duties. Pat hosted Jeopardy! that day and Alex hosted Wheel of Fortune where Sajak and Vanna White played as contestants. Jeopardy! announcer Johnny Gilbert did double duties that day.[22]
* The Price is Right notoriously gave away April Fools' day themed showcases in the 1980s featuring assortments of gag prizes (such as trips to made up locations) or by staging the entire showcase to fall apart. However, once the deception was revealed, the real showcase the contestant was to bid on usually consisted of extravagant prizes, such as two new cars.[23]

By websites

* 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.[24]
* April Fools' Day RFC
* Google's hoaxes
* RISKS Digest publishes a special April 1st issue.
* Slashdot unveiled a new pink "OMG PONIES" theme in 2006. [3]
* NationStates runs an annual hoax on April 1st. 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 United States Department of Homeland 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, all users received "Regional moderator" icons with the promise that they would be able to "wield their awesome power" over other users.
* Neopets has performed numerous April Fools' jokes, including releasing 50 new pets, abolishing "NeoPoints" completely, and charging Neopoints to use the site.
* Water on Mars: In 2005 a news story was posted on the official NASA website purporting to have pictures of water on Mars. The picture actually was just a picture of a glass of water on a Mars Candy Bar.[25]
* Homestar Runner creators, The Brothers Chaps, now regularly put up April Fools' jokes, such as the most recent one in which the entire site is flipped upside-down.
* 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 1.5% drop in the Korean stock market.[26]
* 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. 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 [4]. For example, in 2005 Tool announced that their singer Maynard James Keenan had found religion and quit the music business.
* April 1, 2000 - Soviet website buran.ru made a joke about a possible fake shuttle named Baikal.
* 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 Fool's Joke.
* Maddox once pulled an infamous April Fool's Day joke on April 1, 2004, on his site, The Best Page In The Universe. 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 Fool's 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 Fool's page can be seen here. The rebuttal article can be viewed here.
* SARS Infects Hong Kong: In 2003 during the time when Hong Kong is 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 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. He was charged for this incident.[27]
* Mugglenet get Deathly Hallows On April 1, 2007, Mugglenet posted a new article stating that they had received copies of Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows from scholastic to review. They each posted a humorous 'fact' in the book, such as Snape being Aberforth's son, and being part goat.

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

Side-effects of April Fools' Day

The frequency of April Fool hoaxes sometimes makes people doubt real news stories released on 1 April.
Hawaiians running from an approaching tsunami in Hilo, Hawaii
Hawaiians running from an approaching tsunami in Hilo, Hawaii

The 1 April 1946 Aleutian Island earthquake tsunami that killed 165 people on Hawaii and Alaska resulted in the creation of a tsunami warning system (specifically the Pacific Tsunami Warning Center), established in 1949 for Pacific Ocean area countries. The tsunami in question is known in Hawaii as the "April Fools' Day Tsunami" due to people drowning due to thinking the warnings were an April Fools' prank.

Gmail's April 2004 launch was widely believed to be a prank, as Google was known to include joke pages on their website, until that point. However, the introduction of the Paper Archive option in 2007 was a Gmail hoax. The option was supposedly for Google to send you a paper copy of your messages.

The merger of Square and its rival company, Enix, took place on April 1, 2003, and was originally thought to be a joke. Fans of the long running square series Final Fantasy often claim that the merger was in fact a joke due to the decline of the series after the merger.

The 2005 death of comedian Mitch Hedberg was originally dismissed as an April Fools' joke. The comedian's March 29, 2005 death was announced on April 1, 2005.

People obeying hoax messages to telephone "Mr. C.Lion" and "Mr. L.E.Fant" and suchlike at a telephone number that turns out to be a zoo, sometimes cause a serious overload to zoos' telephone switchboards.[28]

Other prank days in the world

The April 1 tradition in France includes poisson d'avril (literally "April's fish"), attempting to attach a paper fish to the victim's back without being noticed. 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).

In Spanish-speaking countries, similar pranks are practiced on December 28, the Day of the Holy Innocents. This custom also exists in certain areas of Belgium, including the province of Antwerp. 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.

In Iran, people play jokes on each other on April 3, the 13th day of the Persian calendar new year (Norouz). This day is called "Sizdah bedar" (Outdoor thirteen). It is believed that people should go out on this date in order to escape the bad luck of number 13.

In some countries, including the United Kingdom, Canada (except Quebec), Australia 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.

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").

Some Jewish communities have a traditional event called a Purim spiel, which is similar in many ways to April Fools' Day. Fake newspaper articles are common.

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

"You couldn't fool your mother on the foolingest day of your life if you had an electrified fooling machine" Homer Simpson laughs off Bart Simpson's attempts to fool him

Trivia

The phobic name for the fear of April Fools' Day is Aphrilophobia.

There are various retorts used to pranksters when April fool jokes are attempted on the wrong day:

* "April Fool's a-comin' and you're the biggest fool a-runnin'."
* "April Fool's past, and you're the biggest fool at last."
* "April Fool's has come and gone: who's the fool that carried it on?"

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.

Apple Computer was founded on April 1st 1976[29]

The birthday of the mischevious Weasley Twins (Fred and George) from the Harry Potter series is April 1st.