Best April Fools' Day Jokes in History

April 1 is like Christmas for jokesters. Some carefully plan elaborate schemes, while others go for the more spontaneous prank. There are families who celebrate April Fools' Day by having a "backwards day" where they eat dinner for breakfast and breakfast for dinner or they wear items of clothing backwards. Some play jokes on one another, like setting all the clocks in the house an hour early or making this fauxberry pie for dinner.  

Large-scale jokes take some time and effort to pull off, but they can be very effective at tricking large groups of people. Here are a couple of hoaxes that are known as the best April Fools' Day tricks in history:

• The Spaghetti Harvest- On April 1, 1957, the BBC announced on a popular news show that Swiss farmers were enjoying a bumper crop of spaghetti- thanks to the annihilation of the spaghetti weevil. Women were shown plucking the spaghetti from trees and laying the strands out to dry. Many viewers called the station to find out how they could grow their own spaghetti tree. BBC phone operators eventually came up with a standard answer: "Place a sprig of spaghetti in a tin of tomato sauce and hope for the best."
• Taco Liberty Bell- Taco Bell announced on April 1, 1996, that it had purchased the Liberty Bell. They claimed they were renaming it the "Taco Liberty Bell" and that the bell would spend part of the year in Philadelphia and part of the year at the Taco Bell Headquarters in Irvine. Hundreds of outraged citizens called the National Historic Park in Philadelphia to express their anger. Taco Bell later released a statement alerting the public that it was a joke.
• Metric Time- An Australian news show on April 1, 1975, announced that it would be converting to metric time. They explained that this would mean there would be 100 seconds to the minute, 100 minutes to the hour, and 20-hour days. They further reported that seconds would become millidays, minutes become centidays, and hours become decidays. An interview with the Deputy Premier at the time made the story all the more convincing.
• April Fools’ Bomb-   On April 1, 1915, during the middle of World War I, a French plane flew over a German camp and dropped what appeared to be a large bomb. Soldiers on the ground scattered, but when no explosion followed they discovered the “bomb” was a football with a note saying, “April Fool!"
• On March 31, 1940, Philadelphia’s Franklin Institute issued a press release saying that the world would end at 3 p.m. Eastern Standard Time the next day. The release was picked up by radio station KYW, which broadcast the message. Panicked callers contacted the radio station and the Franklin Institute. It turns out the Institute's press agent had written the fake release intending to use it to publicize an April 1 lecture titled "How Will the World End?" He was dismissed from his duties.

And finally, have you heard the local news story about the Main Street/Perkiomen Bridge? Docks are being constructed on both sides of Main Street to ferry cars across the creek in boats. Borough officials say this will get motorists to the other side quicker than waiting in traffic on the bridge.

Actually, not a bad idea…

For more information about these and other great April Fools’ Day jokes, take a look at Museum of Hoaxes and April Fool.com.

Happy April Fools' Day!