Doesn’t everyone love a bit of Tom Foolery and how lucky we are to have a special day to celebrate just that?
These are just a few of my favourite (supposedly true) acts of naughtiness associated with this special date:
1856: The Tower of London hosts a lion washing extravaganza
In 1957, the BBC reported that Swiss farmers were experiencing a record spaghetti crop and showed footage of people harvesting noodles from trees.
1976: Gravity takes a hiatus
On April 1, 1976, the BBC pulled off yet another of its many April Fools’ Day pranks. Astronomer Sir Patrick Moore told listeners that at 9:47 a.m. that day, the temporary alignment of Pluto and Jupiter would cause a reduction in Earth’s gravity, allowing people to briefly levitate. Sure enough, at 9:48, hundreds of enthralled callers flooded the lines with reports that they had floated in the air.
1989: UK Richard Branson the owner of Virgin lands a hot-air balloon that had been specially built to look like a UFO lands in a field on the outskirts of London where local residents immediately called the police to warn them of an alien invasion. A Local Policeman approached the UFO with truncheon in hand but as the doors open and a small, silver-suited figure emerged, the policeman ran in the opposite direction.
2000: People Google with their minds
Now famous for its annual hoaxes, Google played its first April Fools’ Day prank in 2000. Visitors to the search engine’s website learned about a new “MentalPlex” technology that supposedly read people’s minds, thereby bypassing the need to type in a query.
This one is supposedly not a joke but I’ll let you decide – 1946 – Weight Watchers was formed.
We have two birthdays in my family on April first. So, it’s always a source of merriment in our household. I would love to know what your favourite April Fools stories are.
Take Care
KL ❤
*source of these fun facts is https://www.history.com/topics/holidays/april-fools-day and http://www.thepeoplehistory.com/april1st.html
We caught a guy out at the bank who had spent weeks preparing blank forms for submission for the new year’s council rates standing orders. All that needed to be completed was the customer’s details and reference. He received a memo saying that the council had moved their bank account.
Haha! Cruel but funny. KL ❤
He was a good sport about it.
The Best Ever on Tv was the BBC’s documentary on spaghetti farming, showing the annual spaghetti harvest. It was in black and white, so probably early 60s. At that time, spaghetti bolognese was considered an exotic meal.
Haha! Yea, I have seen that one crop up (no pun intended) quite a few times. I wonder how many people believed it to be true (especially from the BBC)? KL ❤
I definitely remember the spaghetti crop and the gravity one ..good old BBC, I don’t remember the Branson one! Love all the Google’s here is the latest
Hahaha – brilliant. KL ❤