The History Of April Fools Day

On this day in 1700, English pranksters begin popularizing
the annual tradition of April Fools' Day by playing practical
jokes on each other.
Although the day, also called All Fools' Day, has been
celebrated for several centuries by different cultures, its
exact origins remain a mystery. Some historians speculate
that April Fools' Day dates back to 1582, when France
switched from the Julian calendar to the Gregorian
calendar, as called for by the Council of Trent in 1563.
People who were slow to get the news or failed to
recognize that the start of the new year had moved to
January 1 and continued to celebrate it during the last
week of March through April 1 became the butt of jokes
and hoaxes. These included having paper fish placed on
their backs and being referred to as "poisson d'avril" (April
fish), said to symbolize a young, easily caught fish and a
gullible person.
Historians have also linked April Fools' Day to ancient
festivals such as Hilaria, which was celebrated in Rome at
the end of March and involved people dressing up in
disguises. There's also speculation that April Fools' Day
was tied to the vernal equinox, or first day of spring in the
Northern Hemisphere, when Mother Nature fooled people
with changing, unpredictable weather.
April Fools' Day spread throughout Britain during the 18th
century. In Scotland, the tradition became a two-day event,
starting with "hunting the gowk," in which people were
sent on phony errands (gowk is a word for cuckoo bird, a
symbol for fool) and followed by Tailie Day, which involved
pranks played on people's derrieres, such as pinning fake
tails or "kick me" signs on them.
In modern times, people have gone to great lengths to
create elaborate April Fools' Day hoaxes. Newspapers,
radio and TV stations and Web sites have participated in
the April 1 tradition of reporting outrageous fictional claims
that have fooled their audiences. In 1957, the BBC
reported that Swiss farmers were experiencing a record
spaghetti crop and showed footage of people harvesting
noodles from trees; numerous viewers were fooled. In
1985, Sports Illustrated tricked many of its readers when it
ran a made-up article about a rookie pitcher named Sidd
Finch who could throw a fastball over 168 miles per hour.
In 1996, Taco Bell, the fast-food restaurant chain, duped
people when it announced it had agreed to purchase
Philadelphia's Liberty Bell and intended to rename it the
Taco Liberty Bell. In 1998, after Burger King advertised a
"Left-Handed Whopper," scores of clueless customers
requested the fake sandwich.