April Fools' Day

About April Fool's Day:

April Fools' Day or All Fools' Day although not a holiday in its own right, is a notable day celebrated in many countries on April 1. The day is marked to prank, hoax and other practical jokes of varying sophistication on friends, enemies and neighbors, or sending them on fools' errands, the aim of which is to embarrass the gullible.

It is believed it began back in 1582 in France. Charles IX reformed the calendar and was moved from March 25th to April 1st to January 1st. News traveled slowly back then and some people were just ignorant which started fool's errands. This is when people got invited to parties that didn't happen or were sent on wild goose chases to get stuff for the party. This evolved into prank playing and continues on today on April 1.

Fun Facts:

• In 1985 Sports Illustrated tricked its readers when it made an article of a pitcher named Sidd Finch who could through a fastball 168 mph
• In 1998 Burger King advertised a left handed whopper; scores of customers actually requested the sanwich.
• On April Fools' Day, 1997, Cartoon Network rand the 1944 Screwy Squirrel cartoon Happy-Go-Nutty repeatedly from 6 AM to 6PM, suggesting that the cartoon character had taken over the network.
• Facebook On April 1, 2007, posted fake updates on the News-feed page reading: "Introducing LivePoke! Facebook will dispatch a real live person today to poke a friend of your choice. (offer good for only the first 100 pokers in each network)"

Activities:

• Play pranks