image:Wikipedia Main Page April Fools' Day 2007.png 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 by the commission of hoaxes and other practical jokes of varying sophistication on friends, family members, enemies and neighbors, or sending them on fools' errands, the aim of which is to embarrass the gullible. Traditionally, in some countries, the jokes only last until noon. If you play a trick on someone after this time you are the April Fool. Elsewhere, for example in France, the jokes may last all day.

Origins

The origin of April Fool's Day is obscure. Some say it was first celebrated soon after the adoption of the Gregorian Calendar and referred to someone still adhering to the Julian Calendar which it replaced. In many pre-Christian cultures May Day (May 1) was celebrated as the first day of summer, and signalled the start of the spring planting season. An April Fool was someone who did this prematurely. Fact: date=April 2008 A reference to April Fools Day can be seen in the Canterbury Tales (ca 1400) in the Nun's Priest's tale, a tale of two fools: Chanticleer and the fox, which took place on March 32nd.

Well-known pranks

• Alabama Changes the Value of Pi: The April 1998 newsletter of New Mexicans for Science and Reason contained an article written by physicist Mark Boslough 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 science fiction novel Stranger in a Strange Land by Robert A. Heinlein.
• 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. It was in fact filmed in St Albans.
• 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. Not only did customers order the new burgers, but some specifically requested the "old", right-handed burger.
• 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 Lincoln Mercury Memorial.
• 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.)
• 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.
• 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. In 2007, the BBC website repeated an online version of the hoax.
• Movie Guru's Gotcha: Starting in 1992, movie companies began to hold back all movies that came out on April Fool's day. Due to the fact that April Fool's is not always on Tuesday, this has only occurred twice. Fact: date=April 2008
• Tower of Pisa: The Dutch television news reported once in the 1950s that the Tower of Pisa had fallen over. Many shocked people contacted the station.
• Write Only Memory: Signetics advertised Write Only Memory IC databooks in 1972 through the late 1970s.
• 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."
• Annual BMW Innovations see a new "cutting-edge invention" by BMW advertised across British newspapers every year, examples including:
• Warning against counterfeit BMWs: the blue and white parts of the logo were reversed
• The "Toot and Calm Horn" (after Tutankhamun), which calms rather than aggravates other drivers, so reducing the risk of road rage,
• MINI cars being used in upcoming space missions to Mars,
• IDS ("Insect Deflector Screen") Technology - using elastic solutions to bounce insects off the windscreen as you drive,
• 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,
• Marque-Wiper - mini-wipers for each exterior "BMW" logo coming as standard on all future models,
• "Uninventing the wheel" to counter the "EU ban" on right-hand drive cars,
• Zoom Impression Pixels ("ZIP") to counter new "Slow Cameras" and,
• "BMW Instant Messaging" - using Reactive User Sound Electronic (RUSE) particles to display the driver's words to the car in front on the windscreen.
• A compact disc available to all BMW owners, which when played over the audio system performed minor service and diagnostic checks; when flipped over it played soothing classical music (Australia).
• Canine Repellent Alloy Protection (CRAP)- a means of discouraging dogs from urinating on car wheels. (2008)
• Sheng Long: In 1992 Electronic Gaming Monthly claimed that Sheng Long could be unlocked as a secret character in Street Fighter II. EGM repeated the Sheng Long hoax again with "Street Fighter III." There have been several other EGM pranks.
• Legend of Zelda Movie: In 2008, IGN released a trailer for an upcoming Legend of Zelda movie. The trailer looked very realistic and was revealed to be an April fools joke the next day.
• Visual Sounds: In 2008, NCSoft announced a new feature for their popular MMO games City of Heroes and City of Villains, "Visual Sounds", which replaced the regular sound effects with onomatopoeia-style visuals. The announcement also proposed the future possibility of removing the sound effects altogether to save disk space.
• Casablanca Re-Make: On Movies.com, it was announced that Tom Cruise and Katie Holmes would be starring in a remake of the original Casablanca with Tom Cruise as Humphrey Bogart and the main actress being Madonna.