Results: April Fools' Day
Published on 04/02/2018
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1.
1.
April 1st is known as April Fools' Day, a day when it's acceptable to play jokes, tricks and generally make others into "fools". In the 1700's 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 pranks 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 festivals such as Hilaria, which was celebrated in ancient 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. Have you ever played an April Fools' joke on anyone?
No
30%
638 votes
Yes
32%
672 votes
Not recently, but maybe when I was younger
38%
820 votes
2.
2.
This year, April 1st is also the day Easter Sunday falls. And back in history, other notable events have taken place on April Fools' Day. How many were you aware of?
1789 -- First U.S. House of Representatives elects Pennsylvania Representative Frederick Augustus Conrad Muhlenberg as its first speaker
3%
61 votes
1993 -- The "Polish Prince" killed in plane crash. Race car driver and owner Alan Kulwicki, who won the 1992 National Association for Stock Car Auto Racing (NASCAR) Winston Cup championship by one of the tightest margins in series history, is killed in a plane crash near Bristol, Tennessee, where he was scheduled to compete in a race the following day.
6%
132 votes
1946 -- An undersea earthquake off the Alaskan coast triggers a massive tsunami that kills 159 people in Hawaii.
5%
110 votes
1918 -- The Royal Air Force (RAF) is formed with the amalgamation of the Royal Flying Corps (RFC) and the Royal Naval Air Service (RNAS). The RAF took its place beside the British navy and army as a separate military service with its own ministry.
3%
68 votes
1970 -- Nixon signs legislation banning cigarette ads on TV and radio
7%
150 votes
1963 -- Soap operas General Hospital and The Doctors premiere
4%
94 votes
1984 -- Singer Marvin Gaye is shot and killed by his own father, just short of his 45th birthday
12%
258 votes
1877 -- Discoverer of Tombstone, prospector Edward Schieffelin, ignoring the taunts of fellow miners who say he will only find his own tombstone, begins his search for silver in the area of present-day southern Arizona.
2%
36 votes
Knew none of these
75%
1600 votes
3.
3.
Now getting back to April Fools' Day, every year the media is full of elaborate hoaxes and jokes, that often are taken seriously by people forgetting what day it is! So, how many of these April Fools' jokes were you aware of?
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.
9%
192 votes
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.
5%
99 votes
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.
13%
268 votes
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.
9%
185 votes
In 2013, YouTube announced it was shutting down until 2023 because it "finally has enough videos" to select the best video of all time.
4%
77 votes
In 1957, the BBC program Panorama offered a lengthy profile of a family that was successfully growing spaghetti on trees. Unusually warm weather and the near extinction of the spaghetti weevil had produced conditions ripe for a bountiful pasta harvest.
4%
85 votes
In 1976, the Toronto Star printed on its front page a picture of King Kong hanging from the top of the CN Tower, which at the time was nearing completion. (It opened to the public in June 1976.)
3%
57 votes
In 1980, the South African Johannesburg Star ran a story exposing an illicit ring of rat furriers. It said the police had raided a sewer where the ratters were breeding a special strain of imported Irish rats and selling the pelts as mink, seal skin, and other furs. Hundreds of rat fur coats had been sold. Women were warned that if their coats smelled fishy, they were probably made of rat fur.
2%
39 votes
In 1984, the Eldorado Daily Journal, an Illinois paper, announced a contest to see who could save the most daylight for daylight savings time. The rules of the contest were simple: beginning with the first day of daylight savings time, contestants would be required to save daylight. Whoever succeeded in saving the most daylight would win. Only pure daylight would be allowed—no dawn or twilight light, though light from cloudy days would be allowed. Moonlight was strictly forbidden. Light could be stored in any container.
2%
40 votes
In 1986, Le Parisien newspaper reported that an agreement had been signed to take down the Eiffel Tower and move it to the new Euro Disney theme park being constructed east of Paris. Where the tower used to be, a 35,000-seat stadium would be built for the 1992 Olympic Games.
3%
66 votes
None of them
75%
1596 votes
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