Ever wonder how April Fool’s Day got started? 

Me too, so I did a little research.  Turns out that it started in 1582 in France, the year when the Gregorian calendar was introduced and New Year’s Day was moved from April 1st to January 1st.  However, being that there was no real media back then, word spread s-l-o-w-l-y of the new calendar.  In fact, some people didn’t know about it for several years and continued to celebrate the New Year on April 1. 

These folks we can thank for April Fool’s Day.  They were ridiculed as not the smartest tack in the box, often being called fools and the butt of practical jokes.

About 450 years later and we’re still keeping this holiday alive!  Maybe it’s because it’s like what John Updike said:

“Looking foolish does the spirit good.”  (No wonder I’ve been feeling so good, LOL!)

In my searching I also found the top April Fool Day jokes of all time.  They are hilarious!  Here are my 3 personal favorites.

Instant Color TV
In 1962 there was only one tv channel in Sweden, and it broadcast in black and white. The station's technical expert, Kjell Stensson, appeared on the news to announce that, thanks to a new technology, viewers could convert their existing sets to display color reception.

All they had to do was pull a nylon stocking over their tv screen. Stensson proceeded to demonstrate the process. Thousands of people were taken in. Regular color broadcasts only commenced in Sweden on April 1, 1970 (8 years later!).

The Taco Liberty Bell
In 1996 the Taco Bell Corporation announced it had bought the Liberty Bell and was renaming it the Taco Liberty Bell. Hundreds of outraged citizens called the National Historic Park in Philadelphia where the bell was housed to express their anger. Their nerves were only calmed when Taco Bell revealed, a few hours later, that it was all a practical joke.

The best line of the day came when White House press secretary Mike McCurry was asked about the sale. Thinking on his feet, he responded that the Lincoln Memorial had also been sold. It would now be known, he said, as the Ford Lincoln Mercury Memorial.

The Left Handed Whopper

In 1998 Burger King published a full page advertisement in USA Today announcing the introduction of a new item to their menu: a "Left-Handed Whopper" specially designed for the 32 million left-handed Americans. According to the advertisement, the new whopper included the same ingredients as the original Whopper (lettuce, tomato, hamburger patty, etc.), but all the condiments were rotated 180 degrees for the benefit of their left-handed customers.  The following day Burger King issued a follow-up release revealing that although the Left-Handed Whopper was a hoax, thousands of customers had gone into restaurants to request the new sandwich. Simultaneously, according to the press release, "many others requested their own 'right handed' version."

Enjoy your April Fool’s Day!  “The first day of April is the day we remember what we are the other 364 days of the year.” – Mark Twain

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