We all have memories of those silly pranks we played on others on the first day of April when we were kids. They were usually something that we invented on the spot to take advantage of a situation. We’d shout out, “Somebody’s stealing your bike!” then watch gleefully as our friend rushed out to stop the imaginary thief. Elaborately conceived pranks usually required at least one fellow conspirator and didn’t always turn out as planned because somebody couldn’t help grinning at the wrong time.

The most effective April Fool jokes seem to take place  when the victim is caught unaware of the fact that it is April first. My mother always managed to catch us by bursting into our bedrooms, insisting that we get dressed immediately as we were already late for school for different, but believable reasons. One year it might be because the electricity had been off and the clocks were an hour late. Or maybe she herself had overslept. Once, she took advantage of our groggy confusion on a Saturday and we were hastily dressing before we realized it wasn’t a school day.

At other times, she would simply tell us to look out the window, “You’ve got to see this,” she’d insist. “This is the strangest thing I’ve ever seen!” Curiosity got us out of bed faster than the idea of being late. Sometimes the joke hinged on our sense of privacy. She’d stand by the dressing table, pick up something that made a little noise and say, “What in the world is this?” The one good thing all that achieved was to make us keenly aware that it was April Fool’s Day and put us on the alert for possible booby-traps. Even our teachers would try to trip us up by announcing an unexpected quiz or telling us we had all done the latest assignment wrong and would have to do it over.

History has seen some truly convincing public April Fool jokes that, even though they were mostly outlandish, managed to fool a large number of people. Here are a few;

In 1905, a German newspaper reported that thieves had tunneled under the United States Treasury and stolen all the silver and gold. In 1957, British television reported that the spaghetti weevil that had plagued Switzerland’s spaghetti trees for years had been eradicated and that the harvest was looking hopeful. The report was accompanied with footage of workers harvesting the new crop. Horticulturists were swamped with requests from people wanting information on how to obtain and cultivate the trees. 1969, there were reports that remote scanners were being used to locate unregistered radios and televisions in the Netherlands because too many people were avoiding paying the taxes on them. Wrapping those appliances in layers of aluminum foil was reported to be the only way to prevent their discovery.

Within the day, all stores were out of foil and a flood of delinquent taxes had been paid. In 1980, the executive producer of the Boston 6:00 PM newscast was fired because he approved a false report of the eruption of the great Blue Hill in Milton, Mass. The intended tongue-in-cheek report had resulted in panic with many persons fleeing their homes. In 1997, Wheel of Fortune hosts Pat Sajak and Alex Trebek of Jeopardy traded places for their April 1st broadcasts. Many viewers who were familiar with both the popular game-show personalities, failed to notice the switch.

When did all this so-called tradition begin? Joseph Boskin, professor of history at Boston University has told us that, during the reign of Constantine I, a group of court jesters told the Emperor, as a humorous entertainment, that a jester could do a better job of running the empire than he could. Amused by the notion, Constantine went along with the fanciful idea and nominated jester Kugel to be king for a day. Kugel then passed an edict calling for absurdity to reign on that one day and the jest became a tradition that eventually spread across the civilized world.

An Associated Press account of the story brought it to the public’s attention and it was three weeks before it became known that professor Boskin had made up the story as an April Fool joke. As of today, the origin of the tradition remains unknown – just consider the day itself to be the original April Fool’s Day joke and join in the fun.