I think the first thing that comes to your mind when you think of April 1st is well, pranks. This tradition has been carried out for a long time and people love it because tricking is, well, “allowed” on this day.
Seems like everyone becomes fond of tricking on this day.
So forget the tricking for a while, I’m sure April 1st isn’t important for pranking only. Here’s a compilation of events (some of which are hilarious) that happened on April first
1.The Loose Python:
Google has kept up with the tradition of fooling its employees on April First since a long time. But in one particular year in the same day, Google faced a huge problem that was easily taken as a prank by others. A 3-foot long python named Kaiser got loose from its pen and wandered in the halls of the company’s New York offices. The emergency notice to its employees was a serious one, but lots of them didn’t believe it. Luckily, the python was caught and returned back to its owner.
2.Obama’s Affairs:
Back in his days, Obama was quite a wild one. During his college days, the President of America once planned a trip to Mexico with his friends. They’d often visit a local Bar near to their lodge and have beers till the end of the night. Obama was attracted to the two strippers in the dance bar, but things got more out of hand when he declared that he wanted to marry them. In a few hours time, the drunk Obama had two Mexican wives. As soon as he woke up the next day, he came back to his senses and realized what he did. In a speech in 2006, while he talked about his past, he claims the Mexico Event as something he created “out of his senses”.
3.Poor Whoopie
Just about every gag you could possibly get hit by or with on April 1st came from the mind of one man. Soren Sorensen Adams, better known as “Sam,” came to America from Denmark in the 1900s and later found work as a coal-tar product salesman. He found that one of the powders he used in his work could make people sneeze when blown in their face, something that many people found amusing. He started selling “Cachoo Powder” and made $150,000 off it. His success led to the creation of other practical joke staples such as the dribble glass, the joy buzzer and the springing snakes in a can. However, Adams actually turned down the rights to sell the Whoopie cushion in 1930 because he thought, of the idea as too indelicate. Adams’ descendants bought the rights to an electronic Whoopie cushion 60 years later.
4.Michael Jackson’s Religion Issues:
On April 1st 1990, Michael Jackson shocked the world by saying he found Christianity “unreasonable”. He said he wanted to adopt Hinduism as he found it soothing and felt that it brought him “closer to God than anything else”. Jackson said that when he was small, he had a Hindu friend who taught him a thing or two about Hinduism and that was when he got engrossed into the religion. He also says that he previously thought that changing religions would be “harmful for his image” but that now he simply didn’t care. Michael Jackson was able to become a Hindu only for a month.
5.Marvin Gaye’s not-so-prankful death:
While there are plenty of real things that happened on April 1st that people thought were just the product of some wise guy’s prank, few were more infamous or tragic than the untimely death of singer Marvin Gaye. Gaye’s abusive father shot and killed the singer on April 1st, 1984, in his home during a violent argument the day before his 45th birthday. Musician Stevie Wonder , one of Gaye’s close friends, received the news by telephone and thought someone was trying to pull a cruel April Fool’s prank on him.
6.Breast Implants clinically proven:
On April 1st 1997, a research team in Baltimore clinically proved that it was safe for the ladies to have silicon breast implants. Dr. Jane Travez, the leader of the research team said that the breast implants were not harmful; rather it was beneficial because it improved the essential mineral silicon in the body. After this research, BBC reported that around 4000 women from Baltimore were admitted to the hospital for the silicon breast implantation.
Well, I guess this article was helpful. It’s not always about fooling. It’s about telling people what they’ve not heard in a long time. Oh, and yes, you’ve been pranked. Facts in the even number are adorable and fake.
Source for real facts : thefw.com. For the fake ones : Anushruti Adhikari
You’re welcome.