To kick off the beginning of April, many countries celebrate April Fools’ Day, April 1.

April Fools’ Day has been celebrated for over hundreds of years, but its exact history still remains a puzzle. On this well known day, people play practical jokes and tricks on each other resulting in, “April Fools!”

According to History.com, it is believed by some historians April Fools’ evolved from Britain during the 18th century. There was a two-day event in Scotland; “hunting the gowk” where people were sent on fake errands and the next day was Tailie Day, which concluded in people pinning kick me signs on others.

Through this time during shelter-in-place, playing a harmless prank might lighten the mood and make someone laugh. While being sheltered in place, you can look up prank ideas while being stuck at home.

According to Wikipedia, their is a history of elaborate pranks that have appeared on the radio and TV stations which have been prepared by large groups. With social media and news, these pranks can attract a more global audience than expected. Presidents, celebrities and famous organizations have played a part in some of these elaborate pranks of the past below.

Here is a list of famous pranks that have been played it the past:

1.) In 1992, President Richard Nixon pranked the country saying that he was running again for president on National Public Radio, but it was only a hired actor.

2.) Taco Bell announced that they had bought the Philadelphia Liberty Bell and was going to rename it the Taco Liberty Bell in 1996.

3.) In 1974, a local Alaskan resident, Porky Bickar, lit old tires in Mount Edgecumbe’s crater, making the town believe that the volcano was active again.

4.) In 1957, the BBC reported that Swiss were experiencing a never before record of spaghetti crop, which also showed footage of Swiss people harvesting noodles down from trees.

5.) In 1962, Sweden’s SVT technical expert, Kjell Stensson, told the public that they have discovered a new way to view color from their TVs, back when the only color was black and white. He said that you could put nylon stockings over the TV and the mesh would cause the light to blend into color. Pretty soon everyone was running around trying to find stockings.

For more famous pranks, including the list of five above, visit Top 100 April Fool’s Day Hoaxes of All Time.

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