April Fools Day - 1915
Type: April Fool’s Day Hoaxes. Summary: News reports from April Fool’s Day, 1915.April Fool’s Day Content in the Museum of HoaxesTop 100 April Fool’s Day Hoaxes—The Origin of April Fool’s Day—April Fool’s Hoaxes by Year1698 | 1708 | 1844 | 1860 | 1866 | 1878 | 1888 | 1900 |…

April Fools Day - 1919
Type: April Fool’s Day Hoaxes. Summary: Notable hoaxes perpetrated on April Fool’s Day, 1919.April Fool’s Day Content in the Museum of HoaxesTop 100 April Fool’s Day Hoaxes—The Origin of April Fool’s Day—April Fool’s Hoaxes by Year1698 | 1708 | 1844 | 1860 | 1866 | 1878 | 1888 | 1900…

April Fools Day - 1920
Type: April Fool’s Day Hoaxes. Summary: News reports from April Fool’s Day, 1920.April Fool’s Day Content in the Museum of HoaxesTop 100 April Fool’s Day Hoaxes—The Origin of April Fool’s Day—April Fool’s Hoaxes by Year1698 | 1708 | 1844 | 1860 | 1866 | 1878 | 1888 | 1900 |…

April Fools Day - 1925
Type: April Fool’s Day Hoaxes. Summary: News reports from April Fool’s Day, 1925.April Fool’s Day Content in the Museum of HoaxesTop 100 April Fool’s Day Hoaxes—The Origin of April Fool’s Day—April Fool’s Hoaxes by Year1698 | 1708 | 1844 | 1860 | 1866 | 1878 | 1888 | 1900 |…

April Fools Day - 1933
Type: April Fool’s Day Hoaxes. Summary: Notable hoaxes perpetrated on April Fool’s Day, 1933.April Fool’s Day Content in the Museum of HoaxesTop 100 April Fool’s Day Hoaxes—The Origin of April Fool’s Day—April Fool’s Hoaxes by Year1698 | 1708 | 1844 | 1860 | 1866 | 1878 | 1888 | 1900…

April Fools Day - 1934
Type: April Fool’s Day Hoaxes. Summary: Notable hoaxes perpetrated on April Fool’s Day, 1934.April Fool’s Day Content in the Museum of HoaxesTop 100 April Fool’s Day Hoaxes—The Origin of April Fool’s Day—April Fool’s Hoaxes by Year1698 | 1708 | 1844 | 1860 | 1866 | 1878 | 1888 | 1900…

April Fools Day - 1936
Type: April Fool’s Day Hoaxes. Summary: Notable hoaxes perpetrated on April Fool’s Day, 1936.April Fool’s Day Content in the Museum of HoaxesTop 100 April Fool’s Day Hoaxes—The Origin of April Fool’s Day—April Fool’s Hoaxes by Year1698 | 1708 | 1844 | 1860 | 1866 | 1878 | 1888 | 1900…

April Fools Day - 1937
Type: April Fool’s Day Hoaxes. Summary: Notable hoaxes perpetrated on April Fool’s Day, 1937.April Fool’s Day Content in the Museum of HoaxesTop 100 April Fool’s Day Hoaxes—The Origin of April Fool’s Day—April Fool’s Hoaxes by Year1698 | 1708 | 1844 | 1860 | 1866 | 1878 | 1888 | 1900…

April Fools Day - 1940
Type: April Fool’s Day Hoaxes. Summary: News reports from April Fool’s Day, 1940.April Fool’s Day Content in the Museum of HoaxesTop 100 April Fool’s Day Hoaxes—The Origin of April Fool’s Day—April Fool’s Hoaxes by Year1698 | 1708 | 1844 | 1860 | 1866 | 1878 | 1888 | 1900 |…

April Fools Day - 1949
Type: April Fool’s Day Hoaxes. Summary: Notable hoaxes perpetrated on April Fool’s Day, 1949.April Fool’s Day Content in the Museum of HoaxesTop 100 April Fool’s Day Hoaxes—The Origin of April Fool’s Day—April Fool’s Hoaxes by Year1698 | 1708 | 1844 | 1860 | 1866 | 1878 | 1888 | 1900…

A Neglected Anniversary
Type: Journalistic Hoax. Summary: Text of an article detailing a false history of the bathtub. What follows is the complete text of Henry L. Mencken’s article “A Neglected Anniversary,” published in the New York Evening Mail on December 28, 1917. The article presents a false history of the bathtub. Details…

Baby Adolf
Type: Photo hoax. Summary: A widely circulated photo of an evil looking baby was alleged to be Adolf Hitler as an infant. Fake Baby AdolfIn 1933 a picture supposedly showing Adolf Hitler as a baby began circulating throughout England and America. The child in the picture looked positively menacing. Its…

Case of the Midwife Toad
Type: Scientific Fraud. Summary: Scaly bumps that suddenly appeared on a species of toad were offered as proof of Lamarckian inheritance. But the bumps turned out to be injected inkspots. Paul KammererCan acquired characteristics be passed on to one’s offspring? For instance, if a person acquires a limp during their…

Channel Swim Hoax
Type: Sports Hoax. Summary: In 1927 Dorothy Cochrane Logan claimed to have swum the English Channel. She later admitted she had only swum the first and last miles. Text excerpted from The Fresno Bee, September 7, 1955: The famous channel swimming hoax, carried out to show how easily such a…

Chesterfield Leper
Type: Product Rumor. Summary: During the 1930s sales of Chesterfield cigarettes plummeted because of a rumor that a leper worked in one of their factories. This 1935 ad for Chesterfield cigarettes had the caption: “Machines like this—new and modern in every respect—make Chesterfields.”In the Fall of 1934 a rumor swept…

Cottingley Fairies
Type: Photo Hoax. Summary: A series of photographs taken by two young girls appeared to provide evidence of the existence of fairies. The fairies in the photos were eventually revealed to be paper cut-outs. COTTINGLEY FAIRY HAIKUCamera ready, Two young girls patiently wait — Fairy paparazzi! (by AB) Holmes’ writer…

Death in the Air
Type: Photo Hoax. Summary: Photographs of World War One aerial dogfights were, decades later, discovered to have been faked. A book called Death in the Air: The War Diary and Photographs of a Flying Corps Pilot was published in 1933. It contained numerous pages of spectacular aerial photographs of World…

Disumbrationist School of Art
Type: Art Hoax. Summary: A novelist painted deliberately bad paintings, which he submitted to art exhibits, claiming they were the work of a Russian genius. (left) Paul Jordan Smith; (right) Smith as Pavel Jerdanowitch In 1924 Paul Jordan Smith, a Los Angeles-based novelist and Latin scholar, painted a blurry picture…

Ern Malley
Type: Literary hoax. Summary: Two Australian poets deliberately wrote nonsense verse, and fooled an editor into believing it was the work of a brilliant young writer. Max Harris was a glamorous young Australian poet who was making a reputation for himself as something of a rebel as editor of Angry…

Fritz Kreisler
Type: Musical Hoax. Summary: The musician Fritz Kreisler claimed that works he had written himself were actually “lost classics” written by famous composers. Fritz Kreisler During the early twentieth century, Fritz Kreisler was considered to be one of the leading violinists of his time. Part of his popularity stemmed from…

History of the Bathtub
Type: Hoax. Summary: A widely circulated tale claimed that Americans were initially reluctant to use bathtubs when they were introduced during the mid-nineteenth century. On December 28, 1917 the journalist Henry L. Mencken published an article in the New York Evening Mail titled “A Neglected Anniversary.” It described the curious…

Hugo N. Frye
Type: College Prank. Summary: Republican leaders were tricked into praising the example of the “sturdy patriot” Hugo N. Frye, unaware that there was no such person. In 1930 letters were mailed to Republican leaders throughout the United States inviting them to a May 26 party at Cornell University in honor…

Jean Gauntt - The Immortal Baby
Type: Religious Hoax. Summary: The leader of a religious cult claimed to be able to make a baby immortal. Schafer plays with Baby JeanIn 1939 a secretive cult known as the Royal Fraternity of Master Metaphysicians made headlines when its leader, James Bernard Schafer, announced their intention to conduct an…

Killer Hawk of Chicago
Type: Hoax that is not a hoax. Summary: As Chicagoans excitedly followed reports of a hawk loose in the downtown area, newspapers began to suspect they may have been hoaxed. “The pirate of the air perched on the roof of the Art institute just after he had killed and was…

Lafayette Mulligan
Type: Prank. Summary: A man calling himself Lafayette Mulligan presented the Prince of Wales with the key to the City of Boston. However, the Mayor of Boston had no idea who Lafayette Mulligan was. James Curley, former Mayor of Boston. In the Fall of 1924 the Prince of Wales visited…

Man Flies By Own Lung Power
Type: April Fool’s Day Hoax. Summary: A widely printed photograph showed a man flying by means of a device powered by the breath of his lungs. April Fool’s Day Content in the Museum of HoaxesTop 100 April Fool’s Day Hoaxes—The Origin of April Fool’s Day—April Fool’s Hoaxes by Year1698 |…

Marcel Duchamp
Type: Art Prankster. Summary: Throughout his career, French artist Marcel Duchamp was known for playing outrageous pranks on the art world. Posted by: Elliot Feldman Marcel Duchamp (1887-1968) always held the snobbishness of art collectors and gallery owners in disdain. While he was a revolutionary artist with at least one…

Melancholy Reflections
Type: Exposé of a journalistic hoax. Summary: Text of an article in which H.L. Mencken admitted inventing a false history of the bathtub. What follows is the complete text of Henry L. Mencken’s article “Melancholy Reflections,” published in the Chicago Tribune on May 23, 1926. In the article, Mencken admits…

Milton Mule
Type: Political prank. Summary: In 1938 the residents of Milton, Washington elected a mule to office. HOAX HAIKUNew commiteeman’s Great, better than the last one But the speech was odd (by J)Submit a haiku Mrs. Curtis poses with her mule “Boston”On September 13, 1938 Boston Curtis won the post of…

Nazi Air Marker Hoax
Type: Overzealous press-agentry. Summary: Random patterns in fields were mistaken for Nazi “air markers.” On August 10, 1942, the U.S. Army’s public-relations office released a statement informing the press that fliers for the First Ground Air Support Command had discovered “secret markers” in rural areas of the east coast. These…

New York Evening Graphic and Composographs
Type: Inventing the News. Summary: The story of publisher Bernarr MacFadden and The New York Evening Graphic, America’s first tabloid. Posted by: Elliot Feldman Although publisher Bernarr MacFadden’s newspaper, The New York Evening Graphic, only lasted a few years, its impact on mass media is still felt today, for better…

Ponzi Scheme
Type: Financial Scam. Summary: Charles Ponzi gave his name to the most famous financial scam of the twentieth century. Charles Ponzi (1883-1949) Charles Ponzi, an Italian immigrant living in Boston in the early twentieth century, was said by his worshipful followers to have “discovered money.” In fact, what he really…

Stotham Massachusetts
Type: Hoax. Summary: A Massachusetts town, described as an example of an unspoiled New England village, turned out not to exist. Frontispiece to Ripley’s articleThe White Pine Monograph Series was a series of carefully researched, high quality brochures, paid for by Weyerhaeuser mills and edited by Russell Whitehead, that collected…

Theft of the Sacred Cod
Type: College Prank. Summary: In 1933 Harvard students “codnapped” the Sacred Cod of Massachusetts. The Sacred Cod of Massachusetts. Theft is one of the classic and most-often-used tools in the toolbox of college pranksters. All manner of prized items are regularly spirited away at campuses throughout the world: statues, bells,…

Veterans of Future Wars
Type: College Prank/Satirical Campaign. Summary: Young men satirically demanded to be paid their war bonuses before they went off to fight. Future veterans march to demand their bonuses. 1936. In 1935 veterans of World War One lobbied Congress to pay them their war bonuses ten years early in order to…

War of the Worlds
Type: Radio Hoax. Summary: In 1938 thousands of people were fooled into believing that Martians had invaded New Jersey when they mistook a broadcast of H.G. Wells’ War of the Worlds for a newscast of real events. HOAX HAIKUThe night has grown still. Nothing stirs but that Martian blasting its…