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April Fool's Day Content
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April Fool's Day Archive, Contents:
| Before 1900: | Origin of April Fool's Day | 1700-1799 | 1800-1899 |
| Early 1900s: | 1900 | 1901 | 1915 | 1919 | 1920 | 1923 | 1925 |
| 1930s & 40s: | 1933 | 1934 | 1936 | 1937 | 1938 | 1940 | 1949 |
| 1950s & 60s: | 1950 | 1957 | 1959 | 1960 | 1962 | 1965 | 1969 |
| 1970s: | 1970 | 1971 | 1972 | 1973 | 1974 | 1975 | 1976 | 1977 | 1978 | 1979 |
| 1980s: | 1980 | 1981 | 1982 | 1983 | 1984 | 1985 | 1986 | 1987 | 1988 | 1989 |
| 1990s: | 1990 | 1991 | 1992 | 1993 | 1994 | 1995 | 1996 | 1997 | 1998 | 1999 |
| 2000s: | 2000 | 2001 | 2002 | 2003 | 2004 | 2005 | 2006 | 2007 | 2008 | 2009 |
| 2010s: | 2010 | 2011 |
category
School Pranks
School Pranks
MITkey Mouse (1998)
On April 1, 1998, the homepage of the Massachusetts Institute of Technology announced some startling news: the prestigious university was to be sold to Walt Disney Co. for $6.9 billion. A photograph of the university's famous dome outfitted with a pair of mouse ears accompanied the news. The press release explained that the university was to be dismantled and transported to Orlando where new schools would be added to the campus including the School of Imagineering, the Scrooge McDuck School of Management, and the Donald Duck Department of Linguistics. The fact that the announcement appeared on MIT's homepage added official credibility to it. But in fact, the announcement was the work of students who had hacked into the school's central server and replaced the school's real web page with a phony one.
| Categories: United States, 1998, School Pranks, Unlikely Acquisitions. |
School For Sale (1985)
The students of Newtonbrook Secondary School in Canada placed an ad in a local newspaper putting their school up for sale. The ad read: "For Sale—106-room mansion, 5 1/2 acres of well-kept grounds in the heart of Willowdale. $1 million." According to the principal, Richard Frise, the school's secretaries answered a number of calls from interested buyers before they realized what had happened.
| Categories: United States, 1985, School Pranks. |
Engulfed by Paper (1970)
The Madison Capital Times reported the following student prank:The joke this April Fool's Day was on Gerald Miller, a history teacher at Gompers Junior High School, who is shown buried to the waist in the results of a prank arranged by his students. After Miller left the school Tuesday, his students crumpled up hundreds of newspapers and other pieces of paper and packed them into Miller's room from floor to ceiling. The students then hung a large sheet of paper inside the door to hide the pile of paper. When Miller opened the door to the room this morning and broke the paper shield, he was engulfed by the crumpled paper. The students were not fools either — they obtained the permission of the principal before undertaking their April Fool's stunt.
[The Capital Times, Apr 1, 1970.]
| Categories: United States, 1970, School Pranks. |
City School Pranks (1960)
Allen Sackmann, staff writer for the Lethbridge Herald, observed:School children, more than anyone else, live for the chance to "get back at the teacher". Most teachers went to school this morning alert for tacks on chairs, glue on desks and gently placed placards ordering to "kick me" inviting.
Probably a few instructors in the city schools forgot to check the calendar this morning and fell victim to at least one of the pranks of the class. The only consolation the teacher has is that for once, she did what the class wanted her to do.
Probably a few instructors in the city schools forgot to check the calendar this morning and fell victim to at least one of the pranks of the class. The only consolation the teacher has is that for once, she did what the class wanted her to do.
[Lethbridge Herald, Apr 1, 1960.]
| Categories: United States, 1960, School Pranks. |
School for girls up for sale (1959)
An advertisement ran in the London Financial Times offering the highly respectable Francis Holland School for Girls for sale. Several dozen interested buyers phoned the school. A school spokesman later explained that the advertisement was a joke placed by a student "who'd got into trouble, trying to get back at the school." [Journal-Tribune, Apr 2, 1959.]
| Categories: United Kingdom, 1959, School Pranks. |
Help Wanted (1915)
An ad placed in a Chicago paper brought over 300 job seekers to Proviso Township High School in Maywood, Illinois. The ad read, "WANTED—100 Laborers; bring shovels; good pay. Apply High School, Room 9, 1st av. and Madison st., Maywood, bet. 9 and 10 am." Some of the job seekers walked over twenty miles to get there, not having access to a car. School officials had to turn them away, explaining that the ad was a joke, but not of their doing. Seventy-five of the men ended up sleeping in the school yard. Eight members of the senior class were subsequently accused of having placed the ad and were punished "by denying them certain privileges." Their parents protested the punishment, but Principal Witmer said, "I'd do the same thing if they did it again." [Chicago Daily Tribune, Apr 2, 1915.]
| Categories: United States, 1915, Employment, School Pranks. |
School Quarantined (1901)
Pranksters placed a yellow quarantine sign outside the Central school building in Waterloo, Iowa:The quarantine signal was placed in the most conspicuous place on the building. The lads who are responsible for the misdemeanor probably thought it would be a great joke and possibly be the means of permitting them to a holiday...
The teachers and high school scholars entered the building at the main entrance, but did not go into the room just back of the sign until assured that there was no danger. It was only a short time until the news that the west side Central building was quarantined spread pretty well over the town and Mr. Hukill and Mrs. Couch, who use the high school room, were kept busy denying the report and explaining.
[Waterloo Daily Courier]
The teachers and high school scholars entered the building at the main entrance, but did not go into the room just back of the sign until assured that there was no danger. It was only a short time until the news that the west side Central building was quarantined spread pretty well over the town and Mr. Hukill and Mrs. Couch, who use the high school room, were kept busy denying the report and explaining.
| Categories: United States, 1901, School Pranks, Fake Warnings. |