The Museum of Hoaxes
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April Fool's Day Archive, Contents:
Before 1900: Origin of April Fool's Day | 1700-1799 | 1800-1899
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Pennsylvania Capitol Building Collapses
Date: April Fool's Day, 1976
Categories: Government, Politics, Poorly Received, Newspapers, United States, 1976, Fictitious Disasters
The Patriot, a newspaper based in Harrisburg, Pennsylvania, published a photograph of the state capitol building collapsing. A caption below the picture read, “Custodian A.F. Day said the blast occurred during a joint House-Senate session addressed by Hubert Humphrey and Gov. Milton Shapp… Day attributed the explosion to an abnormal expansion of hot air which usually is absorbed by acoustic seats in the chamber.“ The hoax elicited negative comments from many readers who accused the paper of “confusing fun with irresponsibility.“ Two days later the paper apologized for the hoax and promised that it would never publish another. The hoax recalled a similar April Fool’s Day joke published by the Madison Capital-Times in 1933.
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All text Copyright © 2011 by Alex Boese, except where otherwise indicated. All rights reserved.