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
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
Webnode
A press release was issued over Business Wire announcing Webnode, a new company that had recently been granted a government contract to regulate ownership of "nodes" on the Next Generation Internet (NGI). Each of these nodes (there were said to be over 50 million of them) represented a route that data could travel over the NGI. The company was licensed to sell each node for $100. Nodes would increase in value depending on how much traffic they routed. Owners would also receive usage fees for the data that flowed across their section of the internet. However, only individuals could own nodes, and no person could own more than 1,000 nodes. This limit was supposedly made in order to avoid monopolization of the internet by large corporations. Although Webnode was not yet a publicly trade company, the press release declared that shares in the company could be reserved for later purchase, although no payment would currently be accepted. Because the Next Generation Internet is a real government project, many were led to believe that Webnode was also real. Business Wire did not find the prank amusing. It sued the creators of the press release.

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1999
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All text Copyright © 2011 by Alex Boese, except where otherwise indicated. All rights reserved.