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The Museum of Hoaxes is dedicated to promoting knowledge about hoaxes. (Click here for opening hours, etc.) On our blog we post about dubious- sounding claims, and whatever else strikes our fancy. The site is also home to the Hoaxipedia (the museum's online encyclopedia of hoaxes), and the Hoax Forum.

The museum was created in 1997 by Alex Boese. He's assisted by a staff of deputy curators and docents. Alex is the author of three books, most recently Elephants on Acid: And Other Bizarre Experiments (which has nothing to do with hoaxes). Check out the list of the Top 20 Most Bizarre Experiments of All Time for a preview.



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#73: The Origin of April Fool’s Day
In 1983 the Associated Press reported that the mystery of the origin of April Fool's Day had finally been solved. Joseph Boskin, a History professor at Boston University, had discovered that the celebration had begun during the Roman empire when a court jester had boasted to Emperor Constantine that the fools and jesters of the court could rule the kingdom better than the Emperor could. In response, Constantine had decreed that the court fools would be given a chance to prove this boast, and he set aside one day of the year upon which a fool would rule the kingdom. The first year Constantine appointed a jester named Kugel as ruler, and Kugel immediately decreed that only the absurd would be allowed in the kingdom on that day. Therefore the tradition of April Fools was born. News media throughout the country reprinted the Associated Press story. But what the AP reporter who had interviewed Professor Boskin for the story hadn't realized was that Boskin was lying. Not a word of the story was true, which Boskin admitted a few weeks later. Boston University issued a statement apologizing for the joke, and many papers published corrections.

Comments
Listed in chronological order. Newest comments at the end.
Page 1 of 1 pages
smileys

everyone knows it come from the pagan new year!
Posted by Isaac  in  Over there  on  Sat Apr 02, 2005  at  06:16 PM
yeah i knew that 2! And thats preetty smaart foor mee!!
Posted by kate  in  somewhere  on  Sun Jun 18, 2006  at  08:07 PM
It looks like Prof. Boskin got an offer he couldn't refuse from a homicidal albino monk of Opus Dei... Next they'll force someone to claim that the early Church martyrs in the centuries before Constantine didn't worship Mary Magdalene after all. wink
Posted by Rex  on  Wed Apr 04, 2007  at  08:05 AM
Haha! this ones awesome
Posted by Emelia  in  CT  on  Wed Jan 30, 2008  at  03:33 AM
Page 1 of 1 pages

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