An APril Fool's Day Prank Of Humongous Proportions

Joseph Boskin

A professor of history at Boston University, Joseph Boskin explained that the practice of April Fool’s Day began during the reign of Constantine, when a group of court jesters and fools told the Roman emperor that they could do a better job of running the empire. Constantine, amused, allowed a jester named Kugel to be king for one day. Kugel passed an edict calling for absurdity on that day, and the custom became an annual event.
"In a way,it was a very serious day. In those times fools were really wise men. It was the role of jesters to put things in perspective with humor." Boskin explained.
The Associated Press ran an article on Boskin’s findings in 1983 and it was printed by many newspapers. It took a couple of weeks for the AP to realize that they'd been victims of an April Fools' joke themselves as it turned out Boskin had made it all up!