In 1508, French poet Eloy d’Amerval referred to a poisson d’avril (April fool, literally “Fish of April”), possibly the first reference to the celebration in France.
Some writers suggest that April Fools’ originated because in the Middle Ages, New Year’s Day was celebrated on March 25 in most European towns, through a holiday that in some areas of France, specifically, ended on April 1, and those who celebrated New Year’s Eve on January 1 made fun of those who celebrated on other dates by the invention of April Fools’ Day.
The use of January 1 as New Year’s Day became common in France only by the mid-16th century, and the date was not adopted officially until 1564, thanks to the Edict of Roussillon.
In 1983, BMW revealed that one of its engineers, Herr Blöhn, had developed a sunroof that could be kept open even in the rain, thanks to jets of air that blasted the water away from the top of the car. The system worked completely automatically, even in a car wash.
Those seeking more information were directed to query “Miss April Wurst” in the BMW marketing department.
THE FIRST OPEN TOP CAR TO KEEP OUT THE RAIN EVEN WHEN IT'S STATIONARY
The pleasures of open air motoring are limited to very few days in the Western European calendar.
A fact which was not lost on Hans Blöhn, head of the Aerodynamic Development Centre in Munich, who considered the problem at length.
He realised that an open top car with the superior aerodynamics of the 3 series BMW could keep its occupants dry at high speed in rain.
The airflow would simply carry the water away from the top of the car.
Naturally, however, as the car decelerated and the flow abated to a draught, rain would come in through the roof.
It was then Herr Blöhn had his idea. Why not create an artificial airflow at low driving speeds?
COULD A CAR DO WITHOUT WINDSCREEN WIPERS?
Turning such incisive theory into practice was a process fraught with problems.
Early attempts to force air from the top of the bonnet merely blasted the rubbers off the windscreen wipers.
So attention was turned to the small cowling above the sun visors.
By building a duct inside this section and forcing jets of air into it by way of the windscreen columns, a practical solution was born.
The method was refined in the Leonjaume wind tunnel under scrutiny of BMW scientists.
There followed extensive, white-coat drenching manoeuvres in the soggiest reaches of the Bavarian hinterland.
Of course, difficulties such as counteracting cross flow when cornering still existed.
But eventually the experts were satisfied. ‘Wind rush’ at maximum operation was reduced to a level no higher than that of the average saloon travelling at 40 mph.
The invention could be unveiled.
WHAT HAPPENS IN A CAR WASH?
The system is activated electronically by 0.58% volume of moisture in excess of the atmospheric norm.
It works automatically, increasing airflow in direct relation to vehicle deceleration.
There is also an SMC (Separate Manual Control) allowing you to boost power to cope, for instance, with monsoon or moderate hail conditions.
When the engine is off, as it would be in a car wash, the system still functions, completely automatically.
Naturally, a roof section is supplied as an optional extra, should you require it, for security reasons.
BMW have always believed you should have total control over your car.
If you’d like control over the weather as well, please fill in the coupon below.
On April 1, 2001, Hooters held a beer sales contest for its employees, offering a Toyota as the grand prize. One employee, Jodee Berry, excelled in sales and won the contest. However, instead of receiving a car, she was given a toy Yoda with a note claiming the contest was an April Fools’ joke.
Berry sued Gulf Coast Wings, Inc., Hooters’ corporate owner, for breach of contract and fraudulent misrepresentation. In 2002, Berry and the company reached a settlement, with Berry receiving an undisclosed amount of money. Her attorney, David Noll, stated that the settlement would allow Berry to purchase any Toyota she desired.
The French call April 1 “Poisson d’Avril”, or “April Fish.” French children sometimes tape a picture of a fish on the back of their schoolmates, crying “Poisson d’Avril” when the prank is discovered. Here, a series of two French postcards honoring April Fool’s Day (they both have the same surly, mean expression):
Having a mother in law is a sad thing If her temperament is especially grating Look at this one, look at her mug (note: also means pear) And pity her son-in-law, the poor soul
Your mug, o landlord, doesn’t look promising We won’t be renting your rooms anymore, that’s for sure!
April Fools’ Day is not a national holiday, but it is celebrated in the United States and many other countries. It is sometimes known as All Fools’ Day. Anyone who wants to have fun can celebrate the day.
Some historians speculate that April Fools’ Day dates back to 1582, when France switched from the Julian calendar to the Gregorian calendar, as called for by the Council of Trent in 1563. In the Julian Calendar, as in the Hindu calendar, the new year began with the spring equinox around April 1.
People who were slow to get the news or failed to recognize that the start of the new year had moved to January 1 and continued to celebrate it during the last week of March through April 1 became the butt of jokes and hoaxes and were called “April fools.” These pranks included having paper fish placed on their backs and being referred to as “poisson d’avril” (April fish), said to symbolize a young, easily caught fish and a gullible person.
Airline passengers landing in Los Angeles on April 1, 1992 were greeted by an 85-foot-long yellow banner on the ground that spelled out, in 20-foot-high red letters, “Welcome to Chicago.”
It was raised above the Hollywood Park race track, about three miles from the airport. Park spokesman Brock Sheridan explained, “It was something we always wanted to do. We thought it would be kind of funny and our new management... thought it would be a great practical joke.”
It’s 1987, and business as usual in the Cold War. Relations between Britain and the USSR are strained, so imagine the shock when images surfaced of British Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher and Soviet leader Mikhail Gorbachev flirting, fondling and kissing in Moscow’s Gorky Park, during Thatcher’s tour of the Soviet Union.
The Daily Mirror broke the ‘story’, thanks to some clever use of lookalikes and compelling ‘quotes’. The photos were posed by lookalikes but they succeeded in fooling thousands of readers. Many of them expressed shock that Thatcher, a married woman, would act like that in public.
After Thatcher left Moscow on April 2, she told reporters on her plane that she and Gorbachev “got on very well, considering that we are very different and hold very different views.”
Color television wasn’t widespread until 1966, but some Swedes armed with nylon stockings tried to get it four years earlier. They fell victim to a hoax by Sweden’s SVT (Sveriges Television), which trotted out a “technical expert” to explain on-air — in thoroughly technical terms — how a thinly stretched nylon screen in front of a television would bend light's wavelengths and produce a color image. The thousands who tried it learned quickly that there was no such trick — and were out a pair of stockings to boot.
This one is so simple it’s genius. The hoax took place in Sweden on April Fool’s Day, 1962 when Sveriges Television brought its technical expert, Kjell Stensson, onto the news to inform the public that, thanks to new technology, viewers could convert their existing sets to display color reception. At the time, there was only the one TV channel in Sweden, and it broadcast in black and white, so this was major news.
The broadcast cut to Stensson sitting in front of a television set in the studio. He began to explain how the process worked. His discussion was highly technical, going into details about the prismatic nature of light and the phenomenon of “double slit interference.” But at last he arrived at the main point. Researchers, he said, had recently discovered that a fine-meshed screen placed in front of a black-and-white television screen would cause the light to bend in such a way that it would appear as if the image was in color.
Kjell Stensson shows how to place a nylon stocking over a TV screen. He posed for this photo decades after 1962.
According to Stensson, viewers could experience the effect at home with the help of some simple, readily accessible materials. Nylon stockings, it turned out, were the perfect fabric to use as a fine-meshed screen. So all viewers had to do, Stensson said, was to cut open a pair of stockings and tape them over the screen of their television set. The image on the television should suddenly appear to be in color.
Stensson cautioned that the viewer would have to be seated at the correct distance from the screen in order to get the full effect. Also, it might be necessary to “move your head very carefully” back and forth, in order to align the color spectrum.
Thousands of viewers later admitted they had fallen for the hoax. Many Swedes today still report remembering their fathers rushing through the house trying to find stockings to place over the TV set. Regular color broadcasts began in Sweden on April 1, 1970.
On the 1st of April, everyone has to pay attention to avoid being the victim of practical jokes and general foolishness. It is the ideal day for children (and grown-ups alike!) to tell funny jokes to those around them, including family members, friends, teachers, neighbors, colleagues at work, etc.
Where this habit comes from is not certain. There are several theories, but why the symbolic of the fish remains pretty much a mystery.
In France, April Fools’ Day is known for the “poisson d’avril” (April Fish). That tradition dates back to 1564. The origin of the April Fish in France is quite obscure. Maybe it was reminiscent of the ichtus used by Christians in the Roman era.
Although not directly related to Easter, April Fools’ Day traditions are followed by all French children on 1 April. People use paper fish to play an April Fools trick. This involves sticking a paper fish onto the back of as many adults as possible. And then running away yelling “Poisson d’Avril !” (April Fish!). Yes you better check your back if you happen to be in France on that day!
In 1925 the German magazine Echo Continental ran a feature about a new “ABC mono-cycle”:
The ABC-cycle was given that name by the manufacturer because it is as simple as the ABC and can be operated without prior knowledge by anyone, especially a woman. The vehicle is designed as a mono-cycle, the motor, a directionless three-stroke 2 hp. 1.5 Cylinder “Gnomissima” engine is under the seat and pleasingly warms or cools the driver. A kickstarter and convenient footrests make this motorbike particularly popular with women.
As tires only the highly reliable antiskid “Continental-Kraftradreifen” are to be used. The profile of these tires remains unaltered, as they have proven themselves highly reliable on smooth asphalt roads.
Echo Continental was the trade publication of the auto and truck parts manufacturer Continental AG. This feature essentially served as a plug for the company’s “Continental-Kraftradreifen” tires — which makes it one of the earliest examples of a spoof April Fool ad.
Joke on April Fools’ Day by the corporate newspaper Echo Continental of the Continental Gummiwerke Hannover AG in 1926.
The German magazine Echo Continental reported the development of a new triple-decker city bus. Echo Continental was the trade publication of the auto and truck parts manufacturer Continental AG. The magazine focused on automobile and racing news.
Photo of Max Wiedenhöft, a German airplane designer, on a rocket-powered flying bicycle over Tempelhof Airport in Berlin, Germany. It is reported that he had started a aircraft company at Tempelhof Aiport and a speed of 167 km per hour would have achieved flight. The hope was to develop the flying machine as a rocket bike in order to achieve a speed of 400 km per hour.
Printed as an April Fool’s joke in a German newspaper. The picture was actually a photomontage created from a shot of Wiedenhoft taken the previous month, as he prepared to test his "rocket bicycle" on a rooftop at Tempelhof.
In France, April fool is called April fish because of the traditional prank, played on the first of April. Friends and relatives tried to stick a paper fish onto somebody’s back and when poor thing discovered it at last, all of them bursted into laughter crying out: “April Fish!” This prank is played till present and can be called a gentler prototype of “Kick me” signs.
Of course, we couldn’t miss the opportunity to make you smile on “April Fools’ Day” and cooked something really odd for you. Below you will find a collection of funny vintage French postcards from the 1910s that feature pretty women. All of them obligatory have fish somewhere in the composition.
The BBC has always been known for its highly reputable broadcasts. So it hit that much harder when, in 1957, the BBC crafted a hilarious April Fool’s Day broadcast in which they showed a family in southern Switzerland reaping fresh noodles from the family spaghetti tree.
As unbelievable as it sounds now, spaghetti was, at the time, foreign to most UK residents, and many had no idea the delectable noodles were simply made of flour and water. A number of viewers afterwards contacted the BBC for advice on growing their own spaghetti trees; the BBC told them to “place a sprig of spaghetti in a tin of tomato sauce and hope for the best.”
It was estimated that 8 million people watched the broadcast the day it aired on April 1, 1957, making it one of the most widespread famous hoaxes in broadcasting history. Decades later, CNN called this broadcast “the biggest hoax that any reputable news establishment ever pulled.”
A “poisson d'avril” is a joke made on April 1st. In France, children try to stick a fish picture on their friends' back. When the joke is discovered, they shout “poisson d'avril!”
Back in the old days in France (up until 1564), the new year was celebrated on April first, based on the Julian calendar. That was before King Charles IX came along and decided that everybody should be following the Gregorian calendar, which starts the new year on the first day of January.
Not everyone welcomed this change, or so the story goes, and some people continued to celebrate April 1 as the first day of the year. Allegedly, those people were mocked and referred to as April fools. Whatever the case, it became a tradition to do things such as pasting a fish on unsuspecting people's backs on April 1, and calling them a Poisson d'Avril or an April Fish. The symbol of the fish may also have been connected with Jesus Christ.
