5. In 1980, the BBC announced that Big Ben would be upgraded to a digital readout to “keep up with the times.” Listeners were outraged.

4. In 1998, Burger King published a full-page advertisement in USA Today announcing the creation of a “left-handed Whopper.” Thousands of left-handed customers requested them, while thousands of right-handed customers asked for their usual right-handed Whopper.

3. The Guardian published a seven-page “special report” on an island called San Serriffe located in the Indian Ocean. It was an island chain with two main islands, “Upper Caisse” and “Lower Caisse.” Their in-depth series on the history, geography and daily life of these fictional islands prompted hundreds of phone calls from interested vacationers.

2. A news show by a company called Panorama broadcast a three-minute feature on the appearance of spaghetti-weevils disrupting the harvest of spaghetti trees. The show said, “For those who love this dish, there’s nothing like real, home-grown spaghetti.”

1. A Swedish television station pulled a fast-one on their viewers in 1962. Their “technical expert” was going to tell people how to view color images on their black-and-white televisions. The expert claimed that researchers had discovered that covering television screens with a pair of tights would cause the light to bend in such a way that it would appear as if the image was in color. Thousands of viewers fell for the hoax.

Information adapted from mirror.co.uk ‘April Fool’s Day: The top 10 pranks of all time’