Jonathan Swift and April Fool's. In March of 1708 Swift published a pamphlet (under the name Isaac Bickerstaff) predicting the death of a popular astrological charlatan (John Partridge) who had predicted the demise of the COE. On March 29th, Swift published an account of the fulfillment of the prophecy and of the man's death, convincing people, despite Partridge's protestations, that the man claiming to be Partridge was an imposter. The Bickerstaff-Partridge Papers.
Ben Franklin used a similar prank when he started Poor Richard's.
HP Lovecraft used the name Isaac Bikerstaff Jr., in 1914, when attacking "a quack named Hartmann, a devotee of the pseudo-science of Astrology."
posted by OmieWise on Apr 1, 2005 - 7 comments

Regularly-updated listing of today's April Fools jokes on the web. Add 'em if you've got 'em.
posted by Fourmyle on Apr 1, 2004 - 16 comments

Top 100 April Fools Hoaxes of all time. Also, April Fools on the Net - a history of newsgroup April Fools posts.
posted by badstone on Apr 1, 2004 - 3 comments

Pith and Vinegar is a hosting company now?
posted by ronsens on Apr 1, 2001 - 10 comments

Latest on the mcsweeneys.net takeover. If this is a prank, it's already getting old. I keep hoping for some big humor payoff, but I'm the MTV generation--speed things up! Darnit!
posted by mrmorgan on Apr 6, 2000 - 12 comments

I can't tell if this is an April Fool's parody of a certain someone or not, but have a great weekend! I'm still digging!
posted by mathowie on Mar 31, 2000 - 6 comments