Taco Liberty Bell

April 1, 1996

As part of an April Fool's day joke, Taco Bell takes out ads in seven leading newspapers announcing they had purchased the Liberty Bell to "reduce the country's debt" and had renamed it the "Taco Liberty Bell".
In response to public concerns, White House Press Secretary Mike McCurry stated that the federal government was also "selling the Lincoln Memorial to Ford Motor Co. and renaming it the Lincoln-Mercury Memorial".
The prank was successful in that it cost US$300,000, but generated a sales increase exceeding US$1,000,000 for the first two days in April along with a large amount of free publicity.

Marvin Gaye Killed By His Father

April 1, 1984

The Grammy-winning Motown singer Marvin Gaye is shot and killed by his father on the day before his birthday. Marvin and his father became involved in a physical altercation after Marvin intervened in a fight between his parents. This was one day before his birthday.

Rocky Horror Picture Show - First Midnight Showing

April 1, 1976

The Rocky Horror Picture Show has its first midnight showing, at the Waverly Theatre in New York City.
Although the film did poorly during its regular theater run, it soon became a cult midnight classic. Schoolteacher Louis Farese, Jr., Theresa Krakauskas, and Amy Lazarus are credited with starting the convention of talking back to the screen, bringing props and making up one-liners. Originally, they were just doing it to amuse each other, not realizing they were starting a long-lasting tradition.

Apple Computer

April 1, 1976

The company is founded by Steve Jobs, Steve Wozniak, and Ronald Wayne. Their first product was the Apple I personal computer kit which sold for $666.66.

Smoking Ads Banned - Providing a Boon to the Cigarette Companies

April 1, 1970

U.S. President Richard Nixon signs the bill banning cigarette commercials on public TV and radio. The ban went into effect the following year and applied to all broadcast mediums regulated by the FCC.
The last cigarette commercial on the national public networks was a Virginia Slims ad that aired January 1, 1971 at 11:59 p.m. on The Tonight Show Starring Johnny Carson. Johnny Carson, a lifelong smoker, died of emphysema. It was reported that he repeatedly said, "These things are killing me."
Smokeless tobacco ads were allowed until 1986.
Ironically, this did not have the intended effect and actually provided a boon to the cigarette industry. Prior to this ban, stations were required to give the same time to anti-smoking messages as they did to cigarette commercials, as per the Fairness Doctrine which required equal time to controversial topics. Cigarette smoking among Americans had been on the decline of 2.6% annually from 1968 to 1970 after the application of the Fairness Doctrine to cigarette commercials. On the other hand, cigarette commercials didn't generally increase the market, but only tended to only get consumers to switch brands. Without cigarette commercials the Fairness Doctrine no longer applied thus eliminating the required anti-smoking spots. Smoking increased by 2.5% annually over the next several years. Plus, the cigarette industry's total advertising budget decreased by $80 million in 1971.

Barracuda - The First Pony Car

April 1, 1964

Plymouth debuts the 1964 Barracuda. It was a fastback coupe, based on the Plymouth Valiant compact car.
The term "pony car" was coined by Car Life magazine editor Dennis Shattuck to describe a sporty compact car that typically had a long hood, short deck, and "open mouth" styling.
Note: The 1965 Ford Mustang pony car was released several weeks later on April 17, 1964.

General Hospital

April 1, 1963

The daytime drama General Hospital debuts on ABC. It is the longest-running American soap opera in production and the second longest-running drama in American television history after Guiding Light.
The romance between Luke Spencer and Laura Webber became the most popular storyline in soap opera history. The two-part 1981 Luke and Laura wedding was watched by about 30 million viewers, setting a record for the highest-rated episode of an American soap opera.

Spaghetti Tree Hoax

April 1, 1957

"You're so dumb, you think spaghetti grows on trees!"
The BBC airs an April Fool's "news story" about the spaghetti harvest in Switzerland. It purported to show spaghetti being harvested from trees and laid out to dry and claimed that spaghetti trees had been specially bred to produce such uniform length spaghetti strands.
After the broadcast, hundreds of people called in to find out how they could obtain their own spaghetti trees.
To make it sound more authoritative, the voice-over was done by respected broadcaster Richard Dimbleby.
The idea was the brainchild of Panorama cameraman Charles de Jaeger who came up with the idea for the hoax after remembering how teachers at his school teased his classmates for being so stupid that if they were told that spaghetti grew on trees, they would believe it.

World War II - Okinawa Invasion

April 1, 1945

One of the bloodiest battles of the war. This 82-day-long battle began on Easter Sunday and April Fool's day of 1945 ending in an Allied victory. It was the largest amphibious assault in the Pacific. The Japanese lost 77,000 soldiers, while the U.S. lost 14,000. It is estimated that between 42,000-150,000 civilians also died in the battle out of a population of 300,000. U.S. Lieutenant General Simon Bolivar Buckner Jr., who called for the invasion, was killed in action. After surrendering, the Japanese General Mitsuru Ushijima committed suicide. The famous war correspondent Ernie Pyle was killed by enemy fire during this battle.

Bonnie and Clyde

April 1, 1934

The criminal couple Bonnie and Clyde, along with Henry Methvin, kill two highway patrolmen near Grapevine, Texas.

Hitler Sentenced to Prison

April 1, 1924

The future German leader Adolf Hitler is sentenced to five years in prison for his involvement in an attempt to overthrow the Bavarian government in a revolt known as the Beer Hall Putsch. He only served nine months and used his time in prison to write the first volume of Mein Kampf, which included Hitler's plans for transforming Germany into a society based on race.
Mein Kampf became a best seller and earned Hitler 7.8 million reichsmarks (about $190 million in current inflation-adjusted US dollars).

First U.S. Serviceman Killed in World War I

April 1, 1917

USN Boatswain's Mate 1st Class John E. Eopolucci is killed when the steamship SS Aztec, an American civilian cargo ship, is torpedoed and sunk by a German submarine off the coast of France. Eopolucci had volunteered to serve as part of a Naval Armed Guard team to protect the vessel as it traveled through submarine infested waters.
Twenty-eight passengers were killed, including 10 American crew members.
The following day, U.S. President Woodrow Wilson asked Congress to declare war on Germany, which it did on April 6th.

Ford's First Moving Assembly Line

April 1, 1913

Henry Ford further advances his assembly line by experimenting with a moving assembly line in his Detroit factory. It was for assembling flywheel magnetos. The assembly process was split among 29 employees, each putting together a part of the magneto, which was then conveyed by belt to the next worker. Previously, each magneto was built by a single person. The production time was lowered from 20 minutes to 13 minutes per magneto. Further improvements over the next year lowered the time to five minutes.
Ford had been inspired by Chicago meat packers, where cows and hogs were slaughtered, dressed, and packed using overhead trolleys that took the meat from worker to worker.
Ford began using a moving assembly line for entire automobile later that year.

First U.S. Federal Narcotics Prohibition

April 1, 1909

A ban on the importation and smoking of opium goes into effect. This was "The Opium Exclusion Act of 1909". It did not ban the use of opium, only the smoking and importation of it. Chinese immigrants were the primary smokers of opium, while opium was a common medicine used by Americans at the time. The previously legal trade of opium was soon taken over by criminal enterprises.

Wrigley's Gum

April 1, 1891

Wm. Wrigley Jr. Company is founded by 29-year-old William Wrigley, Jr. It would add chewing gum to its line of products the following year.
He originally sold Wrigley's Scouring Soap, offering premiums such as baking powder, as an incentive to buy his soap. He then switched to selling the baking powder offering chewing gum as an incentive to buy the baking powder. The chewing gum proved so popular that he began focusing on selling gum.
Wrigley's gum was originally made out of chicle, the milky latex of the sapodilla tree. In the 1960s they switched from chicle to synthetic rubber.

RMS Atlantic Disaster

April 1, 1873

The RMS Atlantic strikes an underwater rock and sinks off the coast of Nova Scotia, killing more than 535 of the 952 on board. The ship's engineer had intentionally under-reported their coal reserves in order to increase the margin for error in favor of safety. The captain, taking these numbers at face value, mistakenly believed they didn't have enough coal to make it to their destination of New York City, so he diverted to Halifax, Nova Scotia to refuel. They, in fact, had plenty of coal. While approaching Halifax, strong storm winds and currents blew them off course by about 12½ miles (20.1 km). The crew, unfamiliar with the dangers of Halifax, failed to take proper safety precautions, such as soundings, posting a lookout, or reducing speed, and struck an underwater rock. The crew attempted to lower the lifeboats, but all ten were smashed or washed away as the ship filled with water and partially capsized.

The "$" Symbol

April 1, 1778

The "$" symbol for the U.S. dollar is created by Irish-born New Orleans businessman Oliver Pollock.

Lon Chaney, Sr.

Born April 1, 1883 d. 1930

American horror actor, "The Man of a Thousand Faces." Film: The Hunchback of Notre Dame (1923, title role) and Phantom of the Opera (1925, title role).