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April 1st marks a day of varied celebrations, each sewn from different threads of culture, history, and social movements. While some revel in jest and joy, others focus on advocacy and action. From the whimsical to the serious, this date plays host to a multitude of observances across the globe.

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Interesting Facts of April 1st

  1. 1. In certain European countries, April 1st used to be celebrated as the New Year's Day until the adoption of the Gregorian calendar in the 16th century.
  2. 2. The custom of April Fool’s Day jokes and pranks is believed to have originated in France when the New Year was moved from April 1st to January 1st.
  3. 3. April 1st is also the day on which the BBC broadcast a famous hoax Panorama documentary in 1957, showing Swiss farmers picking freshly-grown spaghetti, which led many viewers to believe spaghetti grew on trees.
  4. 4. Google launched Gmail, its free web-based email service o April 1st, 2004, which many people at first thought was an April Fool's Day prank due to its then-unheard-of offering of 1 GB of free storage.
  5. 5. In medieval times, April 1st was associated with the feast of the Annunciation, known as Lady Day, which celebrated the announcement by the angel Gabriel to the Virgin Mary that she would conceive and become the mother of Jesus.
  6. 6. In 1996, Taco Bell duped people by announcing it had bought the Liberty Bell and was renaming it the Taco Liberty Bell, causing an uproar until the company revealed it was just an April Fool's joke.