In honour of April Fool's Day, we have compiled a short list of the best and the worst media hoaxes of all time, spanning from amazing fake BBC documentaries on spaghetti trees to awful panic-inducing pranks by American shock jocks.
Here are five of the worst:
Nixon 1992?
One of the most infamous and disliked Presidents of all-time, Richard Nixon, who met his political end after the Watergate scandal of the early 1970s.
However, in a fake report on America's National Public Radio (NPR), Nixon was alleged to be making a comeback in 1992, which would've been awful. Fortunately, it turned out to be a hoax featuring comedian Rich Little impersonating Nixon.
Ochoco Dam Disaster
Quite simply, natural disasters are never funny. However, one DJ on the Oregon radio station KSJJ thought otherwise and announced on his show that the Ochoco Dam (below), which had failed only a year before, had again collapsed.
The announcement wasn't taken lightly by local residents, who complained about the unfunny pranks, especially those who had suffered several thousands dollars worth of damage in the previous floods. You can read more about the prank in this article from the Eugene Register-Guard, from the following day, 1999.
Shock jocks declare Mayor dead
Faking your own death is an incredibly hard feat to pull off. Someone else faking your death is impossible. However, for a while on 1 April 1998, American shock jocks Opie and Anthony, pictured below, managed to convince members of the public, and even family, that Boston Mayor Tom Menino had been killed in a car accident in Florida.
At the time, Menino was proving very difficult to reach, causing members of his family to genuinely believe he was dead. Eventually, Menino filed a complaint and the duo were sacked over the prank.
Uday Hussein and the repetitive fake news
Uday Hussein, son of the deceased dictator Saddam, owned the Babil newspaper and thought, in 1998, that he would play a joke on the Iraqi masses by claiming that the sanctions imposed on the country by President Bill Clinton had been relieved.
According to the Museum of Hoaxes, Uday, pictured below, must have found the joke so funny that he repeated it again in 2000. He also re-ran one gag about rations expanding to include bananas and Pepsi.
Richard Branson's UFO
Publicity stunts and Sir Richard Branson go together like rum and (non-Virgin) cola. Whether it's failed balloon trips, or dressing up as a Malay warrior, Branson is a permanent fixture in the advertising plays for his company, Virgin.
This particular stunt involved a balloon mocked up to look like a UFO, piloted by Branson. Unfortunately for the Virgin CEO, winds blew the balloon off course, causing it to crash-land in field, rather than Hyde Park, as he intended.
And, in honor of April Fool's Day, we have assembled a collection of the world's most deceptive hoaxes in recent history. Take a look at our choices below, and let us know which ones we've forgotten