Edmunds County Tribune -

In times like these, everybody could use a good laugh, especially if you fall for somebody's fib on April Fools Day. The publication date for this edition is indeed April 1, otherwise known as April Fools Day.

I guess according to my research that April Fools pranks, practical jokes and various goofs and the day itself are a tradition that goes back several centuries. Some indeed name it All Fools' Day, especially if you are somebody that has actually gotten fooled. But at any rate several historians believe that April Fools Day traces its origin to the transition from the Julian calendar to the Gregorian calendar in 1582. And that was also apparently when the start of the new year was actually moved to January 1 from the last week of March.

I did not know that. Of course, these facts could just be fake news or that's what we would call it now days, especially on April 1. But people who were slow to get the news that the new year had been re-located would continue celebrating it in late March into April, so became the object of April pranks. In Scotland and I'm about 99 percent Scottish the tradition actually became a two-day event.

The earliest massive widespread April Fools hoax is believed to be in 1698 in London when people were told to attend an event at the Tower of London and when they got there it was nowhere to be found.

Even National Geographic got in on the fun in 2016. They announced via Twitter that it would no longer be publishing photos of naked animals, stating they would “no longer degrade animals by showing photos of them without clothes.” Those who clicked through were greeted with “April Fools” and photos of adorably dressed puppies and kittens.

And some of these have indeed evolved into pranks spread by broadcasters, as April 1 news reports down through the years. They could have been quite harmful if you actually did believe them. (Like the historical attack by Martians.) Indeed fake news, if you will!