To celebrate April Fools’ Day we’ve been looking back on some of our favourite pranks and hoaxes.

Here are 5 of the best:

BBC Spaghetti Tree report

Perhaps the most famous April Fools’ Day joke, and for good reason. Around 7 million homes tuned-in to Panorama on April 1st 1957, to learn of the ‘Spaghetti Harvest’ in Lake Lugano, Southern Switzerland. The voice of Richard Dimbleby narrating over the images of ‘pasta cultivation’ lent much authority to the segment. The following day the BBC received hundreds of phone calls from people asking how they could grow their own spaghetti trees. The Beeb’s answer to this query: “place a sprig of spaghetti in a tin of tomato sauce and hope for the best”.

Grand Exhibition of Donkeys

This particular one has very much stood the test of time. On March 31st, 1864, Islington’s Evening Star publicised that ‘a grand exhibition of donkeys’ would be appearing on April 1st at the Agricultural Hall. The following morning hundreds congregated outside the hall. As time went by, the slow realisation dawned upon them, they were in fact the ‘donkeys’.

Wisconsin State Capitol collapses

Perhaps not the first use of ‘trick-photography’, but certainly one of the most famous. In 1933, the front page of The Madison Capital-Times published a photo of the dome of the Wisconsin State Capitol building collapsing. Even with the caption reading “Officials Say Legislature Generated Too Much Hot Air.”, many were still fooled.

Scottish Twin Peaks starring Robbie Coltrane

Back in 1991 when Twin Peaks was the most talked about show on television, BBC’s Reporting Scotland ran a story that claimed season 3 of the series would be moved to the banks of Loch Lomond. What influenced David Lynch’s decision to move the series from Washington State to the Scottish Highlands? Turns out he’s a ‘mad, keen angler’. Robbie Coltrane is onboard keeping a straight face when discussing his new starring role. Watch the video here…

Removal of the Meuse River bridge

This one is similar to the Islington’s Evening Star donkey exhibition story, but with an extra twist. In 1967 The French newspaper L’Ardennais announced that the Meuse River bridge at Montey-Notre-Dame would be removed by helicopters and replaced with a new one. Over 2000 people gathered to watch. After some time, a loudspeaker informed the crowd that the bridge-removal had been delayed…until April 1st, 1968.