Today in History – April 1
1392 – April Fools’ Day (sometimes called All Fools’ Day) is celebrated every year on April 1 by playing practical jokes and spreading hoaxes. The jokes and their victims are called April fools. People playing April Fool jokes expose their prank by shouting April Fool. Some newspapers, magazines, and other published media report fake stories, which are usually explained the next day or below the news section in small letters. Although popular since the 19th century, the day is not a public holiday in any country.
Geoffrey Chaucer’s The Canterbury Tales (1392) contains the first recorded association between April 1 and foolishness.
1826 – Samuel Morey is issued the first U.S. patent for an internal-combustion engine, which he calls a “Gas or Vapour Engine”
1889 – 1st dishwashing machine marketed (Chicago)
1900 – 1st edition of Dutch newspaper “The People”
1957 – World’s biggest glass oven used
1960 – 1st weather satellite launched (TIROS 1)
1970 – President Nixon signed into law the banning of cigarette advertising on television and radio.
1976 – Steve Wozniak and Steve Jobs found Apple Computer in the garage of Jobs’ parents house in Cupertino, California
1976 – Jovian-Plutonian gravitational effect is first reported by the astronomer Patrick Moore.
1981 – Daylight saving time is introduced in the USSR
1990 – It becomes illegal in Salem Oregon to be within 2 feet of nude dancers
1997 – Shell Oil confirms it will declare force majeure at its Nigerian Bonny terminal due to local protests which disrupted 210 million barrels per day of the company’s oil production
2001 – Netherlands becomes the first country in the world to make same-sex marriage legal
2002 – The Netherlands legalizes euthanasia, becoming the first nation in the world to do so.
2004 – Google introduces Gmail: the launch is met with scepticism on account of the launch date.
2013 – The world’s first smelling TV screen is unveiled in Japan.