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When the BBC won April Fools' Day in 1957

The modern April Fools' Day ritual has already begun — you have to figure out which stories are legitimate and which ones are pranks.

As the above video shows, it wasn't always this way. The media used to be the victim of pranks, not the perpetrator. But thanks to a watershed prank by the BBC (and a few merry pranksters before that), April Fools' Day has become a universally loved (or loathed) part of our reading every year.

If you want to learn more about the holiday, read Michelle Hackman's earnest explainer or nerd out over hoaxes past at Hoaxes.org.

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