No, I don’t like April Fools. I don’t think that laughing about other people should be limited to a certain date. So, I looked for some other things that have happened on a 1st of April. Like these:
1873 – The RMS Atlantic sinks off the coast of Nova Scotia. When the recovered bodies were prepared for burial, it was discovered that one of the men was actually a woman. One of her shipmates says: “I didn’t know Bill was a woman. He used to take his grog as regular as any of us, and was always begging or stealing tobacco. He was a good fellow, though, and I am sorry he was a woman.
1875 – Edgar Wallace is born. Might not mean much to you, but movies, based on his work, were extremely popular here in Germany.
1924 – In Munich, an Austrian foreigner gets sentenced to five years in prison for treason. He only has to serve 9 months, during which he gives birth to a book that he calls “Mein Kampf”. Although he writes that piece of shit, wears the stupidest mustache ever witnessed and sounds like brown bear on acid, Hitler still gets votes in an election. See? April 1st ist not all about jokes.
1950 – Samuel Alito is born. ’nuff said.
1970 – In the US, the “Public Health Cigarette Smoking Act” requires cigarette manufacturers to print warnings on the packs and bans advertising for cigarettes on radio and tv. Didn’t help much, so in 1984 the Congress passed the “Comprehensive Smoking Education Act”. Why not just print a big skull on the packs, with the words “Smoking will kill you, sucker!” under it?
1976 – Three guys in California are extremely bored, so they found a company to pass the time. They call it “Apple Computer”. Steve Jobs becomes the most charismatic CEO in the computer world, Steve Wozniak the most likeable of all hackers. And Ronald Wayne is from now on known as the guy who sold 10% of Apple, Inc. for $800.
1999 – David L. Smith gets arrested. The creator of the Melissa virus pleads guilty in December and gets sentenced to 20 months in federal prison. He is ordered to serve three years of supervised release after completion of his prison sentence and is fined $5,000. In 1999 Microsoft had a net income of $7.8 bn. None of their software engineers had to go to prison.
2001 – The Netherlands celebrate the first legal same-sex marriage. And
2002 – Euthanasia becomes legal in the Netherlands. These two legalizations assured the Netherlands’ position as the most liberal country on planet Earth.