We humans like a good joke, and we’re not above making our nearest and dearest the butts of it, especially when the powers that be have set aside a day purely for that purpose.

 The first of April releases something within us that at other times during the year we attempt to keep reined in. Yet whatever social constraints we normally submit ourselves to, it is the amateur joker in us that comes to the surface every first of April, leaving us contemplating  secreting ketchup in the showerhead or salt in the sugar bowl.

One of the more imaginative April Fool’s Day hoaxes was the work of a well-known restaurant chain. In 1996, Taco Bell Corp. announced it had bought the Liberty Bell from the federal government and was renaming it the Taco Liberty Bell. Citizens outraged by the vending of a historic treasure complained to the National Historic Park in Philadelphia where the bell is housed. A few hours later, Taco Bell admitted the spoof. When asked about the sale, Mike McCurry (who was then the White House press secretary) replied with tongue in cheek that the Lincoln Memorial had also been sold to a different corporation and would henceforth be known as the Ford Lincoln Mercury Memorial.

Source: Snopes.com