I love a good joke or prank. Yesterday was April Fool’s Day, a day traditionally set aside for such tomfoolery.

But do you know the history behind the celebrated day of pranks?

The exact origin of April Fool’s Day is unknown, though it has been celebrated by different cultures for centuries. According to History.com, it is speculated that its roots date back as far as 1582, when France switched to the Gregorian calendar. With this new calendar, the new year began on the Spring equinox, April 1. However, according to legend, some folks didn’t get that memo and continued to celebrate the new year on Jan. 1. In turn, those people became the butt of jokes and victims of pranks, labeled “April fools”, and the rest - as they say - is quite literally, history.

Throughout the years, even the media has gotten in on the April Fool's Day fun. A few years ago we ran a series of spoof articles in the Gothenburg Leader on April 1, and this week our featured columnist, Mark Peyton, has some fun with his weekly column explaining all about unicorns. My granddaughter, Ellie, would argue that every bit of that article is factual - but she also thoroughly believes her grampie is Santa, so there is that!

Here are just a few fun April 1 spoofs that various media outlets have had fun with over the years, as recorded by History.com. In 1957, the BBC reported that Swiss farmers were experiencing a record spaghetti crop and showed footage of people harvesting noodles from trees.

Many will also remember the story from 1985, when Sports Illustrated writer George Plimpton tricked many readers when he ran a made-up article about a rookie pitcher named Sidd Finch who could throw a fastball over 168 miles per hour. Or how about in 1996, when fast food chain Taco Bell announced it had agreed to purchase Philadelphia's Liberty Bell and intended to rename it the Taco Liberty Bell. Not to be outdone by another fast food restaurant, in 1998, Burger King advertised a “Left-Handed Whopper,” bringing scores of clueless customers into the stores requesting the fake sandwich.

Of course, April Fool’s Day really is intended to be just good, clean fun. For the average trickster, there is always the classic April Fool’s Day prank of covering the toilet with plastic wrap or swapping the contents of sugar and salt containers.