10 Greatest April Fools Day Hoaxes Of All Time
6. World To End Tomorrow (1 April 1940)
In Philadelphia the KYW radio station made the following broadcast:
“Your worst fears that the world will end are confirmed by astronomers of Franklin Institute, Philadelphia. Scientists predict that the world will end at 3 p.m. Eastern Standard Time tomorrow. This is no April Fools’ joke. Confirmation can be obtained from Wagner Schlesinger, director of the Fels Planetarium of this city.”
The people of Philadelphia lost their minds. The newspapers, the police, and the Information Bureau, received hundreds of calls from frightened citizens.
KYW apologised but blamed the Franklin Institute. They said the press agent for the institute, a man named William Castellini, had given them the information and they had read it in good faith, believing it to be genuine.
Castellini said it was a publicity stunt to get people to come to the April 1st Lecture at the planetarium titled, How Will the World End?
William Castellini later got fired.