People have been playing April Fool’s day pranks for literally hundreds of years. In fact, the practice dates back to 1582 when France first adopted the Gregorian calendar, which moved the observance of New Year’s Day from the end of March to Jan. 1. According to folklore, some people at that time continued to celebrate the new year on April 1 and became the subject of jokes and pranks due to their foolishness, sparking the annual tradition which ultimately spread across Europe and eventually across the Atlantic to the New World.

The age of technology has allowed the tradition of April Fools Jokes to spread to the masses. Since the advent of television and the Internet, people have been able to prank large communities instead of simply friends and family. What’s more unbelievable than the hoaxes themselves is the number of people who actually fall for them year after year. WallStreetInsanity highlights five great April Fools’ hoaxes of the past 60 years:

5. Spaghetti Grows On Trees – In 1957, the BBC news show “Panorama” announced a mild winter had resulted in the elimination of the dreaded Swiss spaghetti weevil. Therefore, farmers in Switzerland were enjoying a bountiful crop of spaghetti. The network even showed footage of Swiss farmers pulling strands of spaghetti off of trees. Believe it or not, a ton of people fell for the prank, calling in to the BBC wanting to know how they could grow their own spaghetti tree. Not ready to give up its hoax, the BBC told them to “place a sprig of spaghetti in a tin of tomato sauce and hope for the best.” The “Panorama” broadcast is considered the first time television was used to stage an April Fool’s Day prank.

4. Instant Color TV – European television viewers were fooled again in 1962 when Sweden’s then-only TV channel, SVT—which was broadcast in black and white—announced that a new technology would allow viewers to convert their existing sets to color. All they had to do was pull nylon stockings over their TV screens. The station’s “technical expert” Kjell Stennson even demonstrated the process during a news broadcast. Thousands of viewers later admitted to falling for the hoax and taping pantyhose to their TV sets.

3. Alabama Changes the Value of Pi – The “New Mexicans for Science and Reason” newsletter April 1998 issue contained an article claiming the Alabama legislature voted to change the mathematical value of pi from 3.14159 to its “Biblical value” of 3.0. The article found its way onto the Internet and was quickly emailed around the world. Soon the Alabama legislature was receiving hundreds of calls from people protesting its “legislation.” The article was written as a joke by physicist Mark Boslough in protest of Alabama’s attempts to alter the teaching of evolution in its schools.

2. The Taco Liberty Bell – Back in 1996 Taco Bell had some April Fools’ fun by purchasing a full-page ad in six major US newspapers that announced its acquisition of the Liberty Bell. Not only did Taco Bell claim it bought the historic landmark, but the fast-food chain stated it renamed it the Taco Liberty Bell. Hundreds of outraged Americans called the National Historic Park in Philadelphia only to find out, a few hours later, that the ad was a practical joke. Even better, before the hoax was revealed, White House press secretary Mike McCurry said the Lincoln Memorial had also been sold and been renamed the Ford Lincoln Mercury Memorial.

1. Planets Align and Decrease Gravity – In 1976 BBC Radio2 broadcast an interview with British astronomer Patrick Moore, who claimed that at 9:47 a.m. Pluto would pass behind Jupiter. This once-in-a-lifetime phenomenon would temporarily cause a gravitational alignment that would decrease Earth’s gravity. According to Moore, anyone who jumped in the air at the exact moment of the planetary alignment would experience a floating sensation. As if the hoax weren’t funny enough, the BBC2 began receiving hundreds of calls beginning at 9:47 a.m. from listeners who claimed they actually had floated. One woman even said she and her 11 friends had risen from their chairs and floated around the room! Another caller claimed she and her husband floated around the room together, while an angry gentlemen phoned in to say he rose from the ground so quickly he banged his head on the ceiling and wanted compensation.