The Case of the Dead Astrologer

One of the strangest April Fool hoaxes ever was pulled of by one Isaac Bickerstaff, an astrologer who published an almanac predicting the events of the year 1708. One of his predictions was the death of rival astrologer John Partridge on March 29th. On April first, news of Partridge’s death was all over London, and funeral arrangements were being made. The only problem was that Partridge was not dead. However, he spent the rest of his life trying to live down the hoax. Read the entire story, and the surprising true identity of Isaac Bickerstaff, at Damn Interesting. Link