1400s
Thomas Betson, a monk at Syon Abbey Middlesex, pulls off one of the earliest documented practical jokes when he hides a beetle inside an apple and convinces his fellow holy men that the rocking fruit is possessed.

1959
US prankster Alan Abel dreams up a campaign calling for animals to wear clothing – the Society for Indecency to Naked Animals. Spokesperson G. Clifford Prout appears on US news programme Today to promote the group’s slogan: “A nude horse is a rude horse.”
50,000 citizens signed its petition

1962
A technician at Sweden’s lone television station appears on the news to announce that, thanks to a new technology, viewers can convert the existing black-and-white broadcasts into color. All they have to do is pull a nylon stocking over their TV screeen. Thousands tried it.

1998
Burger King introduces a new menu item: the Left-Handed Whopper. The company claims it includes the same ingredients as the original version, but all condiments are rotated 180 degrees.

2008
Days before the US presidential election, a Canadian DJ rechaes vice-presidential candidate Sarah Palin by phone and convinces her that he’s the French president Nicholas Sarkozy. Palin fails to realize it’s a joke, even when he says in an exaggerated Pepé Le Pew accent, “From my ‘ouse, I can see Belgium.”