Another remarkable April Fool's Day prank was pulled by Australian news program in 1975. On the program that evening it was announced that Australia would be converting to "metric time." It was explained that under metric time, there would be 100 seconds in a minute,100 minutes in an hour, and 20 hours in a day. It was also explained that seconds would become decidays. The report had many convincing details, including an interview with South Austraila's deputy premier and a shot of Adelaide's town hall clock, with its "new" 10-hour metric clock face. Many people fell for the trick. Some even got angry about it. One viewer was particularly irritated because, as he explained, he had just bought a new clock and thought that it was now useless.
Sometimes it seems the sillier the hoax, the more likely people are to fall for it! So the next time you hear something that sounds too silly to be true, look at your calendar and make sure that it isn't April first!