Can you spot the April fools' gags?

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Can you spot the April fools' gags?

The tradition of April Fools' Day jokes grew out of resistance to the adoption of the Gregorian calendar in the 16th to18th centuries. For hundreds of years newspapers, and more recently broadcasters, have created fantastical reports to commemorate April 1. Can you spot which of the following stories are classic April fools' gags from the media and which are true stories?

By Mark Oliver

Japanese long-distance runner Kimo Nakajimi entered the London Marathon in 1983 but got confused by a translation of the rules and thought he had to run for 26 days, not 26 miles. He was discovered, after the race was well over, out running in the English countryside.

True
April fool

The fashion designer Alexander McQueen claims to have written a profanity in pen onto a jacket belonging to Prince Charles when he was working as a Saville Row tailor.

True
April fool

On the North Atlantic island of San Serriffe, the locals hold the festival of the Well Made Play during which they perform the complete works of playwright William Douglas-Home in English, Caslon, and Ki-flong (languages of the island).

True
April fool

Burger King introduced a new a "left-handed Whopper" in the US in 1998 designed for the 32 million left-handed Americans. The new burger had the same ingredients as the original but all the condiments were rotated 180 degrees.

True
April fool

Telescopes belonging to the Chicago Times discovered a penal colony on the moon in 1876.

True
April fool

It emerged earlier this year that elephants have hitherto unheralded powers to mimic sounds, including birds, and nearby traffic.

True
April fool

Swiss farmers enjoyed a particularly good spaghetti crop from the country's spaghetti trees in 1957.

True
April fool

The German architect Albert Speer designed buildings for the Nazis so that they would leave aesthetically pleasing ruins.

True
April fool

The Wisconsin state capitol building was destroyed in 1933 by a series of mysterious explosions. The Madison Capital-Times reported at the time that the explosions were attributed to "large quantities of gas, generated through many weeks of verbose debate in the Senate and Assembly chambers".

True
April fool

http://www.guardian.co.uk/quiz/questions/0,5961,1449501,00.html

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