Noon - This tradition is slowing losing favor and pranks are being carried out throughout the day.
In Scotland, April Fool's Day is often called "Hunt the Gowk Day". A gowk is a bird which translates to mean a cuckoo.
Learn more April Fool's trivia from TriviaChamp.com.
Although April Fools’ Day, also called All Fools’ Day, has been celebrated for several centuries by different cultures, its exact origins remain a mystery. Some historians speculate that April Fools’ Day dates back to 1582, when France switched from the Julian calendar to the Gregorian calendar, as called for by the Council of Trent in 1563.
In modern times, people have gone to great lengths to create elaborate April Fools’ Day hoaxes.
In 1957, the BBC reported that Swiss farmers were experiencing a record spaghetti crop and showed footage of people harvesting noodles from trees; numerous viewers were fooled.
In 1985, Sports Illustrated tricked many of its readers when it ran a made-up article about a rookie pitcher named Sidd Finch who could throw a fastball over 168 miles per hour.
See more of the greatest April Fools' hoaxes ever, featured at CNN.com.