100+ — Number of panicked Milton residents who called authorities on the evening of April 1, 1980, after a Channel 7 news report that 635-foot Great Blue Hill was erupting — complete with archival clips of flowing lava from Mount St. Helens and President Carter and Governor Ed King expressing worry; the program’s producer is fired on April 2.
One Week — The time it takes in 1998 for Mayor Tom Menino to get WAAF radio hosts Gregg “Opie” Hughes and Anthony Cumia fired after they tell listeners he had died in a Florida car crash.
Two Months — The time it takes the shock jocks to be hired at a larger station in New York City.
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$6.9 Billion — That’s the price the Walt Disney Co. pays to acquire the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, according to the hacked university home page on April 1, 1998. “I knew it was a hack as soon as I saw the price,” a game MIT spokesman jokes. “Only $6.9 billion? Much too cheap!”
King Kugel?
Boston University history professor Joseph Boskin tells an Associated Press reporter in 1983 that the Roman emperor Constantine started the April 1 tradition by appointing a jester named Kugel to rule for a day. It isn’t true, but the AP publishes the story nationwide.
20 — Number of years, starting in 1980, that North Pembroke Elementary teacher Connie Hayes arrives early on April 1 to write the day’s assignments upside down on her blackboard. She’ll tell her amazed second-graders she stood on the ceiling to do it. Hayes, who retired in 2008, teaches harder-to-trick college students these days. “We use PowerPoints and LCD projectors and laptops,” she reports. “Now that’s a challenge!”
Snow Job — In 2013, the City of Malden’s official home page instructs residents to bag up their leftover snow — trash collectors will pick up one sack per week.
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His name is Whitey, he wore a Sox cap
In 2007, The Berlin Daily Sun reports that Whitey Bulger was found holed up in New Hampshire’s Heavenly Acres trailer park. What gets him out after a standoff? Agents blasting Barry Manilow songs.