In 1708 Jonathan Swift pulled off an epic April Fool.
Swift had beef with an agnostic astrologer called John Partridge who had made a name for himself out of bogus predictions in an almanac.
Swift had beef with an agnostic astrologer called John Partridge who had made a name for himself out of bogus predictions in an almanac.
When in his 1708 edition Partridge predicted a pandemic would hit London in early April of that year, Swift published an alternative almanac under a fake name predicting that Partridge would die from it.
This pissed Partridge off no end and matters worsened when Swift (under the pseudonym) published an obituary of Partridge who only found he was *dead* out when he took to the streets to find people asking him why he wasn't in a coffin.
Partridge angrily published a rebuttal claiming he was alive, and Swift again asserted in print that Partridge had snuffed it and that the pamphlet was *fake news* written by someone else.
Shortly after that Partridge gave up on almanacs.
Shortly after that Partridge gave up on almanacs.
It's so twitter...
