Tango-Dancing Monkeys    (April Fool's Day - 1914)

Crowds gathered outside the monkey cages at the Berlin Zoological Garden, lured there by an article in the Berliner Morgenpost promising that Missy, a female chimpanzee from the forests of Cameroon, would be performing the tango, a skill said to have been taught to her over the winter months by the zoo's director. Her partner would be Karl, a large gray baboon. Both would be wearing ballroom costumes. Eventually the crowd realized what day it was and dispersed. But a few days later, the story of the tango-dancing monkeys was reprinted by a French paper, Le Petit Journal, which had mistaken it for real news. Le Petit Journal reported that the two simians actually danced gracefully in their cage, and were met with wild applause from the audience.