Assassination of Trotsky    (April Fool's Day - 1928)

The Russian monarchist newspaper Sewodnja reported that Leon Trotsky, the Soviet revolutionary leader who had recently been ousted from power, had been shot in the back by an Armenian supporter of Stalin. The news was promptly reprinted by newspapers throughout the world. Only after strenuous denials from the Soviet government was the report traced back to Sewodnja, whose editors then admitted that the story had been intended as a joke. Twelve years later Trotsky really was shot and killed by a Soviet agent in Mexico.