• Flying Saucer Crash, 1950: A story about a crashed UFO was published in a Honolulu paper as an April Fool's joke. The story was spread via amateur radiomen and eventually reported as serious news in St. Joseph, Michigan by the Herald-Press.
   

• Little Blue Man, 1958: Numerous sightings of "a little blue" alien man were reported by drivers in rural Michigan over a several-week period. Turns out the hoax was perpetrated by three pranksters with a homemade costume.
   
• Sharks, 1981: A news report in Roscommon, Michigan announced that 2,000 fresh-water sharks, including a few Great Whites, would be released in three northern Michigan lakes for a cold-climate experiment. This prank is on many top-100 lists of April Fool's Pranks.
   
• Lethal Chemical, 1983: A Michigan weekly reported that a dangerous chemical that can burn skin and is lethal when inhaled was found in the city's water pipes. The joke? The chemical was H20.
   
• Auto Plant, 1984: As an April Fool's joke, a Michigan newspaper reported that Nissan was building a new auto plant in Michigan that would employ thousands and pay high wages. Funny huh?
   
• Dogman, 1987: A song created as an April Fool's prank told the story of a half-dog, half-man creature called the Dogman. It was played on a Traverse City radio station and developed a life of its own when people started calling in to report sightings.
   

• Detroit Greatest City, 2002: The cover of Maxim declared Detroit the "Greatest City on Earth" and then trashed other prominent U.S. cities. Of course the magazine also had 12 other covers printed that declared each of those other U.S. cities the victor and trashed Detroit - what's new?
   
• Sturgis Signs, 2003: Twenty signs with a quote from a Japanese video game appeared throughout Sturgis as an April Fool's joke. The signs read, "All your base are belong to us. You have no chance to survive make your time." Not getting the reference, residents and police were afraid it was a terrorist threat.
   
• Welcome to Detroit Sign, 2006: Prank or fair warning? You decide. In 2006, Tom Greenwood, a columnist for the Detroit News, reported a sign at the Wayne County border that read "Welcome to Detroit. We hope you survive."
   
• GM and Chrysler, 2009: A news report in Car and Driver Magazine announced that the two automakers were required to drop out of NASCAR in order to receive government aid.
   
• Snyder Leaving Republican Party, 2011: A fake press release in honor of the April Fool's holiday was released by the Michigan Democratic Party. It reported that Governor Rick Snyder was leaving the Republican Party to become an independent. “I want to reinvent myself as I reinvent Michigan because that way I’ll share in the sacrifice and not leave myself behind.” A disclaimer by the Michigan Democratic Party made clear that the press release was a joke.

More Hoaxes:

• The Hopkins Hoax, 1862: After ex-President Franklin Pierce traveled to Michigan in 1861, local papers reported rumors that he was in the state to participate in a plot to overthrow the national government. In response, Dr. Guy S. Hopkins forged a letter by a member of the Knights of the Golden Circle implicating ex-President Franklin Pierce in a treason plot. His plan was to leak the false letter to republican papers in Detroit and then come clean about its origin to effectively humiliate them. The letter, however, ended up getting forwarded to William Seward, Abraham Lincoln's Secretary of State. Seward immediately acted to arrest the possible traitors, including Hopkins. When Hopkins confessed that the letter was a hoax, Seward attempted to distance himself from the whole business. Meanwhile, the letter got published and the bogus news about Pierce spread nationally without being renounced by Seward.

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