The Guardian's datablog has compiled a list of Guardian and Observer April Fools' stories going back to 1974.The tradition of April Fools' Day stories in the media has a long history, with newspaper hoaxes first beginning to appear in the early 19th century, mainly in America. One of the very first was a series of New York Sun articles in 1835 about life on the moon. According to the Guardian, the spoof though, by which all others are measured is the Guardian's 1977 San Serriffe travel guide. The guide is a seven-page travel supplement to a non-existent island, which was described throughout using an obscure vocabulary composed entirely of printing terms. The success of this hoax is widely credited with inspiring the British media's enthusiasm for April the first jokes in subsequent years.

The data is available to download, and links to original sources are available from the datablog post.