April Fool's Comes Swiftly
I think this has to be a candidate for best April Fool's Day prank ever:
But Partridge's ordeal was only beginning. It's reported that he woke up the morning of his death to the sound of the church bell announcing his passing. Before long, he was visited by an undertaker looking to prepare his home, and later by the church sexton seeking orders for the funeral sermon. Throughout the day a string of mourners, funeral workers, and church officials were shooed from the cobbler's door.
Partridge would frequently be stopped on the street for inquiries into how his widow was coping, or to be chided for lacking the decency to be properly buried. The old astrologer had no shortage of enthusiastic enemies willing to perpetuate the myth of his death, and the more literarily inclined among them -- some the past victims of Partridge's own predictions -- set about printing additional denials and confirmations of his passing, adding to the confusion. Some of these forgeries were released under Partridge's own name, making it difficult to separate his genuine protests from the comically-enhanced accounts of his imposters.