Henry and Jack Poohle are the ones truly responsible for the hilarious movement referred to as April Fool’s Day. 

It all began back in 1824, when Henry fell into a water tank and changed the way the world swam.

While running his family business of building water tanks for the city, Henry accidentally fell into a tank that was 20-feet long and 6-feet deep.

As he swam to the edge to get out, he realized that it was more fun to swim inside a warm closed tank rather than outside in a chilly open lake. 

Inspired, he then went on to build the first swimming pool for his city, Asheville, NC, and called it a ‘Swimming Poohle’ which was soon trimmed down to ‘Swimming pool’.

As the demand for swimming pools increased, Henry decided to create brand awareness around this new concept and herald a day to commemorate this innovative way of swimming. 

He told Jack to call the press and herald Apr 21 (the day Henry fell into that tank) as April Poohle’s Day (the day that people could officially declare the end of winter by going for a swim in a swimming pool).

Jack, who was partially deaf, heard most of it and so upon his brother’s request, planned a pompous promotional event with the press, local politicians, and people of Asheville, NC.

He proceeded to create a carnival around the city’s swimming pool on Apr 1 and officially declare it April Fool’s Day, which made no sense then, or now.