The meme is stronger than the sword
“… Swift Death, I did but jest”
… and there are little more suited demonstrations than this account of a 1708 hoax (that’s way before the Internet, mind you), carried by (spoiler alert) Johnatan Swift (too late, you read it!).
Finally, [ John Partridge ] had succumbed to his fever at 7:05 PM—just four hours off the time predicted by Bickerstaff.
The news left London in a state of shock and wonder. At the same moment it had lost one of its oldest and most respected almanac writers, the city had gained what was surely the first indisputably genuine astrologer in history. The implications were staggering.
It’s likely that no one was as surprised to hear the news as John Partridge.
http://www.damninteresting.com/?p=955
This is even better than the fake volcano erruption story!