April Fool's Day - April 1

Monday, April 1, 2024

April Fool's Day, Easter Monday, Jump in Muddy Puddles Day, Sourdough Bread Day, Trombone Players Day, Peeps Day, Air Force Academy Day, and the White House Easter Egg Roll.

* Indicates a poet or poetry resource in celebration of National Poetry Month.

Today's Birthdays
Songs of the Day
Poem of the Day - April is National Poetry Month
Today's Theme: April Fools' Day
Watch

ON THIS DATE

• 1789 - The U.S. House of Representatives holds its first full meeting in New York City.
• 1945 -  American forces invade Okinawa.
• 1954 -  President Eisenhower authorizes the creation of the United States Air Force Academy in Colorado.
• 1970 - President Nixon signs the Public Health Cigarette Smoking Act into law, requiring the Surgeon General's warnings on tobacco products and banning cigarette advertising on television and radio.
• 1976 - Apple Inc. is formed by Steve Jobs, Steve Wozniak, and Ronald Wayne.
• 1979 - Nickelodeon is launched.
• 1999 - Nunavut is established as a Canadian territory.

BIRTHDAYS

• 1578 - English physician William Harvey
• 1647 - English poet John Wilmot, 2nd Earl of Rochester *
• 1776 - French mathematician and physicist Sophie Germain
• 1852 - Painter and illustrator Edwin Austin Abbey
• 1873 - Russian composer Sergei Rachmaninoff
• 1883 - Actor Lon Chaney
• 1884 -  U.S. Army Colonel Florence Blanchfield
• 1932 - Actor Debbie Reynolds
• 1950 - Supreme Court Justice Samuel Alito
• 1953 - Director Barry Sonnenfeld
• 1973 - Journalist Rachel Maddow

SONGS OF THE DAY 

• Beatles - Fool On the Hill  - LISTEN
• Aretha Franklin - Chain of Fools - LISTEN
• Doobie Brothers - What a Fool Believes - LISTEN
• Steve Perry - Foolish Heart - LISTEN
• The Who - Won't Get Fooled Again - LISTEN
• Sergei Rachmaninoff - Prelude in C Sharp Minor - LISTEN
• Singing in the Rain - Good Morning (ft. Debbie Reynolds) - LISTEN

POEMS OF THE DAY 
John Donne - The Triple Fool
John Wilmot Earl of Rochester - Constancy

THEME:  APRIL FOOLS' DAY

• Grades PreK-1 - Sesame Street - Elmo Spreads Kindness by Sharing a Joke (0:59) - VIEW and DO
• Grades PreK-2 - PBS Kids- Martha Speaks - April Fools' Day Joke (0:49) - VIEW
• Grades 2-6 - PBS LearningMedia - All About the Holidays - April Fools' Day (1:00) - VIEW
• Grades 6-12 - PBS LearningMedia- NOVA scienceNOW - Hippocampus Humor: Comic Science (1:16) - VIEW
• Grades 6-12 - NHPBS Video- Braincraft - Why Are Some People So Easily Fooled (2:43) - VIEW
• Grades 8-12 - NHPBS Video - American Masters - George Plimpton's Famous April Fool's Day Joke (3:11) - VIEW

WATCH

NHPBS - 11.1 Comcast (2/802) More Options

WILD KRATTS - Our Blue and Green World
Monday, 4/01 from 8:30-9:30 am NHPBS
While doing their annual Laundry Day, the Kratt brothers disagree on what is better: blue oceans or green forests. Can the gang get Martin and Chris back in sync in time to save Planet Earth from Zach and Paisley Paver's villainous plans? WILD KRATTS Streaming Video

INDEPENDENT LENS - A Thousand Pines
Monday, 4/01from 10-11 pm NHPBS
Over a grueling eight months, a crew of Oaxacan guest workers plant trees across America. This intimate portrait shows how hard it is to balance the physical demands of reforestation and extreme isolation while staying connected to family back home. INDEPENDENT LENS Streaming Video

NH EXPLORE - 11.2 Comcast (11/801) More Options

GREAT PERFORMANCES - Now Hear This Piazzolla's History With Tango
Monday, 4/01 from 12-1 pm NH EXPLORE
Tango to Buenos Aires, Argentina, with host Scott Yoo and flutist Alice Dade to explore the evolution of composer Astor Piazzolla's work and the music genre itself as it becomes fused with jazz across time and numerous instruments. GREAT PERFORMANCES Streaming Video

GREAT PERFORMANCES - Now Hear This Schumann: Genius and Madness
Monday, 4/01 from 1-2 pm NH EXPLORE
Visit Scotland, Germany, and France with host Scott Yoo as he investigates the connection between Robert Schumann's bipolar disorder and creative genius via experts, musical performances, and an examination of the work of other artists outside the world of music. GREAT PERFORMANCES Streaming Video

NH WORLD - 11.3 More Options

POETRY IN AMERICA - Emily Dickinson - I Cannot Dance Upon My Toes
Monday, 4/01 from 2-2:30 pm NH WORLD
"I cannot dance upon my toes," Emily Dickinson writes -- "no man instructed me." Join host Elisa New, actor Cynthia Nixon, cellist Yo Yo Ma, dancer and choreographer Jill Johnson, and poet Marie Howe in an exploration of the challenges of art and audience across time, space, and artistic medium. POETRY IN AMERICA  Streaming Video

POETRY IN AMERICA - Edward Hirsch - Fastbreak
Monday, 4/01 from 2:30-3 pm NH WORLD
Join poet Edward Hirsch; NBA players Shaquille O'Neal, Pau Gasol, and Shane Battier; and a group of pick-up basketball players as they read Hirsch's "Fast Break" and use basketball to understand poetry - and poetry to understand basketball. POETRY IN AMERICA  Streaming Video

POETRY IN AMERICA - Robert Hayden - Those Winter Sundays
Monday, 4/01 from 3-3:30 pm NH WORLD
President Joe Biden, Inaugural poet Elizabeth Alexander, and psychologist Angela Duckworth, and a chorus of working fathers and sons reflect on Robert Hayden's poem "Those Winter Sundays." POETRY IN AMERICA  Streaming Video

POETRY IN AMERICA - Allen Ginsberg - Hymmm and Hum Bom
Monday, 4/01 from 3:30-4 pm NH WORLD
Rock star Bono, US Poet Laureate Juan Felipe Herrera, and a chorus of clergy and religious practitioners tackle two of Ginsberg's most emotionally transporting poems. POETRY IN AMERICA  Streaming Video

POETRY IN AMERICA - Carl Sandburg - Skyscraper
Monday, 4/01 from 4-4:30 pm NH WORLD
Architect Frank Gehry, Chinese visionary and real estate developer Zhang Xin, poet Robert Polito, and student poets from around the United States examine the rise of the skyscraper-- and the emergence of the modernist poem. POETRY IN AMERICA  Streaming Video

POETRY IN AMERICA - Langston Hughes - Harlem
Monday, 4/01 from 4:30-5 pm NH WORLD
President Bill Clinton, pianist and composer Herbie Hancock, poet Sonia Sanchez, and students from the Harlem Children's Zone interpret Langston Hughes's most iconic poem, "Harlem.". POETRY IN AMERICA  Streaming Video

P.O.V. - 15 to Life: Kenneth's Story
Monday, 4/01 from 7-8 pm NH WORLD
Does sentencing a teenager to life without parole serve our society well? The United States is the only country in the world that routinely condemns children to die in prison. This is the story of one of those children, now a young man, seeking a second chance in Florida. P.O.V. Streaming Video

Pressroom Contact

Carla Gordon Russell
Director of Communications
crussell@nhpbs.org
(603) 868-4339