Here's a precursor to Pee Wee Herman's trick furniture.  The headline is from Popular Mechanics, 1931.

You've heard of a long summer, but here's one that lasted seven months.  (That said, the summer in Malta lasts eight months.)  From Colin Clout's Calendar: The Record of a Summer. April-October, by Grant Allen, 1883.

You knew that "Pastry is like a religion to the French" (Joanne Chang).  But here's "A 'layer cake' temple found among Aztec ruins."  From Popular Mechanics, 1931.

April.  From Die Bühne, 1934.

"They beheld a most beautiful little woman standing in front of the fire."  From The Bird of Truth and Other Fairy Talese by Fernan Caballero, 1881.

From Droll Stories Collected From the Abbeys of Touraine, illustrated by Gustave Doré, 1907.

"The Mystic Soliman gives a private seance in a distinguished, English home. Soliman is today's most distinguished and talked about phenomenon. Soliman knows all, sees all and tells you everything."  Courtesy of the Nasjonalbiblioteket.  This should be of interest: Seance Parlor Feng Shui.

At the tax office.  From Die Muskete, 1907.

"He studies the graveyards."  From Pearson's, 1908.

Various things are suspicious of April 1.  From English Illustrated, 1896.

"April."  From Judy, Or The London Serio-Comic Journal, 1883.

Here's the first of April from Judy, Or The London Serio-Comic Journal, 1877.

It's all in a day's work around here: "There were abstract equations to be worked out; difficult analyses to be made; mystical keys to be fitted to still more mystical complications; and the whole so blended and woven together, that the loss of a single link of the marvellous chain would destoy all hope of ever attaining the wished-for result."  From Leonard Kip's "The Secret of Apollonius Septrio," Hannibal's Man and Other Tales, 1878.

"April First, All Fools' Day."  From 1907.

Here are some best wishes from 1901.

Standing on eggs.  From Popular Mechanics, 1913.