Step 1 : Introduction to the question "Who claimed to have purchased the Liberty Bell as an April Fools' prank in 1996?"
The Taco Liberty Bell was an April Fool's Day joke played by the fast food restaurant chain Taco Bell. In 1996, Taco Bell took out a full-page ad in seven major U.S. newspapers announcing that it had purchased the Liberty Bell to help reduce the country's debt and had renamed it the "Taco Liberty Bell". Thousands of people protested before it was revealed the sale was a hoax. When asked about the sale, White House press secretary Mike McCurry replied tongue-in-cheek that the Lincoln Memorial had also been sold and would henceforth be known as the Ford Lincoln Mercury Memorial.
