Ed Balls bakes cake for #EdBallsDay: Why Twitter celebrated the historic occasion on April 28

The Twitterverse duly celebrated Ed Balls Day on Thursday in the UK, making others wonder: What exactly were they celebrating? The answer lies in a politician’s Twitter gaffe and his followers’ sense of humour.

It all started six years ago on April 28, 2011 when then-Shadow Chancellor of the Exchequer was urged by his aide to search for articles mentioning his name on Twitter. It turned out the former British politician wasn’t adept at using the microblogging site, tweeting his own name instead of doing a simple search.

Apparently, Balls began typing his name and got distracted when he received a phone call, and so he hit “send.” He never deleted the tweet, though, to the delight of Twitter users.

The gaffe was retweeted more than 50,000 times and liked over 30,000. His followers found Balls’ cluelessness on using the popular site was hilarious, and have therefore thought it should warrant commemoration every year.

Since then, April 28 has become Ed Balls Day, with the Twittersphere adamant that the momentous occasion would never be forgotten. And so on Thursday, Twitter users primarily in the UK shared how they celebrated the day.

Even MP Yvette Cooper, Balls’ wife and his successor as Shadow Home Secretary, implored Balls to celebrate the significant day by baking a cake. And when asked who made the cake, Cooper replied it was Ed Balls, proving that the former MP was enjoying his fame on Twitter as much as everybody was.

Brand names and companies also joined in the fun.