Mental Floss

11 Harry Potter Facts for His 33rd Birthday

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In the Harry Potter universe, the famous boy wizard was born on July 31, 1980, which would make him a man wizard in his early thirties. (J.K. Rowling's birthday is also today.) To celebrate his 33rd birthday and her 48th, here are some Potter-related facts.

1. Michael Jackson wanted to do a musical version of Harry Potter and proposed the idea to J.K. Rowling. She said no.
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2. Rowling created Quidditch in a pub after having a fight with her then-boyfriend. "In my deepest, darkest soul," she said, "I would quite like to see him hit by a bludger."
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3. "Hogwarts Headache" is a thing. The New England Journal of Medicine ran a letter from a physician noting the unfortunate side effect of children reading more, and for longer periods, than they ever had in their lives.
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4. Harry Potter and the Philosopher’s Stone became ...and the Sorcerer’s Stone in the United States. Other changes included “jumper” to “sweater,” “trainers” to “sneakers,” “car park” to “parking lot,” and “jacket potato” to “baked potato."
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5. For years, an Onion article from 2000 titled “Harry Potter Books Spark Rise in Satanism Among Children” has been quoted as fact in chain emails. One oft-repeated fake quote: “Harry Potter books showed me that magic is real, something I can learn and use right now, and that the Bible is nothing but boring lies.”
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6. Hermione Granger’s original surname was “Puckle.”
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7. Hermione was originally going to have a younger sister, but Rowling never found the right moment to stick her into the books.
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8. King’s Cross station is where young wizards hop on the Hogwarts Express to get to school. The station holds special meaning for J.K. Rowling: it’s where her parents met.
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9. Not wanting her to be pigeonholed as a girls-only author, Joanne Rowling’s publisher asked her to write under androgynous initials. Not having a middle name, she picked “K” to honor her grandmother, Kathleen.
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10. A retired professor from Eton College translated Harry Potter into Latin. Harry Potter and the Philosopher’s Stone became Harrius Potter et Philosophi Lapis. J.K. Rowling’s hope for the translations is that they “will help children overcome the common dread of studying" Latin.
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11. Father Gabriele Amorth, the Vatican's former chief exorcist, says practicing yoga is Satanic. "It leads to evil—just like reading Harry Potter."