Harry Potter Facts
As of 2008, Harry Potter books have sold over 400 million copies and have been translated into 67 languages.
A
picture of Gandalf the Grey (from The Lord of the Rings) can be seen
in the collection of great wizards in Professor Dumbledore’s study in
Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets.
Author J. K. Rowling
recently revealed that Dumbledore is gay and he had a crush on the
wizard Grindelwald, whom he later defeated in a wizard duel.
As
every Potter fan knows, Dementors are deadly, magical, wraith-like
creatures. Rowling revealed that they represent depression and that they
were based on her own experience with the disease. The remedy to
lighten the effects of a Dementor is chocolate.
Rowling is the first person to become a billionaire (U.S. dollars) by writing books.
In 2007, Rowling was runner up for Time magazine’s Person of the Year.
The
death of Rowling’s mother from multiple sclerosis significantly
influenced her writing, and death is a major theme throughout the Potter
series.
The actress who played Moaning Myrtle is actually 37 years old and is the oldest actress to portray a Hogwarts student.
Rowling
discovered “witchy” sounding names such as toadflax, goutwort,
grommel, and others in Culpeper’s Complete Herbal, a famous book of
herbal lore from the 1600s.
Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows
was released on July 21, 2007, and sold 11 million copies on the first
day of its release, breaking Rowling's earlier records for the fastest
selling book of all time.
A catfish has approximately 100,000 taste buds.
The largest meteorite crater in the world is in Winslow, Arizona. It is 4,150 feet across and 150 feet deep.
Mosquito's are attracted to the color blue twice as much as to any other color.
Oak trees do not produce acorns until they are fifty years of age or older.
A fetus develops fingerprints at eighteen weeks!
It takes approximately 12 hours for food to entirely digest.
The first owner of the Marlboro Company died of lung cancer.
The parachute was invented by DiVinci in 1515.
The only letter not appearing on the Periodic Table is the letter “J”.
When
frogs eat something that is poisonous or otherwise bad for them, they
can throw up their entire stomach. That is, the stomach actually
protrudes through their mouth and they wipe it with their right front
leg. They use their right leg because The stomach of frogs is slightly
towards their left side. When the stomach is ejected, it pulls to the
right (since the membranes holding the stomach in place are shorter on
that side). Since the right front leg can reach the stomach (and the
left can't), frogs use their right leg to wipe the stomach and get rid
of whatever nasty material is disturbing them.
The world's largest amphibian is the giant salamander. It can grow up to 5 ft. in length.
The first coast-to-coast telephone line was established in 1914.
A car traveling 100 mph would take more than 29 million years to reach the nearest star.
Pinocchio is Italian for "pine head."
Great
Britain was the first county to issue postage stamps. Hence, the
postage stamps of Britain are the only stamps in the world not to bear
the name of the country of origin.
The Bible, the world's best-selling book, is also the world's most shoplifted book.
Sound travels about 4 times faster in water than in air.
Mosquito repellents don't repel. They hide you. The spray blocks the mosquito's sensors so they don't know you're there.
There are no poisonous snakes in Maine.
The
blue whale can produce sounds up to 188 decibels. This is the loudest
sound produced by a living animal and has been detected as far away as
530 miles.
The United States has more airports than any other nation (there are over 14,800).
Orangutans warn people to stay out of their territory by belching.
No word in the English language rhymes with "MONTH."
A pregnant goldfish is called a twit.
Human jaw muscles can generate a force of 200 pounds (90.8 kilograms) on the molars.
The poison arrow frogs of South and Central America are the most poisonous animals in the world.
Agatha Christie's fictional character
Hercule Poirot is the only fictional character ever to be honored with
an obituary on the front page of The New York Times.
Author
Dr. Seuss wrote the book "Green Eggs and Ham" because the editor made
him a bet that he could not write a book, which contained less than
fifty words.
During his entire lifetime, Herman Melville's timeless classic of the sea, "Moby Dick," sold only 3,715 copies.
Edinburgh has more booksellers per head of population than any other city in Britain.
Ernest Vincent Wright wrote a fifty thousand-word novel, "Gadsby," without any word containing the letter "e."
General Lew Wallace's best seller Ben Hur was the first work of fiction to be blessed by a pope.
Keeping Warm With an Axe, is the title of a real how-to book.
The
Library of Congress in Washington, D.C. has the world's largest
collection of comic books with over 5,000 titles and 100,000 issues.
The smallest bone in the human body is the
stapes or stirrup bone located in the middle ear. It is approximately
.11 inches (.28 cm) long.40 to 50 percent of body heat can be lost through the head (no hat) as a result of its extensive circulatory network.
There are over 58 million dogs in the US.
TYPEWRITER is the longest word that can be made using the letters only on one row of the keyboard.
A snail can sleep for three years. The largest man-made lake in the U.S. is Lake Mead, created by Hoover Dam.
The world's longest game of Monopoly lasted more than 660 hours.
The average person falls asleep in seven minutes.
Hummingbirds can't walk.In your lifetime, you'll shed over 40 pounds of skin.
La Paz, the capital city of Bolivia, is the highest capital in the world at over 17,000 feet (5,181 m).
The first video aired on MTV was "Video Killed the Radio Star" by the Buggles in 1981.
No piece of paper can be folded in half more than 7 times.
Nurses and doctors wash their hands between patients less than one-third of the time.The
first outdoor sign advertising "Coca-Cola" still exists. It was
originally painted in 1894 and is located in Cartersville, Georgia.
The first coast-to-coast telephone line was established in 1914.
To escape the grip of a crocodile's jaws, push your thumbs into its eyeballs-it will let you go instantly.
A tortoise can live up to 140 years old.Mosquito's are attracted to the color blue twice as much as to any other color.
The first product to have a bar code was Wrigley's gum.
Rats are incapable of puking.
An ostrich's eye is bigger than its brain. The longest living cells in the body are brain cells which can live an entire lifetime.
Mosquito's are attracted to the color blue twice as much as to any other color.
Humans blink over 10,000,000 times a year!
Venus is the only planet that rotates clockwise.Swallowed gum is not digested by the gastrointestinal system, it usually passes through within 24 hours.
The ears of a cricket are located on the front legs, just below the knee.
Abraham Lincoln faces to the right on a penny while all the other presidents face to the left on US coins.
Vikings used the skulls of their enemies as drinking vessels.A pipe organ was the loudest sound that could be made in the year 1600.
Most dust particles in your house are made from dead skin.
25% of a human's bones are in its feet.
"Tom Sawyer" was the first novel written on a typewriter.
No word in the English language rhymes with month, orange, silver and purple.A crocodile cannot stick its tongue out.
Snakes are true carnivorous because they eat nothing but other animals. They do not eat any type of plant material.
North Dakota is the only state in the US that has never had an earthquake.
According to studies, an average roll of toilet paper lasts about five days in the bathroom.
Before toilet paper was invented, French royalty wiped their bottoms with fine linen.
Every day, over five billion gallons of water are flushed down toilets in the United States.
In 1890, Scott Paper produced the first toilet paper to be available on a roll.
In a year, an average person uses the toilet 2500 times a year.
A person would have to drink more than 12 cups of hot cocoa to equal the amount of caffeine found in one cup of coffee.
Coffee beans were chewed for more than 400 years before the first cup of coffee was brewed.
Coffee has about five times the amount of caffeine as a can of Coke.
Decaffeinated coffee is not 100% caffeine free. When coffee is being decaffeinated, 2% of the caffeine still remains in it.
Over the course of one year, a coffee tree only produces about 1.5 pounds of coffee.
Seniors who drink a cup of coffee before a memory test score higher than those who drink a cup of decaffeinated coffee.
The rarest coffee in the world is Kopi Luwak, which is found in Indonesia. It cost about $300 a pound.
Every 238 years, the orbits of Neptune and Pluto change making Neptune at times the farthest planet from the sun.
Jupiter is the fastest rotating planet, which can complete one revolution in less than ten hours.
Mars is the home of Olympus Mons, the largest known volcano in our solar system.
Neptune was the first planet in our solar system to be discovered by mathematics.
The
ancient Greeks had a fascination with the planet Mars. They attributed
the planet to Ares, their god of war, because of its red colour.
In 1958, the
Crayola crayon color "Prussian Blue" was changed to "Midnight Blue" by
the request of teachers as kids could not relate to Prussian history.
In 1971, the postal code was introduced in Ottawa, Ontario.
In
1982, a cactus in Phoenix, Arizona killed a man. David Grundman fired
two shotgun blasts at a giant saguaro cactus that ended up falling on
top of him.
In
India, a 9-year-old girl was "married" to a stray dog, which tribal
custom requires in order to protect a child whose first tooth appears
on the upper gum.
In Ireland, a prime minister is a called a Taoiseach.
In Italy, Santa Claus is known by the name Babbo Natale
It's against the law to pawn your dentures in Las Vegas.
Some ribbon worms will eat themselves if they can't find any food.A jellyfish is 95 percent water.A company in Taiwan makes dinnerware out of wheat, so you can eat your plate.A toothpick is the object most often choked on by Americans.When you eat too much, your hearing becomes less sharp.
Your stomach has to produce a new layer of mucus every two weeks otherwise it will digest itself.
The world's deepest gold mine is seven kilometers below the surface of the Earth.
The
titan arum flower is the largest flower in the world and gives off a
horrible odor that smells like rotting flesh when it blooms.
The
more a person struggles to get out of quicksand the faster they will
sink. Staying still, and being calm will actually make the body float
in the quicksand because the body is less dense than the quicksand is.
The
largest diamond found in the United States was a 40.23 carat white
diamond. It was found in 1924 and nicknamed the "Uncle Sam."
More money is spent on gardening than on any other hobby!
The word "democracy" is banned in online chat rooms in China.
A catfish has approximately 100,000 taste buds.
The only letter not appearing on the Periodic Table is the letter J.
Apples, not caffeine, are more efficient at waking you up in the morning.
The longest one syllable word in the English language is "screeched".
House flies have a lifespan of two weeks.
There are 206 bones in the adult human body and there are 300 in children (as they grow some of the bones fuse together).
The plastic things on the end of shoelaces are called aglets.
Actor John Ritter was the voice of Clifford, from "Clifford The Big Red Dog."
Bugs Bunny was originally called "Happy Rabbit."
The Flintstones cartoon was the first thirty-minute cartoon to be aired during prime time.
The Simpsons is the longest running prime-time animated series on television history.
A Hungarian named Ladislo Biro invented the first ballpoint pen in 1938.
A dentist from Buffalo New York named Alfred P. Southwick invented the electric chair.
Braces were first invented by Pierre Fauchard in 1728. The
braces were made by a flat strip of metal, which was connected to the
teeth by thread.
Ed Cox from San Francisco invented the pot scrubbing S.O.S.
pads in 1917. His wife came up with the name, which stands for "Save Our
Saucepans."
In the 1920's, Q-Tips were invented by Leo Gerstenzang who
got the idea after watching his wife clean their baby's ears with cotton
stuck onto a toothpick.
A small drip
from a faucet can waste up to 50 gallons of water daily, which is enough
water to run a dishwasher twice on a full cycle.
Close to 50% of the water used in a home originates from the bathroom.
A turnip was used to make the first jack o' lantern.
Asparagus comes in three colors: green, white and purple.
Pumpkins contain potassium and vitamin A.
During a typical human life span, the human heart will beat approximately 2.5 billion times.
In 1967, the first successful heart transplant was performed in Cape Town, South Africa.
In a lifetime, the heart pumps about one million barrels of blood.
It is not possible to tickle yourself. The cerebellum, a
part of the brain, warns the rest of the brain that you are about to
tickle yourself. Since your brain knows this, it ignores the resulting
sensation.
Once a human reaches the age of 35, he/she will start losing
approximately 7,000 brain cells a day. The cells will never be replaced
Changing a cat's litter box can be
dangerous to pregnant women, as cat feces sometimes carry a parasite
that can cause harm to the developing baby.
Studies show that couples that smoke during the time of
conception have a higher chance of having a girl compared to couples
that do not smoke.
Every year, surgical tools are left in approximately 1,500
patients in the USA. Fatter patients are more prone to having a surgical
tool left inside of them due to the additional amount of space in their
bodies.
Ketchup was once used as a medicine in the United States. In the 1830's it was sold as Dr. Miles Compound Extract of Tomato.
The name Aspirin was invented from "A" in acetyl chloride.
The "spir" comes from spiraea ulmaria which is the plant that they got
the salicylic acid from, and the "in" was used because back then it was
popular to end the name of medicines with "in."
A man named Charles Osborne had the hiccups for approximately sixty-nine years.
A human head remains conscious for about 15 to 20 seconds after it is been decapitated.
All babies are colour blind when they are born.
The cornea is the only living tissue in the human body that does not contain any blood vessels.
A woman has approximately 4.5 litres of blood in her body, while men have 5.6 litres.
Castaways Travel, a Houston-area
travel agency, offers an all-nude flight to Cancun Mexico. Once the
plane reaches cruising altitude, you are allowed to take off all your
clothes and roam about the cabin.
Levis Straus
made working pants out of denim for people during the California gold
rush. Levis Straus is now the world's largest maker of jeans.
The YKK on the zipper of your Levis stands for Yoshida Kogyo Kabushibibaisha, the world's largest zipper manufacturer.
There were 2,227 people on board the Titanic when it sank. Of this, only 705 people survived.
During the 1600's, boys and girls in England wore dresses until they were about seven years old.
During the 16th century, newly married couples in France had
to stand naked outdoors while the groom kissed the bride's left foot and
big toe as part of traditional customs.
Ever since 1944 the town of Bunol, which is near Valencia,
Spain has a festival called "Tomatina." The festival occurs once a year
on the last Wednesday of the month of August. People have a huge food
fight and throw tomatoes at each other, and this festival is considered
the world's largest food fight.
Queen Lydia Liliuokalani was the last
reigning monarch of the Hawaiian Islands. She was also the only Queen
the United States ever had.
Queen Victoria used marijuana, to help relieve menstrual cramp pain.
The first president to have a picture taken was John Quincy Adams.
Former U.S. President Franklin Pierce was arrested during his
term as President for running over an old lady with his horse, but the
charges were later dropped.
According to legend, tea originated in China when tea leaves accidentally blew into a pot of boiling water.
Alcohol beverages have all 13 minerals necessary for human life.
Bananas trees are not really trees. They are considered to be giant herb plants.
Ever year, Americans spend close to $25 billion on beer.
Silk was
developed in China were it was kept a secret for more than two
thousands years. Anyone found trying to smuggle silkworm eggs or
cocoons out of the country was immediately put to death.
Researchers
have developed odourless socks. The sock fabric is made by attaching
molecules that contain chlorine called halamines to textile fibers.
Each day the sun causes about one trillion tons of water to evaporate.
Davao City, located at the Southern state of Philippines, is the largest city in the world in terms of area.
Canada has more inland waters and lakes than any other country in the world.
Astronauts get taller when they are in space.
An olive tree can live up to 1500 years.
An acre of trees can remove about 13 tons of dust and gases every year from the surrounding environment.
The most overdue book in the world
was borrowed from Sidney Sussex College in Cambridge, England and was
returned 288 years later.
215 jeans can be made with one bale of cotton.
A volcano has enough power to shoot ash as high as 50 km into the atmosphere.
David Rice Atchinson was President of
the United States for exactly one day. This happened due to a glitch in
American law at the time.
Alexander Graham Bell, the inventor of the telephone, never telephoned his wife or mother because they were both deaf.
The first person to die in the electric chair was William Kemmler, an ax murderer from New York on August 6, 1890.
An office desk has 400 times more bacteria than a toilet.
Annually 17 tons of gold is used to make wedding rings in the United States.
Every U.S. bill regardless of denomination costs just 4 cents to make.
Airports that are at higher altitudes require a longer airstrip due to lower air density.
Airports that are at higher altitudes require a longer airstrip due to lower air density.
Abraham Lincoln's mother died when she drank the milk of a cow that grazed on poisonous snakeroot.
When Easter baskets were first introduced they were made to look like a bird's nest.
There is a type of coffin made that can be used as a wine rack or picnic table before its final use.
There are over 1,000,000 swimming pools in Florida, eventhough the ocean is no farther than 80 miles away.
If someone was to fly once around the surface of the moon, it would be equal to a round trip from New York to London.
Approximately 1 billion stamps are produced in Australia annually.