1920s
From UnknowableWiki
| Timeline: 20th century |
|---|
| 19th century • 1900s • 1910s • 1920s • 1930s • 1940s • 1950s • 1960s • 1970s • 1980s • 1990s • 21st century |
At some point between the end of the 1900s and the early 1920s...
- Roderick Plumpton leads the Tutshill Tornados to five British and Irish Quidditch League Cup wins in a row, setting a new record in the history of the tournament (FW, QA7).
October 4, around 1924 (give or take a couple of years):
- Minerva McGonagall is born (JKRW, ABC).[1]
- Tom Marvolo Riddle grows up in a Muggle orphanage in London. He is strange even as a baby an hardly ever cries. When he gets older, the other children are scared of him because odd things happen to those who cross him (HBP13).
At some point before 1929...
- Randolph Keitch and Basil Horton start playing for the Falmouth Falcons (QA9).
Contents |
1920
Dorea Black, the wife of Charlus Potter and possibly James' mother, is born (BFT).see inconsistencies
Blenheim Stalk, Muggle expert and author of Muggles Who Notice, is born (FW).
- Real World: Margery Mason, the actress who plays the part of the Food Trolley Lady in the Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire movie, is born.
1921
Famous Tutshill Tornados Seeker Roderick Plumpton catches the Snitch three and a half seconds into a game against the Caerphilly Catapults, setting a British record that has not been broken since (FW, QA7).
Miranda Goshawk, the author of The Standard Book of Spells textbook series, is born (FW).
1922
Carlotta Pinkstone, a witch campaigning for the lift of the Statute of Secrecy, is born (FW).
1925
Walburga Black, mother of Sirius and Regulus, is born (BFT).
Lucretia Black, the daughter of Arcturus and Melania Black, is born (BFT).
Phineas Nigellus Black, one of the most unpopular Hogwarts headmasters, dies (BFT).
Summer:
- Late in the evening, Morfin Gaunt sees his sister Merope spying on Muggle Tom Riddle. He hexes Tom when he rides past the Gaunt Shack, causing him to erupt in painful hives.
- The Ministry of Magic discovers this breach of the Statute of Secrecy and presumably Obliviates and cures Tom.
- On the following day, Bob Ogden, the Head of the Magical Law Enforcement Squad, visits the Gaunts in Little Hangleton to summon Morfin to a hearing on September 14. During his visit, Marvolo Gaunt tries to strangle Merope for showing interest in a Muggle. Ogden stops him and is attacked by Morfin. He flees, returning fifteen minutes later with reinforcements. Morfin and Marvolo are arrested; Marvolo wounds several Ministry employees during the fight.
- The Wizengamot sentences Morfin to three years, Marvolo to six months at Azkaban (HBP10).
- Real World: Robert Hardy, the actor who plays the part of Cornelius Fudge in the Harry Potter movies, is born.
Around the end of the year:
- While her father and brother are in Azkaban, Merope Gaunt uses magic to make Muggle Tom Riddle fall in love with her, presumably by brewing a love potion. Tom and Merope run off together and get married (HBP10).
1926
The Ollerton brothers Bill, Bob and Barnaby found the Cleansweep Broom Company. It is the first company that mass-produces broomsticks. They release the Cleansweep One, the first model to be marketed as a racing broom solely for sporting events; it guarantees the Cleansweep Broom Company a monopoly on the racing broom market until 1929 (QA9).
Around early spring:
- After six months, Marvolo Gaunt is released from Azkaban. He is greatly weakened. When he returns to the Gaunt shack, he finds Merope's farewell note. He never mentions her name again. He dies within the next two and a half years, before Morfin's return (HBP10).
From the end of March to December:
- Merope gets pregnant. Shortly afterwards, she lifts the enchantment (presumably a love potion) she placed on her husband. Tom Riddle leaves her and returns to Little Hangleton (HBP10). Merope stays in London. She stops using magic and sinks into poverty. Shortly before Christmas, she sells Slytherin's locket to Caractacus Burke, who pays her ten Galleons, a fragment of its true value (HBP13).
- In the evening, Merope goes to a Muggle orphanage. She gives birth about an our after her arrival and names her son Tom Marvolo Riddle, after his father and grandfather. She dies within the next hour. The child stays at the orphanage (HBP13).
1927
Nine years after Augustus Worme commissioned Newt Scamander to write a handbook of magical creatures, the first edition of Fantastic Beasts and Where to Find Them is published by Obscurus Books. It is a huge success (FBi).
1928
Summer:
- After a three-year sentence, Morfin Gaunt is released from Azkaban. His father Marvolo and sister Merope are both deceased. Morfin stays alone at the Gaunt shack (HBP10, HBP17).
1929
Falmouth Falcons players Randolph Keitch and Basil Horton patent the Horton-Keitch braking charm and found the Comet Trading Company. The release of the Comet 140 breaks the Cleansweep Broom Company's monopoly on the racing broom market (QA9).
Orion Black, father of Sirius and Regulus, is born (BFT).
Cygnus Black, father of Bellatrix, Andromeda and Narcissa, is born (BFT).
- Real World: Elizabeth Spriggs, the actress who plays the Fat Lady in the Harry Potter and the Philosopher's Stone movie, is born.
Timeline inconsistencies
Full article: Timeline Inconsistencies
It has never been confirmed that Dorea is really the mother of James, but it is very likely. The Black family tree shows that Dorea and Charlus had one son, and James was an only child. Also, Harry has no living relatives except for the Dursleys. In this case, however, Dorea gave birth at age thirty-nine or forty (James was born March 27, 1960, DH16), and got no older than fifty-seven (she died in 1977, BFT). This does not match J. K. Rowling's statement that James' parents had him late in life and were "old in wizarding terms" when they died (IME).
Footnotes
- ↑ Minerva's birthday was celebrated on J. K. Rowling's website. The Harry Potter Lexicon gives her birth year as 1925; however, they make a mistake. In an interview in 2000, Rowling stated that McGonagall was "a sprightly seventy years old". At that time, Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire, which ends in the summer of 1995, had been published. If we take Rowling's statement literally and assume that she was speaking of McGonagall's age at the end of book four, that means that she is seventy in the summer of 1995, and will be turning seventy-one in October. This would make her birth year 1924. The Lexicon simply subtracted seventy years from 1995, disregarding that we know Minerva's birthday. However, it is much more likely that Rowling meant that McGonagall was around seventy instead of speaking of her exact age. We should also not forget that in the same interview, she stated that Dumbledore was 150, when in fact he was more than thirty years younger (his birth year is 1881).
