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Inside the Gleefully Obsessed World of One Direction Superfandom

There are a few pivotal dates imprinted in the minds of every One Direction superfan.

There’s November 13, 2010, when the British boy band performed Natalie Imbruglia’s “Torn” live on The X Factor (it would become their anthem). There’s June 10, 2012, the start of the band’s U.S. tour, when Louis Tomlinson leapfrogged over frontman Harry Styles on stage, at a fan’s request. There’s the time Harry “saved” a fan from being crushed while in Mexico. And when the boys performed on Saturday Night Live.

But perhaps the most important date — July 1, 2012 — happened at a show diehard fans simply call “the end.” This is how how “Directioners” have deemed the final performance of One Direction’s first U.S. tour, which culminated on a balmy Sunday in Fort Lauderdale, Florida. It’s not actually the end, of course; the band is simply taking a six-month hiatus before the start of their 2013 tour. Still, it was inevitably a night that would go down in Directioner history. 

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