Ironically, on October 31, 1926 The Great Harry Houdini died of peritonitis in a Detroit hospital.  He was “the most celebrated magician and escape artist of the 20th century” .  Born the son of a rabbi, in Budapest in 1874 as Erik Weisz, he immigrated to Wisconsin when he was still young.  He had a natural talent as an acrobat, and was excellent at picking locks.  At nine years old this prodigy of the abnormal toured the country as part of a circus, and became an infamous contortionist and trapeze performer.  Eventually Houdini became a master of escape acts, as he could escape out of literally ANYTHING (except death).  Unlike almost all showman of his time that relied on allusions and tricks, Houdini relied on his strength, dexterity, and great concentration to execute a performance. In 1900 he went on his first international tour throughout Europe.  By 1908 he was taking his skills to an entirely other level; life or death.  Some of his most well known escapes include him being buried alive six feet under, being “bound and then locked in an ironbound chest that was dropped into a water tank or thrown off a boat. In another, he was heavily bound and then suspended upside down in a glass-walled water tank”.

Later in life Harry Houdini dedicated his life and talents to advocating against those who claimed to have supernatural talents, but were really just little tricks.  Before he died, Harry had made a pact with his wife and friends that whomever died first would attempt to communicate with the real world from the other side (he was a big believer in spiritualism).  Unfortunately, Harry never received a sign from his deceased friends, and his wife never received one from him before she died in 1943.

Harry Houdini died at the age of 52, after bragging to a group of college students about how strong his stomach muscles were and their capability to take hard blows.  Unsuspectingly, one of the students decided to test it out, and punched him twice in the stomach before he could prepare.  The punches ruptured his appendix, and Houdini became extremely ill on his train to Detroit, where he performed one last time before his appendix poisoned him to no avail.

The irony of his death is evident in two instances.  First, the most famous, and darkest magician of all died on Halloween night.  Second, it was the 13th day since he had became a punching bag for some Montreal college student. (Gotta love lucky number 13).  Even though he was in extreme pain, Houdini’s show still went on!

Quotes and info taken from this link!