Halloween 2026 marks 100 years since Harry Houdini died on October 31, 1926.

Born Ehrich Weisz in Budapest, Houdini transformed himself from a struggling vaudeville magician into the world’s most famous escape artist through handcuff challenges, the Milk Can Escape, bridge jumps, suspended straitjacket stunts and his Water Torture Cell.

Later, he became an aggressive investigator of fraudulent spiritualists, using a magician’s knowledge to expose supposedly supernatural effects.

His death remains surrounded by myth: he was punched in the abdomen days before his final performance, but the medical connection between those blows and his ruptured appendix remains uncertain.

What is certain is that Houdini died of peritonitis in Detroit on Halloween 1926, leaving behind a legend that still defines the art of escape.