On this day, October the 31st, in the year of 1926, Harry Houdini, one of the most famous magicians of all time, best known for his knack of escaping “inescapable” situations, died of peritonitis brought forth by a stomach punch.

 Nearly two weeks before Houdini’s passing, after giving a lecture at a university in Montreal, Canada, he invited a group of students to visit him in his locker room. There, a student named J. Gordon Whitehead asked whether it was true if Houdini could take hard punches to the stomach.

When Houdini said this was true, Whitehead proceeded to punch Houdini in the stomach, with Houdini having no time to prepare for the blows, rupturing his appendix. After this incident, Houdini would be in pain but still performed one more time before being hospitalized.

Doctors in Detroit operated on Houdini, but he would eventually succumb to his injuries (History) (History).