When did magician Harry Houdini die and what did he die of?
Claim: Escape artist Harry Houdini died from a ruptured appendix caused by his being punched in the stomach by a college student. Status: False. Origins: Nearly everyone familiar with world-famous magician and escape artist Harry Houdini has heard the common explanation of his death: A boastful Houdini, trying to impress some college students, explained that by tightening his abdominal muscles he could withstand the hardest blows to his midsection a man could deliver. One of the students present decided to test Houdini’s claim and rained blows to the magician’s midriff before he had time to prepare himself. The stomach punches ruptured Houdini’s appendix, causing his death from peritonitis. Although some of the basic facts of this description are correct, the assumption of cause and effect is not. Despite having broken his ankle while performing his famous Water-Torture Cell escape in Albany several days earlier, Houdini, ever the trouper, kept his engagement at the Princess Theater in
