After all his narrow escapes, what finally caused Harry Houdini’s death?
Acute appendicitis overcame the former Erich Weiss known as Harry Houdini on October 31, 1926, Halloween.
He was 52 years old.
Henri Philippe Main (1856-1951) was a military hero in World War I and premier of France in 1940. In June of that year, he called for an armistice with Germany and became the “chief of state” of the puppet government at Vichy. After the war, he was sentenced to death, but the sentence was commuted…
Henry Pu-yi, from 1908 to 1912, was the last emperor of China. From 1934 to 1945, he was emperor of the Japanese puppet state of Manchukuo in Manchuria. He died in 1967 in the People’s Republic of China.
There were four King Herods. Herod the Great was the tetrarch, or subordinate ruler, of the Roman province of Judaea from 41 B.C. to 4 B.C. He was probably in power when Jesus Christ was born. Between 4 B.C. and A.D. 34, three sons of Herod the Great, Herod Archelaus, Herod Antipas, and Philip, ruled…
As the subject of the first children’s book of the same name, the character Goody Two-Shoes helped to usher in the children’s book industry. Goody Two-Shoes was a poor girl, who, when given a pair of shoes, became so happy that she told everyone she met about them. The tale was written by Oliver Goldsmith…
Tokyo Rose was a Japanese American named Iva d’Aquino (b. 1916) known for her World War II radio broadcasts aimed at weakening the morale of U.S. servicemen. Convicted of treason after the war, she received a presidential pardon in 1977. She had several counterparts, all known as Axis Sally and all broadcasting to GIs in…
Pliny the Elder (A.D. 23-79) was an encyclopedist of the Roman Empire whose reputation as an expert on scientific matters endured until the Middle Ages. Pliny was also known as Gaius Plinius Secundus. His adopted son, Pliny the Younger (c. A.D. 61–c. A.D. 113), was a lawyer and administrator known mainly for the large collection…