McManus-Young Collection / Wikimedia Commons / CC-BY-SA-3.0 / GFDL
Harry Houdini
(Magician)
24 March 1874 – 31 October 1926 (Aged 52)
Houdini is one of the most famous magicians of all time. Born in Budapest, Hungary, before moving to Wisconsin, USA, as a youngster.
Houdini became renowned for his, at the time, unprecedented escape acts.
Among his most daring feats were escaping after being buried alive, escaping from a straight-jacket while underwater, and escaping while shackled upside-down in a Chinese water torture cell.
Houdini also starred in a number of films during his career.
The exact cause of his death is uncertain, but it is known he died from a ruptured appendix at the age of 52.
Claude Monet
(Painter)
14 November 1840 – 5 December 1926 (aged 86)
Monet was a famous French painter, who founded the art movement known as impressionism.
Monet’s house, gardens and waterlily pond in Giverny, France, which inspired much of his later work, are now major tourist attractions.
Throughout his life, Monet struggled intermittently with depression, particularly after the death of his second wife, Alice, and, after cataracts in both eyes left him almost blind.
He died from lung cancer at the age of 86.
Antoni Gaudí
(Architect)
25 June 1852 – 10 June 1926 (Aged 73)
Gaudí was a Catalan Spaniard architect whose most famous work is the Sagrada Família in Barcelona, Spain, which is still yet to be fully completed.
Gaudí was a profoundly religious man and abandoned nearly all other projects to focus on his masterpiece, the Sagrada Família.
For a period of time, he even lived onsite in the workshop of the Sagrada Família.
He was hit by a tram while walking in the city on June 7, 1926.
After not receiving immediate medical attention, his condition deteriorated, before succumbing to his injuries a few days later.
Rudolph Valentino
(Actor)
6 May 1895 – 23 August 1926 (Aged 31)
Valentino was an Italian actor who became renowned and adored for his roles in romantic films.
He was idolized as a ‘Latin Lover’ and sex symbol of the 1920’s.
His untimely death, from a ruptured ulcer, added to his iconic status for fans around the world.
