7 eerie things that actually happened on Halloween

Following one of the famous magician's final performances in 1926, Harry Houdini suffered an injury that led to his death.

Houdini was teaching students in Montreal a series of tricks, and mentioned that his stomach muscles were so strong they could withstand punches without injury, according to the New York Times archives. A student then reportedly hit him over the appendix twice without warning, and while he felt fine immediately after, he later complained of pain and collapsed right after the curtain fell at his next show.

Physicians confirmed that the student's punches caused Houdini's appendix to burst and poison his system, according to the Times. He died on October 31.

To this day, rumors cloud Houdini's death, as some claim that he was murdered by Spiritualists, a pseudo-religion he continuously tried to debunk.

The night before Halloween in 1938, listeners to CBS radio had their programming interrupted with an odd message: "Martians have invaded New Jersey!"

It was a radio play, "War of the Worlds," led by actor, writer, and director Orson Welles and a group of radio actors. However, few actually knew it was play, resulting in plenty of people spiraling into a panic over an alien invasion.

According to Radiolab, 12 million people were listening when the "War of the Worlds" came on the air, about one in every 12 listeners thought it was true, and about 1 million listeners ran out of their homes, terrified.

On Halloween in 1961, former USSR leader Joseph Stalin's body — which was previously in a glass coffin in Moscow's Red Square, alongside the body of Vladimir Lenin — was removed from public display, according to the History Channel.

That day, Stalin's body was moved to a nearby tomb and was no longer visible to visitors. The decision came at a time when Joseph Stalin and Stalinism were denounced by then-Soviet leader Nikita Khrushchev.

On October 31, 1922, thousands of men in black shirts — part of the fascist party uniform — stormed the Piazza del Qurinale in Rome. It was how Benito Mussolini violently took control of the government, eventually becoming prime minister, and later dictator.

The events were known as the "March on Rome."

David Berkowitz, a serial killer also known as the "Son of Sam," was incarcerated in the Attica Correctional Facility, an Upstate New York super max prison, when he predicted a murder. Written off as just a made-up story, nobody listened to Berkowitz until his exact prediction played out.

On the early morning of Halloween in 1981, while staying in their Manhattan home, 39-year-old Ronald Sisman and 20-year-old Elizabeth Platzman were beaten and shot to death. According to Reader's Digest, Berkowitz had described a cult carrying out this massacre, and even described the exact apartment layout to a T.

It is unclear if Berkowitz's prediction was merely a coincidence, and to this day, the murder remains unsolved.

According to Reader's Digest, Timothy O'Bryan began snacking on his candy after a night of trick-or-treating in Deer Park, Texas. However, his candy had been poisoned, and O'Bryan passed away.

To make the nightmare even worse, it was his own father who had poisoned him, seeing it as the perfect opportunity to cash in on his son's life insurance.

The deathly incident occurred at "Holiday on Ice," an ice-skating performance at the Indiana State Fairground Coliseum in Indianapolis.

Not long after 11 p.m. on October 31, 1963, while skaters were completing their final routine of the night, gas that had been leaking from a concession area caused an explosion. Flooring caved in, creating a massive crater. The accident led to 74 deaths and left 400 people injured.

Indianapolis Star reporter Richard R. Roberts reported the events of the night and described the tragic aftermath as a horrific scene, writing, "You walked into a nightmare. This was the worst thing I have seen since combat in World War II."

• Read more:
• The dark history behind Halloween is even more chilling than you realized
• 23 photos that show how Halloween has evolved since it was popularized in the late 1800s
• 16 things you never knew about Halloween