Harry Houdini

Born Erich Weisz in Budapest on the 24th of March 1874, Harry Houdini became the greatest escape artist the world has known, a Hungarian-American showman who slipped out of handcuffs, chains, straitjackets and sealed milk cans full of water while thousands held their breath alongside him. He took his stage name from the French magician Robert-Houdin, rose through American vaudeville, and dazzled Europe as "Harry Handcuff Houdini", daring police forces to keep him locked up. He was buried alive and clawed his way out, hung upside down from skyscrapers, exposed fraudulent spiritualists as President of the Society of American Magicians, and even dreamed of being the first to fly a powered aircraft over Australia.