Costumes, spooky decorations, and most importantly, candy; October 31st brings the widely known and celebrated holiday, Halloween. Such a big holiday would, of course, overshadow other important events that happened on the 31st of October. So let’s give them some recognition and highlight some events that share the day of Halloween.

Starting off with a frightening disaster, the Monmouth Steamship Disaster occurred on October 31, 1837, in which over 700 Muscogee Creek people were involved, and at

least 300 lost their lives. The Muscogee people were forcibly taken from their ancestral land and were relocated on the “Monmouth” steamboat, which was overcrowded with the people. While they were traveling down the Mississippi River, the steamboat collided with another ship, causing the Monmouth to break apart and leading to 300 Muscogee Creek people to drown. to death.

Handcuffed, chained, and submerged, Erik Weisz, or more commonly known as Harry Houdini, is a legendary magician who was notable for his escape acts. Houdini suffered from acute appendicitis, in which the appendix becomes inflamed and infected. Coincidentally, he was punched repeatedly in the abdomen by medical student  J. Gordon Whitehead, worsening the condition. Houdini refused treatment and went on to do his show, but the pain became too great, and he was rushed to the hospital, where they discovered that his appendix had ruptured. On October 31, 1926, Houdini died from diffuse peritonitis, a severe infection of the abdominal cavity caused by a ruptured appendix.

Keeping up the theme of tragedy, October 31, 1918, marked the end of the deadliest month of the influenza pandemic. With a death toll of 50 million people worldwide, influenza is considered one of the deadliest outbreaks in human history. 675,000 Americans lost their lives, but no month was as gruesome as October. 200,000 people perished in this month alone, leading some to believe that the treatments for influenza were actually causing deadly symptoms in patients.

Plenty of good events also occurred on this day, such as Nevada becoming the 36th state, and the allied army securing a win in world war one.

Halloween isn’t attracting bad luck (regardless of what some may think). Keep in mind that even on days containing big holidays like Christmas and Halloween, other important events are lurking underneath the spotlight.