Wikipedia has a list of unusual deaths, including unique or extremely rare causes of death recorded throughout history, as well as less rare but still unusual causes of death of prominent persons.
Here are just a few from this massive list:
- 453: Attila the Hun suffered a severe nosebleed and choked to death on his wedding night.
- 1277: Pope John XXI was killed in the collapse of his scientific laboratory.
- 1841: William Henry Harrison, ninth President of the United States, gave the longest inaugural address in the history of the United States in heavy snow and caught a cold. It developed into pneumonia and killed him in a month.
- 1884: Allan Pinkerton, detective, died of gangrene resulting from having bitten his tongue after stumbling on the sidewalk.
- 1923: Frank Hayes, jockey, suffered a heart attack during a horse race. The horse, Sweet Kiss, went on to finish first, making Hayes the only deceased jockey to win a race.
- 1977: Tom Pryce, a Formula One driver, and a 19-year-old track marshal both died at the 1977 South African Grand Prix after the marshal ran across the track beyond a blind brow to attend to another car and was struck by Pryce's car. Pryce was hit in the face by the marshal's fire extinguisher and killed instantly.
- 1993: Brandon Lee, the son of Bruce Lee, was shot and killed by a prop 44 Magnum while filming the movie The Crow. Unknown to the film crew, the tip of a dummy round broke off in the chamber of the weapon during practice. When a blank round was later fired in the gun, the tip shot out and fatally wounded Lee.
- 1999: Owen Hart, WWF wrestler, died when he fell 78 feet while being lowered into the ring by a cable from the stadium rafters before an upcoming match.
- 1999: Golf champion Payne Stewart and his support staff died aboard their business jet, when the craft suddenly lost all pressurization at high altitude. The Learjet then became a flying coffin, continuing on autopilot for several hours. Its almost total destruction on eventual impact made full investigation of the mystery impossible.
- 2005 - An unidentifed Seattle man who died of peritonitis after submitting to anal intercourse with a well-hung stallion. The case may lead to the criminalization of bestiality. [3]
No comments:
Post a Comment