List of unusual deaths
![]() |
This is a list of unusual deaths. This list includes unique or extremely rare circumstances of death recorded throughout history, noted as being unusual by multiple sources. Some of the deaths are mythological or are considered to be unsubstantiated by contemporary researchers. Oxford Dictionaries defines the word "unusual" as "not habitually or commonly occurring or done" and "remarkable or interesting because different from or better than others."[1]
Some other articles also cover deaths that might be considered unusual or ironic, including List of entertainers who died during a performance, List of inventors killed by their own inventions, List of association footballers who died while playing, List of professional cyclists who died during a race and the List of political self-immolations.
Antiquity
![](http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/en/thumb/3/3a/Death_of_Aeschylus_in_Florentine_Picture_Chronicle.jpg/220px-Death_of_Aeschylus_in_Florentine_Picture_Chronicle.jpg)
- c. 620 BC: Draco, Athenian law-maker, was smothered to death by gifts of cloaks and hats showered upon him by appreciative citizens at a theatre on Aegina.[3][4]
- 564 BC: Arrhichion of Phigalia, Greek pankratiast, caused his own death during the Olympic finals. Held by his unidentified opponent in a stranglehold and unable to free himself, Arrichion's trainer shouted "What a fine funeral if you do not submit at Olympia!" Arrichion then kicked his opponent with his right foot while casting his body to the left, causing his opponent so much pain that he made the sign of defeat to the umpires, while at the same time breaking Arrichion's own neck as the other fighter was still strangleholding him. Since the opponent had conceded defeat, Arrichion was proclaimed victor posthumously.[5][6]
- 455 BC: Aeschylus, the great Athenian author of tragedies. Valerius Maximus wrote that he was killed by a tortoise dropped by an eagle that had mistaken his head for a rock suitable for shattering the shell of the reptile. Pliny, in his Naturalis Historiæ, adds that Aeschylus had been staying outdoors to avert a prophecy that he would be killed by a falling object.[7][8]
- 401 BC: Mithridates, a soldier who embarrassed his king, Artaxerxes II, by boasting of killing his rival, Cyrus the Younger, was executed by scaphism. The king's physician, Ctesias, reported that he survived the insect torture for 17 days.[9][10]
- 270 BC: Philitas of Cos, Greek intellectual, is said by Athenaeus to have studied arguments and erroneous word usage so intensely that he wasted away and starved to death.[11] British classicist Alan Cameron speculates that Philitas died from a wasting disease which his contemporaries joked was caused by his pedantry.[12]
- 210 BC: Qin Shi Huang, the first Emperor of China, died after ingesting several pills of mercury in the belief that it would grant him eternal life. His eunuch courtiers concealed the death while they plotted the succession and used carts of fish to disguise the smell of the corpse. He was then buried in a fantastic tomb which is still being excavated. His artifacts and treasures include the famous Terracotta Army which was created for him to rule from his grave.[13][14][15]
- 212 AD: Lucius Fabius Cilo, a Roman senator of the 2nd century, "...choked...by a single hair in a draught of milk".[16]
- 258 AD: The martyr Saint Lawrence was roasted alive on a giant grill during the persecution of Valerian.[17][18] Prudentius tells that he joked with his tormentors, "Turn me over — I'm done on this side".[19] He is now the patron saint of cooks and firefighters.[20]
- 336 AD: Arius, presbyter of Alexandria, is said to have died of sudden diarrhea followed by copious hemorrhaging and anal expulsion of the intestines while he walked across the imperial forum in Constantinople. He may have been poisoned.[21]
- 415 AD: Hypatia of Alexandria, Greek mathematician, philosopher and intellectual, often called the last librarian of the Library of Alexandria, though it was destroyed long before her time, was murdered by a Christian mob that ripped off her skin with sharp seashells. Various types of shells have been named, including clams, oysters and abalones. Other sources claim tiles or pottery shards were used.[22]
-
Greek intellectual Philitas of Cos, said to have studied arguments and erroneous word usage so intensely that he wasted away and starved to death.[11]
-
Qin Shi Huang, the first Emperor of China who sought immortality but died an untimely death which was concealed by his courtiers using smelly fish.
-
The martyrdom of Saint Lawrence by Titian. This painting so impressed Philip II that he commissioned another one for his basilica in El Escorial.
-
Hypatia painted by Charles William Mitchell in 1885.
Middle Ages
![](http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/5/52/Charles_le_Mauvais.jpg/170px-Charles_le_Mauvais.jpg)
- 762: Li Po (Li Bai), Chinese poet and courtier, supposedly tried to kiss the reflection of the Moon beside the boat in which he was travelling, fell overboard and drowned.[23]
- 892: Sigurd the Mighty of Orkney strapped the head of his defeated foe, Máel Brigte, to his horse's saddle. The teeth of the head grazed against his leg as he rode, causing a fatal infection.[24]
- 1063: Béla I of Hungary died when his wooden throne collapsed upon him.[25]
- 1131: Crown Prince Philip of France died while riding through Paris, when his horse tripped over a black pig running out of a dung heap.[26]
- 1258: Al-Musta'sim, the last Abbasid Caliph of Baghdad, was executed by his Mongol captors by being rolled up in a rug and then trampled by horses.[27]
- 1327: Edward II of England, after being deposed and imprisoned by his wife Isabella and her lover Roger Mortimer, was rumoured to have been murdered by having a horn pushed into his anus through which a red-hot iron was inserted, burning out his internal organs without marking his body.[28][29] However, as Seymour Phillips observes in his recent biography of the king, there is no real academic consensus on the manner of Edward II's death and it has been plausibly argued (for example, by Ian Mortimer) that the story is effectively propaganda.[30]
- 1387: Charles II of Navarre, after having been wrapped in bandages soaked in brandy in an attempt to cure an illness, was burned alive when a servant accidentally set the bandages on fire.[31]
- 1410: Martin of Aragon died from a combination of indigestion and uncontrollable laughing.[32]
- 1478: George Plantagenet, Duke of Clarence, was executed by drowning in a barrel of Malmsey wine at his own request.[33]
Renaissance
- 1518: In the Dancing Plague of 1518 a woman (and eventually a league of 400 people) uncontrollably danced for a month causing dozens of participants to die of stroke and exhaustion. The reason for this occurrence is still unclear.[34][dead link]
- 1552: Henry Pert a gentleman, of Welbeck, Nottinghamshire, died when he stretched his bow to its full extent and the arrow got lodged. While he was leaning over to look at it, the arrow released.[35]
- 1556: Pietro Aretino, an Italian poet, satirist and pornographer, is said to have died by suffocation caused by uncontrollable laughter.[36]
- 1567: Hans Steininger, the burgomaster of Brunau, Austria, died when he broke his neck by tripping over his own beard.[37] The beard, which was 4.5 feet (1.4 m) long at the time, was usually kept rolled up in a leather pouch.[38]
- 1601: Tycho Brahe died from complications of a burst bladder after refusing to leave a dinner table to relieve himself because it would have been a breach of etiquette.[39][40][41][42][43][44][45]
- 1667: James Betts died from asphyxiation after being sealed in a cupboard by Elizabeth Spencer, at Corpus Christi College, Cambridge in an attempt to hide him from her father, John Spencer.[46][47][48]
-
Pietro Aretino, who died from uncontrollable laughter.
18th century
- 1755: Henry Hall died from injuries he sustained after molten lead fell into his throat while he was looking up at a burning lighthouse.[50]
- 1762: Crown Prince Sado, then-heir to King Yeongjo of Joseon, was ordered to be sealed alive in a rice chest after his father decided he was unfit to succeed him.[49]
- 1771: Adolf Frederick, King of Sweden, died of digestion problems on 12 February 1771 after having consumed a meal of lobster, caviar, sauerkraut, smoked herring and champagne, topped off with 14 servings of his favourite dessert: hetvägg served in a bowl of hot milk.[51] He is thus remembered by Swedish schoolchildren as "the king who ate himself to death."[52]
- 1782: Mrs Fitzherbert died from laughter. On a Wednesday evening she had seen Mr. Bannister at The Beggar's Opera, and laughed with the rest of the audience upon his comical entrance. She was unable to stop laughing, and had to leave the theater. She continued laughing until her death on Friday morning.[53]
- 1783: James Otis, Jr., the American Revolutionary, "often mentioned to friends and relatives that ... he hoped his death would come from a bolt of lightning." His hope was fulfilled on 23 May 1783 when lightning struck the chimney of a friend's house in whose doorway he was standing.[54]
- 1794: John Kendrick, an American sea captain and explorer, was killed in the Hawaiian Islands when a fellow trading ship mistakenly used a loaded cannon to fire a salute to Kendrick's vessel.[55]
19th century
- 1816: Gouverneur Morris, an American statesman, died after sticking a piece of whale bone through his urinary tract to relieve a blockage.[56][57]
- 1830: William Huskisson, statesman and financier, was run over by a locomotive (Stephenson's Rocket), at the public opening of the world's first mechanically powered railway to offer a scheduled passenger service, a railway which he had himself done much to promote.[58]
- 1834: David Douglas, Scottish botanist, fell into a pit trap where he was trampled by a wild bull.[59][60]
- 1871: Clement Vallandigham, a lawyer and Ohio politician, accidentally shot himself demonstrating how a victim might possibly have shot himself while in the process of drawing a weapon from a kneeling position. Though the defendant, Thomas McGehan, was ultimately cleared, Vallandigham died from his wound.[61][62]
20th century
1920s
- 1920: Ray "Chappie" Chapman, shortstop for the Cleveland Indians baseball team, was killed when a submarine ball thrown by Carl Mays hit him in the temple. Chapman collapsed at the plate, and died about 12 hours later. He remains the only major league baseball player killed by a pitched ball.[63]
- 1920: Dan Andersson, a Swedish author, died of cyanide poisoning while staying at Hotel Hellman in Stockholm. The hotel staff had failed to clear the room after using hydrogen cyanide against bed bugs.[64]
- 1920: Alexander I, King of the Hellenes, was taking a walk in the Royal Gardens, when his dog was attacked by a monkey. The King attempted to defend his dog, receiving bites from both the monkey and its mate.[65] The diseased animals' bites caused sepsis and Alexander died three weeks later.
- 1923: Frank Hayes, a jockey at Belmont Park, New York, died of a heart attack during his first race. His mount finished first with his body still attached to the saddle, and he was only discovered to be dead when the horse's owner went to congratulate him.[66]
- 1923: George Herbert, 5th Earl of Carnarvon, died allegedly because of the so-called King Tut's Curse after a mosquito bite on his face, which he cut while shaving, became seriously infected with erysipelas, leading to blood poisoning and eventually pneumonia.[67][68]
![](http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/5/5f/Isadora_Duncan_portrait.jpg/150px-Isadora_Duncan_portrait.jpg)
- 1925: Zishe (Siegmund) Breitbart, a circus strongman and Jewish folklore hero, died after demonstrating he could drive a spike through five one-inch (2.54 cm) thick oak boards using only his bare hands. He accidentally pierced his knee and the rusted spike caused an infection which led to fatal blood poisoning.[69]
- 1926: Phillip McClean, 16, from Queensland, Australia became the only person documented to have been killed by a cassowary. After encountering the bird on their family property near Mossman in April,[70] McClean and his brother decided to kill it with clubs. When McClean struck the bird it knocked him down, then kicked him in the neck, opening a 1.25 cm (0.5 in) long cut in one of his main blood vessels. Though the boy managed to get back on his feet and run away, he collapsed a short while later and died from the hemorrhage.[71]
- 1926: Harry Houdini, the famous American escape artist, was punched in the stomach by an amateur boxer. Though this had been done with Houdini's permission, complications from this injury may have caused him to die days later, on 31 October 1926. It was later determined that Houdini died of a ruptured appendix,[72] though it is contested as to whether or not the punches actually caused the appendicitis.[73][74]
- 1927: Isadora Duncan, dancer, died of a broken neck when her long scarf caught on the wheel of a car in which she was a passenger.[75]
1930s
- 1930: William Kogut, an inmate on death row at San Quentin, committed suicide with a pipe bomb created from several packs of playing cards and the hollow leg from his cot. At the time, the red ink in playing cards contained flammable nitrocellulose, which when wet can create an explosive mixture. Kogut used the heater in his cell to activate the bomb.[76]
- 1932: Eben Byers, an American golfer and industrialist, died from multiple cancers caused by drinking more than 1400 bottles of a radioactive "health potion" called Radithor.[77]
![](http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/8/8a/Sherwood_Anderson_%281933%29.jpg/180px-Sherwood_Anderson_%281933%29.jpg)
- 1933: Michael Malloy, a homeless man, was murdered by five men in a plot to collect on life insurance policies they had purchased. After surviving multiple poisonings, intentional exposure, and being struck by a car, Malloy succumbed to gassing.[78]
1940s
- 1941: Sherwood Anderson, writer, died of peritonitis after swallowing a toothpick at a party.[79]
- 1944: Inventor and chemist Thomas Midgley, Jr. accidentally strangled himself with the cord of a pulley-operated mechanical bed of his own design.[80]
- 1945: Scientist Harry K. Daghlian, Jr. accidentally dropped a brick of tungsten carbide onto a sphere of plutonium (known as the Demon core) while working on the Manhattan Project. This caused the plutonium to come to criticality; Daghlian died of radiation poisoning, becoming the first person to die in a criticality accident.[81]
- 1946: Louis Slotin, chemist and physicist, died of radiation poisoning after being exposed to lethal amounts of ionizing radiation from the same core that killed Harry K. Daghlian, Jr. The core went critical after a screwdriver he was using to separate the halves of the spherical beryllium reflector slipped.[82]
- 1947: The Collyer Brothers, extreme cases of compulsive hoarders, were found dead in their home in New York. The younger brother, Langley, was crushed to death when he accidentally triggered one of his own booby traps that had consisted of a large pile of objects, books, and newspapers. His blind and paralyzed brother Homer, who had depended on Langley for care, died of starvation some days later.[83]
1950s
- 1958: Gareth Jones, actor, collapsed and died between scenes of a live television play, Underground, at the studios of Associated British Corporation in Manchester. Director Ted Kotcheff continued the play to its conclusion, improvising around Jones' absence. Coincidentally, Jones' character was to have a heart-attack, which is what Jones suffered and died of.[84][85]
1960s
- 1960: In the Nedelin catastrophe, more than 100 Soviet rocket technicians and officials died when a switch was accidentally turned on, causing the second stage engines of a rocket to ignite, directly above the fully fueled first stage. The casualties included Red Army Marshal Nedelin, who was sitting just 40 meters (130 ft) away overseeing launch preparations.[86]
- 1960: Inejiro Asanuma, 61, the head of the Japanese Socialist Party, was stabbed to death with a wakizashi sword by extreme rightist Otoya Yamaguchi during a televised political rally.[87]
- 1960: Alan Stacey, Formula One race driver, died in a crash during the Belgian Grand Prix when a bird flew into his face, causing him to lose control.[88]
- 1961: U.S. Army Specialists John A. Byrnes and Richard Leroy McKinley and Navy Electrician's Mate Richard C. Legg were killed by a water hammer explosion during maintenance on the SL-1 nuclear reactor in Idaho.[89][90][91][92]
- 1961: Valentin Bondarenko, a Soviet cosmonaut trainee, died after suffering third-degree burns from a flash fire in the pure oxygen environment of a training simulator.[93]
- 1966: Worth Bingham, son of Barry Bingham, Sr., died when a surfboard, lying atop the back of his convertible, hit a parked car, swung around, and broke his neck.[94]
![](http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/5/5d/The_Soviet_Union_1964_CPA_3110_stamp_%283-men_Space_Flight_of_Komarov%2C_Yegorov_and_Feoktistov._Vladimir_Komarov_%281927-1967%29%2C_a_Soviet_test_pilot%2C_aerospace_engineer%2C_and_cosmonaut%29_cancelled.jpg/220px-thumbnail.jpg)
- 1966: Skydiver Nick Piantanida died from the effects of uncontrolled decompression four months after an attempt to break the world record for the highest parachute jump. During his third attempt, his face mask came loose (or he possibly opened it by mistake), causing loss of air pressure and irreversible brain damage.[95][96]
- 1967: Gus Grissom, Ed White, and Roger B. Chaffee, NASA astronauts, died when a flash fire began in their pure oxygen environment during a training exercise inside the Apollo 1 spacecraft. The spacecraft's escape hatch could not be opened because it was designed to seal shut under pressure.[97]
- 1967: Cosmonaut Vladimir Komarov became the first person to die during a space mission after the parachute of his capsule failed to deploy following re-entry.[98]
1970s
- 1971: Georgy Dobrovolsky, Vladislav Volkov and Viktor Patsayev, Soviet cosmonauts, died when their Soyuz-11 spacecraft depressurized during preparations for reentry. These are the only human deaths outside the Earth's atmosphere.[99]
- 1974: Thomas Bayliss died after being run over by two semi-trailers and a pickup truck on State Road 64 near Bradenton, Florida. None of the three vehicles stopped immediately after the accident.[100]
- 1974: Basil Brown, a 48-year-old health food advocate from Croydon, drank himself to death with carrot juice.[101][102]
- 1974: Christine Chubbuck, an American television news reporter, committed suicide during a live broadcast on 15 July. Eight minutes into her talk show on WXLT-TV in Sarasota, Florida, she shot herself in the head with a revolver.[103]
![](http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/4/42/Kurt_g%C3%B6del.jpg/180px-Kurt_g%C3%B6del.jpg)
- 1977: Tom Pryce, a Formula One driver at the 1977 South African Grand Prix, was killed when he was struck in the face by a track marshal's fire extinguisher. The marshal, Frederik Jansen van Vuuren, was running across the track to attend to Pryce's team-mate's burning car when he was struck and killed by Pryce's car. Van Vuuren himself was torn in half as the car ploughed into him at a speed exceeding 270 km/h (170 mph).[104]
- 1978: Georgi Markov, a Bulgarian dissident, was assassinated in London with a specially modified umbrella that fired a metal pellet with a small cavity full of ricin into his calf.[105]
- 1978: Janet Parker, a British medical photographer, died of smallpox in 1978, ten months after the disease was eradicated in the wild, when a researcher at the laboratory where Parker worked accidentally released some virus into the air of the building. Parker is the last known smallpox fatality.[106]
- 1978: Kurt Gödel, the Austrian/American logician and mathematician, died of starvation when his wife was hospitalized. Gödel suffered from extreme paranoia and refused to eat food prepared by anyone else.[107]
- 1979: Robert Williams, a worker at a Ford Motor Co. plant, was the first known human to be killed by a robot,[108] after the arm of a one-ton factory robot hit him in the head.[109]
- 1979: John Bowen, a 20-year-old from Nashua, New Hampshire, was attending a New York Jets football game at Shea Stadium on 9 December. During a half-time show event featuring custom-made remote control flying machines, a 40-pound model plane shaped like a lawnmower accidentally dived into the stands, striking Bowen and another spectator, causing severe head injuries. Bowen died in the hospital four days later.[110][111]
- 1979: Nitaro Ito, a candidate for Japan's House of Representatives, died in an attempt to gain sympathy during his election campaign. Having persuaded one of his employees to punch him in the face, Ito then stabbed himself in the leg. He hit an artery causing him to bleed to death before any aid could be given.[54]
1980s
- 1981: David Allen Kirwan, a 24-year-old, died from third-degree burns after attempting to rescue a friend's dog from the 200°F (93°C) water in Celestine Pool, a hot spring at Yellowstone National Park on 20 July 1981.[112][113]
- 1981: Boris Sagal, a film director, died while shooting the TV miniseries World War III when he walked into the tail rotor blade of a helicopter and was nearly decapitated.[114][115]
- 1981: Kenji Urada, a Japanese factory worker, was killed by a malfunctioning robot he was working on at a Kawasaki plant in Japan. The robot's arm pushed him into a grinding machine, killing him.[116]
- 1982: Actor Vic Morrow and child-actor Myca Dinh Le (age 7) were decapitated by a rotating helicopter blade, and child-actress Renee Shin-Yi Chen (age 6) was crushed by a helicopter during filming of Twilight Zone: The Movie.[117]
- 1982: David Grundman was killed near Lake Pleasant, Arizona while shooting at cacti with his shotgun. After he fired several shots at a 26 ft (8 m) tall Saguaro Cactus from extremely close range, a 4 ft (1.2 m) limb of the cactus detached and fell on him, crushing him.[115][118][119]
- 1982: Navy Lieutenant George M. Prior, 30, died in Arlington, Virginia from a severe allergic reaction to Daconil, a fungicide used on a golf course he attended. He had unwittingly ingested the substance through his habit of carrying the tee in his mouth when playing.[120]
![](http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/7/78/Tennessee_Williams_NYWTS.jpg/220px-Tennessee_Williams_NYWTS.jpg)
- 1983: Four divers and a tender were killed on the Byford Dolphin semi-submersible, when a decompression chamber explosively decompressed from 9 atm to 1 atm in a fraction of a second. The diver nearest the chamber opening was torn apart before his remains were ejected through a 24 inch (60 cm) opening. The other divers' remains showed signs of boiled blood, unusually strong rigor mortis, large amounts of gas in the blood vessels, and scattered hemorrhages in the soft tissues.[121]
- 1983: Sergei Chalibashvili, a professional diver, died as a result of a diving accident during the 1983 Summer Universiade in Edmonton, Alberta. When he attempted a three-and-a-half reverse somersault in the tuck position from the ten-meter platform, he struck his head on the platform and was knocked unconscious. He died after being in a coma for a week.[122]
- 1983: American author Tennessee Williams died when he choked on an eyedrop bottle-cap in his room at the Hotel Elysee in New York. He would routinely place the cap in his mouth, lean back, and place his eyedrops in each eye.[123]
- 1983: Jimmy Lee Gray, during his execution in a Mississippi gas chamber, died bashing his head against a metal pole behind the chair he was strapped into. The poisonous gas had failed to kill him but left him in agony and gasping for eight minutes.[124]
- 1983: Dick Wertheim was an American tennis linesman who died from blunt cranial trauma at a match at the 1983 US Open. A serve from Stefan Edberg hit his groin, causing him to fall and hit his head on the pavement.[125]
- 1986: More than 1,700 were killed after a limnic eruption from Lake Nyos in Cameroon released approximately 100,000,000 cubic metres (3,500,000,000 cubic feet) of carbon dioxide that quickly descended on the lake and killed oxygen-dependent life within a 25-kilometre (15-mile) radius, including three villages. The same phenomenon is also blamed for the deaths of 37 near Lake Monoun in 1984.[126]
- 1989: Patsy Ann Campbell of Portage, Indiana died when the Psoralen she was taking to cure her psoriasis caused an over sensitivity to light and a 25-minute session in a tanning booth led to burns over 80% of her body. Dr. Alan Dimick, a University of Alabama burn expert, said he believes this was the first death caused by burns from a tanning booth.[127]
1990s
- 1991: Edward Juchniewicz, a 76-year-old man from Canonsburg, Pennsylvania, was killed when the unattended ambulance stretcher he was strapped to rolled down a grade and overturned.[128][129]
- 1993: Garry Hoy, a 38-year-old lawyer in Toronto, fell to his death on 9 July 1993, after he threw himself against a window on the 24th floor of the Toronto-Dominion Centre in an attempt to prove to a group of visitors that the glass was "unbreakable," a demonstration he had done many times before. The glass did not break, but popped out of the window frame.[130][131]
- 1993: Michael A. Shingledecker, Jr. was killed when he and a friend were struck by a pickup truck while lying flat on the yellow dividing line of a two-lane highway in Polk, Pennsylvania. They were copying a daredevil stunt from the movie The Program. Marco Birkhimer died in a similar accident while performing the same stunt in Route 206 of Bordentown, New Jersey.[132]
- 1994: Jennifer Jones, a 15-year-old student, died at her Palm Beach, Florida home after attempting to inhale freon gas from the air-conditioning unit.[133]
- 1994: Gloria Ramirez was admitted to a hospital in Riverside, California with symptoms originally thought to be related to her cervical cancer. Before she died Ramirez's body released mysterious toxic fumes that made several hospital employees very ill. Scientists still don't agree on any of the theories as to what could've caused this.[134]
- 1995: A 39-year-old man committed suicide in Canberra, Australia by shooting himself three times with a pump action shotgun. The first shot passed through his chest, but missed all of the vital organs. He reloaded and shot away his throat and part of his jaw. Breathing through the throat wound, he again reloaded, held the gun against his chest with his hands and operated the trigger with his toes. This shot entered the thoracic cavity and demolished the heart, killing him.[135]
- 1995: Joe Buddy Caine, 35, died in Anniston, Alabama, when he and friend got drunk and played catch with a rattlesnake, the snake bit them and Caine was the only fatality.[136]
- 1996: Sharon Lopatka, from Maryland, was killed by Robert Glass who claimed that she had solicited him to torture and kill her for the purpose of sexual gratification.[137]
- 1997: Karen Wetterhahn, a professor of chemistry at Dartmouth College, died of mercury poisoning ten months after a few drops of dimethylmercury landed on her protective gloves. Although Wetterhahn had been following the required procedures for handling the chemical, it still permeated her gloves and skin within seconds. As a result of her death, regulations were altered.[138][139]
- 1998 October: The entire association football team of Bena Tshadi playing against Basanga was killed by lightning during a match in the Democratic Republic of the Congo. Everyone on Basanga, the home team, survived.[140][141][unreliable source?]
- 1998: 16 year-old Jonathan Capewell of Oldham, Greater Manchester, died of accidental poisoning by methane and butane, after obsessive use of aerosol deodorants.[142]
- 1999: Jon Desborough, a physical education teacher at Liverpool College, died when he slipped and fell onto the blunt end of a javelin he was retrieving. The javelin passed through his eye socket and into his brain, causing severe brain damage and putting him into a coma. He died a month later.[143][144]
21st century
2000s
- 2001: Bernd-Jürgen Brandes, from Germany, was voluntarily stabbed repeatedly and then partly eaten by Armin Meiwes (who was later called the Cannibal of Rotenburg). Brandes had answered an internet advertisement by Meiwes looking for someone for this purpose. Brandes explicitly stated in his will that he wished to be killed and eaten.[145]
- 2001: Michael Colombini, a 6-year-old American boy from Croton-on-Hudson, New York, was struck and killed at Westchester Regional Medical Centre by an oxygen tank when it was pulled into the magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) machine while he underwent a test. He had begun to experience breathing difficulties while in the MRI and when an anaesthesiologist brought a portable oxygen canister into the magnetic field, it was pulled from his hands and struck the boy in the head.[146][147]
- 2002: Brittanie Cecil, a 13-year-old American, was struck in the head by a hockey puck shot by Espen Knutsen and deflected into the crowd at an NHL hockey game in Columbus, Ohio. She died two days later in the hospital.[148]
- 2003: Brian Douglas Wells, an American pizza delivery man in Erie, Pennsylvania, was killed when a time bomb fastened around his neck exploded. At the time of his death he had been apprehended by the police for robbing a bank. Wells told police that three people had locked the bomb around his neck and would not release it had he refused to commit the robbery.[149]
- 2004: Ronald McClagish, from Murrow, Cambridgeshire in England, was trapped inside a cupboard when a wardrobe outside fell over and made it impossible for him to get out. McClagish survived for a week before succumbing to bronchitis, which he had contracted when he removed a waterpipe in an attempt to free himself and the cupboard was partially flooded.[150][151]
- 2004: An unidentified Taiwanese woman died of alcohol intoxication after immersion for twelve hours in a bathtub filled with 40% ethanol. Her blood alcohol content was 1.35%. It was believed that she had immersed herself as a response to the SARS epidemic.[152]
- 2004: Francis "Franky" Brohm, 23, of Marietta, Georgia was leaning out of a car window and decapitated by a telephone pole support wire. The car's intoxicated driver, John Hutcherson, 21, drove nearly 12 miles (19 km) to his home with the headless body in the passenger seat, parked the car in his driveway, then went to bed. A neighbour saw the bloody corpse still in the car and notified police. Brohm's head was later discovered at the accident scene.[153]
- 2005: Kenneth Pinyan from Seattle, Washington, died of acute peritonitis after receiving anal intercourse from a stallion. The case led to the criminalization of bestiality in Washington state.[154]
- 2005: Lee Seung Seop, a 28-year-old from South Korea, collapsed of fatigue and died after playing the videogame StarCraft online for almost 50 consecutive hours.[155]
- 2006: Erika Tomanu, a seven-year-old girl in Saitama, Japan, died when she was sucked 10 metres down the intake pipe of a current pool at a water park.[156]
- 2006: An unidentified airline mechanic was sucked into the engine of a Boeing 737-500 at El Paso International Airport while performing routine maintenance on the tarmac.[157][158]
![](http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/2/2e/Steve_Irwin.jpg/220px-Steve_Irwin.jpg)
- 2006: Steve Irwin, an Australian television personality and naturalist known as the Crocodile Hunter, died when his heart was impaled by a stingray barb while filming a documentary in Queensland's Great Barrier Reef.[74][159]
- 2006: Mariesa Weber, a petite 38-year-old woman, asphyxiated when she became wedged upside-down behind a bookcase in her bedroom while trying to adjust a plug on her television set. Her family, believing she had been abducted, searched for eleven days before finally finding the body.[160]
- 2006: Alexander Litvinenko, a former officer of the Russian State Security Service and later a dissident and writer, died from acute radiation syndrome after being poisoned with polonium-210.[161]
- 2007: Jennifer Strange, a 28-year-old woman from Sacramento, California, died of water intoxication while trying to win a Nintendo Wii console in a KDND 107.9 "The End" radio station's "Hold Your Wee for a Wii" contest, which involved drinking large quantities of water without urinating.[162][163]
- 2007: Humberto Hernandez, a 24-year-old Oakland, California resident, was killed after being struck in the face by an airborne fire hydrant while walking. A passing car had struck the fire hydrant and the water pressure shot the hydrant at Hernandez with enough force to kill him.[164][165][166]
- 2007: Kevin Whitrick, a 42-year-old British man, committed suicide by hanging himself live in front of a webcam during an Internet chat session.[167]
- 2007: A ten month old camel killed the woman who owned it, by knocking her to the ground and straddling her. A camel expert confirmed the attack was sexual in nature.[168]
- 2008: David Phyall, 50, the last resident in a block of flats due to be demolished in Bishopstoke, near Southampton, Hampshire, England, decapitated himself with a chainsaw to highlight the injustice of being forced to move out.[169][170]
![](http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/en/thumb/b/bd/Alg_taylor_mitchell.jpg/220px-Alg_taylor_mitchell.jpg)
- 2009: Taylor Mitchell, a Canadian folk singer, was attacked and killed by three coyotes, the only recorded adult person to have been killed by this species.[171][172]
2010s
- 2010: Jimi Heselden, British owner of the Segway motorized scooter company, was killed when he accidentally drove off a cliff on a Segway at his estate at Thorp Arch near Boston Spa.[173]
- 2010: Mike Edwards, British founding member and cellist for the band ELO, died when a large round bale of hay rolled down the hill and smashed his car while he was out driving.[74][174][175]
- 2011: Jose Luis Ochoa, 35, died after being stabbed in the leg at a cockfight in Tulare County, California U.S., by one of the birds that had a knife attached to its limb.[176][177]
- 2011: Harry, Kimberly and their father Trevor Wallwork (and their two dogs) died of carbon monoxide poisoning when a crisp packet became lodged in the chimney and caused the carbon monoxide to flood the room of their cottage in Gurteen, County Sligo, Ireland.[178]
- 2012: Erica Marshall, a 28-year-old British veterinarian in Ocala, Florida, died when the horse she was treating in a hyperbaric chamber kicked the wall, released a spark from its horseshoes and triggered an explosion.[179][180][181]
- 2012: Edward Archbold, 32, a man of West Palm Beach, Florida, died after winning a cockroach eating contest. The cause of death was determined to be accidental choking due to "arthropod body parts." [182] Florence Vaccarello Dunkel, Associate Professor of Entomology at Montana State University, said of Archbold's death: "I've never heard of that happening."[183]
See also
References
- ^ "Definition of unusual in English". Oxford Dictionaries. Retrieved 26 October 2013.
- ^ Ursula Hoff (1938), "Meditation in Solitude", Journal of the Warburg Institute, vol. 1 (44), The Warburg Institute: 292–294
{{citation}}
:|volume=
has extra text (help) - ^ Suidas. "Δράκων", Suda On Line, Adler number delta, 1495.
- ^ Bruce Felton, Mark Fowler (1985), "Most Unusual Death", Felton & Fowler's Best, Worst, and Most Unusual, Random House, p. 161, ISBN 9780517462973
- ^ Brett Matlock, Jesse Matlock (2011), The Salt Lake Loonie, University of Regina Press, p. 81
- ^ EN Gardiner (1906), The Journal of Hellenic Studies,
Fatal accidents did occur as in the case of Arrhichion, but they were very rare...
- ^ J. C. McKeown (2013), A Cabinet of Greek Curiosities: Strange Tales and Surprising Facts from the Cradle of Western Civilization, Oxford University Press, p. 136, ISBN 9780199982103,
The unusual nature of Aeschylus's death...
- ^ La tortue d'Eschyle et autres morts stupides de l'Histoire, Editions Les Arènes, 2012, ISBN 9782352042211
- ^ Jamie Frater (2010), "10 truly bizarre deaths", Listverse.Com's Ultimate Book of Bizarre Lists, Ulysses Press, pp. 12–14, ISBN 9781569758175
- ^ J. C. McKeown (2013), A Cabinet of Greek Curiosities: Strange Tales and Surprising Facts from the Cradle of Western Civilization, Oxford University Press, p. 102, ISBN 9780199982127,
Ctesias, the Greek physician to Artaxerxes, the king of Persia, gives an appallingly detailed description of the execution inflicted on a soldier named Mithridates, who was misguided enough to claim the credit for killing the king's brother, Cyrus...
- ^ a b Athenaeus, Deipnosophistae, 9.401e.
- ^ Alan Cameron (1991). "How thin was Philitas?". The Classical Quarterly. 41 (2): 534–8. doi:10.1017/S0009838800004717.
- ^ Wright, David Curtis (2001), The History of China, Greenwood Publishing Group, p. 49, ISBN 0-313-30940-X
- ^ The First Emperor, Oxford University Press, 2007, pp. 82, 150, ISBN 9780191527630
- ^ Nate Hopper (4 February 2013), "Royalty and their Strange Deaths", Esquire
- ^ Pliny the Elder, "Nat. History, vii 7".
- ^ "St. Lawrence - Martyr" at catholic.org
- ^ "Saint Lawrence of Rome" at saints.sqpn.com
- ^ Nigel Jonathan Spivey (2001), Enduring Creation: Art, Pain, and Fortitude, University of California Press, p. 42, ISBN 9780520230224
- ^ The Encyclopedia Americana, vol. vol. 17, 1981, p. 85, ISBN 9780717201129
{{citation}}
:|volume=
has extra text (help) - ^ Gregory of Tours, History of the Franks 2.23.
- ^ "Hypatia biography". History.mcs.st-andrews.ac.uk. Retrieved 11 December 2010.
- ^ The Book of Lists, 2004 edition. "...Some scholars believed he actually died of cirrhosis." Compare Li Bai#Death.
- ^ Translations of the Orkneyinga saga (chapters 4 and 5), which relates the story, can be read online at Sacred texts and Northvegr.
- ^ "Bela I". Encyclopædia Britannica Online. 2012. Retrieved 13 August 2012.
- ^ Ordericus Vitalis, The Ecclesiastical History of England and Normandy, v. 4, p. 129
- ^ Frater, Jamie (2010). Listverse.Com's Ultimate Book of Bizarre Lists. Canada: Ulysses Press. p. 400. ISBN 9781569758175.
- ^ Schama, Simon (2000). A History of Great Britain: 3000BC-AD1603. London: BBC Worldwide.
{{cite book}}
: Cite has empty unknown parameter:|coauthors=
(help) p.220 - ^ A red-hot poker? It was just a red herring | General | Times Higher Education
- ^ Phillips, Seymour, Edward II, Yale University Press, copyright 2010. pgs 560-565.
- ^ Barbara Tuchman;A Distant Mirror, 1978, Alfred A Knopf Ltd
- ^ "Patronage and Piety – Montserrat and the Royal House of Medieval Catalonia-Aragon"[dead link], Paul N. Morris, Mirator Lokakuu, October 2000
- ^ Thompson, C. J. S. Mysteries of History with Accounts of Some Remarkable Characters and Charlatans, pp. 31 ff. Kila, Montana: Kessinger Publishing, 2004.
- ^ Viegas, Jennifer (1 August 2008). "'Dancing Plague' and Other Odd Afflictions Explained". Discovery News. Discovery Communications. Retrieved 8 August 2008.
- ^ "10 strange ways Tudors died". BBC News.
- ^ Waterfield, Gordon, ed. First Footsteps in East Africa, (New York: Praeger Publishers, 1966) pg. 59 footnote.
- ^ Hall, Charles Winslow (April 1910). "The Nobility of the Trades: Barbers and Hairdressers". National Magazine. 32 (1): 472.
{{cite journal}}
: CS1 maint: date and year (link) - ^ "HowStuffWorks - 10 Bizarre Ways to Die".
- ^ John Tierney (29 November 2010). "Murder! Intrigue! Astronomers?". New York Times. Retrieved 30 November 2010.
At the time of Tycho's death, in 1601, the blame fell on his failure to relieve himself while drinking profusely at the banquet, supposedly injuring his bladder and making him unable to urinate.
{{cite news}}
: Cite has empty unknown parameter:|coauthors=
(help) - ^ Thoren (1990, p.468–69)
- ^ Terri Pous (17 November 2012). "Was Tycho Brahe Poisoned? According to New Evidence, Probably Not". Time – Bizarre.
a fatal case of politeness.", "Brahe makes a good case for strangest historical death
- ^ "Tycho Brahe's 'murder' investigated". The Guardian. 15 November 2012.
- ^ "Bones of Danish Astronomer Tycho Brahe May Yield Clues to His Death". space.com. 19 November 2010.
{{cite web}}
: External link in
(help)|publisher=
- ^ Megan Gannon (16 November 2012). "Tycho Brahe Died From Burst Bladder, Not Poisoning, Astronomer's Exhumed Body Shows". Huffington Post.
- ^ Marina Belozerskaya (2009), "Rudolf II's Empire of Knowledge", The Medici Giraffe: And Other Tales of Exotic Animals and Power, Hachette UK, ISBN 9780316076425
- ^ Rackham, Oliver (2002). Treasures of Silver at Corpus Christi College. Cambridge University Press. ISBN 0-521-81880-X.
- ^ "Corpus Christi Website -Corpus Ghost". Corpus Christi College.
- ^ Guiley, Rosemary Ellen (2000). The Encyclopedia of Ghosts and Spirits (2nd ed.). Checkmark books. ISBN 978-0-8160-4086-5.
- ^ a b Ah-young Chung (27 November 2009). "Book Reconstitutes Secret of Prince Sado's Death". The Korea Times. Retrieved 30 May 2011.
- ^ The Universal magazine. Books.google.com. 1757. Retrieved 7 August 2011.
- ^ The lowdown on Sweden's best buns The Local, February 2007
- ^ Semlor are Swedish treat for Lent Sandy Mickelson, The Messenger, 27 February 2008
- ^ A Selection of Curious Articles from the Gentleman's Magazine, Volume 4 By John Walker, page 302. The chapter title states "Deaths of Persons" ..."peculiar circumstances".
- ^ a b The Book of Lists, 2004 edition.
- ^ "Dictionary of Canadian Biography Online". Biographi.ca. Retrieved 8 August 2011.
- ^ Adams, William Howard (2003). Gouverneur Morris: an independent life. Yale University Press. ISBN 0-300-09980-0.
- ^ Kirschke, James J. (2005). Gouverneur Morris: author, statesman, and man of the world. Macmillan. ISBN 0-312-24195-X.
- ^ Garfield, Simon (2002). The Last Journey of William Huskisson. Faber & Faber. ISBN 0571216080.
- ^ John Moring (2005), Early American Naturalists: Exploring The American West, 1804-1900, Taylor Trade Publications, p. 106, ISBN 9781589791831
- ^ John and Mary Gribbin (2008), Flower Hunters, Oxford University Press, p. 160, ISBN 9780192807182
- ^ Death of Clement Vallandigham | HistoricLebanonOhio.com
- ^ "Fatal Accident to Mr. Vallandigham: The Western Reserve Chronicle, June 21, 1871, page 2". civil-war-150.com. 13 June 2012. Retrieved 2 November 2013.
- ^ "The Death of Ray Chapman". New York Times. 17 August 1920.
- ^ "Dan Andersson (1888–1920)".
- ^ John Van der Kiste, Kings of the Hellenes (Alan Sutton Publishing, Stroud, Gloucestershire, England, 1994) ISBN 0-7509-0525-5 p. 119
- ^ "Jockey Dies as He Wins His First Race; Hayes Collapses Passing the Winning Post". New York Times. 5 June 1923. Retrieved 20 February 2011.
- ^ "The Life of Lord Carnarvon". Touregypt.net. Retrieved 11 December 2010.
- ^ "Carnarvon Is Dead Of An Insect's Bite At Pharaoh's Tomb. Blood Poisoning and Ensuing Pneumonia Conquer Tut-ankh-Amen Discoverer in Egypt". New York Times. 5 April 1923. Retrieved 12 August 2008.
The Earl of Carnarvon died peacefully at 2 o'clock this morning. He was conscious almost to the end.
- ^ "Siegmund Breitbart". Sandowplus.co.uk. Retrieved 11 December 2010.
- ^ Christensen, Liana (2011). Deadly Beautiful: Vanishing Killers of the Animal Kingdom. Wollombi, NSW: Exisle Publishing. p. 272. ISBN 9781921497223.
- ^ Kofron, Christopher P., Chapman, Angela. (2006) "Causes of mortality to the endangered Southern Cassowary Casuarius casuariusjohnsonii in Queensland, Australia." Pacific Conservation Biology vol. 12: 175–179
- ^ "Harry Houdini – Biography". Appleton History. Retrieved 4 August 2009.
- ^ "Death of Houdini". Urban Legends Reference Paces. Retrieved 9 May 2012.
- ^ a b c "Mike Edwards hay bale death: celebrities in freak killings", Daily Telegraph, 06 Sep 2010
{{citation}}
: Check date values in:|date=
(help) - ^ Brown, Ismene (6 March 2009). "Isadora Duncan, Sublime or Ridiculous?". The Telegraph. Retrieved 26 April 2013.
- ^ "Death by Playing Cards – Solitaire". Snopes.com. Retrieved 8 August 2011.
- ^ "Death Stirs Action on Radium 'Cures'". New York Times. 2 April 1932. Retrieved 1 October 2011.
Federal and local agencies, as well as medical authorities in various parts of the country, were stirred to action yesterday as a result of the death of Eben M. Byers, wealthy Pittsburgh steel manufacturer and sportsman, who died here Wednesday at the Doctors' Hospital from causes attributed to radium poisoning resulting from the drinking of water containing radium in solution. ...
{{cite news}}
: Cite has empty unknown parameter:|coauthors=
(help) - ^ Read, Simon (2005). The Bizarre Killing of Michael Malloy. Penguin Book Group. ISBN 0-425-20678-5.
{{cite book}}
: Cite has empty unknown parameter:|coauthors=
(help) - ^ Virginia Tech article
- ^ Bryson, Bill. A Short History of Nearly Everything. (2003) Broadway Books, USA. ISBN 0-385-66004-9
- ^ "Harry K. Daghlian – 1 of 1". Mphpa.org. Retrieved 11 December 2010.
- ^ "hhs55.com". hhs55.com. Retrieved 11 December 2010.
- ^ "Biography of Hermits of Harlem Homer and Langley Collyer –". Trivia-library.com. Retrieved 11 December 2010.
- ^ Cited by Gareth Rubin "Live TV drama is resurrected as Sky shrugs off lessons of history", The Guardian, 31 May 2009
- ^ Matthew Sweet Review: "'Do Not Adjust Your Set' By Kate Dunn, The Independent, 20 July 2003
- ^ "Nedelin disaster". Russianspaceweb.com. Retrieved 11 December 2010.
- ^ "Assassin's Apologies". Time.com. 14 November 1960. Retrieved 8 August 2011.
- ^ Daley, Robert (2007). Cars at Speed: Classic Stories from Grand Prix's Golden Age. United States: MBI Publishing Company. p. 304. ISBN 9780760331170.
- ^ SL-1 The Accident: Phases I and II U.S. Atomic Energy Commission Idaho Operations Office video (Youtube 1) (Youtube 2)
- ^ Chapter 15 "The SL-1 Reactor" (page 142) 9.5 MB PDF
- ^ Tucker, Todd (2009). Atomic America: How a Deadly Explosion and a Feared Admiral Changed the Course of Nuclear History. New York: Free Press. ISBN 978-1-4165-4433-3. See summary: http://catdir.loc.gov/catdir/enhancements/fy0904/2008013842-s.html
- ^ McKeown, William (2003). Idaho Falls: The Untold Story of America's First Nuclear Accident. Toronto: ECW Press. ISBN 978-1-55022-562-4.
- ^ Oberg, James, Uncovering Soviet Disasters, Chapter 10: Dead Cosmonauts, pp 156–176, Random house, New York, 1988. Retrieved 8 January 2008.
- ^ McFadden, Robert D. (4 April 2006). "Barry Bingham Jr., Louisville Publisher, Is Dead at 72". The New York Times. Retrieved 11 May 2010.
- ^ Ryan, Craig (2003). Magnificent Failure: Free Fall from the Edge of Space. Smithsonian Air and Space Museum Press. ISBN 978-1-58834-141-9. OCLC 51059086.
- ^ Dive Hard, The Globe and Mail, 25 May 2008
- ^ "Astronaut Bio: Virgil I. Grissom". Jsc.nasa.gov. Retrieved 11 December 2010.
- ^ Tony Long (24 April 2007). "24 April 1967: Last Day in the Life of Cosmonaut Vladimir Komarov". Wired.com. Retrieved 11 December 2010.
- ^ "Space disasters and near misses". Channel 4. Archived from the original on 12 October 2008. Retrieved 29 June 2011.
- ^ "Bizarre death in Manatee probed by Highway Patrol". St Petersburg Times. 17 October 1974. Retrieved May 2013.
{{cite news}}
: Check date values in:|accessdate=
(help) - ^ "Unusual death". Star-News. Wilmington, North Carolina. 20 February 1974. p. 28. Retrieved 12 June 2010.
- ^ Staub, Jack E. (2005). "74. Yellowstone Carrot: Daucus carota savicus". Alluring Lettuces: And Other Seductive Vegetables for Your Garden. Layton, Utah: Gibbs Smith. p. 230. ISBN 1-4236-0829-1. OCLC 435711200.
{{cite book}}
: External link in
(help); Unknown parameter|chapterurl=
|chapterurl=
ignored (|chapter-url=
suggested) (help) - ^ Dietz, Jon. "On-Air Shot Kills TV Personality", Sarasota Herald-Tribune, 16 July 1974.
- ^ Roberts, James (4 March 2012). "The tragedy of Tom Pryce, Wales' Formula One hero". BBC. Retrieved 10 September 2013.
- ^ "From the archive, 14 September 1978: Bulgarian dissident killed by poisoned umbrella at London bus stop | From the Guardian". theguardian.com. Retrieved 25 October 2013.
- ^ Twenty five years on: Smallpox revisited Queen Mary, University of London[dead link]
- ^ Toates, Frederick; Olga Coschug Toates (2002). Obsessive Compulsive Disorder: Practical Tried-and-Tested Strategies to Overcome OCD. Class Publishing, 221. ISBN 978-1-85959-069-0.
- ^ Robot firm liable in death, Tim Kiska, The Oregonian, 11 August 1983.
- ^ Kiska, Tim (11 August 1983). "Death on the job: Jury awards $10 million to heirs of man killed by robot at auto plant". The Philadelphia Inquirer. pp. A10. Retrieved 11 September 2007.
- ^ "Flying Lawnmower Death – Grim Reaper (contains additional references)". Snopes.com. Retrieved 8 August 2011.
- ^ It was a grand stage for excitement[dead link] by Joe Gergen, Hartford Courant, 28 September 2008.
- ^ Hot Springs Death – Help Springs Eternal at Snopes.com
- ^ Lee Whittlesey, Death in Yellowstone: Accidents and Foolhardiness in the First National Park. Boulder, Colo. : Roberts Rinehart Publishers, ©1995.
- ^ Kennedy, Shawn G. (24 May 1981). "Boris Sagal, 58, Movie Director, Dies After A Helicopter Accident". The New York Times. Retrieved 11 May 2010.
- ^ a b "10 Strange Celebrity Deaths - J. Robert Godbout". Open Salon. 8 July 2009. Retrieved 27 September 2013.
- ^ "Trust me, I'm a robot". Economist.com. 8 June 2006. Retrieved 8 August 2011.
- ^ "The Twilight Zone Tragedy – Crime Library on truTV.com". Crimelibrary.com. Retrieved 11 December 2010.
- ^ "Cactus Courageous – Death by Saguaro". Snopes.com. Retrieved 8 August 2011.
- ^ "When Cactus and Civilization collide – Trifling with Saguaros can be Hazardous to one's Health". Phoenixnewtimes.com. 3 March 1993. Retrieved 8 August 2011.
- ^ "Fatal-A-Tee". snopes.com. 2 September 2006. Retrieved 6 March 2011.
- ^ Giertsen, J.C. et al., "An Explosive Decompression Accident", The American Journal of Forensic Medicine and Pathology, 9(2):91–101, 1988.
- ^ "Milestones: Jul. 25, 1983". Time. 25 July 1983. Retrieved 11 May 2010.
- ^ "Search Results". 27 February 1983.
- ^ "Might we make executions more civilized, please?" from CBC News
- ^ "Odd mishap fells tennis official". Evening Independent. St. Petersburg, Florida. 12 September 1983. p. 3–C. Retrieved 20 November 2008.
- ^ BBC contributors (21 August 1986). "21 August: 1986: Hundreds gassed in Cameroon lake disaster". BBC. Retrieved 20 May 2009.
{{cite news}}
:|author=
has generic name (help) - ^ http://www.snopes.com/horrors/vanities/tanningbed.asp
- ^ "The Runaway Gurney". Snopes.com. Retrieved 8 August 2011.
- ^ "Stretcher Accident Kills Man". The New York Times. (AP). 4 May 1991. p. 8. ISSN 0362-4331. OCLC 1645522. Retrieved 19 March 2011.
- ^ Window Test Death – Through a Glass, Quickly at Snopes.com
- ^ Goodman and Carr falls prey to rivals by Jacquie McNish, The Globe and Mail, 15 March 2007.
- ^ "Not Like the Movie: A Dare Leads to Death". The New York Times. 19 October 1993. Retrieved 11 May 2010.
- ^ Sanchez Jr, Jose Luis (9 June 1994). "Mother Of Victim Plans Crusade Against Freon". Florida SunSentinel. Retrieved 1 December 2012.
- ^ Stone, Richard (1 March 1995). "Analysis of a Toxic Death | Cancer". DISCOVER Magazine. Retrieved 11 December 2010.
- ^ Herdson PB (2000). "Shotgun suicide with a difference". Med J Aust. 173 (11–12): 604–5. PMID 11379504.
- ^ Joravsky, Ben (19 October 1995). "News of the Weird | News of the Weird". Chicago Reader. Retrieved 25 October 2013.
- ^ "Internet Assisted Suicide: The Story of Sharon Lopatka at CrimeLibrary.com". Trutv.com. Retrieved 21 July 2011.
- ^ "Dimethylmercury and Mercury Poisoning". Chm.bris.ac.uk. Retrieved 16 November 2011.
- ^ "The Trembling Edge of Science". Iaomt.org. Retrieved 16 November 2011.
- ^ "Lightning kills football team". BBC News. 28 October 1998. Retrieved 11 May 2010.
- ^ Dart, James (15 March 2006). "Did lightning kill an entire team?". Guardian News. London. Retrieved 2 September 2011.
- ^ "Boy who 'wanted to smell good' killed by deodorant - News". The Independent. 29 October 1998. Retrieved 25 October 2013.
- ^ Breslin, Maria (11 June 1999). "Teacher hit by javelin dies". The Independent. Retrieved 26 April 2012.
- ^ "Javelin teacher dies in hospital". BBC News. 10 June 1999. Retrieved 26 April 2012.
- ^ "German cannibal guilty of murder". BBC News. 9 May 2006.
- ^ Archibold, Randal C. (22 October 2001). "Hospital Details Failures Leading To MRI Fatality". Nytimes.com. Retrieved 11 December 2010.
- ^ MRI Newsletter: Four Years After The Tragedy[dead link].
- ^ "Girl dies after getting hit by puck at NHL game". ESPN.com. 20 May 2002.
- ^ "Pizza Deliveryman Who Robbed Bank Had Neck Measured for Bomb Collar". Fox News. Associated Press. 19 July 2007. Retrieved 30 September 2008.
- ^ Call For New Cupboard Death Probe BBC News
- ^ "Man trapped in cupboard died as water gushed down". Telegraph.
- ^ "Elsevier". Fsijournal.org. Retrieved 8 August 2011.
- ^ Johnston, Lori (11 October 2011). "'''AJC'', 11 Oct 2011". Ajc.com. Retrieved 16 November 2011.
- ^ "Trespassing charged in horse-sex case" The Seattle Times
- ^ "Technology | S Korean dies after games session". BBC News. 10 August 2005. Retrieved 7 August 2013.
- ^ "Girl sucked into intake at city-run pool". Japantimes.co.jp. 5 August 2006. Retrieved 11 December 2010.
- ^ "Mechanic sucked into jet engine". CNN. Retrieved 11 December 2012.
- ^ "Airplane Mechanic Sucked Into Jet Engine, Killed at El Paso Airport". Associated Press. 16 January 2006. Retrieved 30 August 2012.
- ^ CNN Reports: 'Crocodile Hunter' dead, 4 September 2006
- ^ Woman found dead behind bookcase - US news - Weird news | NBC News
- ^ Cowell, Alan; Levy, Clifford J.; Shane, Scott (31 May 2007). "Alexander V. Litvinenko". The New York Times. Retrieved 27 April 2011.
- ^ "Woman dies after being in water-drinking contest"[dead link], The Los Angeles Times, 14 January 2007
- ^ "Woman's Death After Water-Drinking Contest Investigated"[dead link] KNBC.com, 16 January 2007
- ^ "Fire Hydrant Death – Fire Plugged". Snopes.com. Retrieved 8 August 2011.
- ^ Oakland Man Killed By Airborne Fire Hydrant[dead link], CBS5.com, 22 June 2007.
- ^ "Flying fire hydrant kills Calif. man". Usatoday.com. 23 June 2007. Retrieved 8 August 2011.
- ^ Bale, Joanna (24 March 2007). "Get on with it, said net audience as man hanged himself on webcam". Times Online. London. Retrieved 27 May 2007.[dead link]
- ^ By metrowebukmetro (19 August 2007). "Humped to death by a pet camel | Metro News". Metro.co.uk. Retrieved 21 September 2013.
- ^ Halfpenny, Martin (19 November 2008). "Chainsaw death was 'carefully thought through suicide'". The Independent. London. Retrieved 22 November 2008.
- ^ "Man cut off head in flat protest". BBC News. 19 November 2008.
- ^ "Coyotes kill Toronto singer in Cape Breton". CBC.ca. 12 October 2009. Retrieved 29 October 2009.
- ^ A History of Urban Coyote Problems, Robert M. Tim & Rex O. Baker, University of Nebraska – Lincoln, 2007
- ^ Sheridan, Michael; Siemaszko, Corky (27 September 2010). "Segway company owner James 'Jimi' Heselden dies in England after riding a Segway off cliff". Daily News. New York.
- ^ "ELO cellist Mike Edwards's hay bale death 'preventable'". BBC News. 8 November 2012. Retrieved 7 August 2013.
- ^ Mike Edwards — Killed by a Hay Bale
- ^ "Man stabbed to death by cockfighting bird". BBC News. 8 February 2011. Retrieved 19 March 2011.
- ^ Peralta, Eyder (7 February 2011). "Weird News: California Man Fatally Stabbed By Rooster : The Two-Way". NPR. Retrieved 26 September 2013.
- ^ Jeremy Culley (24 September 2013). "Dad and two children died from carbon monoxide poisoning after discarded snack packet got stuck in chimney". Bolton News. Retrieved 26 September 2013.
- ^ "Equine expert killed as horse shoe sparks explosion heard 30 miles away". The Daily Telegraph. 13 February 2012.
- ^ "Officials: Horse's metal shoes sparked fatal blast in oxygen chamber" (Feb 17, 2012) NBCNews
- ^ Explosion at Fla. horse center kills worker, horse | CNS News
- ^ "Florida man who died in cockroach-eating contest choked to death, autopsy says". NBC News. 26 November 2012.
- ^ By: Robert Nolin, Sun Sentinel (10 October 2012). "Edward Archbold, roach eating contest death: What really killed the West Palm Beach man?". Retrieved 27 October 2013.
Further reading
- Russell Robert Winterbotham (1929), Curious and Unusual Deaths, Haldeman-Julius, Girard, Kansas
- Michael Powell (5 August 2008), Curious Events in History, Sterling Publishing Company, Inc
- Nick Daws Daft Deaths and Famous Last Words
- Tracey Turner, Dreadful Fates
- Dale Dreher, ebook Death by Misadventure: 210 Dumb Ways to Die.
- David Southwell and Sean Twist (1 September 2007), Mysterious Deaths and Disappearances, The Rosen Publishing Group
- John Dunning Strange Deaths (true crime)
- Strange Deaths: More Than 375 Freakish Fatalites
- Strange Inhuman Deaths
- The Fortean Times Book of Strange Deaths
- The Fortean Times Book of More Strange Deaths
External links
- Curious and Unusual Deaths Pictures. Discovery Channel.
- Freakish Fatalities Snopes.com