List of unusual deaths

Death of Aeschylus in Florentine Picture Chronicle

Illustration of the death of Charondas from 1787

Pankratiasten in fight greek statue 2 century bC

Lille PdBA carracci milon de crotone

Zeusi

Kapitolinischer Pythagoras adjusted

List of Unusual Deaths presents a compilation of notable instances where individuals have met their demise under extraordinary circumstances. This article does not cover every unusual death but highlights some of the most peculiar and historically significant cases.

Ancient Times

• In 620 BC, Draco, an Athenian lawmaker, was reportedly smothered to death by gifts of cloaks and hats showered upon him by appreciative citizens at a theatre on Aegina.
• Aeschylus, the great Athenian author of tragedies, died in 455 BC when an eagle, mistaking his bald head for a rock suitable for shattering the shell of a tortoise, dropped it on him, killing him instantly.

Middle Ages

• King Edward II of England is rumored to have been murdered in 1327 by having a red-hot iron inserted into his anus, although historical evidence for this method of execution is scant.
• In 1478, George Plantagenet, 1st Duke of Clarence, was executed by drowning in a barrel of Malmsey wine at his own request.

17th to 19th Century

• Franz Reichelt, a tailor, fell to his death from the Eiffel Tower in 1912 while testing his invention, a coat parachute. It was his first attempt using the parachute.
• Grigori Rasputin, the Russian mystic, survived being poisoned and shot multiple times in 1916, before finally dying of drowning in the icy Neva River.

20th Century

• In 1923, George Herbert, 5th Earl of Carnarvon, who financed the excavation of Tutankhamun's tomb, died shortly after a mosquito bite on his cheek became infected; some attributed his death to the "curse of the pharaohs".
• Isadora Duncan, a famed dancer, died in 1927 in Nice, France, when her long scarf became entangled in the wheel and axle of the car she was in, breaking her neck.

21st Century

• In 2001, Gregory W. Biggs, a homeless man in Fort Worth, Texas, was hit by a car that was driven by Chante Jawan Mallard, who then drove home with Biggs lodged in her windshield. He died several hours later, still in the garage.
• Steve Irwin, the Australian television personality and conservationist, was pierced in the chest by a stingray barb while filming in Australia's Great Barrier Reef in 2006.

See Also

• List of preventable causes of death
• List of last words

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