It's been a while, but strange historical deaths are back on the menu. Today, we'll look at some of the strange ways people met their end, including sex, fire, flowers, baseball, lampreys, and, of course, man's oldest enemy—gravity.
10. Death by Potpourri
We'll begin with a story about a deadly prank in ancient Rome, played by one of the most controversial Roman emperors in history, Elagabalus. There are many sordid stories about the young emperor's penchant for hedonism and wealth, so many that it's difficult to say which are true and which are not. This particular story comes from Historia Augusta , which doesn't have a stunning track record when it comes to accuracy, but if true, it may represent the only known case of mass murder. potpourri .
Elagabalus often enjoyed throwing lavish banquets and playing pranks on his guests. In this case, he used double-sided ceiling , to rain down tons of flowers on their unsuspecting guests. Some were completely buried under the blooming avalanche and "practicallysuffocated , unable to crawl to the top.".
9. Death by Snoo Snoo
Dying during sex isn't anything particularly noteworthy, but it does raise the stakes a bit when it comes to dad.
John XII is widely considered one of the worst popes in history, remembered today for his many vices, chief among them his love of married women. While we're being fair to John, we should note that, as with Elagabalus, most stories about him were written by people who weren't members of his fan club. The account of his death, in particular, is told by Liutprand of Cremona, a supporter of John's political rival, Holy Roman Emperor Otto I.
Now that we've gotten the disclaimers out of the way, let's get to the good stuff. Pope John XII died on May 14, 964 AD, as a result of adultery. с unnamed mistress , but the exact cause of death is unknown. Although all versions of events claim that the pope died "enjoying adultery" » , Some say John suffered a stroke during the act and lingered for several days before finally going mad. Other versions claim that John XII's demise was more swift and violent, and that he was simply beaten to death by an angry husband who caught him at the crime scene together with his wife.
8. Death by excessive politeness
It's important to demonstrate good manners whenever you're in public, but not to the point where you literally kill yourself to do so. Take, for example, the strange case of Tycho Brahe, Denmark's most famous astronomer. Besides his scientific work, there are two notable facts about him. First, Brahe wore a metal prosthetic nose because he lost his real one in a duel. And second, he died in 1601 after a strange and sudden illness.
In 1901, 300 years after Brahe's death, his body was exhumed and were found in the hairs of his beard traces of mercury . This immediately raised the possibility that he had been poisoned, and historians even pointed a collective finger at a suspect—Braehe's assistant, none other than Johannes Kepler, who, of course, became a renowned scientist in his own right. Could it be that Kepler murdered his mentor to further his own career?
Not so fast. Later tests, using modern technology, showed that Brahe normal level mercury in his body, far below the lethal dose. Instead, it appears the astronomer's death was caused by a severe bladder infection that led to uremia. During a banquet with the Danish emperor, Brahe drank heavily but couldn't get up to urinate because it would have been impolite to leave the table in front of the king. So he simply sat and suffered in silence, and by the time he returned home, he had my bladder burst , and Tycho Brahe died 11 days later.
7. Death by skin stool
We're going back to ancient times to find the most horrific entry on this list. It's another tale of dubious veracity, this time courtesy of good old Herodotus, who tells us of the horrific way in which the Achaemenid Empire king Cambyses II decided to punish a judge named Sisamen for corruption.
After Cambyses learned that Sisamnes had taken a bribe, the king's throat was cut and skinned . While this was fairly standard for the time, Cambyses later draped leather over the judge's chair where Sisamnes sat while passing sentence. He then appointed Sisamnes' son, Otanes, as the new judge and forced him to sit on the same chair every time he passed sentence, as a reminder of what happened to corrupt officials.
6. Death by car
One summer night, 44-year-old Bridget Driscoll Mrs. Driscoll, a Croydon woman, and her 16-year-old daughter, May, were walking to Crystal Palace Park in southeast London to attend a party. While crossing the street, Mrs. Driscoll was struck by a car, fatally injuring her. Now we know what you're thinking. It's an unfortunate but all-too-common tragedy. However, Bridget Driscoll's death is notable because it occurred on August 17, 1896, giving her the unfortunate distinction of being the first as a pedestrian, ever killed by a car.
At that time, cars were so rare on the roads that Mrs. Driscoll was simply "«confused »" She was shocked by this event and didn't know how to react. All she could do was hold her umbrella for protection before she was hit.
The driver claimed his car was limited to 4 mph, but witnesses insisted the car was moving at« at enormous speed , "like a fire engine," or at the speed of a galloping horse. Bridget Driscoll's death was ultimately ruled an accident, and the coroner remarked with an abundance of hope that "such a thing will never happen again.".
5. Death through ingratitude
On September 10, 490 BC, the Athenian general Miltiades led the Greek forces to victory at the Battle of Marathon, thereby repelling the first Persian invasion of King Darius the Great. Unsurprisingly, Miltiades became a byword in Athens, but his mission was not yet complete. He was then commissioned to lead an expedition to Cyclades and to punish some of the Greek city-states that had sided with Persia during the war.
Everyone assumed it would be a walk in the park, especially for the great Miltiades, who had just defeated the mighty Persian Empire. Yet it wasn't. Not only was the Athenian army defeated, Miltiades injured his leg during the battle.
When Miltiades returned to Athens defeated, no one could believe it. His service against the Persians was immediately forgotten, and one of Miltiades' political opponents, Xanthippus , seized the opportunity to accuse the commander of treason. What's more, Miltiades was found guilty and sent to prison. His leg injury was never treated, so it became infected, and the great hero of the Battle of Marathon died of gangrene, imprisoned by the very men he had saved.
4. Death by flying pinto
There's a long list of inventors killed by their own creations, and unfortunately, that's not surprising. After all, trying something completely new can often be dangerous, even fatal.
Let's take for example, Henry Smolinski and Harold Blake, two aeronautical engineers who founded Advanced Vehicle Engineers, or AVE, in 1971. Their goal was to create a mobile aircraft—or, in other words, a flying car.
Unfortunately, the two engineers decided that the car they would use for their invention would be a Ford Pinto, a vehicle with safety ratings just one step above riding on the back of a hungry alligator. They strapped the back of a twin-engine car to it. Cessna Skymaster , and in 1973 the AVE Mizar was born.
Unfortunately, it was doomed from the start. During the first test flight, the attachment to the right wing strut failed almost immediately after takeoff, but the experienced pilot Charles "Red" Janis prevented it from completely breaking away and knocked Mizar into a field for a rough landing.
Undeterred, Smolinski and Blake built another prototype, and on September 11, 1973, it was time for another test flight. Janisse wasn't available that day, so the engineers took off themselves. The Mizar remained airborne for about two minutes before the wings failed, and the machine plummeted 800 feet, bursting into flames on impact and instantly killing both men.
3. Death by excess lampreys
The 12th-century historian Henry of Huntingdon is considered one of England's most important scholars, largely due to his original work Historia Anglorum , which was a detailed account of English history up to that point. One of the main reasons his book became so popular was that Huntingdon knew how to make his story entertaining. This may have had a negative impact on its credibility, but it did provide us with memorable episodes, such as King Cnut trying to stem the tides or King Henry I dying from "an abundance of lampreys." » .
Incidentally, "intemperance" means excess or abundance, suggesting that Henry ate so many lampreys that he fell ill and died. We can't say how many lampreys it took to kill the king, but Huntingdon indicated that Henry did so against the direct orders of his court physician.
The king and the chronicler were contemporaries. Henry died in 1135, and that same year Huntingdon published a revised edition of his book. This means the historian provided us with a first-hand account of the king's demise, but whether the "death by lamprey" story holds water remains a matter of debate.
2. Death by wardrobe malfunction
Martha Mansfield was an actress of the silent film era whose career arguably peaked when she played the leading female role in the film adaptation of« Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde» 1920 starring John Barrymore. Unfortunately for her, she is best remembered today for her horrific and unusual death.
In 1923, Mansfield again played the leading female role in the drama "« The Warrens from Virginia"» . The film was set during the Civil War, so it's no surprise that Mansfield had to wear a period costume with crinolines. After the day's shoot, she walked to her car, still dressed in her Civil War dress. She climbed into the car and immediately jumped out., engulfed in flames. Her fragile colonial dress proved highly flammable, and only when her co-star Wilfred Lytell leaped on her in his heavy coat were the flames extinguished. Sadly, it was too late, and the 24-year-old actress died from her burns the following day.
Although the culprit was never identified, most people on the set believed that a careless crew member threw a lit match in Mansfield's direction and set her crinoline on fire.
1. Death by baseball
Finally, we conclude this list by looking at the incredibly strange and unlikely death of a 20-year-old Stanton Walker , who died on October 25, 1902, during a baseball game between two local teams from Morristown and Bethesda, Ohio.
Walker wasn't a player. Instead, he was a spectator, sitting in the stands between two friends named Frank Hyde and Leroy Wilson. At one point, Hyde, who was scoring runs in the game, asked Wilson to borrow his pocketknife so he could sharpen a pencil. Without thinking, Wilson pulled out his knife and handed it to Walker, who then passed it on to Hyde.
Then, in quick succession, several incredible events occurred that led to tragedy at that day's baseball game. First, Wilson, for some reason, passed the knife blade out. Then, Stanton Walker held the knife blade-first, and at that moment, the ball struck his hand, forcing him to plunge the knife straight into his chest. Walker began bleeding profusely and died minutes later.